Steve Matthes Observations from Daytona
MARCH 10, 2008
By Steve Matthes
Photos by Simon Cudby
Photos by Simon Cudby
Onwards and upwards to the legendary Daytona SX circuit and its sun, sand, palm trees and, umm, never mind. This race started out pretty good, practice was okay, although cloudy, but the weather forecast was ominous so the AMA cancelled the second set of practices. That was a good idea as the rains came after that. Then more rains came, and then even more came. Then I saw a dude with a long white beard shepherding a bunch of animals into a wood boat…. It wasn’t Steve Whitelock, and that’s when I knew it was going to be ugly. In response to the sighting of the dude and the wood boat, or maybe it was just the rains—the AMA moved the whole kit and caboodle up one hour.
I’m not going to lie to you readers, anything I speak about in regards to the main events at Daytona was all gathered by me from the comfort of Tim Ferry’s couch. Y’see, I knew the rains were coming and I tried to get umbrellas (... ellas, ellas, ellas ...) but the teams were all out of them, I tried to get into some big Daytona suites and cool-people rooms (probably where RC and DC were) but didn’t have the right kind of pass. So I trudged into the stands with the rest of the fans and sat there by myself until I saw the Campbell River Crusher dominate the LCQ. At that point, I was soaked to the bone, hungry (shocker!) and lonely. When the rains started coming again, I high-tailed it out of there. If I’ve let any of you readers down with my non-dedication, I apologize but again, I was hungry and lonely.
Canard, Canard Canard! Trey Canard is having an unbelievable season! He won yet again proving that he can win with red clay (Georgia), snow (outside the dome in Indianapolis), and mud (everywhere) in his way. He topped the Daytona Lites class just as he topped the other East Region races. He’s led every lap of the mains except one. He has not, however, led every lap of the heats as well, despite what Jason Weigandt keeps telling everyone. Here is a letter I got this week:
Matthes,
I’m just gonna let u know you gotta get your facts straight. How could Trey have led every lap of his heat races this year when I led him for 4 of 6 in Atlanta? Just thought I’d let you know. Love the Observations though, you are a funny dude. Later
Ryan Sipes
Ryan, thanks for writing in and I have no excuse except for the excuse of listening to Jason Weigandt on the Supercross Live! webcast in Indy when he was going on and on about this. I wasn’t at Atlanta so I decided to take my buddy’s word on it. It won’t happen again and Weege has been reprimanded. (He has to take down the Micky Kesseler autographed poster from his ceiling.)
Here’s another letter I got this week:
Dear Mr. Matthes,
I hate you and your column sucks poo.
Yours truly,
Eric Sorby
(I made this one up)
“Observations! The column the pros read!”
I like to think that I write things in this column that are truthful and honest and my point of view on situations. Doesn’t mean I’m always right; it’s simply my take on things (and I heard this weekend that I’ve been upsetting Kurt Nicoll at KTM, which sucks because Kurt’s kool …. Get it?) but anyways, industry people out there that read this, please call me or email me at matthes@racerxcanada.com if I have something wrong or you would like to speak to me about something. I don’t want to get you all riled up and then I come by and you bro me down but inside you’re thinking how you’d like to run me over with a steamroller like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Just throwing that out there….
On that note, I couldn’t tell if Ryan Clark was miffed at me or not, he said he wasn’t but we didn’t get any further into our conversation before Antonio Balbi heard us talking about the Clark/Balbi battle from last week and said “I’m right here guys…” MATTHES BUSTED! (Right now, DV12.com is laughing)
I’m not going to lie to you readers, anything I speak about in regards to the main events at Daytona was all gathered by me from the comfort of Tim Ferry’s couch. Y’see, I knew the rains were coming and I tried to get umbrellas (... ellas, ellas, ellas ...) but the teams were all out of them, I tried to get into some big Daytona suites and cool-people rooms (probably where RC and DC were) but didn’t have the right kind of pass. So I trudged into the stands with the rest of the fans and sat there by myself until I saw the Campbell River Crusher dominate the LCQ. At that point, I was soaked to the bone, hungry (shocker!) and lonely. When the rains started coming again, I high-tailed it out of there. If I’ve let any of you readers down with my non-dedication, I apologize but again, I was hungry and lonely.
