As riders do Qualifying Practice at Hangtown and AMA Racing stands by to stop any shenanigans, the silly season circus is back to normal in the pits.
Just a note on this blogging of name-shuffling and team-changing. It should not be assumed everything tossed around is "signed = done." What happens is these changes have different levels. There is "someone said so," or "rider said so on a verbal," or "contract in hand," and finally "the name is on the dotted line."
Teams go looking for replacements at about the "verbal decision/contract in hand" level, so that's where we tread on loose ground. No one really waits for name on dotted line, and this can come with last-minute changes.
Hey, it's all lies anyway, so here's this morning's:
-The Tedesco to Honda thing isn't "signed," but people are proceeding as if it is. It's fully expected that Honda will in fact have Tedesco and Townley on board for 2008.
-There is a good chance this reduces the budget for Honda to support Factory Connection's 450-only semi (Windham's ride), and one has to wonder if it will continue. Maybe they just want a Lites team, 4 or 5 guys. That leaves KW to look at his options, like the new Gibbs team, back to Suzuki, or KTM.
-People were passing around the Byrne to Gibbs part as contract in hand, but yesterday he said people were being premature about things.
-Gibbs hasn't picked a brand to race yet, and as the 450 guys sort out, that could become a factor with some interesting possibilities. (Wow, when has a team that hasn't raced yet made such a splash - besides Reed this year).
It goes without saying factory Honda didn't like going to half of supercross with an empty semi. No 450 riders on the track from Honda is no fun, especially when you are gearing up for a battle over keeping the best-selling 450 a 450 instead of a 350 or whatever.
BTW - Tedesco is missing this weekend due to a concussion from during the week. Hepler is still out and hasn't raced in 2007.
Speaking of absences from racing, is anyone counting the number of races missed due to concussions? Weekend Window found that some pretty knowledgeable people agree that helmets approved for SXMX have hard styrofoam crushable liners which are better suited for high energy impacts where shell integrity is primary (hitting a wall really fast). We are letting these guys race with something that was designed for something else and it could be improved. It just needs to be studied and it's not going to be easy. Too bad we haven't started much yet. The best read on this is Doc Bodnar's comments from San Diego, still here on Weekend Window. (comeon people, get this on the agenda and spend some money! It's taking too long to start - soapbox off, race day.)
