By Steve Matthes

The national that I love the most is Washougal because of the scenic mountains, nice track and those little coffee huts that are scattered everywhere, but the national that brings a tear to my eye is Millville, and that’s where we were this past weekend. Maybe not a tear but I have enough memories of this Minnesota motocross landmark to fill up a treasure chest. I’ve been going to the pro national since 1988. I raced local races probably four or five times, and I even lined up for four nationals there in the 500 class. Even though I sucked, and it was these races that helped me realize I wasn’t going to make it as a pro motocrosser, I harbor no ill will to the Spring Creek facility.

I can remember going out beside Jeff Stanton for practice one year, I also remember Ray Sommo cleaning me out in practice. I can remember sitting on the line for the LCQ and looking down at my flat tire thinking that my chances of qualifying weren’t too good right now. I vividly recall digging through the trash when I was a kid and getting Doug Dubach’s dirty air filter. I also got a scary glare from Jeff Stanton when I asked him for a jersey and who can forget that time Ron Lechien wrote “Dickhead” on my buddy John’s forehead with a sharpie when John threw a beer can at him? The old tech hotel was like Disneyland to me and my brother, all the bikes, all the mechanics working out of box vans, some riders here and there. I can remember seeing Tim Ferry and Ezra Lusk sitting in the lobby with their golf clubs. Good times…

Anyways, with that in mind, I love going there and I knew we’d see some good racing. The track is really good. Lots of trees have been removed for viewing and the jumps are big but for the most part pretty safe. There’s always grumbling that it’s a little narrow in spots and I think the riders are right but I would rank this track in the top three. The infamous sand whoops (where I once passed Jeff Matiasevich—hey, he was just checking out the track but I made sure I gassed it as I went by him) were shorter and not as deep as in the past. The start is always exciting as it’s a fast leg-out, no-rear-brake right-hander and it’s always humid and always rough.

It doesn’t matter if we held races on the moon right now; James Stewart is going to win. Stewie went 1-1 again and clinched his first outdoor big bike class title. It’s a long time coming for The Seven but he’s shown that patience is a virtue for him. He won by over a minute in the second moto and put the hammer down. Where was he fastest? Well, anyone who was also at Texas could answer this as he was blowing through the sand whoops like they were flat.

Second moto he switched up his line to go outside entering them and triple the first three, after that he hopped through them all amazing like. Anyone wanna bet he sweeps the rest of them?

Well, well, well, check out the new confidence of Ryan “Dungey Time” Dungey! It must have been good luck for him to do that podcast with me because he won his second straight national with a 2-1 finish in front of his hometown fans. Actually, I kinda wish I hadn’t talked to him because he told me that I had to stop with the Dungey “and Dragons” nickname for him. He said it was not cool and neither was “Crocodile” Dungey. Whatever, what does he know? He told me he had “Dungey Time” on the back of his helmet when he was a kid so we’ll go with that for now.

Winning is contagious and right now and Dungey is infected with it. I wrote after Washougal that Ross Pederson told me that you never want to give your competition a sliver of hope that they can beat you and that’s just what Ryan Villopoto has done. Yes, he straight-up beat Dungey in the first moto and fell in the second and gave the OA to the Suzuki kid. Still, Dungey won and that’s got to get into RV’s head, even just a teeny, weeny bit.

RV went down on the first lap going down a hill and then got up in 34^th place and charged to second. A good ride and one that shouldn’t hurt him in the confidence area. He was probably the fastest guy again but the books will show Dungey won this one. Now onto Southwick, where he hasn’t had the best of luck.

Andrew Short got second with a 2-5, that’s pretty fortunate for sure. He went down in the first turn with a bunch of other guys. (The amount of money that was down in the first turn in the second 450 moto was probably bigger than some countries’ GNP.) He rode inspired to get his fifth and said in the press conference that it was the roughest track of the year.

I know Shorty reads this column and I want to thank him for taking the time to do some really stupid stuff for me on The Bottom Line show coming up this week on Motocross.com.

In what is probably everybody’s favorite part of this column: let’s talk about Tim Ferry’s day. First moto he was like third going into the first turn and “almost killed” Byrne in the first turn, then was fifth or sixth and moved into third and made up some time on Shorty but then, right about the time when he usually makes a move, nothing happened!

Second moto he could’ve really taken advantage of his competition going down but he crashed on the second lap, so he fought back with his bad luck for a 12^th  that moto and a fifth OA.