Canard, Canard Canard! Trey Canard is having an unbelievable season! He won yet again proving that he can win with red clay (Georgia), snow (outside the dome in Indianapolis), and mud (everywhere) in his way. He topped the Daytona Lites class just as he topped the other East Region races. He’s led every lap of the mains except one. He has not, however, led every lap of the heats as well, despite what Jason Weigandt keeps telling everyone. Here is a letter I got this week:
Matthes,
I’m just gonna let u know you gotta get your facts straight. How could Trey have led every lap of his heat races this year when I led him for 4 of 6 in Atlanta? Just thought I’d let you know. Love the Observations though, you are a funny dude. Later
Ryan Sipes
Ryan, thanks for writing in and I have no excuse except for the excuse of listening to Jason Weigandt on the Supercross Live! webcast in Indy when he was going on and on about this. I wasn’t at Atlanta so I decided to take my buddy’s word on it. It won’t happen again and Weege has been reprimanded. (He has to take down the Micky Kesseler autographed poster from his ceiling.)
Here’s another letter I got this week:
Dear Mr. Matthes,
I hate you and your column sucks poo.
Yours truly,
Eric Sorby
(I made this one up)
“Observations! The column the pros read!”
I like to think that I write things in this column that are truthful and honest and my point of view on situations. Doesn’t mean I’m always right; it’s simply my take on things (and I heard this weekend that I’ve been upsetting Kurt Nicoll at KTM, which sucks because Kurt’s kool …. Get it?) but anyways, industry people out there that read this, please call me or email me at matthes@racerxcanada.com if I have something wrong or you would like to speak to me about something. I don’t want to get you all riled up and then I come by and you bro me down but inside you’re thinking how you’d like to run me over with a steamroller like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Just throwing that out there….
On that note, I couldn’t tell if Ryan Clark was miffed at me or not, he said he wasn’t but we didn’t get any further into our conversation before Antonio Balbi heard us talking about the Clark/Balbi battle from last week and said “I’m right here guys…” MATTHES BUSTED! (Right now, DV12.com is laughing)
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Three stinking turns to go... |
Poor Chad Reed. Three stinking turns to go and his bike finally dies, thereby preventing him from winning his third Daytona Supercross by Honda. He dominated the race and should’ve won but the writing was on the wall when you saw his bike spewing white (and soon brown) smoke out his exhaust, indicating that water was getting into the motor. He also got protested by some teams for some pretty blatant track cutting and the AMA came down and handed him a three and a half-minute penalty but it just cost him one spot. I wonder if he didn’t suffer the biggest penalty of them all with his situation. Do we need to keep beating on the dead horse?
I saw some people online saying that even though it’s not the mechanics fault, they wouldn’t be surprised if CR fired his mechanic. That might be the most redonkulous thing ever said on the internet, and that’s saying something. Oscar did the best he could, but when your guy is blasting through the middle of every waterhole and puddle out there, it’s going to drown him at some point. Chad’s last lap was impressive—he even jumped the finish line double—but at that point, leading by more than a minute, it might have made more sense to be a little easier on the engine. But that’s all hindsight—he was the fastest man out there and he deserved to see the checkered flag….
Wait, he probably did see it. He deserved to ride past it too!
I saw some people online saying that even though it’s not the mechanics fault, they wouldn’t be surprised if CR fired his mechanic. That might be the most redonkulous thing ever said on the internet, and that’s saying something. Oscar did the best he could, but when your guy is blasting through the middle of every waterhole and puddle out there, it’s going to drown him at some point. Chad’s last lap was impressive—he even jumped the finish line double—but at that point, leading by more than a minute, it might have made more sense to be a little easier on the engine. But that’s all hindsight—he was the fastest man out there and he deserved to see the checkered flag….
