By Steve Matthes

We were in Sacramento, CA, this week and the Dirt Diggers were working hard to give the guys the best track they could by, well, digging in the dirt—just like Peter Gabriel. The track was run backwards (clockwise) from usual and routed a little bit different here and there and pretty much every rider I spoke to didn’t like it as much as the original way. Now as I’ve said many times, riders complaining about a track is pretty predictable so I won’t get into some kind of cute analogy for you. I do think that they had a point however.

But I have to say that I think Hangtown has made the most improvement of any track on the circuit so far since I’ve been going to the nationals, which was 1995 for all you old-timers out there. I rode the track on Monday after the national a couple times in ‘97 and ‘98 and it was horrible; hard as concrete, dusty, and generally very sucky. Good for the Diggers, as I’m sure this year wasn’t just an aberration.

The crowd got to see three classes again this weekend, the Lites class, Motocross class and the James Stewart class! Just like at Glen Helen, “the dark horse” went 1-1 and had another dominating day. The 39 other guys are all in trouble here because in the press conference (more on that later), James said that he “needed to work harder.” There’s really not much to say other than it was an incredible ride!

The Lites class was won by (shocker!) a Kawasaki rider also. Ryan Villopoto put to rest all that “he doesn’t look the same” talk that surfaced after Glen Helen and showed us that he’s not going to just relinquish the crown quietly.  He also led every lap of each moto and looked dominant, just like the guy he’s replacing in the Kawasaki truck, Stewart.

You know who rode REALLY well this past weekend? Tim Ferry, that’s who! I’m not playing games here; ask anyone who was there. The big One-Five was just like Mike Alessi last week, the second fastest rider on the track no doubt about it. His ride in the second moto was fantastic; he went from 13th to 2nd and was using some sweeping lines and cutting across the bumps to make up time. In one spot, alone, he passed 5 or 6 guys over the course of the moto when he would sweep wide and carry momentum up over a double and then turn quickly and get underneath a guy. Great ride by a guy who won a moto at Hangtown in 1995.

You can see the guys already separating themselves into two tiers in the Lites class. The top one includes RV, Brett Metcalfe, Austin Stroupe, Ryan Dungey and Jason Lawrence. Substitute BT101 and Josh Grant for Stroupe and that’s what we had last summer. Only last summer, slowly but surely, the contenders fell away, Metcalfe got hurt, Dungey got hurt, J-Law got sick and Grant fell off the pace and we were left with RV and BT. It’ll be interesting to see who cracks first out of the guys this summer.

Sean Collier is back! After suddenly retiring to be a movie star/model last year from Star Racing Yamaha he showed up at Hangtown on a Kawasaki 450 and got a fifth in the first moto. Let me say again: Sean Collier got a fifth in the first 450 moto. I was on the Racer X Webcast intermission show (covering while Weege pees) and mentioned that Sean retired to be an actor, one of my readers named Jarid emailed me this IMDB.com database on the shows that Sean was on.

Anyways, Sean didn’t get a good start in the second moto and also got a rock in his eye and was bleeding everywhere and pulled out. Still, fifth is damn good!

I spoke with Andy Stacey, owner of TUF Powersports in Illinois, this week, and he couldn’t have been more stoked on Sean Hamblin’s ride last week. Andy is a great guy and told me that because Sean is such a nice guy (get this, Andy told me that him and his shop guys went to dinner with Sean in Florida and that “he seemed to want to be there with us.” Which is where we are at with the top riders: when they seem to want to be somewhere, we’re simply amazed) Hamblin’s bike and parts account have been increased to whatever Sean needs for the summer to keep him going. Not sure if I was supposed to say that, because now maybe Sean will call 1-800-call-TUF on Monday and order 13 complete cylinder heads.

Sean had a tough day at Hangtown. His times were good but he had a clutch problem on the line in one moto and also had to pull into the mechanic’s area at one point. He went 15-18 on the day and is on the way to Texas, a track he’s never been to before.

How about Steve Boniface? The French mini-cycle legend was out of a job this supercross season and bought a 450 about a month and a half before Glen Helen and started riding and riding. Last week at The Helen, he was good but got lost in the Sean Hamblin hype. This week he ran second for a while in the first moto, battled with just about every member of factory Honda, and went 6-6 for 5th overall. That was his best outdoor finish ever and a great ride for sure. He was as far back in the pits as you could get (I think I saw an undiscovered jungle tribe out back there). Look for an interview on racerxill.com later this week, conducted by yours truly.

The AMA listened to the criticisms of the new qualifying procedure and adjusted it to work better. That’s great to see as previous regimes’ definitely would not have been so flexible. Instead of being random, assigned to different practices on Saturday, the top 20 are now seeded by even/odd positions in the standings. Also, the top ten guys qualifying time was displayed for everyone to see. Again, fixed from last week.

And despite that, I still heard a rider tell me that his practice was “stacked.” When I pointed out the new rule, he said, “Yeah, but DV was missing from the other practice.” So now we’re attacking the AMA for DV getting hurt. Now I know why a guy like Duke Finch grew a ponytail … so he could use it to strangle riders.

