Questions about changes to SX/MX (SPOILERS)

[O3RM125]

Coming back to the sport after 16 years has me scratching my head after watching that..

No AMA?

No 2 strokes at all??(during my hiatus I thought it would be a mix of 2 stroke and 4 stroke bikes in the races) all 4 strokes? :whoa: Do they run separate at local events?

Seemed like a real lack of Suzukis in the field..

How come the 250cc bike class didnt have any 2 stoke?(if the 450cc couldnt)

Wheres Larry Miers?

Who beat up Jeff Ward?

One of the Alessi guys was racing a Ford at the start when they showed the lineup graphic and finished on a Honda? what happened there? :p :rotfl:

My big question:
Hard for me to judge from being away so long but did Stewart have anything on Reed? He seemed to come through the pack real nice, but then the lap times evened out from what I saw?

Man that was a rough track :cool:

 

[O3RM125]

One more..

Stewart was last years champ right?(hence the red numberplates)why wasnt he using number 1?

 

[IndyMX]

No smokers.. The can't compete anymore..

Stewart opted not to run the 1, said it was cause of his dismal performance in the outdoor series last year. Probably has a lot more to do with brand marketing though.
He came from 20th to second. Not bad if you ask me.

Jeff Alessi started in a Ford F250 4x4 truck because of all the mud.. He must have switched back to the bike about half way thru the race.. Just Speed doing what they do best, screwing things up.

Larry Miers??? Wasn't he with ESPN?

AMA is out of the race promoting business. They still sanction them, though.

 

[weimedog]

Actually if you look at the lap times over at amaproracing.com Stewart was the fastest on the track followed by Chad Reed

Stewarts Fastest Time: 55.661
Chad Reed's: 56.353
Ivan Tedesco's: 57.031
Grant Langston's: 57.743

So really nothing has changed. Reed raced a better race and won. Stewart is faster yet again..and this will prove out with another championship this year..my prediction.
Ivan is the big winner here as he has found some speed. Grant is a winner here too as he really is an out door specialist. SX has never been his strength.

The "young" up and commers are the loosers here...where was Alessi at the end?

 

[dirt bike dave]

Just Speed doing what they do best, screwing things up.

That's overly harsh. I thought they did a fine job last night, especially considering it was the first race of the season and it was live. Emig has improved quite a bit as an announcer and Jamie Little is excellent as always in the pits. Any network that will show a great Lites LCQ in its entirety is fine with me.

The one thing I did not like was the 'who was better - RC or MC' segment. Clearly MC was better at SX, and RC had the better overall combined MX & SX career.

FWIW, Mike Alessi finished 6th, or nine places better than former Suzuki rider Tedesco. Ivan had a bad break at the start (I think it was he who rear ended Bubba, taking them both down). I think Tedesco is very fast and will fight with Ferry, Windham, Langston, Mike Alessi and maybe Andrew Short over 3rd - 5th place at most of the races.

Jeff Alessi finished 17th I think.

Looks like Reed and Bubba are very close again, but I'll give the edge to Bubba. Those two will be gapping the field all season long, especially on technical tracks like A1. Injuries, crashes and mechanical DNFs (if any) will likely decide the season.


As for the up and comers, they are in the Lites class where they belong (lapping Brock Hepler, BTW). Lawrence and Dungy are very good, Stroupe will get better and we have not even seen the East Coast Lites class yet. There is a great crop of young riders out there this year. Metcalfe had a bad result last night and he's not so young anymore, but he could also run up front.

 

[SpDyKen]

I've looked pretty close at the slo-mo replays; I do not think anybody hit JBS until after he lost the front end in turn one. Sure, he is telling the truth when he said that he thinks somebody hit him. Bottom line, he went in too hot and could not make the corner, IMHO.

 

[oldguy]

I've looked pretty close at the slo-mo replays; I do not think anybody hit JBS until after he lost the front end in turn one. Sure, he is telling the truth when he said that he thinks somebody hit him. Bottom line, he went in too hot and could not make the corner, IMHO.

Gotta agree with you on that and almost said it on chat to you but restrained myself so you wouldn't be tipped off more then I teased you already :boss:

 

[Reesknight]

Looked to me like Windham hit Stewart's rear tire. Doesn't take much to put someone down in that slop. Alessi finishing 6th was pretty impressive IMO. Where was DV? I thought the racing and coverage was great! Good to see Reed start out on top.

 

[XRpredator]

anyone else weary of Ralph Sheheen's unrequited man-crush on Chad Reed?

 

[SpDyKen]

anyone else weary of Ralph Sheheen's unrequited man-crush on Chad Reed?

Yea, how many times did he refer to "all of Chad's injuries that he's had to overcome," or "all of Chad's bad luck?"

 

[wardy]

I think it' funny that Stewart loses his front end maybe 5-8 times a year and just hasn't figured out that he just didn't transfer his wieght correctly most of the time. But yep I bet someone hit him in the rear tire, golly that happens from time to time in a first turn. got to be strong enough to hold up the bike. In his defense, LOL he rode excellent, and likley we will all be bitching about how "boring" the sport is since he will likley run away with it.

with that said, the 250 class was excellent racing and diceing going on. that was great racing right there.

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

The lites race was awesome. They had 6 bikes battling for the lead. AS had RV's old number, bike, and rode like he did when he came up. Erin did not have her skull mud boots on. SX class has a want add out for anybody who can race in the mud! JS showed a lot of growing up when he settled in 2nd. That is CR's spot! They lapped up to 5th! I really thought IT was going to make a better showing.

