What Really Happened: Lakewood National

By: Motocross.com

Posted: 07/02/09

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Words and Photos: Jeff Kardas

We're almost to the halfway point of the season now, and neither class has a clear-cut favorite for the title. That's the good news. The bad news is, everyone says the 450 class is just so... boring. How can that be? There are still a slew of factory riders out on the track, not to mention a bunch of privateers that put in remarkable rides every weekend. Then there's the seemingly endless stream of Cinderella stories and break-out rides by a new rider every weekend. Hmm, that doesn't sound so bad after all now does it? If we forget about who is NOT at the races, and concentrate on what's going with the guys on the track, then this 450 season is actually pretty damn good.

Last weekend, the traveling circus went to Lakewood, Colorado for round 5 of the Lucas Oils AMA Pro Motocross Championships where the Thunder Valley circuit played host to A) it's fifth national race ever and B) the second night national ever. It's that second part that's most interesting, of course, and after last year's mediocre reviews, the pressure was on the Slabaugh family to kick it up a notch and prove it could be done right. For the most part, they succeeded, and by bringing in two more light trucks than last year they lit up a couple of sections that were just way too dark to negotiate at speed. But was it enough? That's a good question, and in asking the riders, the response averaged out to be "ahh, it was OK, I guess". Not perfect, not terrible, but better than last year and a step in the right direction for sure. If ya ask us, though, the whole situation would've been much better if the dirt wasn't so dark. Chocolate brown in color, it seemed completely different from last year's, which was a lighter colored sort of limestone slag type of material. This year, it was heavy, dark sand that hid holes and ruts from the prying eyes of the riders who had to negotiate it. The track surface was just plain dark during the final 450 moto, and was getting there for the second 250 moto as well. It was obvious that some of the riders were really just trying to make it around without getting hurt in the process, and weren't too worried about where they finished – in other words, leaving Lakewood in once piece and ready to race hard in Red Bud was the only priority. Chad Reed definitely fell into that category, which was evident by his 2nd moto performance. Of course there may be other factors at play there (like the rumored continuing gut issues), but if that's the case there's probably only one person who really knows, and that's Chad Reed. Otherwise, nobody's talking. Oh and let's not forget that Chad went 1-1 at High Point a couple of weeks ago...

Reedy's probably got a variety of things going on with him at the moment, not the least of which is the drama caused by his teammate Mike Alessi. After Mikey tried to pull a Chad and ride through his injury, he hit the dirt with a little help from his friend Josh Grant, who was not too apologetic about it, by the way. Showing none of the speed we know he's capable of during timed qualifying (he ended up 28th), Alessi was not likely to reach his goal of scoring points anyhow, but he went out there and... re-injured his knee. After pulling off and DNF'ing moto one then DNS'ing moto two, reports from the Alessi camp state now that he's gone through another surgery to repair the damage done to his already damaged knee, and is out for the rest of the summer.

In his wake, all indications are that Ivan Tedesco is stepping up his game to fill in the gap left by not only Alessi, but Villopoto and the ailing Chad Reed as well. Ivan was genuinely dominant at Lakewood, so much so that a parallel must be drawn to Alessi's last un-injured race at Freestone, where he dominated both motos. Then draw another parallel to Villopoto's last race, which was even more dominant, at Glen Helen. It is mildly interesting to note that every single round of the 450 class has seen double-moto wins by the overall winner, and inconsistent results from everyone behind them. A cool thing that was added to the Allisports.com web results page is the "Box Score" feature, which shows quick stats at a glance, including  laps lead along with other interesting stuff. At this point in the season, Tedesco has led 50 laps, just 2 behind Alessi despite only winning two motos. What's even more interesting is that the next closest rider in the laps lead category (at 23) is #33 Josh Grant, who's yet to win a moto and who's average finish is 7th. How's that for inconsistency? The best average finisher in the bunch is Reed, and even he's at only "3.5", with 20 laps led. It's kind of interesting to look through those stats, check them out, they're at the bottom of the archive results page for each round.

OK we can't go any further without talking about the name that's been typed on every keyboard and come out of every mouth in the sport since Saturday night, and that's TOMMY HAHN! The former factory Honda Lites rider and current sole Canidae Kawasaki rider had one of those "break-out" rides that we mentioned earlier, and looks like he may have finally found his groove on the 450. He had Andrew Short covered on Shorty's home track (sort of), and from what we were told in the comments section of our Lakewood race report, his 7th in moto one was nothing short of miraculous. Thanks to user "factory25" for the following bit of inside info: "Team CANIDAE rider Tommy Hahn was chasing down Byrne in moto one when he misjudged the takeoff on the big downhill and landed on a hay bale bending his shift shaft in his transmission. He had limited gears and hard shifting for almost the entire moto. It was remarkable that he finished in 7th." Hahn followed that up by battling hard with Short to gain 2nd place at about the midway point, only to make a small error and go off the track, allowing Short back around to finish 2nd, with Hahn 3rd for the moto and overall. That performance marked the first time Hahn had ever been on the podium at an AMA National in either class.