Ben Townley kept it up this weekend. And when I say “it” I mean his incredible string of bad luck. On the first or second lap of the opening practice on Saturday, BT101 jumped onto the start straight, nailed a big-ass hole and tumbled over the bars hard. He limped off and was carted away once again, how do I know he hit a big-ass hole? Because right after he crashed, Nick Wey told me “there’s a big-ass hole there.” Being the tough guy that he is, he came back and qualified although he was clearly at less than 100 percent speed. His scores on the day were 8-7, not where he or Honda thought they’d be at this point. Ben is kind of like having an incredibly hot girlfriend and everybody wants her in “that” way but when you take her to a bar (in this case, a track) she just gets loaded and throws up on everyone. You want to like him and he’s got a winning pedigree but, so far, you’re forced to think of the bad (injuries) with BT.

You know who’s been riding good this year but doesn’t have much to show for it? MDK/KTM’s Ryan Sipes. He has been up front but crashes and other problems have affected him. This weekend he went 12-7 and is just behind that top tier of Lites guys I spoke of earlier. Hopefully he doesn’t get discouraged and keeps plugging away.
You know what I noticed watching the Lites guys practice starts? The KTM’s sound like a real big blender, a real high-pitched kind of whine while every other bikes sound deeper and throatier. Just an “observation,” that’s all.

In the first Lites moto, Lawrence, Jake "The Snake" Weimer, Dungey and Metcalfe were going at it back and forth; it was a foursome that would’ve made Vivid Video proud. Brett was using some outside berms and just railing them trying to make up time and all the guys were swapping positions lap after lap. A great bit of racing for a few laps.

What’s wrong with Andrew Short? I spoke to him and he didn’t let on anything was wrong but he didn’t ride like the Shorty we know and love this weekend. Weege made a mention he was hurt, so look at blogandt.com for some info (maybe when he’s done telling us his fascinating Moto-X Fantasy dilemma’s, he can report some real news).

Oh, Cody Bryan Cooper! The Suzuki City kiwi warrior was on it in the first 450 moto; the human giraffe was all over the place and going very fast. He got a great start and passed Boniface (!!) to move into fourth and just after he passed Davi Millsaps for third, he dumped in the third turn. (I’ll tell ya, this third turn claimed a ton of guys for some reason; it was like there was a giant magnet buried in the ground.) When “Chicken” Coop got up, he strangely went backwards and we all worried that he was hurt but it turns out it was a broken clutch lever. Second moto didn’t go as well for Cody as he would not be a factor and finished 12th. His first moto has to give him pretty good confidence going forward.

In the “I don’t give a crap Matthes” dept, I’m growing a beard and I think it makes me look hotter.

Ivan Tedesco rode great this weekend and made his first 450 podium since switching to the big bike class two years ago. He has been slumping since making the jump up and admitted that he “couldn’t even remember the last time he was up here (podium).” He looked to be in good shape as well, coming on strong at the end of each moto. Ivan has a man-friend also now, sorta. Former team manager/buddy Kenny Watson was out to support his friend and just talk to Ivan and pump him up. No coincidence that with the addition of a man-friend, Hot Sauce rose higher than ever before.

Speaking of being in shape, Millsaps faded pretty bad both motos but it’s weird, because last week at Glen Helen, he looked good late in the motos and it wasn’t that much hotter in Hangtown. I’m just puzzled how a guy could be go from good to horrible in one week? Something else that puzzled me was a few guys telling me that Glen Helen wasn’t that rough because it looked gnarly to me, but what do I know?

You know, this old mechanic might just be on to something here. A while back when I was at some supercross, I was telling Ferry that I had recently switched from a Renthal Twinwall bar to a crossbar-less handlebar and was telling Red that it allowed me to ride longer and made my suspension and front tire feel better. Now after you finish laughing at the fact I’m comparing my riding to a guy that got second this weekend, but as his mechanic for four years, I know he’s very front-end sensitive. I suggested he try it and he laughed at me like all you just did. Well as I reported last week, Shorty and Townley went to the Renthal Fatbar and after seeing this, I made Timmy tell me that he was wrong for laughing at me and that I had a point. He also said that maybe he’ll try it… C’mon, Kawasaki, listen to Matthes, I’m not that dumb. That could be my campaign slogan if I ever run for office: “Elect Matthes: He’s not that dumb.”

I probably shouldn’t admit this but all season long I keep getting the Motorsport Outlet Kawasaki guys mixed up. Andrew McFarlane, Kyle Chisholm, Phil Nicoletti and Tommy Hahn are all similar looking guys and a couple of them have numbers in the 30s. Speaking of which, what happened to McFarlane? A few years ago at YoT he was close to winning…

And where’s KTM’s Billy Laninovich?

This might be the winner of the best song/worst video award:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9QKJygQBpVM

So I did something I never normally do this weekend, which was sit in on the press conference. How could I miss it when Brandon Short of the NPG made me this sweet card with my name on it and everything?

So I thought I would ask J-Law a question and the only thing that came to mind was “Jason, you’re not a big fan of doing a lot of PR, but have you ever thought of letting a media member hang out with you for a week and then they can write a feature on it?” Here was a chance for J-Law to really use his humor and wit to shut me down and explain that he does, in fact, like the media. Instead he gave me a stare and just said “No.”

