Here's comes 2012

We are 2 days away from celebrating the new year and a week away from the beginning of the 2012 AMA Supercross season. Exciting times. More so for me as I am moving to something new, exciting (bis repetita), challenging, super cool, different, rewarding and what will be some kind of a change in our family life.

I have left AGV Dainese, after 4 great years there, achieving a few good things like the return of AGV in MX with 2 new helmets, the development of the MTB segment for Dainese, in order to try to take the brand back to where it belongs, and more. I was comfortable there, I had a good living, a good crew and had tons more things to achieve, more challenges and successes ahead.

Until one day I was offered something that is difficult to refuse; a project that would demand more and better from me, a project that was exciting, that was C.O.O.L and more especially, the opportunity to work with gentlemen I have always admired and respected in this industry.

Definitely an opportunity I couldn't refuse, an opportunity that forced me out of my safe cave, but that is already so worth it and rewarding.

But enough with me. Boriiiiiiiiing!!.

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We are 1 week from the end of another memorable silly-season, that's what's the most exciting part of celebrating this new year.
If last SX season was described as the best season of them all (let's keep things in perspective though, despite Ralph's enthusiasm, and Feld's PR machine, and remember that things were pretty exciting in 1985, '86, '91, '92 or '98 too); then the upcoming season looks REAL good in the 450 class. Apart from Trey Canard sidelined with another injury for the first rounds, we have a pretty heavy line up ready to take on Anaheim.

I'll be there, I want to blog more, I want to post more pics, I want to make this a fun year again.

Awesome Motocross of Nations 09 video by Moto Mag

This is a really good video by the lads from Moto Magazine in the UK. Summary of the '09 Motocross des Nations. USA wins for the 5th time in a row. 20th Chamberlain trophy for the US. 3rd victory at Des Nations for IT9.

New YZ450 Rumors video with JS7 and VR46

MX nationals Shocker - #800 out for the season

It was his to lose and that's what just happened. As hard as it is too believe, after Ryan Villopoto dropped out of the season due to a knee injury, basically handing over the championship to his Amateur years arch-rival, Mike Alessi hurt himself badly yesterday evening while practicing for the High Point MX National. Mike's injury is pretty serious with first reports of a split knee-cap.
The title chase is back for grab with Reed, Josh Grant and Andrew Short all in good position.

Very unfortunate and very sad for Mike who was on a roll after going 1-1 at Hangtown and Freestone.

Time flies and we have 1 more SX to go

Been pretty good at not being good with this blog.

We're 48 hours from the finales of the 2009 AMA Supercross series. Reigning Champ Chad Reed is 6 pts behind James Stewart before the last 20 laps. 6 points that summarize this exciting, unnerving, crazy, shocking season to the best. 6 points to sum up this SX bitter rivalry between Reedy and Bubba. A rivalry that has taken us back to the golden years of Supercross with Bob Hannah versus everyone else, or the great battles of Damon Bradshaw vs. Jeff "Chicken" Matiasevich.

Even if James Stewart has been the fastest all season long, he has not been the most consistent and Chad, until his nightmare night in Seattle, has proven that he could win this championship and win it with pride and merit. 2009 brought a new Chad to the stage and this guy deserves a lot of props because he is much faster than the Chad of 2008, fiter and smarter. Even though I am openly a fan of James Stewart, I have really enjoyed watching Reed race this season and have a renewed respect for the way he handled this season, throughout the battles and brain games with his arch-nemesis. A rivalry that started a few seasons ago at Unadilla when those two were on 250Fs.

James should be able to win on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium, as much as he can throw the title away by crashing under pressure or by pushing it to the limits of grip on the hard-pack Las Vegas dirt. As a fan, I trust that the #7 will take it, but as an observer of SX, I know that things can go the St Louis-way for the L&M rider.

Well, I have more to write about. Here's the Las Vegas SX track.

As we see dusk settle on the 2009 SX season and dawn rise on a new year of Motocross, as the 2009 AMA Outdoors National approaches, rumors are flying as fast as F-22s darting on Taliban positions in the Swat territories. We hear noises about Mike Alessi leaving the Factory Suzuki team, we hear that Chad may ride some Outdoors, that Bubba may ride some, that K-Dub will be at Glen Helen, that Factory Honda may not come back in 2010, that Ryan Dungey would be changing the color of his gear in 2010 and come back in red, or will it be blue, that there is trouble brewing at Monster Energy and that some internal issues are being taken care right now which could have some strong influence on Jason Lawrence's future in motocross, or if these rumors are founded, does this mean that J-Law will start to walk straigth and do what teams and sponsors expect from professional riders? Mate, if you start listening to all these rumors, or start believing in them, you could write a Fantasy novel... or not... political fiction? Reports? ;-)

St Louis Supercross Photos

Here's my album of the 2009 St Louis Supercross. I hope you enjoy these and particularly the black and whites.

