Championships won by the "wrong" rider

Sextons first 250 sx title. 

the person with the most points after all the races is the worthy champion, 

not getting injured is part of the game, 

Osbourne over Satvatgy comes to mind, Osbourne ended Joeys career with that move.

Reed’s 2009 outdoor championship..

Stanton over Bradshaw……Bradshaw was up in points at the final round but it all went to shit

Huh? He won that title by almost 100 points. Or are you trying to say he only won because Stew went SX only that year? (which is dumb)

Pourcel Dungey 2009 MX. Pourcel was just better 

I remember reading about this, but I can’t recall the year or the riders. Some of you guys who have been around awhile will have to help me out. It was GPs I think? In the last round, Russia(?) lined up a ton of riders whose sole goal was to take the rider out who was close to their countryman in points. They succeeded and their guy was the champion. I’d say that’s about the closest thing you can get to a stolen or undeserved champion.

If anyone can recall the year and riders, and has an article to link, I’d love to read about it again!

I know this is framed as something other than a Chase bashing thread, but the context seems to suggest otherwise so I’ll just treat it like it seems.
 

2017, Dungey won 3 races and the SX championship, Tomac won 9 and came in 2nd after the “bunch em up” strategy didn’t work out. Do we look back on that season as one where the wrong guy won? I don’t think many people do. 
 

I think this question of “did the wrong guy win” is even harder to answer when Eli is the theoretical “right” guy. Tomac is a monster. He left at least 3 titles on the table. 2016 before he blew up his shoulders he was a fucking god on a dirt bike. 2017 in SX he was hands down the fastest guy but couldn’t start for shit and would just follow midpack guys. This year he had all the characteristics of a champion but fell prey to seriously bad luck. He’s been my favorite rider to watch because of his mercurial talent. Any given race could produce magic, boredom, excitement, disappointment, or sadness. Any year he didn’t win could have been a year the wrong guy won. 
 

But it wasn’t. Chase, RD, Webb and others who won when Tomac didn’t have fully deserved it. Chase this year reminded me of a young Tomac, except he learned to back down 9% when he was 10% faster than the next guy. It looked too late when he finally made the change but he stuck with it and it paid off. The right guy won this year. 

Osbourne rode like a champion that night going from last to first and Savatgy rode like a chump going backwards and everybody knows it. 

Jaraslov Falta, 1974. The interference from Russian riders did happen at that race, but what caused him to lose the championship was a (probably bogus) protest that the Russian federation made claiming Falta had jumped the starting gate.  

Broc Glover comes to mind...

What I hate about Eli’s mishap is that he literally didn’t make a mistake. He said he’s done the same thing harder and for some reason it snapped this time. It’s not like he cases a triple or anything. It was just so unforeseeable. He must put an insane amount of forces on his body when he’s in beast mode speed, or whatever it’s called. 

I was thinking about this earlier. 

I won't go so far as to say the "wrong" guy won, but racing sure can be cruel.  Just another lesson in why you don't give up.  Chase kept the right attitude and fought til the end and it worked out.  

Emig 125 title.   Larocco had a 40pt lead with two rounds to go.  Shifter? Broke or fell off.  

I think that's what I keep coming back to as well. He wasn't pushing too hard, he didn't choke under pressure and make a blunder, and he didn't even need to push hard, his body just failed him in a critical moment, almost no different to a mechanical. Even with Cooper it feels a little different, was it his fault he got concussed? No, but you could argue his crash definitely put him in harms way. Eli it just sort of.. happened?

I would never say Chase didn't deserve it, but I do tire of the "Chase was the fastest guy all season" rhetoric. First of all, if you crash *that* much, that means you're going too fast, you're "running out of talent" as JS7 would say. I think Eli was definitely in management mode the majority of the season, but he *always* won when he had to, and seemingly avoided the risk when it wasn't worth the reward, such as in qualifying or heat races. But ultimately he got bit by deathcross anyway, as did Webb, Barcia, Anderson, Ferrandis, Stewart, Cianciarulo, Plessinger, and most recently Roczen. And in the end, the task at hand is 17 rounds, and Chase did put himself in a spot to take advantage, and you can't take anything away from that or his talent on a motorcycle. Chase earned it, I just know that's not the way he wanted to earn it, and he's said as much, and I think most would agree with that. But a worthy 450 SX champ he most definitely is, and he gave us a good preview of his next level speed in outdoors last summer as well. 

I think the carburetor fell off in a Moto too. 

Exactly, what counts it having the most points after the final round in a series. 

I'm a Tomac fan but Chase was there in the end and got it done. Happy for him and his mechanic.

lackey?

Joel Robert's 7 world titles.

Pretty good tidbit of history 👍

That move deserve a penalty

First of all, champions are made with showing up and overcoming issues as well. Chase did the same this year so he is a worthy champion in my opinion. 

2014 east comes to mind for me. AC won a few of the first races in his rookie year. Then we had his injuries which put him out of the title hunt. Then Bagget and Davalos had their share of injuries, which resulted in Bogle winning the championship. You have to take note though that Bogle had an almost-career ending injury in the pre-season. Broken back, neck and some other scary stuff. He barely made it to the season opener for the East coast rounds and still made it as a champ, which is remarkable. So even though AC and the other PC guys were winning, their injuries put them out and Bogle showed up when he had to. I think Musquin was injured that season as well. 

Stew pulled out after going perfect in 08, RV and Alessi were on another level that year before they both got hurt so yes Chad in 09 definitely qualifies for this. 
 

Pourcel in 2010 had it all but won until he broke his collarbone by himself at the finale.

Anderson in 2018 literally his 5 closest competitors either retired or got injured, he just had to ride that one in.

If Tomac got caught up in a first turn pile up in Denver and had his bike damaged beyond repair and DNFd the main. Then came out and won the last round with Chase finishing second and winning the title would we still be having these ridiculous conversations?  I’m guessing not but maybe 🤔 

Wrong champ won/wrong kid died.

(Chase won fair and square)

2011 Villopoto outdoor championship, all know what happened before “chadapult”. That talk about Kawaski new frame which made such a difference was a bit funny.

Stew’s choice to not race outdoors, so that doesn’t even enter the conversation.

Reed hadn’t raced outdoors himself for a few years, came back in 09 without any prep and was still the fastest qualifier at the first round with RV and Alessi there, he just wasn’t fit. But he was on the podium by the second round, and went 1-1 by the fourth. Went on to win by that much that he got on the piss with the crowd at the track on the eve of the last round and was so hungover he pulled out of the last race to spew!

How is that luck or being the ‘wrong’ guy? Add in that he cleaned up the first round of Outdoors in 2010 before getting sick, as well as cleaning up prime RV and Dunge in 2011 before the Chadapult, and there’s no doubt he had championship level speed in those years.

So you’re either fishing or just don’t like him.

The only title that I think may be a case of the 'wrong' rider winning would be the 85 SX title, when Ward won over Glover but he rode backwards on the track.  I say 'may', because a pretty good argument could be made that Ward should have been penalized for it.  Been close to 40 years now, though, so I think that Ward's title is probably going to stand!!!