Story and Photos by Jeff Kardas

This past weekend was a busy one for the motocross industry. While round seven of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship went down at Reliant Stadium in Houston, most of the industry was located 1500 miles north in Indianapolis for the annual Dealer Convention. Even though the pits were a bit quieter than usual, there was still plenty to see and hear while we made our rounds. If you missed out on our coverage of the actual race, or the next-day High-def broadcast on CBS, then click through some of the links below to get filled in.

(Above Photo): Due to the bad weather, the pits weren't as crowded as they usually are.

Race Report: Find out how K-Dub’s first win since 2005 went down.

Race Report Gallery:Check out some of Kardy’s top photos from the racing action.

Now, read on to find out What Really Happened in the stormy pits of Houston.

The biggest story may have ended up being the weather; just ask the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team, or Wonder Warthog/MDK, or KTM/MDK, or any of the dozens of other teams and riders severely affected by the epic storm that blew through the area right in the middle of the evening show. Gale force winds, torrential rains and a firestorm of lightning destroyed many awnings and canopies, spreading the contents all over the pits while fans and riders in the stadiums remained oblivious to the destruction (there were no reported injuries, luckily). But thanks to the venue’s retractable dome, the menacing storms brewing outside had zero effect on the night’s racing action. Unfortunately for the fans earlier in the day, the imminent bad weather meant a limited and closed-up pits atmosphere, although a steady stream of die-hards still made a go of it.

(Above Photo): Suzuki elected to take their awning down and work under the semi tailgate.

Most of the factories completely closed off their pit areas to keep the wind and rain out, but many finally gave up and took everything down, pulling the bikes inside and out of the weather.

One thing that we did see a lot of was team bikes with numbers we did not recognize, and that can mean only one thing—a new regional season is about to begin. That’s right, next weekend the East region kicks off and many of the teams have loaded up the east bikes for the trip to Atlanta next weekend. We spotted the #391 YOT YZ250F of Tyler Bowers, Martin Davalos’ #577 MDK/KTM, and Phil Nicoletti’s #178 Motoworld/Xtreme KX250F while on our morning stroll.

(Above Photo): Tyler Bowers will be making his Supercross debut next week in Atlanta aboard the #391 YZ250F.

(Above Photo): The always-fast Martin Davalos is riding the East Coast Lites Series.

(Above Photo): Rookie Phil Nicoletti will be riding the number 178 KXF250.

Despite the lack of precipitation from the storm indoors, the track surface was well watered and proved to be nearly ideal for the evening with its mix of sand and clay soil that roughed up just enough to keep the riders on their toes. More interesting than the surface was the fact that this event marked the first time that a rider—in this case, Kevin Windham—designed the entire track from scratch. Both Dirt Wurx and Live Nation got together on this intriguing idea, which will see many of the remaining rounds designed by various top riders. We ran into K-Dub at the Torco Racing Fuels/Honda rig prior to the track walk to get his take on the whole experience: “Man, it was actually a lot of work! I did it the old school way with a pencil, paper and ruler,” Windham said. “They basically gave me a map of last year’s track and then an empty stadium floor layout, and told me to do whatever I wanted. I’ll tell you what, I have a lot more respect now for what those guys do on a weekly basis!” When asked if he had anything in particular in mind when he was chosen for the job, or if there were any specific features that he really wanted to see in the design, he replied, “Honestly, I really just wanted a big double jump over the start straight. I always thought that would be cool to have, so really that was my only goal in building it. I guess I could have thought more about it and made it work for my strengths, but really, I just sort of put it together. Maybe I should’ve thought about it a little more.”

(Above Photo): The riders check out the huge finish-line double that shot riders over the start straight.

That jump also ended up being the finish-line jump, and ended up being a 65 footer—larger than the typical triple. During the track walk, many riders (especially the Lites privateers) were overheard mumbling, “Man, that’s a HUGE gap!” With Windham remaining humble about his design and goals, there’s no question that the start straight double was a bitchin’ feature that we’d love to see more of in the future! After K-Dub’s completely dominant night, it will be interesting to see if the future track’s designers have similar success.