Wait, he probably did see it. He deserved to ride past it too!
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Windham reaped the rewards of Reed's misfortune. |
But with the agony of defeat comes the joy of victory and this week the joy belonged to Kevin Windham. K-Dub won his first Daytona ever by just hanging around and riding pretty good. I would say that this more than makes up for his Washougal MX blunder of last summer when he slowed at the last lap flag, thinking it was the checkers. After all, it’s Daytona and it’s a Supercross and it’s presented to you by Honda.
You know how in Star Wars the Empire built this impressive, state of the art, gnarly, gi-normous battle station called the Death Star that was capable of blowing up entire planets? Yet, the designers of this thing failed to realize that by shooting a laser down a little tiny hole somebody could blow up the entire thing? How dumb is that? I thought of that when I was watching Josh Grant out there, it seems that there is a little hole somewhere in his head and somebody has shot lasers into it.
I still don’t think this race was as bad as Mt Morris 1997, but it was close. Maybe we can get a ruling on this from Coombs? [DC: Seville, Spain was muddier, but this was wetter, if that makes sense?]
The next four points are all about Canada and Canadian riders and Canadian races, just giving you a warning:
This race in a way brought me back to the infamous CMRC Morden National of last year where the teams and riders boycotted due to the conditions. Well, this was worse than anything there and there was not a peep of protest by any rider or team. I’m just saying…
Speaking of Morden, last year Cernic’s Kawasaki stopped rider Paul Carpenter in the race and popped his radiator cap and poured coolant into the bike. Yes, it took time but in the end it was a brilliant move and one that I can’t help but think maybe should’ve crossed L&M Racing’s mind. If it had, CR would’ve still won. But if’s and buts were candy and nuts…
On the Canadian theme, Blackfoot Yamaha’s Colton Facciotti showed up to race in order to keep his SX eligibility. He looked real rusty in practice to me but surprisingly had the 23rd fastest time. He didn’t race the night show for some reason and you can insert your Morden/Daytona mud race joke here. I’m not.
You know how in Star Wars the Empire built this impressive, state of the art, gnarly, gi-normous battle station called the Death Star that was capable of blowing up entire planets? Yet, the designers of this thing failed to realize that by shooting a laser down a little tiny hole somebody could blow up the entire thing? How dumb is that? I thought of that when I was watching Josh Grant out there, it seems that there is a little hole somewhere in his head and somebody has shot lasers into it.
I still don’t think this race was as bad as Mt Morris 1997, but it was close. Maybe we can get a ruling on this from Coombs? [DC: Seville, Spain was muddier, but this was wetter, if that makes sense?]
The next four points are all about Canada and Canadian riders and Canadian races, just giving you a warning:
This race in a way brought me back to the infamous CMRC Morden National of last year where the teams and riders boycotted due to the conditions. Well, this was worse than anything there and there was not a peep of protest by any rider or team. I’m just saying…
Speaking of Morden, last year Cernic’s Kawasaki stopped rider Paul Carpenter in the race and popped his radiator cap and poured coolant into the bike. Yes, it took time but in the end it was a brilliant move and one that I can’t help but think maybe should’ve crossed L&M Racing’s mind. If it had, CR would’ve still won. But if’s and buts were candy and nuts…
On the Canadian theme, Blackfoot Yamaha’s Colton Facciotti showed up to race in order to keep his SX eligibility. He looked real rusty in practice to me but surprisingly had the 23rd fastest time. He didn’t race the night show for some reason and you can insert your Morden/Daytona mud race joke here. I’m not.
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Can Dusty Klatt gain some confidence from his strong mud ride? |
Still on the Canadian theme, the Campbell River Crusher, Dusty Klatt, proved that his starts were back as he holeshot the heat, LCQ and was up front in the main (remember I wasn’t there at this point) before finishing 13th. He was leading his heat before getting trapped in a rut. I felt bad for him then as this was the lucky break he needed. I stopped feeling bad for him when he won the LCQ. I hope this gives him some confidence, he has the skills to be doing better then he’s been doing.