The amateurs are coming! The amateurs are coming, run for the hills! In what surely made Wes Williams beam like a proud papa, Blake Wharton, PJ Larsen, Ben Lamay, Michael Hall, Alex Martin and a bunch of other guys came straight from the ranch into the boiling waters of the pro pot. Obviously, Wharton did pretty good going 10-4 and Larsen scored some points so that’s a good ride. When you compare them to Canard, Izzi and Stroupe, they don’t look that fast but let’s wait to judge them okay?

Yamaha of Troy wasn’t there and people were wondering what happened to Mike Brown? He was the only healthy, non-suspended rider on the team and was left out to dry. Except that I heard he quit the team last week and then I heard he was fired. Whatever the reason, don’t look for the Troy team or Brownie at any of the last nationals. J-Law is not coming back, and if Zach Osborne is at Southwick this weekend, he will be working with either another team or as a privateer. Ryan Morais is suffering from an illness, and Brownie will likely become a GNCC racer now—and an immediate contender there!

I did really good this weekend for dinners. On Friday, Tim and Evie Ferry and I went out for dinner to some good steakhouse in Rochester and he paid. (Well, I should say Evie paid because whenever it’s just me and him, I have to pay. When Evie shows up, I pretty much know I’m getting a free meal!) On Saturday night I went out with some Canadian friends to TGI Fridays and had some beers and a burger. My buddy Trevor picked up the tab for that because I got him some parts for his bike at some point in my life. Then to top it all off Weege and I went out on Sunday night to TGI Friday’s again and a team manager picked up the tab for us. Man, eating was awesome (and free) this weekend!

Dutch sandman Marc de Reuver is coming to Southwick as I’m sure you all know. He also said this, “At least I get the impression that apart from ‘Superman’ James Stewart I can beat any American in the sand.” Whether he actually said it or not seems to be up for discussion, but I know the Honda guys had it up on the billboard, the mechanics were talking about it and Shorty and Ferry both made mention of the comment to me. Except Ferry said "Did you hear what the euro guy said?" My prediction?  A 7-6 or so, and maybe some tire marks on his bike. No matter what, it’s going to be fun to watch for sure. And as I wrote in 450 Words, I think Marc should be commended for making the effort—it’s not something a lot of people do anymore as the two sides of the Atlantic became more and more specialized.

How bad did returning-from-injury Broc Hepler allegedly take out Antonio Balbi in the second moto? Enough that Balbi’s bike had broken cases, 10 broken spokes and a jacked up front brake. Balbi was pissed and motioned at some Yamaha guys standing on the side of the track as he pulled out. I didn’t see it but it had to have been pretty brutal because Yamaha PR man, Tim Olson made Broc go over and apologize for the move.

What’s up with broken femurs and dudes just walking around like nothing happened? Well, kind of anyways? Trey Canard and Mike Farber of Racer X both recently broke theirs and there’s no cast or anything, just some crutches. If you didn’t know better, you’d think they sprained an ankle. Ron Lechien told me that his femur basically ended his career and I remember reading that Damon Huffman said it took him a long time to get back from his, and I don’t think Greg Albertyn was ever the same after he broke his femur.

Matt Georke got to ride Billy Laninovich’s 450 this weekend and will be on it the rest of the year. What happened to Billy? In talking to the MDK guys, I don’t think he’s coming back this or next year. Anyways, Matt rode great, which was to be expected because he does good in the sand. His 9-7 finishes easily could’ve been a 4-4 but he got a flat tire (so did Ryan Sipes and I can’t believe KTM doesn’t run mousse inserts) and crashed in moto 2. He rode really, really well.

In the second moto he got by a very tired Jeff Alessi in the first set of sand whoops, only to have Jeff square him up and drag race to the next corner. The thing is, Jeff was on the outside and had a little smoother path, with Georke on the inside and neither guy backing off. When they got close to the turn Matt just got tossed off and Jeff probably was snickering in his helmet.

I did think that Hepler looked pretty good as did returning Red Rider Ivan Tedesco, at least for a little while. Then they looked exactly what they were, fast riders that are coming back to the roughest track of the year in the middle of summer. They started strong and faded but good to see new blood in the class and they’ll both get better right around when the season ends.

Let’s get the silly season stuff out of the way. These are rumors, speculation and some fact so please remember that angry industry people:

- Erik Kehoe told me that it “looks really good” that both Davi Millsaps and Andrew Short will be back with Honda next year. Shorty also rode the 2009 Honda after Washougal so that’s always a good sign. As for Tedesco and Townley, they had two-years deals.

- JGR has offers out there for Josh Grant and Cody Cooper. Depending on whether those guys accept the offers, Nick Wey and Josh Summey could be there next year. I guess Cooper was not very good when he started riding SX in NC but in a couple of hours, apparently the Kiwi Warrior got the hang of it.

- Austin Stroupe is not coming back this year, he has mononucleosis, I swear. Yeah, that’s it.

