2011 Supercross Season

So who has what and what are the bets...

Lay it down now.

1) R. Villapoto
2) R. Dungy
3) A. Short
4) K. Metcalf
5) T. Canard
6) K. Roczen


DNFs: Bubba (Berm butter), Reed (Crash)

Hey, good call there, James was on like donkey kong and would have taken it if not for a bad start (did he have a rear brake problem?), surprised Reed came from as far back as he did, I think a few guys just burned out and slowed down toward the end
There's going to be 4 guys on 4 different brands to beat on the 450's and should be one of the best seasons in a long time
Real curious to see who emerges at the head of the class in Lites

Stewart actually surprised me. When he's not out of the gate good he usually tries TOO hard and fumbles and the mistakes usually end up having a less than favorable ending (thus the stats they showed last night - he had something like 61 starts, 32 wins (tied with Reed actually) and 26 crashes).

...but you can't take anything away from RV. He was riding like he was never hurt.

Reed: Well... We'll see. I'd like to see him run up-front. He's obviously got the talent, but I'm not so sure he's motivated enough to bang bars with RD or JS and come out on top.

The BIGGEST surprise was Tedesco ! ...and I think he just got too excited and when James came by he saw RED and flashbacked on Montreal (?) last year. ...but he had some impressive laps !

I think Canard was just there to go to school on the guys the first race.

Jeff Alessi rode better than I ever seen him ride !

It's a long season and anything can happen.

Lites: I was hoping to see Tomac up there. ...but there was some great racing there no doubt !

Roczen was not that impressive, but he's also a AMA SX rookie. I thought he was riding SX though ( Duh on me ).

My guess this season is that it'll be primarily between Stewart and Villapoto, with Dungey and Reed adding to the mix.

Reed placed about where I'd have guessed he would.
I don't really see him as a title threat unless the other guys sit-out some races.

The podium placers were the same three I picked in a pool at work, but the order was reversed.

Villapoto will be hard to beat if he has really solved the mediocre starts that were his handicap. I cheer for Wyndham and Villapoto. Wish he had stayed on the bike instead of jumping off last year.

So who's it going to be ?

Put your bets in !

1. R. Villapoto

2. J. Stewart

3. R. Dungey

4. T. Canard

5. C. Reed

Ryan Villapoto
James Stewart
Ryan Dungy
Trey Canard
Kevin Windham (wish I could put him higher)

Re Windham: I agree... Brayton, Short and Tedesco too.

All four would add another dimension to a race scenario should one of them get out front and gap the others.

I have to wait until tomorrow AM to see what happens.

Do you (Lee) ever read the riff-raff comments on Racer-X online ?

No I haven't been to Racer-x in a while.

KW has skills (experience?) none of the other riders do. It was a lot of fun last year up here at the Seattle SX when the dirt was so soft it became a challenge for the riders just to complete laps. You knew it was KW time and he did not disappoint! Also during warm up at that race the riders were having stopie contests. Windham could do twice the distance of anyone else.

Well we hit all but fifth.... Good race.

Probably would have been a different outcome if James didn't loose the front end in that turn.

Almost surprised that Short isn't doing better.

That was an great race! I was out riding yesterday so I just watched it.

I think (Washington's yeah) Villapoto is so much faster than everyone including Stewart that Stewart is going to become a head case. I mean he has to worry about his movies and rockstar status and Villapoto blowing by him can't be good for that. For that reason I think Stewart it probably not going to finish second now. Maybe he won't complete the season.

Villapoto has always been that hardest charger that had to get maturity and I think he is going to be one of a few that pulls that off. In this race Stewart was only gaining after his fall because Villapoto was showing that maturity and backing off.

Maybe it is because he has learned to deal with not getting the holeshots but Ryan changes lines more than anyone and if you watch he changes lines over a jump regularly. By that I mean he is comfortable taking off at an angle so his line adjusts in mid-air. Can't think of where but one of the tracks he won at last year their was a very long sequence like a double triple and he was starting on one side and ending the series on the other side every lap. No one else was doing that and it gave him an advantage.

Great racing this season
It's pretty clear that it will be VP and Stewart all year
I don't agree that VP is the faster rider, he has to beat most talented rider of our time at every race and Stewart ain't washed up quite yet, Bubba has what it takes to get past anyone

I agree.
I will be very surprised if Stewart caves in to Villopoto.
I am counting on some good racing between the two.

Hard to say... Battle lines haven't been drawn quite yet.

...and there are a few wild cards in play still. Obviously anything can happen.

James is blazing fast no doubt....