Ok, no more Canada talk…
Insiders (and I can’t name them because then they would become outsiders) tell me that Ryan Villopoto’s wrist is worse than he’s making it seem. People seem to think that his riding style is not the same because he’s compensating for his injury. There has to be some kind of problem because he hasn’t been the same guy he was at Budd’s Creek in September.
Nick Wey was in as good of a mood as I’ve seen him in for a while. He was laughing and joking with me and “The Champ” Randy Valade before the heats. I asked him why he doesn’t answer my calls and return my messages about doing a podcast and he said because all I do is talk crap on him. You guys see what I do for you? I ruin friendships in order to bring you this stuff each week. It’s not even my full-time job! That’s dedication I tell you. Oh, and Nick? Just come on the damn show or I’m going to call Mama B and make her make you do it.
2003 Canadian East coast 125 champ Randy Valade was upset with my man-friend talk in the Indy dealer show column. He wanted to let everyone know that he’s not a man-friend and that he’s a gear guy, but he couldn’t finish his sentence because Nick needed some water.
On the MDK/KTM front, with Wey being sick the last little while, KTM needed a guy to try some settings and keep making the bike better. Who did they call? None other than team manager Steve Lamson! Lammy has been busting out laps at the SX track, working hard on making his rider’s bikes better. How’s that for a team manager? Who’s the fastest guy to never win a Supercross? Guy Cooper, Steve Lamson or Tim Ferry?
Attention Roger Larsen, the new Answer gear guy. Two things for you buddy: Why has everyone been calling you “Ro-jay” for 10 years when your name is spelled R-O-G-E-R? And I saw no butt patch on Travis Preston’s gear this weekend; if you do not put a picture of a donkey and “Doing it for Bunny,” you should be lashed with a kidney belt. If it’s a money issue, I will pay for it.
It’s no secret that Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha is looking to sign one of the two big guys (Stewie, Reed or Villopoto) for next year. They’ve made no bones about wanting to be an elite level team and have the resources and staff to be one of those teams. Whomever they sign, you can pretty much put it on stone that it’ll be on Yamahas. They have a multi-year deal with the blue team so that should put the Stewie/Red Bull/Honda/Gibbs rumors to rest.
Gibbs Yamaha rider Josh Hansen had a ROUGH Daytona; he’s already hurting and crashed hard during practice. He took a really, really long time to get up and didn’t qualify for the main. He actually got disqualified for something in the LCQ; I’ll have to do some homework on that for you.
I ran into half-Canadian Sean Hamblin in Daytona,;it was good to see him again. Sean’s lining up his outdoor options now and I think I can confidently say he’ll be racing soon. His buddy Grant Langston got him a Yamaha to ride and he’s getting his program started, Grant wanted him to come down to Florida and hang out with him but Sean wanted to stay in California. When GL offered to get him a bike, he changed his mind and came out to the FLA. Me, being the super agent/good guy that I am, I lined up bikes and parts for Hambone should he need it for MX, but I’m thinking we’ll see him with a current Yamaha team soon.
I was standing under the Honda tent with Oakley’s Anthony Paggio talking to Honda super bigwig Chuck Miller when the rain started pouring down. Chuck took a look at the spectators outside the tent and in what was a shocking move to me, invited them all in to stand under cover! I’ve been around on a lot of teams over the years and I can honestly say, I don’t think any of my old team managers would’ve ever done that. First Andrew Short, then Chuck Miller, the Honda guys sure are classy…. Now about that Shane Drew fellow…
“Bad” Barry Carsten raced Daytona and put in a pretty good ride but unfortunately didn’t qualify for the main. Barry mentioned in a trackside interview that he first raced Daytona in 1987, which was a mudder that Ricky Ryan won. He might have been in his last ever Daytona and kind of bookmarked that first one with the 2008 mudder.