St Louis Supercross 2009

March 29: Broc Glover's Breathe Easy Ride

The 2009 edition of Broc Glover's Breathe Easy Ride Against Cystic Fibrosis (BER) takes place from 10am-4pm on Sunday, March 29, 2009 in Temecula's Old Town California Row. AMA Hall of Fame announcer Larry "Supermouth" Huffman will kick things off at 10am with pre-ride festivities including rider check-in and registration, raffles, autograph and photo ops, interviews with the Legends, food and fun. Attendees, both rider and non-rider alike, are encouraged to bring their cameras (don't forget fresh batteries and empty digital media cards!).

Sign-up online to ride with
THE LEGENDS OF MOTORCYCLE RACING
www.BreatheEasyRide.com

At 12 noon all registered riders will hit the road alongside our group of Legends who collectively have captured 70 national titles, 17 World Championships, and 4 ISDE Gold Medals. Riders may choose one of three different rides: two 100-mile street routes for Cruisers and Sportbikes intermingle with each other, and a dual-sport ride guided by AMA Hall of Fame off-road champion Scot Harden has been added for those preferring to ride their dual-sport bikes. All three rides begin and end at the same Old Town Temecula venue. It's important to remember that these rides are not "races" and that all riders, regardless of skill level, are invited to participate so long as he or she is riding a licensed, street-legal motorcycle.

Even if you can not make the ride please visit our event website Breathe Easy Ride to learn about this very worthy cause. View last year's event photos and preview our upcoming eBay auction where some amazing one-of-a-kind memorabilia has been donated by motorcycling's most famous personalities including James Stewart, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, and many more. There is no government funding for CF, a progressively fatal disease, and 100% of the proceeds from the Breathe Easy Ride will go directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to fund life saving research. Cash donations of any denomination are encouraged and welcomed.

AMA Outdoor Motocross Nationals going Live TV

At the Indy SX, MX Sports, Lucas Oil, the AMA and Speed TV announced the new series sponsor as well as a great TV package for the fans:

The Lucas Oil AMA Motocross series will have 6 races live on TV this season, 3 on NBC and 3 on Speed, along with live video broadcast on the Internet.

Supercross Anaheim 2, thoughts

My trip to A2 definitely didn’t go the way I had planned it. Trusting American efficiency once more, I had booked a morning flight into SNA arriving at noon, right on time to jump into my Avis car and drive to Angel Stadium. Unfortunately a very efficient coalition of very bad Midwestern weather, United Airlines maintenance schedule and a mechanical failure on the Airbus A319 that was commuting me to SoCal made it all possible to change my day’s agenda. I ended up taking of 3 hours later than planned from O’Hare and landed at LAX instead of Orange County’s john Wayne Airport.

I arrived at Angel Stadium at 6:45 p.m. :-(

I tried to do a quick round of the pits before the intro ceremonies, trying to see if I could catch anything interesting before the night show. I very quickly realized that I wasn’t really in the mood for shooting, not doing the right thing, getting the wrong settings on my camera and decided to just enjoy the night and Supercross and stick to a few snapshots of peoples instead of trying to do some photography.

I love being at the races and enjoy a lot of what’s happening on a Supercross weekend but some of my favorite times, apart from the racing itself, are the early mornings when the SX circus wake up and crews are opening the pits, doing the track walk with riders who are discovering it for the first time and watching the mechanics working during the practice sessions. But my preferred moment and place is the tunnel before the opening ceremonies. I love the atmosphere down there, seeing the way riders behave differently, who’s really focused, who’s relaxed, who’s socializing, the anxiety of some wrench guys and team managers, the Feld guys trying, usually looking very serious and a bit stressed, trying to run everything as planned as possible, etc, etc… It is a very cool place to be and observe.

Of course it was a privilege to see McGrath, Carmichael and Bubba all together, waiting for the show to go on. I mean, how many times one can see so many Supercross/Motocross victories and championships like that in one place. There is a lot of respect and a bit of complicity between these guys.

