Tight Racing in Lites Tonight

The buzz in the pits is the track is good and not too technical, and lap times in Lites are very tight. This means a lot of potential winners, even though Villopoto might have something to say on that.

Josh Hill is good after riding with a problem thumb a week ago.

The dirt here is good, a little soft, and as a Dirt Wurx guy said, "It stays where you put it."

It's cold! Everyone in the pits is wearing a big jacket.

Kawasaki still has Pourcel on just 3 or 4 races before he goes back home, but results like last week could change that plan. It's just too early to say.

Saturday Morning Track Walk

Just a quick update from the track walk. Nothing going on!

Forget about the rumor that James hurt his ankle. That was a month-old post on a message board that just resurfaced because someone commented on it. He is fine and did the track walk.

Josh Grant is in for sure, and so is Dusty Klatt.

Reed and Tedesco are hanging on. Reed is maybe 10% better healed than he was last week, which isn't saying much.

Langston Out

Well crap. So far the word from the pits Friday morning at Phoenix is Grant Langston is out with a broken collarbone, due to a practice crash yesterday. This didn't come from anyone at Yamaha so leave it at that.

Other news, Dostal out, Josh Grant in (bike and RV here), Hahn is switching to east coast, which he can do since he didn't start a race in the west. Kyle Partridge is in. Martin Davalos, in.

Ryan Clark Goes His Own Way

Ryan Clark, "the other RC" got up early with his mechanic Jesse Black to meet with media at Phoenix's press day.

They went old school with Ryan's beater pickup and wooden ramp!

Clark went home and took a break, then came back for the afternoon to talk to press some more.

He said with the new timed qualifying practice, days have changed a little and he has been practicing sprint laps to get better lap times-and better gate picks.

Clark owns Team Solitaire, which is completely funded by industry sponsors like Fly/Dragon/Honda/Western Powersports. His mechanic ened up here after moving to town to attend MMI.

His other rider Jiri Dostal is out this weekend with a broken fib. Bummer, get well fast dude.

Here is what Clark had to say about the Anaheim 1 whoops: "The whoop sections were not built difficult. What made them difficult was the soil there at Anaheim. It gets so slippery and choppy. The dirt here (phoenix) has more sand and when the whoops break down, they get smaller. There in Anaheim they cup and get a steep face on them. When you continue to hit them they get blued grooved out. The lines change so often you have to be open to finding a new line. I kind of got stuck in one line and had some problems in the main."

The Never-Ending Whoop Debate

There always seems to be a debate ever whoops after Anaheim 1. This time was no exception.

There are really 2 issues with whoops, 1) How they are made, and 2) How they hold up.

It's no secret the faster guys usually want the whoops as difficult as possible, since they have megabuck suspension and hours on a nice test track to get ready. RC isn't always on that list.

Villopoto wasn't complaining after Anaheim, he won. DeCoster said they were too much and you couldn't race in them. Some other top team folks said something about them too, after they saw them Thursday at press.

Last year it did appear that whoops started getting smaller, more uniform, and more consistent after the first round. What makes it tough in Anaheim is the dirt and how whoops hold up. Check the photo.

The dirt packs hard on its own, and if you roll it into shape, it can get worse. With the cool Southern California nights, moisture comes out as the night goes on and things get more slippery.

What happened at Anaheim is the faces would break down, like shown in the photo. That made the whoop faces sharp edged and tougher on tires. It's a combination of how the hard dirt behaves, the shape of the whoop, and how the moisture changes over time.

If there was a way to roll them harder, they would squeeze out all the moisture and create rock whoops. If they are left looser, they come apart even more than shown above. It helped a little in 2007 due to show changes that translate to less time on the tracks before each night show.

What to do? Its hard to re-invent how dirt behaves!

RC Gets Micky Thompson Award of Excellence

One of the many honors RC got at the Anaheim 1 show opening was this year's Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence.

With past winners people such as Edison Dye (imported Huskys-helped America discover motocross), and Bruce Brown (On Any Sunday), this award digs deep.

There, I got that far without mentioning the court case.

Anaheim Kicks Off 2007 with Excitement

Reed got himself pumped up for a holeshot at Anaheim 1, and even with an injured shoulder, he led the main a bit and had plenty of fight in him. The SX main started out with Reed putting on an amazing effort, which then settled into a full on RC/Stewart battle.

Not surprisingly, the main became a full on contest between RC's experience with James's speed. Both Stewart and RC rode on the edge enough to take a fall, and RC's fall cost him more..and that was it.



Stewart totally was celebrating after that win, and later said in the press conference that was because he felt he earned it. Yes, he did.

Villopoto just had to battle C Pourcel to win the Lites main. He was clearly the strongest and his going to be very tough to beat. Pourcel's debut in American supercross was better than expected and making people wonder will he really stick to the plan to only race the first three. He had the full-on French entourage here to support him, even Pichon and Tortelli and extra French media were there to see it.

Will Mitch Payton have a "Talledega Nights of Supercross" on his hands? Watch the movie - it's a fun spoof of rivalries.

Some updates gathered from pit cruising afterward:

-Langston crashed out of the SX main, hit his shoulder and had wind knocked out of him. Expected to return next weekend.
-Josh Hill landed hard on a triple in his Lites heat, and it appeared he hit hard on his wrists. He took his hands off the bars for a moment, slowed and pulled off the track, then coasted a few yards and kept going. In the main he had trouble hanging on and didn't finish. He should be back too.
-Josh Grant had a bad crash in the afternoon and was checked out at Asterisk and then left to a local hospital to check out his breathing. he came back and rode a heat and finished second, but he wasn't in the main.
-Martin Davalos crashed out of the Lites main and his ankle, which was hurt before, was hurt again.
-Dusty Klatt, who got chewed up in his rear tire a little in a heat race, looks rough!