(Above Photo): Dusty Klatt returned to action in Houston.

(Above Photo): There was an addition to the Cernic's Kawasaki squad.

Enjoying his time on Kdub’s track for his first ride back this season, Canada’s Dusty Klatt joined teammate Jeff Gibson in the Cernic’s Kawasaki rig, with Klatt’s substitute Kyle Mace falling back to a “riding-out-of-the-back-of-the-truck” role. Klatt was stoked to join the big boys for his second season in AMA Supercross racing, and his first on the big bikes. We asked him what kept him out thus far, and how things have been going: “I crashed on the Kawi practice track a couple of weeks before Anaheim I and broke my collarbone,” Klatt said. “It was not a really bad break or anything and didn’t require any surgery, but I’ve just gotten back on the bike maybe three weeks ago, so I’d say I’m at maybe 80 percent now.” In his first season in the premier Supercross class, Klatt’s goal was simple: Make the main event. To his credit he did exactly that, gaining the last transfer spot and getting on the gate with the big boys in his first-ever attempt.

(Above Photo): Klatt accomplished his goal of making it into the main event.

As usual, much of the on-track excitement swirled around Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence, and by the looks of the make-over that the Monster Energy coach received, it’s clear that everyone is taking notice of his recent success.

Perhaps nobody has noticed it as much as Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey. Dungey, who appeared to be in the driver’s seat for the championship following round three, but has since not only faced exceptionally bad luck, but also a blazingly fast and determined Lawrence. The racing in Houston reflected that previous three rounds, even though an effort is clearly being made by Dungey to reverse the process.

(Above Photo): Johnny O'Mara (left) was on hand to help Dungey get out of his funk.

For Houston, he called in coach Johnny O’Mara to be his right-hand-man, looking for a bit of help to get out of his funk. The two riders swapped fastest lap times in practice, pushing each other well over a second faster than third-quickest Austin Stroupe—and when we say “pushing”, we mean “pushing”. In classic J-Law style, he waited until the final lap of the final practice session to blaze in front of Dungey’s time and after doing so, made it clear to Dungey who the fastest really was by posturing and revving his bike behind him after the practice ended. Good stuff. While each rider won their respective heats with relative ease, it was Stroupe who ended up passing Lawrence in the Lites Main and nailing the first-ever win of his career. Clearly Lawrence didn’t seem to be pushing any harder than necessary, as he took the time to congratulate “Stroupe-a-Loop” on his remarkable ride.

(Above Photo): J-Law congratulates Stroupe on his exceptional ride in the Lites main.

This season’s injured reserve list almost reads like a who’s-who of Supercross: James Stewart, Ivan Tedesco, and Mike Alessi to name a few. But that certainly isn’t the end of it, and a list that’s always longer than the injured reserve is the riders who are riding significantly injured. It’s no secret that Joe Gibbs Racing/Toyota/Yamaha’s Josh Hansen was injured in a practice crash at the Gibbs facility in North Carolina the week prior to San Francisco.

(Above Photo): We caught up with Lil' Hanny about riding back into shape after his recent injury.

After skipping a couple of rounds, Hansen returned last weekend at San Diego, albeit clearly not up to his usual pace. “Lil’ Hanny” had been showing solid speed and consistency in the first couple of rounds, but in actuality has been riding sore all season. Add to that he’s now lost a lot of fitness due to this most recent injury, he’s just trying to get through a couple more rounds and ride himself back into shape the rest of this season: “Yeah, it really is a bad deal for me right now,” Hansen said. “I’m literally coming off the couch for the past three weeks and going out and racing. I haven’t been able to train or ride really at all; I just come out and race. When I was hurt this last time, I also had some internal bruising in addition to my already herniated discs that I re-injured. I’ve been super sore and stiff but I just want to tough it out and do the best I can for the Gibbs Racing Team for the rest of the season.” When asked about the outdoors, Josh was quick to remind everyone “Yes, I’ll definitely be there! It seems like people don’t think I’m racing the Nationals for some reason, but I am definitely planning on doing them.” Hansen’s contract with Gibbs extends through the 2009 season.

