Thursday, June 28, 2007

Ricky Carmichael flashback video

Here's a sweet video of RC back in his honda days absolutely hauling! brings back some fond old memories of those perfect seasons. ENJOY.

Southwick Preview

This weekend is Southwick. One badass track! Every year, crazy stuff goes down at Southwick, and I’m sure this year will be no different. Ricky is on top of his game, as usual, and bubba has been riding fast too. Davi Millsaps is looking to keep up the podiums, and guys like Tim Ferry, Kevin Windham, and Grant Langston are all looking to make good showings as well. I’m seeing Carmichael clean it up, and as long as James stays on 2 wheels he’ll get second. I think the best racing will be behind numbers 4 and 7, between Tim, Kevin, and Davi. Don’t count out John Dowd either! This is his home track and he was blazing at that Southwick invitational. Even for a senior citizen, he sure hauls ass.
The 250F class will be exciting as usual. Ryan Villopoto doesn’t have a win yet, and you know that he is starving for one. After coming off such a dominating season indoors, then getting 2 straight seconds outdoors has to be tough. Look for him to ride strong and pick up at least one moto win. But don’t count out Mr. Second Moto, Ben Townley. Both rounds at high point and hangtown he rode excellent, picking up the overall at hangtown. No doubt the guy can haul. Lets all hope that him and Ryan can hook up in either moto and give us a battle for the ages. Behind them, there is a ton of guys that have been hauling balls so far this season. Josh Grant got his first win last round at High Point, and J-Law has been riding strong too, despite his troubles with the AMA. Ryan Dungey and Broc Tickle would have to be the biggest surprises so far. Both of those guys are going to be running inside the top 10 this weekend.
One rider to talk about who hasn’t had a great season is Josh Hill. Lucky for Josh, Southwick is all sand, and he’s from Oregon, so I know as a fact that he’s ridden some sand in his day. Look for him to break out, and have his first really strong ride of the season. Him and Dungey almost had a good battle at the Las Vegas supercross, but Hill ended up in the dirt. This weekend, the two are going to hook up, and trade some paint.
Southwick is one of the toughest and most exhausting tracks to ride in the whole AMA national circuit. But it looks like it’s going to be great weather, and it’s guaranteed to be great racing, so it should be a great day. GO GET EM RICKY!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Recap of the AMA Toyota Motocross National Season...so far

So far this years Toyota AMA national’s sponsored by FMF have been exciting to say the least. In the fo fiddy class, RC has been killin it! Last weekend at high point, that double he was doing was nutz. That is now officially the Ricky Carmichael jump, and rightly so. James has been strong too, but he doesn’t seem like the same rider he was in the AMP’D MOBILE Supercross season. Hopefully he’ll step his game up sometime within the next 3 races, before the G.O.A.T. is gone for good. With the absence of Chad Reed, the bottom spot on the podium has been opened up, and so far it seems like we’re going to be seeing a lot of Davi Millsaps in the bronze position (at least in the races that Ricky will be attending). Davi has looked very strong this season, and seems to be right where he left off last year, after missing a good majority of races with an injury.
Not only is Davi racing really strong, but he has made the holeshot, and art form. Your pretty safe if you put your money on number 118 to cross the white line first. Now he just need’s a good nickname like Donnie "holeshot" Hansen. Any ideas?
The 2fiddy class has been very exciting as well, as we’ve already seen 2 different overall winners in 2 rounds. This season appears to be up in the air. Ryan Villopoto is last year’s defending champ and is running the number 1 plate with the red background (change your number to white man!). He has been hot, but not quite blistering hot like last year. He only has one moto win, and has been outright beaten by his Pro Circuit teammate Ben Townley.
Before the racing even started there was controversy though, as two of the front-runners, Villopoto and Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence, Tangled in practice Saturday evening, which resulted in a fight, and some disciplinary actions. RV was fined a small some of cash, and J-Law got fined, put on probation, and the always sought after, 40th gate pick (I hope you can sense the sarcasm) But J-Law has looked strong, and it seems like he will defiantly ear the top spot on the podium at some point this year.
Some of the other riders to ride really strong are Josh Grant, who got his first win ever last week at high point, Broc Tickle, Ryan Dungey, Brett Metcalfe, and Josh Hill. Although Josh Hill hasn’t quite rode up to his potential, yet, he has been putting in top 10 finishes pretty regularly.
We’re only 2 races into the season, and I’m still pumped as hell for the outdoor season. Outdoor motocross is true racing to me, not perfectly groomed tracks that have sub-1 minute lap times in supercross. The true men shine in motocross, and I think this season, we will really see who’s got chest hair, and who’s got peach fuzz.

