Vital Buzz

Miss Supercross, Sara Lipert, showing off her best '80s style.

We’ll start off this round of Vital Buzz with a bit of good news. Jeff Alessi had surgery on the metacarpal that he broke in practice at Phoenix, and is looking at riding in a couple weeks, rather than the long layoff that he was looking at (around Daytona time) if he’d let it heal on its own. Besides, now he has this cool new zipper to show off.

Chicks dig scars, right? Jeff Alessi showing off the latest addition to his collection. Click this photo, or any photo below, for a larger version.

Of course, the bad news is that James Stewart is going to sit out the 2006 Supercross season in order to have his left knee surgically repaired. A blown tire while riding at home on December 20th caused a crash that reinjured the same knee that he’d tweaked at Washougal. That announcement lead to all sorts of crazed speculation on message boards about whether he was really hurt, whether he was sitting out for more money, and questions about his masculinity.

Message boards are really dumb sometimes.

Here's hoping for a fast and full recovery for James Stewart.

Ryan Dungey took his second Lites main event of the season Saturday night. That gives him nearly a full race lead on the second-place rider in the series, and he did it on a track that was decidedly different than anything we’ve seen in a while. When asked what he thought of it, he explained, “The track was definitely different. It had a lot of differences between what we usually ride and what tonight was. But I think it was good. It switched it up, and it showed who was good in the technical stuff…I’m not being cocky or anything, I mean I struggled at points, too. I told myself, ‘I have to get this together.’ I’m glad I did and pulled through.”

How much different does he feel this year, compared to coming into last season? Is he feeling more prepared? “Definitely. I feel like a whole new rider. I feel good. Confident, stronger. Johnny [O’Mara] and I have really been putting the time in, and it pays off. I’m really happy…I’m very blessed and thankful for the position I’m in right now.

There’s no doubt that Ryan’s learned from the mistakes he made last year, and is doing everything he can to avoid them this time around…all while being at the front of the pack in every race so far this season.

Sort of lost in the retro-ness of Saturday night was that D’Show was wearing one of the new One Industries Jean Michel Bayle replica helmets, which use a design that JMB used in ’91.

Ryan Dungey with his JMB-inspired One Industries helmet.

Kevin Windham has been another rider who has turned head in ’08, finishing on the podium for the second week in a row. When asked about the track, he said, “You know, I struggled with it all day. It was not cut from the same cookie sheet. It was something new for us, and really difficult. But finally by the end of the night, things came together.”

“It was wild, it was hard to get a flow. It was difficult, and took me all night to get into, really. Like in practice, I’d find myself holding my breath, bouncing off of bales and everything else.” Ah, so there is a reason for all those mechanics laying out the pit boards with “Breathe” as a message.

We mentioned to K-Dub that he looks a lot more fired-up this year, and he responded by explaining, “This year, coming into the season, I didn’t have a ride for a long time. To have things given to you and catered to you your whole life…I’ve had a really successful and a great career. But it got to a point where I really think I needed kind of the withdrawl…where it’s October and, ‘Man, I don’t have a ride. What the hell am I doing? Am I racing next year?’ Once I got pulled away and I hadn’t ridden in literally two months from Glen Helen…man, the drive was there, you know? It’s just everything across the board. It really seemed to fall into place this year.”

“I’m still working with Jeff Spencer, and just motivated. I know that I’m doing Supercross only right now. I hope to try and line up a deal where I can do some outdoors. It’s not a matter of me not liking the outdoors, it’s a matter of me not being able to keep up. When we had three races in a row I went home and I had to sit on the couch until Thursday or Friday. There was no training, no riding, no nothing because I can’t keep up the week in, week out daily grind of it. Supercross is a little easier, and I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the X Games and doing selected Nationals if I can put together a deal for that. It’s not like I want to turn my back on anything. It’s just that everything came together in the right format and I’m happy. I think that when happiness is in your life, that’s half the battle.”

Kevin Windham. Can he find the top of the podium during the Supercross season? We wouldn't bet against it.

How much difference is there in the equipment now compared to the full-factory equipment that he’d been riding? “A little bit. Factory Honda is helping out a lot, but Pro Circuit is helping out a lot, and Kibby and our development program at Factory Connection is helping out a lot. So it’s a collective effort and I think these guys are not leaving any stone unturned. I might not have the trickest $3,000 footpegs, or these little things that actually do make a difference I found out. But at the end of the day if I’m happy and I’ve got things going on like I do right now, I feel like I can overcome the little things like that.”

K-Dub still has his sight set on more podiums (and maybe some wins?) before the end of the season.

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Josh Hill scored his first 450 podium on Saturday night, finishing second behind L&M Racing / San Manuel Band of Mission Indians / Yamaha’s Chad Reed, who had an easy race after working his way past Rockstar Makita Suzuki”s Mike Alessi, who had scored his second-straight holeshot.

So what did it feel like for Josh to finish second? “I don’t know…great. I don’t know if it really could have gone that much better. I just tried as hard as I could, and tried to catch Chad. That’s what I focused on, not anything going on behind me. My dad told me a long time ago to never look back. That really played into it today. (Laughing) I tried as hard as I could to not look back and not worry about it.”

What did he think of the style of the track? “I loved it. I thought it was the coolest track I’ve ridden in a long time. I thought it was so technical, and that kind of showed with the inconsistency out there, so I loved it. I’d be pumped if they all looked like this.”

Now that he’s made it onto the podium, is he looking for more of the same throughout the season? “I’m going to try. I just want to put myself in a good position every weekend, and I think I’m pretty strong. I’ve got the endurance and everything, and put in the work to be up there. I think I’m only going to keep moving upwards from this.”

Did he surprise himself? “I wouldn’t say I surprised myself. I knew in the off-season I could do this, but the last couple races dropped a little of my confidence. I wasn’t as confident this morning as I was two or three weeks ago.”

If his podium appearance translates to addition confidence for Josh, look out.

Josh and Monty Hill.

After the race we saw Grant Langston’s mechanic, Dan Rambert, load Grant’s practice bike into the back of his Toyota truck to take it home for servicing…without the benefit of a loading ramp. Our suggestion? Don’t mess with Dan.

As we head out, here are a few quick shots of the throwback night fun. From our point of view, there's not throwing this one back...it was definitely a keeper.

We've never seen so much old gear dug out of closets as we've seen for last weekend's Throwback Supercross at A2. One of these guys is a former Mountain Bike World Champ. Can you pick out which one?

Ricky James (Ricky James' father) is on the left, David Bailey, and Mitchell Bailey (right).

David Bailey headed out for his "Last lap."