(Above Photo): Would you really mess with this Charles?

The other half of “Team Josh” is of course Charles “Josh” Summey, who’s had his own share of pain this season. Perhaps even more painful than the shoulder ‘stinger’ that he was experiencing at round one in Anaheim, however, is the pain felt by those who have known him for years as simply “Josh”. We had to get to the bottom of the mystery of why, after such a successful history with one name, would a guy of Summey’s stature want to switch to such a mundane moniker as “Charles”? He replied matter-of-factly, “Actually, that is my real name—Charles Josh Summey,” he said. “It’s not like the team or J-bone forced me to change it or anything, it’s just a little bit easier to get by day-to-day at the shop when someone yells ‘JOSH’ and we don’t both have to look every time.” When asked about his season thus far, he seemed reasonably pleased but hungry. “I definitely think of myself as a fifth-seventh guy, but for one reason or another I’m just not quite there. I feel like my program is definitely ahead of where it ever has been and I am really happy, I just need to put it together a little better and get the finishes I know I’m capable of.” Apparently, his prediction was right on—Charles nailed a solid seventh in Houston’s main event and put in a brilliant ride in heat two. Charles’ solid rides thus far have been good enough to put him only five points behind Paul Carpenter in the C.E. Altman Award for “Top Non-Factory Rider”, previously called the Privateer points fund.

(Above Photo): Privateer Michael Willard has been putting in some good rides this season.

Speaking of privateers, one of the most successful and least-hyped has to be Ohio’s Michael Willard. He and his father/mechanic, Kip, have quietly been plugging away for a few seasons now, typically getting into the Lites mains and occasionally pinging a top-10 finish. Willard may best be known as the last rider to qualify for a Lites main event on a 125cc two-stroke (Willard managed that at Seattle ’07 on a KTM125SX), not to mention twice winning the Canadian Eastern Lites Motocross championships. This success has allowed him to pull sponsors like Cycra Racing and Fox Racing Shox together so that they can get to the races in relative style, in the Cycra hauler that Kip drives to each round (as well as lives in while staying out west for the series).

(Above Photo): Willard's dad Kip wrenchs on his son's bike and drives the Cycra hauler to all the races.

Since Kip was the first person we saw doing any actual work in the pits Saturday morning, we checked in with him on what’s in store for the rest of the year for Team Willard. “Well as usual, it’s all really up in the air as far as the nationals go,” Kip said. “We want to stay down here and do the U.S. races and are really just looking for a good level of support to make it all worthwhile. We had talked about also getting Mike on a 450 for the east rounds since the AMA decided to change the rules on everyone all of a sudden, but it’s just not logistically or financially possible to get another couple of bikes ready in time. Plus, I don’t want to drive that much! But Michael’s been doing well lately and he’s just finally feeling real comfortable. The guys at Fox have been working really hard and I’d say we’re 10 out of 10 in the suspension department, maybe eight out of 10 for the motor, so we’re good, but can be better. Heck, he’s still running the same clutch we had in there for Anaheim I”. The sole Fox Racing Shox-backed rider in the pits makes Michael even more of an interesting case study, and we look forward to seeing the team in the future.

(Above Photo): The Fox Shox guys have been working hard to get Willard's bike working flawlessly.

That about wraps it up from Houston. Next weekend the East Region kicks off at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and a whole new group of Lites riders will take to the track. Furthermore, we get to see if this race win has lit a fire under Kevin Windham, who’s momentum has been building all season – can he keep the ball rolling?

(Above Photo): Can Windham keep the winning momentum rolling? We'll find out next week!

Check back here at Motocross.com for the race report and photos Sunday afternoon and find out! Also, don’t forget to check back throughout the week to get your fill of all the news in MX.

(Above Photo): The celebratory burnout is always cool.