RV, as lee pointed out is definitely the line-switch master, and you can't pass by following. At some point he's going to have to find his way around James the hard way. Bubba's or Ryan's ( at either's hand) world may be in the bleachers.

RD, IMO is going to school on both RV and JS. Maybe his strategy is to let them bang each other out and cash in on it (?).

On the other hand, even though they don't have the lap speed, it's hard to predict a consistent 4th, or 5th place finisher week-after-week taking the championship, but it's been done before. So you can't absolutely rule out Short, Windham, Reed, Canard or Brayton (all of who look fairly consistent at this point).

If I were to bet on a latecommer (points-wise) it'd be Canard.

Seventeen races is a lot of gates....

Next race ?

1. J. Stewart

2. R. Villapoto

3. T. Canard

4. R. Dungey

5. C. Reed

...and if it rains, I'd invert the above place-by-place. Even to throw Windham in the top three.

Ya that list looks about right, that's the creme of the crop
Dungey and Canard are bound to have at least one good race as is Reed
RV is more likely to be the guy who crashes out in a spectacular way and has a DNF at some point
I think in the next few races RV and JS will have their face off's but Stewart will pull ahead in points

And I can't wait to see it!!!

Here we go... Round Five. Gentlemen place your pics....

Anaheim II ( and III) always seems to have some surprises. I'm thinking this one won't be any different.

I'd like to see some changes in the top points so I'll go out on a limb:

1. J. Brayton

2. T. Canard

3. R. Villapoto

4. C. Reed

5. R. Dungey

6. J. Stewart

7. K. Windam

8. B. Metcalf

9. A. Short

10. D. Milsaps


Check the stats out here: http://www.supercrossonline.com/

I was only able to see the Lites race from last weekend in Houston .. that first turn out of the gate was ruff .. even though I did not like the track too much, I think that was the most exciting Lites so far this year, mostly because of the wilson and barcia battle .. anyway, looking forward to this weekend races!

At least last week's track allowed for some passing.

The back-to-back 180 degree turns with whoops/rhythm sections doesn't allow for many lines.

This weeks pics ?

1. Villapoto
2. Reed
3. Dungy
4. Stewart
5. Canard
6. Windham
7. Brayton
8. Metcalf
9. Roczen
10. Short

It's been awhile since a Honda has been on top of the podium. It might even go back to Carmichael's rein.

hey x, i think if you switch reed and dungy in your picks for the week before last, you will have last saturday's top 5? great race last weekend, loved the track. reed messed up! he definitely pissed off the stewart camp but im sure is kicking himself even harder

That was a stupid punk ass move by Reed in Atlanta. He should be fined. He didn't have to go that high in the turn. It was obvious what he wanted to do. If I was Stewart, I would have went ballistic on him right there and kicked his ass. Then again in the pits after the race.

yeah pretty crazy .. one thing i did notice stewart might/could have done to lower the risk of getting tangled up on the ground is to give reed a second more to get out of the way before slamming the throttle .. it looked like to me when stewart hit the throttle, reeds front end had stopped moving in to him and stewart knew he was driving hard in to reeds front, thinking he could plow his way out .. reed was so off, stewart could have given it a fraction of a second and tried to use more smarts .. it just seemed like he had the time ..

Regarding pics: Ya know it's all a guess. ...but I did guess that there would be some elbow bangin' up front and inevitably someone will go down. I thought it would be RV and JS and Reed and Dungey would have been the benefactors.

Kingsquid: You don't think Stewart would have done the same thing ? He's notorious for doing things just like that. Talk about bone head moves, look what he did last week jumping a double with a guy singling just in front of him ?

...and I don't think Reed planned on taking him that high. I think cryptomundo is right. I think he fell trying to block pass him (the front end washed out).

Either way... The fight looks to be a four-way at this point. That's good for Supercross !

Daytona 2011!

http://www.rickycarmichael.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/daytonasxtrack2011.jpg

The idea is to short cut the corner and turn/burn before the other rider makes is around the burm.
But at some time riders will cross lines,this time they came together .I guess if you never raced it never happened to you.
All i saw was a race.

Ya I don't agree that cutting a corner and stopping in front of another rider simply to block them is clean passing, that's dirty by a few degrees, I agree with a block pass but that was just a desperate move
The best pass of the night was Stewart passing Reed, that was a perfect pass in traffic, Reed said Stewart hit him pretty hard but i dont think they even touched
Stewart could have let up and not pile drived Reed and probably would have if it were anyone else
It must suck to know that in every corner there's one guy (Reed) that is not trying to pass you, but try to knock you down
Reed's cheep, dirty and desperate
If it were NASCAR the guy would be fined, if it were moto GP the guy would be fined
Could you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot how much moaning Reed would be doing