End Game!
Published: 14th September 2007
Author: Steve Matthes Photo by Steve Cox
Our industry insider gives you the industry inside line on what’s happening inside the industry…
Well, by the time this makes it across the pond to Sean, to the printers, on the newsstands and in your grubby little hands, the AMA Toyota MX series presented by FMF will be over.
Ryan Villopoto has a 19-point lead on former world champion Ben Townley. We started off at the first round with five riders going at it and we go into the last race with just these two contenders. Ryan Dungey, Josh Grant and Jason Lawrence showed early on that they were able to match and even beat these two sometimes but injuries and other factors caused them to drop off one by one until we are just left with the two Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki riders.
Since around round eight BT and RV have been the class of the field. Townley had the points lead but just couldn’t stop having problems. Crashes have hurt Ben while Villopoto has just been a machine - he’s been getting the starts and absolutely flying. His times have been faster then the 450 guys!
Jason Lawrence showed some great speed early on but couldn’t get the starts, I even predicted on the Racer X Webcast that J-Law would win a moto before this whole thing is over but he couldn’t seem to gate with the top guys and whether it’s Hangtown or Canada Heights, the starts mean everything (I just wanted to throw a reference to my home country and again, try to make you guys like me)!
Josh Grant won Mt Morris, looked like he was going run the pace but I think these kids just can’t match RV and BT’s training programme and the way they approach the sport. One of the legacies that RC has left behind is the legacy of his programme. It goes like this. Take your salary and invest it in your career - instead of buying the truck and lifting it seven feet and having a stereo that could blow your eardrums, buy some land, build a SX track, hire a good trainer and surround yourself with people that make your riding easy. RV and BT have done this and most of the other 250F kids are just trying to figure this out. I think Grant is one of these kids that have to figure it out to get to the next level.
Ryan Dungey is just a rookie and right now I give him a mulligan for not stepping up and beating the top two guys. He’s figuring it out and has a beautiful riding style. He has hired Johnny O’Mara to be his trainer and that’s a good step. He seems like a good kid with a good head on his shoulders and has a great future in the sport. Makita Suzuki is wise to lock him up for many years. The only worry with him is that once he starts reading all his magazine clippings and has the money rolling in, he figures that he has it made and - like some riders in the paddock - realizes that it still pays pretty good to be a top five guy. I think Ryan is one guy that is immune from this but we’ll see…
In the 450 class we go into the final round seeing that Grant Langston has an eight-point lead over Andrew Short. Grant has caught fire at the right time winning two out of the three races since points leader James Stewart went out with a knee injury. In the other race he went 2-2 behind RC which is kind like winning the human class. GL has shown the speed and determination that has seen him win titles in the past. He was not happy with his bike and wasn’t shy about telling people early on in the outdoor series. As I wrote in Racer X Canada, he might as well have flown a plane with a banner behind it telling the world “I hate my bike”.
He also mentioned a few times that the 2008 Yamaha 450 was much better and as soon as he got on that he was going to do much better. He got the 2008 at Washougal and has gone 4-1-2-2-2-1-2-1 since! I guess he knows what he’s talking about. From what I gather the ’08 has a slightly flexier frame that allows GL to really put the bike where he needs it to be.
Andrew Short was the points leader for a little bit and even though he has a chance to win this thing, people seem to overlook him. I’m not sure why, he has what a champion needs - good starts, limit your bad motos to top five and most importantly speed. People were saying that he didn’t have the speed but he showed in the first moto at Texas when he holeshot and ran away from the pack that he has the speed. He grabbed the lead in the second moto and was checking out when a fall dropped him back. That fall may have cost him the title. If he had won - and he certainly looked like he could have - he would’ve been in the lead going into Glen Helen.
What has happened to Tim Ferry? He is the paddock’s choice to win the title as everybody wants to see the old veteran come through on his last chance. He had the lead after Washougal and even Millville he was only a few points back. Unfortunately for him, his notorious bad starts started popping up at the worse time. He has been near the back of the pack a few times in the last few races and when all his rivals are up front that makes it hard on ol’ Red Dog.
His speed has been great, he was the fastest guy in practice and slices through the pack better then a hot knife through butter but you can’t give the top guys a head start. He has not been in the lead since his second moto win at Lakewood, Colorado. He faces a pretty big deficit going into the last round and it doesn’t look good. No matter what, he can take solace in the fact that he had an incredible year and has done better then pretty much anyone could have predicted. Even me and I’m a big fan of his having worked as his mechanic for four years.
The last round took place in Texas at a brand new track and facility. Tony Miller is the promoter’s name and he did a wonderful job with what he had. Which was a flat field! He brought in some sand, made big, fun and easy jumps for the guys and the soil was prepped perfectly. Anytime you go to a new track, people get excited and this was no different. The pits were great, lots of room for parking and he laid gravel down for the semis to park on which was welcome by the teams. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you guys now, “but did you have wash bays?”. Well, no we don’t have that cool feature yet but the AMA finally put tents and a TV screen in the mechanics’ area. We’re getting closer to the GPs in the facility end of it. And we even pay purse money!
Next month I will report on the Motocross of Nations from Budds Creek, Maryland. I’m looking forward to this race and if any of you Brits are over and see me, stop and say hi!