I, of course, asked Ferry a clever question and Weege followed with a real stinker about Timmy roller-blading in 1995. I asked Stewart a couple of things, and all in all, it was a real exciting thing for me. Maybe I’ll keep going until I get kicked out for asking dumb questions and they take my cool card away.

Make sure you watch the “Bottom Line” show this week on live.motocross.com. It’s a little weekly segment that I do at the races. We had some funny interviews and got to the bottom of the James Stewart 2009 thing. Kind of.

I was speaking to Erik Kehoe about the team’s 2009 plans and he told me that he’s not sure why everybody is panicking about Andrew Short and Davi Millsaps not resigning with the Red Riders yet. He reminded me that back in his day, things were done way later than now and that just because lots of people push the 2009 signings up earlier and earlier, that doesn’t mean that Honda is getting worried. For the record, Erik said that Honda’s planning on keeping the exact same team for next year and they have first right of refusal on the 29 and 118 so they’ll wait and see what the market dictates for the riders.

So with that information what do I make of silly season? Nothing is going to happen until L&M decide on a bike color for James Stewart, look for that to stay blue from what I gather. So that rules Reedy out of Gibbs because no way does the tuning fork company have money and equipment and probably desire to want both guys. Honda will match Short and Millsaps unless JGR overpays for Davi. Suzuki wanted Reedy but apparently got shut down in Japan because it was too much money, still look for Chad to sign here probably for less $ than he wanted but what choice is he going to have? Kawasaki has Ferry and RV and are set. I think JGR will sign two of Josh Grant, Nick Wey and Josh Summey. Or maybe none of it happens and I erase the archives.

Oh yeah, I heard Jake "The snake" Weimer signed with Pro Circuit...

Want to be a pro motocrosser? With the news last week that DV12.com is out for the next 4 weeks or so, I was trying to rack my brain and come up with all the injuries he's suffered in the last little while. I got most of them and with some help from EV12.com here they are:

Phoenix SX 2007: Concussion and broken ribs from a horrific endo and head drop from about 10 feet up.

Millville MX 2007: 11 broken bones from getting run over by 35 guys in the first turn. That's more bones than Evel probably broke in one jump.

October 2007: Bruised ribs and busted thumb from a crash at the Suzuki track testing for SX.

San Francisco SX 2008: Popped his fibula out in a crash and tore his meniscus.

Houston SX 2008: Severe bruise on his back after getting landed on by Heath Voss.

April 2008: Hurt hip and re-injured back while testing SX when his footpeg broke off.

May 2008: Concussion and bruised already tender ribs while practicing for MX.

Rough stretch for Le Cobra and an actual documentation of what these guys go through.

WORCS racer Bobby Bonds came out and raced the national again. He did pretty good at Glen Helen and it was interesting to watch him and fellow WORCS racer Kyle Summers race a different discipline. Some of you might remember Hangtown 2001 as the beginning of the end of Bond’s MX career. Bobby, riding for Pro Circuit, was leading and was pretty far in front when he started getting tired and Grant Langston caught him. Bobby, in a desperate attempt to keep GL behind him, started weaving back and forth and generally blocking the crap out of GL. Grant decided to take matters in his own hands and cut BB off pretty bad at the end of a fast downhill and knocked Bonds out for a long time. I was on KTM then and remember Andrew Langston, GL’s wrench, yelling into the headset “YOU MESS WITH THE BULL, YOU GET THE HORNS!!!” over and over.  Anyways, Bobby didn’t have the same luck with a nasty crash resulting in an 18-39 day.

I noticed the JGR Yamaha team is running Honda steering stabilizers on the teams’ bikes. The mounting brackets on the frame look pretty trick also. The guys always get Wahoo’s Fish Tacos to cater at the races and I’ve never ate there because I don’t really like fish, but who knew they had chicken also? Man, I had some chicken tacos at intermission and they were good. The JGR guys and I are going to be buddies this summer!

Some quick thoughts

- My sleeper pick for the nationals, Dan Reardon, is just asleep.

- The forgotten Alessi, Jeff, is riding really well so far this season on his WWR/Moto XXX Honda.

- Nobody will talk about him this week, but Josh Summey rode incredible in the first moto going from dead, dead last to 12th because Trey Canard went from dead last to 11th.

- Gavin Gracyk’s ankle is still sore.

- I think Michael Byrne is riding pretty good for being off so long, but nobody I talk to thinks so. What do they expect, the guy to just start running top 5? He’s right where he was at on Kawi and will get better.

- Bobby Kiniry is going faster than his results show, but two crashes knocked him out of two motos.

- Tyler Bower’s summer is going to be a long one.

- We haven’t seen Trey Canard and what he can do … yet.

- The new 2009 Thor gear, I just don’t…. Too much of one color.

- The Blose brothers both scored points in the 450 class. Good for them!

- Justin Brayton should be doing better.

All right, thanks for reading this drivel. Send me your thoughts on this column and the Bottom Line MX show to matthes@racerxcanada.com. See you next week from Texas!