Vital Buzz

In case you missed these goodies from last weekend, here's a chance to check out... A slide show with audio from the third round of the WMA Series at Budds Creek. A 12-photo gallery of motocross race action from WMA Series at Budds Creek. Click the following link for a 39-photo gallery of AMA National motocross race action from Budds Creek. Click the following link for a pair of wallpapers from Budds Creek. (Your pick of Ricky Carmichael or Ryan Villopoto.) You can also click the following link for a 39-photo gallery from Saturday's pre-race action in the pits at Budds Creek, as well as timed qualifying. Don't forget, if you're a Vital MX member, you can comment on any of the photos in the gallery. Not a member? Join now! It's fast and free.

It was fairly painful just watching Budd Creek National and MXoN promoter Jonathan Beasley hobbling from place to place last weekend. He was equipped with a hopped-up walker that allowed him to move around, which seemed fairly amazing, considering the list of injuries he’d acquired only a few weeks before the event. They included a hip fracture, three complete pelvis breaks, a knee, some ribs…and that wasn’t even counting the cast that he had on his left wrist. So what happened? Jonathan quipped, “A rabid four-wheeler attacked me. I went over the front end and it landed in my back.” Apparently the tale also included a lack of brakes, and a ten-foot cliff. “It took about a minute for my legs to move. After that happened, it was all downhill. I like pain.”

If it’s pain he likes, he must have been overjoyed by some of Ricky Carmichael’s comments following the race. Both Ricky and James Stewart had commented on the shortness of the tracks so far this season, but RC seemed particularly displeased about the track prep, saying, “There’s one line on the whole track. You can watch video from ’97, ’98, and ’99, and there’s ruts all over this place. They haven’t put any dirt back into this place and they should be ashamed of theirselves how they prepared this place. It was a joke. Tracks like that confirms why I’m not going to keep on racing this, and it’s going to run all the good guys off, because they don’t like it.”

“It’s really a shame. What scares me about this place in particular, is I don’t know how many more chances that we’re going to be able to have the des Nations here, but it doesn’t look like they’re setting a good tone for that race. It’s going to be very embarrassing for those guys to come over here and everyone thinks it’s so great and it’s peaches and cream, and when they come over and see something like this? I’m embarrassed for everyone. The fans, the whole bit. It ain’t right. Everyone’s putting 110 percent into this sport, and it’s a shame that they’re worried about this race and the other race and not worried about the future. They wonder why nobody wants to race the outdoors. That’s half the reason right there. That was the worst track of the year, and every year I come here the dirt’s going away and away and away, and it’s getting like Unadilla. It’s just sad for the sport. It confirms why I’m not racing more here.”

We’re not sure what’s going on here, but it does seem like there’s a bit of a power struggle going on over track prep between the riders and the AMA, which leaves the promoters stuck in the middle. For a track as “one-lined” as RC claimed that Budds was last weekend, we sure did enjoy the race between Josh Grant, Jason Lawrence and Ryan Dungey in the second moto of the Lites class. But on the other hand, we don’t have the years of experience that RC has had on the track at Budds. He’s entitled to his opinion.

Of course, Ricky had already had a pretty tough day, as evidenced by him rubbing his eyes in the press conference after riding much of the first moto without goggles. A blast of roost from James Stewart’s Kawasaki had dislodged the lens from his goggles, and he opted to toss them, rather than try to continue on with partial protection. “That was frustrating. It wasn’t my fault, it was just a malfunction.  It’s hard to say what place I would have got, but I know I would have been a lot better with something in front of my eyeballs. That’s the way it goes.”

You can see and hear more of RC’s press conference comments about the day and his battles with James Stewart by clicking the following link to check out this Slide Show commemorating RC’s incredible 100th National win at Budds Creek.

For his part, Beasley seemed happy with the progress that his track crew has made as they get ready for the MXoN in September. “The track crew that I have is incredible. I wasn’t even able to get out of bed for three weeks and was here the other day and went, “Wow…I’m going back to bed.”

So what’s left to accomplish on the circuit between now and September? “Pray for sunshine. We’ll start going to church. Tickets sales are amazing. The high-end Super Tickets are almost gone, the early entry pit passes are almost gone, and ticket sales in general have taken the pit out of my stomach, because the reason there’s never been a des Nations in the U.S. is, I guess nobody’s stupid enough to take the financial risk. To even break even, I need to have 5,000 more people than any National in the country’s ever had. But it’s always been a dream. I’ve never been worried about the dollar signs.”

When quizzed for his guess at attendance for this September’s event, he said, “I think we’re going to have enough Europeans over that if we get the American crowd and add the European crowd to it, my guess is around 30,000 total. The good news is, between the three tracks here and the drag strip, we have the facilities to handle 30,000 people. We’re expecting that, and we’ve rented all the farmer’s fields within a mile of us. It’s all coming together.”