That's not enough of a break-out ride for ya? Well, Jake Moss had one too, running 3rd ahead of Reed for much of the first moto before ultimately capitulating to the fellow Aussie's speed and experience to finish up an impressive 4th. Unfortunately, Moss went down hard on the first lap of the 2nd moto and wasn't able to show off that new TLD gear that he and Chris Blose (who also had a great 1st moto) were modeling at Lakewood. Also interesting is looking a bit further back in the pack to see who's improving each week, and this time we must say that there were several riders to speak of. First, the Muscle Milk Recovery Award went to Tyler Bowers, who finished 11th in the 2nd moto (complete with his single silver glove, in memory of Michael Jackson). Beating Tyler in both motos, though, was Jimmy Albertson, who really seems to be gelling with his Valli Motorsports YZ450, going 10-9 for the night and 8th overall. Right behind him was his teammate Kyle Summers, who was quite remarkable and up front all day, going 9-10 for 9th overall – very good performances for these two guys, the latter of which is a full-time WORCS racer and substituting for the injured Sean Hamblin on the team. Also nearly cracking the top 10 (with a 12th in moto two) was Kyle Keylon – a guy who always looks fast, but just can't ever get the results to prove that he is fast.

Contemplating the 250 class now, we'll first talk about a rumor we heard in the pits about Chris Pourcel. He's now officially able to talk with potential employers about his plans for next year (his PC contract is up after this MX season), and the calls he's getting so far are very interesting. Let's just say that if he wins his 250 championship this summer, he'll be the hottest property on the market, and there's probably only one team with the moola to snatch him up – and they're already talking about it. He may be a bit of a gamble on a 450, but this team's on a mission to get him on board. Stay tuned! Beyond the rumors and speculation, though, and Pourcel once again kept up his consistent first moto performances with another win, and his inconsistent second motos with a 6th. That 2nd moto 6th doesn't tell the story, though, and after getting hung up on a faulty gate (which left many of us wondering why there wasn't a red flag, since it was clearly a "gate issue") and getting to the top of the start straight dead – DEAD – last, the charge began. He passed groups of riders at a tie on that opening lap, coming around 17th, which means he blew by 22 guys (!) in one lap. Then 3 more the next lap, and 3 more the lap after that, and so on until he made it up to 6th, for 2nd overall. ‘Twas impressive, no doubt. Not so hot, but quite consistent despite some trouble with his starts was Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey, who always seems to struggle at Lakewood. He kept it on two wheels this time though, and wound up with 33 points vs. Pourcel's 40 to come away 9 points out of the lead heading to a track he knows very well – Red Bud. Look for the old Dungey to be back next weekend, no doubt about it.

But how about that Jake Weimer? From zero to hero in two weeks – Jake looked great in Colorado. Like, REALLY great, even pushing Pourcel for much of the first moto before putting on a great display in the second moto by leading, crashing, recovering and winning easily over Barcia to snag the overall win. Also hot were Broc Tickle (ran a very impressive 3rd the first moto), Tommy Searle (who's really starting to shine and moved forward both motos for 3rd overall), and Blake Wharton (who ran up front in the first moto to finish 4th). Martin Davalos finally came back from an injury sustained we can't remember when, only to crash in the first turn of the first moto and DNF. In the 2nd moto he led/crashed/faded to end up 10th. Let's not forget about Max Anstie, either. The Team J-Law rookie is finding himself toward the front at every moto and, although he tends to fade back a bit as the faster more experienced riders get around, he's getting a good taste for the pace in the pro ranks, and has been consistently just outside the top 10 the past few rounds.

Next up is Red Bud, which is considered by many to be the Crown Jewel of the AMA Pro motocross national series. The Ritchie family always does something to kick their already great race up a notch or two, so we're anxious to see what they've got up their sleeves this time around. Most noticeable so far has been the announcement of the legends/past champs 2-stroke race beind held sometime during the day on Saturday. With riders like Ricky Carmichael and Jeff Stanton said to be racing, this could either be a hugely cool thing or a huge disappointment, depending on if it goes as planned. Expect a few other surprises as well, as there's bound to be some interesting track changes along with surprise entries this weekend. You can bet motocross.com will be on hand to (hopefully!) post up some practice pics in addition to the usual photo essay race report and next week's What Really Happened.