Top 5 Motocross Riders of all time

The other day I was flipping through an old magazine from the good old 2-stroke days of 1997. I came to an article about Jeremy McGrath. The article was all about how MC was the most dominant force motocross, or should I say supercross, has seen in along time. By that time he was the king of supercross, and was the all time leader in supercross wins. He also won an outdoor championship 2 years earlier. That got me thinking though, fast forward 10 years, and who is the most dominant rider of all time? Well, it actually got me thinking of who second was.
No doubt in my mind, Ricky Carmichael is the Greatest Of All Time. He has had 10 straight years of outdoor dominance, not to mention 5 supercross champs. He has absolutely dominated the sport like no other, and changed motocross forever. Any body that came in his path got nothing but a face full of roost. Some of the guys weren’t even close enough to get any of that.
I started asking some of my buddies who they thought the best, or second best was. A lot of names were thrown around like Stefan Everts, James Stewart, Joel Robert, and David Bailey. A few people threw Mc’s name in there too. So I decided to come up with an official top 5 motocross riders of all time.

1-RICKY CARMICHAEL- I don’t really need to explain it, but just in case some of you doubters disagree with my number one pick, I’ll just throw out a few stats that might change your mind. Never lost an outdoor championship. From his rookie season in 1997, to last summer in 2006, he has absolutely killed it every year. He had TWO, count em TWO, perfect seasons during his Honda days, and he is the all time winningest rider in AMA history. If the summer of 07 goes as planned, he’ll have over 150 overall wins and exactly 101 outdoor wins. OK, nuff said.

2-JOEL ROBERT- Some of you newcomers may not know who Joel is. But you really ought to. He was the first rider to ever dominate motocross. The Belgium rider won 6 champions ships aboard a CZ. His run started in the mid 60’s and lasted into the early 70’s. As far as talent goes, he may have the most of that. Back then he did things on a motorcycle that riders still cant do today. But the difference for him was, his bike weighed about 150lbs more and had only a few inches of suspension travel. Joel didn’t just win all those races, he survived them too.

3-JAMES “BUBBA” STEWART- Bubba is one of the most amazing, and most fun to watch riders, to ever throw a leg over a dirtibike. His infamous “bubba scrub” has changed motocross racing forever. He has the title hands-down for outright speed. His skill on a motorcycle makes most peoples jaws drop. The things that keep him from climbing up to number 2, are his inconsistencies. He has a bad habit of crashing, a lot. Even in this past AMP’D MOBILE AMA supercorss season, he fell more than a Supercross champ would want to. His incident in Candada made a lot of folks think twice about number 7. And we all remember Unadilla in 2005. But just in case you don’t, here’s this http://youtube.com/watch?v=aKjLFCKjLsg

4-DAVID BAILEY- I think David Bailey is very deserving of the number 4 spot. He was one of the greatest riders of his time, and did something not a lot of guys could do: ride a 500. But no, he didn’t just ride a 500, he man handled it. Most riders today, cant say they’ve rode a 500cc 2-stroke before, but for those who can, the understand why David Bailey is such a talented rider. His number of championships, isn’t as amazing as some other guys on the list, but that’s not what makes Bailey so great. He was such a competitive rider, in one of the most competitive eras in motocross. He proved he could win indoors, outdoors, big bikes, small bikes, and even brought home a few Motocross Des Nations titles way back when America was a dominant force in the “Olympics of motocross”

5-STEFAN EVERTS- The last spot goes to Stefan Everts. He is regarded by some people (mostly ALL European) to be the real G.O.A.T. I have a few problems with that statement. One is not his wins, but how long it took him to get all those wins. He amounted his 101 outdoor victories in a span of 17 years! That’s quite a bit compared to Ricky’s 10. Imagine how many number one plates Ricky would have if he raced 17 years. Steve Whitelock (the AMA president) would just be handing Ricky his number one plates. One other reason Stefan lands in the last spot is his American performances. He has raced with Rick a few times and NEVER come close to the real G.O.A.T. He has come over a few times and put in some pretty good rides, but when him and Ricky go head-to-head, Stefan has never come out on top of that battle. This year’s Motocross Des Nations will be his last chance to prove himself to Ricky, before they both retire.

That’s my list, if you don’t like it, well that’s to bad, cause that’s the way I see it. But all other opinions are welcomed.