Other tidbits from the Carsten interview:
Announcer: “Which do you prefer Barry, two or four stroke?”
Barry: “Whatever, doesn’t matter.”
Announcer: “Barry, why the switch to the 450s?”
Barry: “There’s no qualifiers and easier to make money.”
Announcer: “How much longer are you going to keep coming here to Daytona?”
Barry: “I don’t know.”
Speaking of the announcers, my buddy Weege was called into action at Daytona and as usual did a fantastic job. He and Rob Buydos are seriously so good at calling the action, it’s ridiculous. They’re my friends but as you all know, I’ll ruin friendships to call people out. In Daytona, Weege was basically making the other guys sound like amateurs. I’ve announced and made mistakes at it, it’s not easy. But having said that, when the announcers cannot get the names of regular series riders correct and bike brands (even when they weren’t muddy) it looks bad. One guy was repeatedly making mistakes and even said that the gate was loading for the 250 class semi final when it was the Supercross class LCQ and semis have been gone for two years…. We’re not asking for perfection, just a rudimentary knowledge of the sport should be required.
With the announcement that the Daytona Motorcycle Group (who owns Daytona) has acquired the rights to all the AMA Pro racing disciplines (except for Supercross) and with the Weege now in with those folks and in with Live Nation and in with the NPG, I think it’s really safe to start calling him “Sir” and THE MOST POWERFUL VOICE IN MOTOCROSS.
Ok, no more Canada talk…
Insiders (and I can’t name them because then they would become outsiders) tell me that Ryan Villopoto’s wrist is worse than he’s making it seem. People seem to think that his riding style is not the same because he’s compensating for his injury. There has to be some kind of problem because he hasn’t been the same guy he was at Budd’s Creek in September.
Nick Wey was in as good of a mood as I’ve seen him in for a while. He was laughing and joking with me and “The Champ” Randy Valade before the heats. I asked him why he doesn’t answer my calls and return my messages about doing a podcast and he said because all I do is talk crap on him. You guys see what I do for you? I ruin friendships in order to bring you this stuff each week. It’s not even my full-time job! That’s dedication I tell you. Oh, and Nick? Just come on the damn show or I’m going to call Mama B and make her make you do it.
2003 Canadian East coast 125 champ Randy Valade was upset with my man-friend talk in the Indy dealer show column. He wanted to let everyone know that he’s not a man-friend and that he’s a gear guy, but he couldn’t finish his sentence because Nick needed some water.
On the MDK/KTM front, with Wey being sick the last little while, KTM needed a guy to try some settings and keep making the bike better. Who did they call? None other than team manager Steve Lamson! Lammy has been busting out laps at the SX track, working hard on making his rider’s bikes better. How’s that for a team manager? Who’s the fastest guy to never win a Supercross? Guy Cooper, Steve Lamson or Tim Ferry?
Attention Roger Larsen, the new Answer gear guy. Two things for you buddy: Why has everyone been calling you “Ro-jay” for 10 years when your name is spelled R-O-G-E-R? And I saw no butt patch on Travis Preston’s gear this weekend; if you do not put a picture of a donkey and “Doing it for Bunny,” you should be lashed with a kidney belt. If it’s a money issue, I will pay for it.
It’s no secret that Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha is looking to sign one of the two big guys (Stewie, Reed or Villopoto) for next year. They’ve made no bones about wanting to be an elite level team and have the resources and staff to be one of those teams. Whomever they sign, you can pretty much put it on stone that it’ll be on Yamahas. They have a multi-year deal with the blue team so that should put the Stewie/Red Bull/Honda/Gibbs rumors to rest.
Gibbs Yamaha rider Josh Hansen had a ROUGH Daytona; he’s already hurting and crashed hard during practice. He took a really, really long time to get up and didn’t qualify for the main. He actually got disqualified for something in the LCQ; I’ll have to do some homework on that for you.