Before the race I had talked to some riders and team managers who said that they didn’t like the track saying that it was too dangerous, especially the way the landings of some jumps were built and I thought that the races would see some big crashes and first turn pile-ups, but it really went well. Nothing bad happen and we got some very good racing, in both classes.

James Stewart managed against all bike odds to win the 450 class but there is no disputing the fact that Chad Reed is the fastest rider on the track right now (the only one to go down to 58” a lap during the race). Reed looks smooth and comfortable on his Suzuki and turns it like a BMX. He reminds me of MC on his Chaparral Yamaha when he came back to take the title from Emig.

Outside of the bike, the Chad Reed 09 is a different person too, with a very positive attitude and approach on things.

Of course I think that any other rider who would be racing the #7 Yamaha would often be on the ground and only an outstanding rider like James Stewart can ride it and save it like he does right now. I saw him casing more jumps at A2 that I did all of ’07 and believe me, I case a loooot. After he passed K-Dub in the Main, James saved it a-la-Carmichael when everyone in the press box thought that he was going to hit the dirt. Unbelievable!

Like others, I don’t think that Bubba is going to be able to do that every race. If the bike settings are not sorted soon, James may crash hard at some point, especially if Chad Reed has a good start and is right on his tail.

Chad came back from the back of the pack after a first turn crash to pass Kevin Windham for second, in the last lap. We can speculate that if the race had 25 laps, CR would have won it. And the same would have happened in Phoenix the previous weekend.

Anyway, the racing is good right now. 2009 is on the gas.

K-Dub finally got back to speed and rode awesome, leading the Main for 11 laps. He looked like Mr. smooth again, more comfortable than at the first 2 rounds. RV rode very well too, fighting for 2^nd most of the race. His first podium is close.

Short rode well again and seems the most comfortable on the new Honda. The #29 should make the podium again this season.

And what about Josh Grant people! The guy is legit and after 3 very good Supercross races, I really believe that he is there to stay. I am not sure whether he is going to be able to secure a podium overall but I repeat myself and he is definitely Top 5 overall at the end of the season. At A2, he tightened up towards the end but was once again racing for the podium and rode good to a 5^th. Had he managed to pass Kevin Windham early in the race, I think that he would have secured a podium spot.

Ryan Dungey took his second win of the season in the West Lite series and we should expect to see him ride smart to secure his first title this year. Again, the PC boys were strong and rode great, Morais being very surprising and edging Jake Weimer again for a PC 2-3 podium result. The title chase is still very close right now, but Morais is definitely not where I would have thought. Great effort and a good surprise for sure.

Jason Lawrence is not riding as well as expected right now. His heat race was bad, out of control and sent him to the LCQ again. Hopefully for him J-Law gets things back on track at Houston and makes more podium but for sure, the title is out of reach for him unless something crazy happens.

Brayton and Sipes looked good. Dan Reardon rode well too and should get more Top 5 before the end of the season. A quick shout out to my buddy Mike Sleeter for making the Main again, coming out of the gnarly and very difficult LCQ. Mike has been going to the races on his own this year and is grateful to get some help from One Industries and KTM.

A quick info about French rider Cedric Soubeyras: He was racing his last US SX of the year at Anaheim 2, before going back to Europe, to race the World Championship in MX2. Cedric was coming form a great performance at Phoenix but crashed really hard in practice and ended up at the hospital with a collapsed lung and broken ribs. A bit banged up but he’ll recover quickly and get ready on time for the MXGP’s. Hopefully team MD Racing and Soubeyras will come for a full West Lites season in 2010. Cedric is one of the very few pro riders who wear the RXR chest-protector.

My MotoXdream fantasy team wasn’t very lucky this weekend, especially my Lites team where I had Soubeyras :-(

On another note, Monday was important for me at work as we had the first annual Dainese Media day at the Dainese D-Store in Costa Mesa. We presented the company’s new structure in the US to about 35 members of the press who were treated to a fashion show presenting our 2009 collection. While my colleagues-buddies Mark and Allan presented the Dainese products the models had, I was taking care of the AGV helmets introduction. It was a successful event thanks to everybody involved, from Supercross.com’s Amanda who was hosting, to the models, the editors and journalists present as well as the full Dainese crew. We should see some good exposure coming our way soon along with new sponsorship announcements as we are trying to get much more involved in road racing in the US.

So, it’s back home for a day for me and back on the road, off to Houston on Thursday and SoCal on Monday.

By the way, who will win the 2009 SX series? Ha! Right now I believe that Chad has everything lined up for it. 2 more races like that and Chad will have it secured.