With Washington D.C. about an hour away, it does make a pretty enticing family destination. We spent a portion of Friday night walking among the various memorials around Washington, and left wishing we had additional time to check them out…though they’re spaced far enough apart that renting some bicycles seems like a really good option.

It was hard to pick out who had the more impressive ride in the second moto of the 450 class on Sunday, Tim Ferry (who crashed in the first turn and made his way back to eighth), or Chad Reed, who got hung up with Ferry in turn one, and came back to fourth. Either way, it was cool to see the fast Aussie as he made his first (and maybe last) appearance at the Nationals in ’07. Afterward, Chad said, “I hate to say it, but nothing changes. It’s all about what you believe and where you expect to be. I expected to be up here on the podium. I haven’t been riding a lot and I got some blisters and it’s hot.”

“Overall I think I had a good day. It was fun, and I got to do two motos on a track that I’ll be coming back to in a few months. I only got back to the U.S. last Sunday. Probably the hardest thing was the weather…the change in that.  Down there it’s winter, and to come here it’s a little humid. I just flew straight to California and then came here. But no excuses. These guys are awesome like always, and I had a blast today.”

Chad also had an impressive ride after getting hung up when Tim Ferry slid out in front of him in the first turn. “I had a decent start and Red Dog went down right on the inside of the first turn. I tried to sneak around on the inside, and he just fell and I had nowhere to go. I was trying to turn and get away from him and get going and I was in the middle of the pack. It’s tough back there. I don’t know how those guys do it week in and week out. It’s scary, you can’t see and you hit holes that you don’t even know are there. But I just put my head down and kept going. Actually, I’d seen (Mike) Alessi in third and that was pretty good motivation…I didn’t want to get beat by him today.”

While there was some serious quizzing about a modification that Chad was using on his swingarm, he skirted around a direct answer. “I can’t say enough about that L&M Racing team. They try everything and they’re lifting every rock. We’ve got some issues and some problems and they’re working their butts off. I’m proud of them. The bike was a lot better than in previous years and it just contributed to a lot more fun out there.

When pressed harder, he said, “I have no idea. That’s a silly question because you know you’re not going to get an answer.”

Chad has also been busy, working on a new deal to improve the quality and visibility of the Australian Supercross series. “I went to Australia right after the Vegas Supercross and I had some big plans. A lot of people think that I’m selling out and not coming to the Nationals, but a long-term goal of mine is to try to promote Supercross in Australia and bring it back to what everyone loves here in the U.S. It’s so popular…it’s a great sport. I was lucky enough to find a great team that wanted to go race Supercross only, and I’ve been working really hard over the last two-and-a-half years to try and get Motorcycling Australia to commit to me and another promoter to take it to another level. When my schedule freed up, that’s why I took it. For me, I feel like I’m not selling out. I’m not here, but I’m giving back to the fans and to other places in Australia.”

Will we see Chad at more Nationals this year? “It’s hard to say. I think right now I have a lot of other stuff going on that I need to concentrate on. I’ve got Supermoto at the X Games, and Supercross, and I haven’t been on a Supermoto bike since last year. We need to get testing and riding that. I really want to get a gold medal in that…put the bike up top, and obviously do real well at Supercross.  We’ve got a lot of work to do, and right now this is not my focus, so we’ll see.”

If it felt like there was something missing on Saturday, there was…James Stewart. Since he’s obviously in the top ten, and not required to practice, he exercised that option, saying, “I just wanted to stay home. You don’t get a lot of time to spend with your family, especially my dad, and I knew it was Father’s Day.”

Apparently it didn’t seem to bother him a whole lot, and he said, “The first practice and second practice I felt like normal. I didn’t miss a beat.”

Will he be following that schedule in future nationals? “I’m not sure yet. I definitely didn’t feel off by doing it. I spent an extra day at home…it’s all worth it. We race so much that when you can get a day, it means a lot. I’m not sure. We’ll see. I haven’t made up my mind.”

James also led most of the laps on the day, finally giving way to RC late in the second moto, and he also looked much more competitive…and more like the James Stewart we’re used to seeing than he did early in the season. “I’m really happy with the improvements I’ve made from last weekend to this weekend. After Sacramento and Mount Morris I didn’t have a chance, to last weekend when I didn’t have a chance, either, to this weekend, I felt really good. I changed a lot of things up and it seemed to help. I’m just going to continue to do that and go out and race him again. In the first and second motos I had a really good time. I kind of missed it, actually. I missed being in the battle and having a chance to win, instead of getting my butt handed to me. If it had been the other way around, he’d have gone back and worked, and that’s all I can do is the same.”

All right, we'll leave you with a pair of one-handers. One from Lites winner, Ryan Villopoto...

...and one from a young fan who was having a great time cheering on the riders. (Note the similarity in style between these two shots.)

Don't forget to check out the photo gallery that accompanies this, with some bonus photos, like Ivan Tedesco's return to action, a few random whips from Carmichael and Stewart, and more.

If you want to talk about anything you've read, seen or watched in here, you can do it in the Vital MX Forums.