I ran into half-Canadian Sean Hamblin in Daytona,;it was good to see him again. Sean’s lining up his outdoor options now and I think I can confidently say he’ll be racing soon. His buddy Grant Langston got him a Yamaha to ride and he’s getting his program started, Grant wanted him to come down to Florida and hang out with him but Sean wanted to stay in California. When GL offered to get him a bike, he changed his mind and came out to the FLA. Me, being the super agent/good guy that I am, I lined up bikes and parts for Hambone should he need it for MX, but I’m thinking we’ll see him with a current Yamaha team soon.
I was standing under the Honda tent with Oakley’s Anthony Paggio talking to Honda super bigwig Chuck Miller when the rain started pouring down. Chuck took a look at the spectators outside the tent and in what was a shocking move to me, invited them all in to stand under cover! I’ve been around on a lot of teams over the years and I can honestly say, I don’t think any of my old team managers would’ve ever done that. First Andrew Short, then Chuck Miller, the Honda guys sure are classy…. Now about that Shane Drew fellow…
“Bad” Barry Carsten raced Daytona and put in a pretty good ride but unfortunately didn’t qualify for the main. Barry mentioned in a trackside interview that he first raced Daytona in 1987, which was a mudder that Ricky Ryan won. He might have been in his last ever Daytona and kind of bookmarked that first one with the 2008 mudder.
Other tidbits from the Carsten interview:
Announcer: “Which do you prefer Barry, two or four stroke?”
Barry: “Whatever, doesn’t matter.”
Announcer: “Barry, why the switch to the 450s?”
Barry: “There’s no qualifiers and easier to make money.”
Announcer: “How much longer are you going to keep coming here to Daytona?”
Barry: “I don’t know.”
Speaking of the announcers, my buddy Weege was called into action at Daytona and as usual did a fantastic job. He and Rob Buydos are seriously so good at calling the action, it’s ridiculous. They’re my friends but as you all know, I’ll ruin friendships to call people out. In Daytona, Weege was basically making the other guys sound like amateurs. I’ve announced and made mistakes at it, it’s not easy. But having said that, when the announcers cannot get the names of regular series riders correct and bike brands (even when they weren’t muddy) it looks bad. One guy was repeatedly making mistakes and even said that the gate was loading for the 250 class semi final when it was the Supercross class LCQ and semis have been gone for two years…. We’re not asking for perfection, just a rudimentary knowledge of the sport should be required.
With the announcement that the Daytona Motorcycle Group (who owns Daytona) has acquired the rights to all the AMA Pro racing disciplines (except for Supercross) and with the Weege now in with those folks and in with Live Nation and in with the NPG, I think it’s really safe to start calling him “Sir” and THE MOST POWERFUL VOICE IN MOTOCROSS.
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Balbi won his heat race and finished fifth in the main. |
Moto XXX/Tamer/Hooters Balbi won the first heat! He rode really well and Ferry and I were laughing because when the track is dry and indoors, he’s the sketchiest guy on the track but throw him in the worst mud ever and he looks like Windham! (whom he beat in that heat, by the way!) It’s like two negative polarities working together to produce a positive, who knew? Congrats to the whole team and the Brazilian behemoth on this feat and his great finish in the main.
Jacob Marsack got third and has cemented his place as THE mud specialist of Supercross. He finished fourth at the mudder in San Francisco and no doubt the confidence he got from that helped him make the podium. I wasn’t there for the mains so I cannot offer an opinion on his ride other than it was obviously great. Good job Jacob and too bad his number isn’t 22.
I spent the whole week in Florida doing some Merge Racing Technologies work, also I was just there for the one-five should he need anything. When I got there on Sunday, he was basically walking around like a 90-year-old man but by Thursday, he was doing some exercise biking and even rode the pit bike track for a bit. Just a remarkable recovery by a superhuman guy. (Kidding) I think he’ll try to ride Minneapolis but obviously won’t be at 100 percent.
