St Louis Practice SX #1

"bitchin track."

Check out this St Louis berm with 4 lines in it already.

Stewart set the fastest lap time near the end of practice #1 at St Louis. He and RC and Reed checked each others speed out a few times. RC had the fastest lap in the middle of the practice but Stewart sprinted at the end.

Yes, It's Snowing at the SX

It is really snowing at St Louis, but not that much really. It's a good thing this one has a covered dome! It's nice inside and the track is bitchin. Paractice going on now.

St Louis Friday

The St Louis supercross is parked and ready for Saturday! The real cold isn't scheduled to arrive till then. So far, it's not so bad.

RC is in, Stewart and Reed are ready. Byrne's been here since Thursday and is ready for sure. Wey's still out due to thumb surgery (and he's a proud papa too, congrats).

Butler Brothers MX lost two guys to concussions at Atlanta (DeHaan and Skinner) and then Bryan Johnson injured his kneecap practicing during the week, right after their team high (and his career best) 7th at Atlanta. They went from 5 guys to 2.

Who started a rumor Alessi was out? Both were hanging around the pits Friday at St Louis getting ready for tomorrow.

St Louis has an indoor convention center-like pit area, so no matter how cold it gets, the party is still good inside. The trucks have to come in at a schedule all morning Friday, and according to Live Nation's Bob Wright (Kyle Lewis's father in law), they were all right on time this morning and things were as smooth as ever. The only truck that missed time was Big B at Kawasaki, 3 minutes off. So that was the joke around there Friday, Big B and his 3 minutes. (Not mentioning the rest of it..:) )













Bob Wright watches the track area as riders do a demo for media on Thursday, and he parks trucks on Friday. (PK Photo)

If you are in the pits Saturday, stop by Tamer and ask Marsack's dad (#79) if he ever got that clutch off!

KW's mechanic is Lars Linstrom, son of Gunnar, as in Gunnar Gasser, the trick throttle everyone had to have back in the day. Gunnar was also one of the orginal Husky heros that made the move from Europe to Southern California.

St Louis has a lot of deep loose dirt, and there is a sand section. It should rut up pretty good and make for good racing. There are two good whoop sections in a row, so that's going to be a place no one can afford to be the weakest.

Lites? Yeah Lites. Collier and Tickle Explain All

Weekend Window starts out St Louis weekend with a peek into a real press day. Press day is when a couple of teams agree to arrive at the venue early and ride and talk to local papers and TV about AMP'd Mobile Supercross.

At St Louis press day, we find Lucas Oil Yamaha's Sean Collier and Broc Tickle, and Rockstar Suzuki's Michael Byrne. Let's sit in on the meeting and see how it goes...

The best part was Collier and Tickle talking at the same time to explain what a "Lites" division is.....

Team Lucas Oil Yamaha guys Sean Collier and Broc Tickle at the table:

Q: Let’s start with you, Sean.
A: I’m Sean Collier, 21, I have been racing about 14 years. Professionally, this is my 4th year.
Q: And you are..
A: Brock Tickle. T.i.c.k.l.e. 17, this is my first full year as a pro.
Q: No R?
A: No, not Tickler, just Tickle.
Q: What division do you race in?
(Both Collier and Tickle begin to answer questions together-)
A: Lites.
Lites East.
Q: What is that?
A: Lites ah, in motocross…
Lites means…
There is 250 the Lites and then there is the supercross class.
So we are like supercross Lites.
Like there is a Busch race and the …..
It’s a smaller class.
Yeah.
We ride a 250cc class motorcycle and the other class rides a 450cc motorcycle.
Four strokes.
OK…..
Next up, Michael Byrne:
Q: Your name is Michael Byrne?
A: Yes, B.y.r.n.e. I’m 27.
Q: Where are you from?
A: Australia.
Q: Australia! You are an old timer. How long have you been doing this?
A: In America, 5 years. I won three Australian championships before I came over here.
Q: So why did you move here?
A: These guys are the best in the world. I didn’t have anything left over there.
Q: Is this a lucrative sport?
A: It’s getting that way. Most of the guys make a pretty good living, most of the guys in the top ten.
Q: Like 100K a year?
A: The top three guys make millions.
Q: Do you get endorsement deals?
A: Yeah. Clothing, helmets, goggles, a few.
Q: Are you becoming well known in the US since you started riding this year? Do you have a nickname?
A: I guess so. Burner.
Me: If you have a nickname, you are in!

USA Today, Nice to Meet You Sir

USA Today treated Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross right with a front page Sports section feature yesterday.

Live Nation's Denny Hartwig gave USA Today's sports writer Gary Mihoces and photographer Erik Lesser the red carpet tour of the Atlanta supercross, and they made a weekend out of it. Actually, they even posted a photo gallery of the track being built!

The end result is probably the best we have ever seen out of a national paper about the coolest sport there is.

USA Today Links:
Link to Story

Link to Photos

WW Photo by PK.

Atlanta Supercross Notes

Stewart won Atlanta by digging deep when he got slowed by lappers and RC put the heat on with about 6 laps to go. It was a great race! RC admitted he felt a bit rusty from not racing but said no excuses, Stewart won it. RC has three more supercross races to go, Orlando being his last.

Stewart made up 5 of the points he lost to Reed last Weekend at San Diego. His points lead is now 17.

Townley had winning speed in Lites but something broke on his motor that Pro Circuit said they were sorry for but prefered not to say! In other words, oops, never mind.

RC got a resolution of support from the Georgia State senate handed to him at the show opening! The Georgia Senate actually voted to proclaim RC the G.O.A.T.!

Great Moments in Supercross 3: RC and RC

RC signed a jersey for his grandfather "Pa Pa" Carmichael at Atlanta.

We saw Pa Pa at RC's 100th win at Budds Creek a few years ago. He said of the MXoN at Budds this year: "I will be there! I already bought my ticket. Ricky is racing, if he don't I'll whoop his ass!"