 

[SpDyKen]

You would think that by now J.S. would know (like everyone else,) that his bike doesn't turn well because his crew sets his forks up stiff, so he can blast though the whoops hard, without worrying about his front end dropping.

Well, of course he does, that's why he has an explaination all ready for his podium interview!

 

[150rguy]

I thought ben townley was gonna be racing the 450 class on a honda? He wasn't even there.

 

[DougRoost]

No smokers.. The can't compete anymore..

...

AMA is out of the race promoting business. They still sanction them, though.

Unfortunately true since the AMA moved the goalposts to force a 4 stroke transition (do a search, many posts on this over last couple years). First it was 400cc thumper to compete against 250 2 strokes, then upped it to 450cc, then changed fuel rules to further disadvantage 2 strokes, etc. The Lites class (formerly known as 125 class) is even worse with a 2x displacement advantage to 4 strokes. As a KTM exec said well, the engines cost 4x what a 2 stroke does and the racing is not 4x better. This is really hurting the amateur level, so much that the AMA has changed the displacement rules to allow up to 153cc 2 strokes in the Lites class.

I also have to agree that SPEED did just fine. I'd certainly rather they cover MX/SX than ESPN...at least SPEED doesn't preempt showings for Curling or Badminton!

 

[IndyMX]

I'll say that they did an OK job on the broadcast. But, I really can't stand listening to Ralph Shaheen talk. He really has no clue. Then Emig. You'd think with his background he'd know what he was talking about, but at times, it seems like he never rode a bike in his life.

Then you have the morons in control of the cameras.. When there is obvious good stuff happening on the track, this collection of Mensa Members is showing a replay of the holeshot for the 5th consecutive time. My thinking is no replays of anything until at least the halfway point in the moto. Too much is going on in the early stages, too much chance for someone to get tossed over the bars in a most spectacular way..

I was watching a race last season.. Lites class.. Villipoto ran away with the race. The race was a 3 way race for 2nd. It was down to the last turn. Rather than see that, we got to see Ryan roll the finish line and all the way off the track, while Emig & Shaheen were talking about this excellent racing going on. What really killed me about that incident was that this was on the broadcast of the race 1 week after the fact. They had 7 freakin days to edit it so that we could see the actual racing.. But they choose to show us something that didn't mean squat.

It's the choices that the production crew of the races makes that bothers me most.

I understand doing a LIVE event is hard. Things happen that the crew can't deal with live. But when they delay the show for even a day, they can do a better job of editing.

Just a couple of seasons ago, they'd show both heats, highlights of the LCQ and the main. Now we get to see 45 minutes of interviews, commercials & and highlights. Then we get to see about 15 minutes of actual racing. It's lame.

Sorry guys, I still think they suck at doing MX/SX.

 

[rickyd]

Yeah they stunk so bad with the broadcast I really hope they never show it live again :laugh:

I really don't listen to the announcers, I watch the action and the ticker tape.

What was cool was seein a local Racer Eric McCrummen put the last turn pass on MacFarlane in the 250F LCQ :ride: :)

 

[Reesknight]

What really killed me about that incident was that this was on the broadcast of the race 1 week after the fact. They had 7 freakin days to edit it so that we could see the actual racing.. But they choose to show us something that didn't mean squat.

They have 7 cameras, but they can only record one at a time. :bang:

 

[IndyMX]

They have 7 cameras, but they can only record one at a time. :bang:

I find that quite hard to believe..

 

[jayden122]

.

Jeff Alessi started in a Ford F250 4x4 truck because of all the mud.. He must have switched back to the bike about half way thru the race.. Just Speed doing what they do best, screwing things up.

wtf? did he race in a 4x4? i didnt watch it, can someone fill me in ?

 

[IndyMX]

Yeah, he actually started the race in a truck.. :coocoo:

 

[XRpredator]

wtf? did he race in a 4x4? i didnt watch it, can someone fill me in ?

it was a 6x4

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

They need to hire the crew that covers the fim races, but without the 8 month delay! They have no issues showing a battle for 18th place. That is some of what I like, not the winner with a big lead rolling over the finish.

 

[DougRoost]

I'll say that they did an OK job on the broadcast. But, I really can't stand listening to Ralph Shaheen talk. He really has no clue. Then Emig. You'd think with his background he'd know what he was talking about, but at times, it seems like he never rode a bike in his life.

Yep, I didn't mention it earlier but I am amazed Ralph is still around. Even the looks he gets from Emig and other riders is like "why do we have to put up with this imbecile?"

Just a couple of seasons ago, they'd show both heats, highlights of the LCQ and the main. Now we get to see 45 minutes of interviews, commercials & and highlights. Then we get to see about 15 minutes of actual racing. It's lame.

Sorry guys, I still think they suck at doing MX/SX.

And I totally agree with that. The heat races can be better than the main. Worse still is the Outdoors. I couldn't believe last season when they stopped showing the first MX race in the Outdoors, replacing it with highlights and more commentary. Not sure why they're de-emphasizing the racing but it's NOT better TV.

 

[Reesknight]

I thought ben townley was gonna be racing the 450 class on a honda? He wasn't even there.

From Cycle News:
Team Honda Red Bull's Ben Townley is also sidelined with an injury. The 2007 East Lites-class Champion suffered injuries to his heel and ankle during the off-season and will miss at least the first half of the Supercross season.