- But I did hear from a good source that Factory Connection has signed Josh Grant to a 450 deal next year but shortly after, someone who would know, informed me Grant is going to North Carolina this week to meet with JGR. Again, just reporting what I hear.

- The GEICO Powersports Honda guys want to put their other truck on the road next year with Kevin Windham and either Grant or Nick Wey.

-  L&M manager Larry Brooks is looking for a younger rider to be teammates with James Stewart. Or maybe Nick Wey will go here also.

- Motosport Outlet Kawasaki will be Kyle Cunningham, PJ Larsen, Hunter Hewitt and Tommy Hahn (maybe on a 450) next year.

- Pro Circuit will have Brett Metcalfe, Austin Stroupe, Jake Weimer and a recovering Pourcel brother next year. Mitch can run a fifth guy for west coast and for injury replacement and told me he may just do that.

- Star Racing and YOT are apparently merging.

- Factory Yamaha has an option on Josh Hill which I bet they exercise, and after that I have no clue. If Hepler stays here, he’ll take a pay cut for sure.

- Somebody will hire Josh Hansen next year for some reason (maybe Pro Circuit for that West ride).

- Josh Summey is talking to KTM.

- Amateur hotshot Justin Barcia will skip supercross and jump in the GEICO Honda team for the start of next year’s nationals. Forest Butler of BBMX: “He’ll win the outdoors in 2009.” Someone from England: “Has he ever heard of Tommy Searle?

- Don’t forget about Travis Preston, he’s also looking for a ride right now.

Too bad for "Top" Jimmy Albertson, he gets the call up of a lifetime and crashes out before he can get on that Factory Honda. He said on the webcast that he was going “3 or 4 seconds” a lap faster on the bike.

Jeff Alessi should’ve got third in the second moto, with a bunch of heavy-hitters going down in the first turn; he was all alone in second before Byrne got him. He hasn’t been in good enough shape all summer and it showed in the humidity of Millville. His times dropped by as much as 11 seconds in the moto! He’s a talented rider for sure but he had a podium slip through his grasp.

Josh Hill was fast. F.A.S.T. = fast. He was second fastest all weekend in practice and in the first moto crashed in the first turn and came from 25^th or so to 4^th. He was flying through the sand whoops and looked like in the second moto he would battle for the FGNNJS  (First guy not named James Stewart) trophy but it was not to be as he went down again in the first turn and grabbed his wrist immediately and DNF’d. Too bad, really could’ve been a Hill of a day. (Get it?)

In the first 450 moto Vince Friese and Ben Evans came together in the sand and both were picking up their bikes when all of a sudden a big fire started! It was crazy and pretty high also. The fuel coming out of the overflow of one bike was mixing with the heat of the other to create fire. One of the guys grabbed a hose but as soon as the water hit the flames it scattered the gas fire even more. Man, we were throwing sand on it and water to get it down. Scary and brought back memories of Andy Harrington and his bike on fire in Phoenix back in the day.

For the first time ever, a rental company actually found something that I left in a car! The odds of anyone ever getting their XM Radio, sunglasses, headphones or trophy back are long for sure. This weekend I left my IPOD on the roof of my car Monday morning (don’t ask) and I called them and sure enough it was still on the roof and they’re sending it back to me! Good job Hertz.

I dunno what was up with Sean Hamblin this weekend. He was way back in the pack in the first moto and could only muster a 14^th. Second time out he fell in that factory-guys-only crash off the start in the first turn and got another 14^th for (appropriately) 14^th OA. He told me that he struggled all day and has never enjoyed Millville. It sure showed, that’s for sure.

Everybody’s favorite little gnome, Jason Thomas raced this weekend. The BBMX rider also hosted the Racer X/Motocross.com show and did a great job (which I knew he would because I was pushing for him to do it and who would you rather listen to, a guy that’s a top 30 rider that’s raced all over the world or me? That’s what I thought). Anyways, he was also way back and in the 30s for “twenty minutes” but one thing about JT, he is like the Energizer bunny, he just keeps going and going. He eventually got 20^th in the first moto and 13th the second time out

Remember how cool that race was at the U.S. Open last year between Jeff Emig, Damon Huffman and Mike LaRocco? Well this year there’s something even cooler coming up during halftime. I’m very excited to say the least!

I also hear some rumors of some big time changes in Supercross next year. I think the U.S. Open might be a preview of something. …

Ok well that’s all I got this week from Millville. Thanks to everyone that reads this thing and I appreciate all the mail I get every week from people that are just like me. I'm just lucky to be able to do this. Send my any mail to matthes@racerxcanada.com and thanks for reading!