If you haven’t seen the video the Racer X Films’ guys did of Tim’s rumored comeback, click HERE. It was really funny and a good time to make; I have no problem humiliating myself for the enjoyment of others. What can I say? I’m just here to produce some laughs and sell some Merge products. Big thanks for making this thing happen to Chris Honnold at O’Neal, Tom McGovern at Kawasaki, JT, Mark Russell, Evie Ferry and Layla the dog.
I went to the GNCC on Tuesday and immediately went over the BMW team pits. I wanted to see the new off road bike from them, only when I got there I saw Huskys. Seems the production bikes need a bit more seasoning before being raced on one of the toughest series out there. My sources tell me there will be BMW’s at some point at the GNCCs, the team may even hire some extra riders and keep Gordon Crockard and Glenn Kearney on Huskys for the whole year. I thought of going up to team owner Scott Summers and demanding my money back because of no BMW’s but thought different because Scott’s a big dude and I actually didn’t pay to get in.
Suzuki’s Travis Pastrana was there for some reason and actually led the first lap! There was a slow switchback section before the finish and when TP came by he slowed down and acknowledged the fans cheering him by yelling “Thank you, thanks!” I’m not making this up. He eventually finished 18th but the Pastrana legend grew yet again.
Have you guys seen the new Indiana Jones trailer yet? Just search for it and come to Las Vegas at midnight when it opens. You’ll see a chubby guy by himself eating some M&M’s wearing a Tim Ferry shirt there.
At least, that’s how I saw the whole thing. What did you think? Email me at matthes@racerxcanada.com and let loose your true feelings on pretty much anything.
Jacob Marsack got third and has cemented his place as THE mud specialist of Supercross. He finished fourth at the mudder in San Francisco and no doubt the confidence he got from that helped him make the podium. I wasn’t there for the mains so I cannot offer an opinion on his ride other than it was obviously great. Good job Jacob and too bad his number isn’t 22.
I spent the whole week in Florida doing some Merge Racing Technologies work, also I was just there for the one-five should he need anything. When I got there on Sunday, he was basically walking around like a 90-year-old man but by Thursday, he was doing some exercise biking and even rode the pit bike track for a bit. Just a remarkable recovery by a superhuman guy. (Kidding) I think he’ll try to ride Minneapolis but obviously won’t be at 100 percent.
If you haven’t seen the video the Racer X Films’ guys did of Tim’s rumored comeback, click HERE. It was really funny and a good time to make; I have no problem humiliating myself for the enjoyment of others. What can I say? I’m just here to produce some laughs and sell some Merge products. Big thanks for making this thing happen to Chris Honnold at O’Neal, Tom McGovern at Kawasaki, JT, Mark Russell, Evie Ferry and Layla the dog.
I went to the GNCC on Tuesday and immediately went over the BMW team pits. I wanted to see the new off road bike from them, only when I got there I saw Huskys. Seems the production bikes need a bit more seasoning before being raced on one of the toughest series out there. My sources tell me there will be BMW’s at some point at the GNCCs, the team may even hire some extra riders and keep Gordon Crockard and Glenn Kearney on Huskys for the whole year. I thought of going up to team owner Scott Summers and demanding my money back because of no BMW’s but thought different because Scott’s a big dude and I actually didn’t pay to get in.
Suzuki’s Travis Pastrana was there for some reason and actually led the first lap! There was a slow switchback section before the finish and when TP came by he slowed down and acknowledged the fans cheering him by yelling “Thank you, thanks!” I’m not making this up. He eventually finished 18th but the Pastrana legend grew yet again.
Have you guys seen the new Indiana Jones trailer yet? Just search for it and come to Las Vegas at midnight when it opens. You’ll see a chubby guy by himself eating some M&M’s wearing a Tim Ferry shirt there.
At least, that’s how I saw the whole thing. What did you think? Email me at matthes@racerxcanada.com and let loose your true feelings on pretty much anything.
