The Scoop 2

It's getting to that time of the season. Looking down the starting line at some of the faces, it's pretty easy to tell that it's a pretty tired and beat up crew on the line. Some guys (like Ivan Tedesco) are riding through injuries, while others (like Matt Boni and Vince Friese) seemed to be taking out their frustrations on each other. Boni underwent sugery this week for a compounded tibia, and he'll be replaced over at TiLube by Weston Peick.

Other guys who had trouble in the main included Davi Millsaps (who got taken out by Cole Seely's unmanned Honda), Justin Brayton (who spent the night in the hospital in Dallas, but his back checked out okay), Nick Wey (who hit neutral before a jump, and went down hard), and those are just the ones we know about. Last week was a rough one, which might just make everyone all that more anxious this weekend.

So who's your pick for the stretch run of the championship? After a couple bad races, a strong second-place finish put Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto is back in the series lead, but with just a slim six-point marging over TwoTwo Motorsports Bel Ray Racing owner/rider Chad Reed. That's not nearly the 25-plus point margin that he had a few races ago, but if there's such a thing as getting bad luck out of the way, Villopoto sure seemed to do that at Toronto and Dallas.

Reed looked really strong in Dallas, even through the particularly nasty whoops there, but obviously when James Stewart collected Reed at the end of the whoops, it didn't do any favors to Reed's Honda, halfway ripping off a sideplate (which Chad had to stop and remove), and knocking the front of his seat base loose, which made it difficult to grip the bike.

Only one point back of Reed is Ryan Dungey, who was about as grumpy as we've ever seen him after the race in Dallas. A couple bouts of on-track contact didn't help his cause. In off-track action, Ryan has been added to the Livestrong Global Envoy program.

Trey Canard has moved into fourth in the championship chase with his third win, and is 16 points out of the top spot.

Sort of overlooked in the post-race analysis of last week's melee in Dallas was how lucky it was that James Stewart was still able to finish the main event, despite a bike that was spewing coolant throughout, as you can see in the photo below.

We have to admit, we were cringing a bit in the latter stages of the race, wondering if he was going to make it to the checkers, or if we were going to see another ugly get-off. And another DNF would have effectively killed any chance that he had of a shot at the title. But despite all his recent on-track misadventures, he's still only 21 points out of the title chase.

We ran into Jeff Alessi at the Rock River Powersports rig last weekend, where he was hanging out while on the mend from his latest foot injury.

All right Jeff, what's up with you, and when do we see you back on the track?

"After the third round, I broke my foot and kind of had to sit out for a few weeks. I was going to try and come back and try to ride starting around Daytona, but at the San Diego Supercross they told me I needed to have surgery and get the bones fixed and aligned right so that I didn't have any further problems. So I did that and that was kind of the end of my Supercross season. I'd have tried to come back, but I've noticed that the speed is really elevated, and everyone is really fast right now. I decided motocross is probably better for me to come back, and try to do the best I can in motocross. That's my focus right now, to try and get back in shape and get back on the bike in a couple weeks and hopefully I'll be able to make the first round."

Well, it's not like your feet were exactly in super-hot shape before.

"Yeah, it's funny. When I'm riding, I don't seem to have too many issues. But when I'm walking, I do have a little bit of issues. I didn't want to have any issues with my left foot this time, since I didn't let my right foot heal properly last time. That's the reason it looks the way it does. I kind of learned my lesson on that, and I'm going to give it a little bit of time to heal right before I come back, and do this at 100 percent, you know? I don't want to be coming out here and doing this at 60 percent or 70 percent because I have an injury. I want to go out there and race at 100 percent."

Another rider on the sidelines was Wil Hahn, who's coming back from back-to-back injuries. The first one was to his spine very early in the West Coast Supercross series, and his latest one was just after he'd gotten clearance to start riding again.

Okay, Wilbur, it's good to see you back at the races, but we know you're also back on the sidelines. What's cooking?

"I'm just on the recovery binge right now. I started road biking this week, and slowly getting back to normal. I came back home to get away from all the egos, and just go ride and be on my own property, and on my own terms and take my time. But I ended up making a stupid mistake, and going down again, and it's just part of it, you know? But I don't regret anything. I was just riding on my own terms, I wasn't pushing the envelope, and ended up making a tiny enough mistake to hurt me again, so right now the plan is just to get healthy for Hangtown."

What's the injury this time around?

"I fractured my shoulder blade and a few ribs. The shoulder blade was minor. The ribs hurt, man. Other than that, I'm just healing up, here supporting everybody, and my brother here at Dallas, and ready to get back on my dirt bike, man. It's been too long."

How was it coming back from the back injury?

"Honestly? My back couldn't have healed any better. I felt like I did all the right things, Dr. G really helped me with that, I stayed in shape and kept riding my bicycle every day and just didn't do any impact with it. When I did start riding, the two days I did get to ride, I had zero pain. I was a little bit weak muscle-wise, but I didn't have any pain and I broke my shoulder and my back's still 100 percent. Obviously it healed up good and everything's good there, and I'm just trying to do everything right."

Is it tough keeping a good mental attitude on something like this?

"I mean, it's like anything. When it rains, it pours. I've been hurt a lot in my day, and it's just another one of those deals. Those first couple days are always hard for anybody. But we're getting through it, and I'm positive, and my mental attitude is so good because I have such a great team behind me, and such positive people around me, from my trainer to my family and everybody like that, it's so easy to come back."

You going to make it for Hangtown?

"I'll be there."

We also caught up with the other half of the Alessi brothers after last week's race, to pick his brain on how he's been holeshotting the pack, but he's keeping that a pretty closely guarded secret.

Okay, Mike, you've been ripping some holeshots on the the 350.

"Yeah, things have been getting better. The team's really been working hard on the engine, and I can't thank Dunlop enough. They gave me some great tires last weekend. My mechanic, Kelly Lumgair's happy, and I'm looking for good things to come. Just steady improvement every weekend, and finish top ten again in Dallas. I've made some steady points in the series, so I'm looking forward to St. Louis."

So on those starts, is it figuring out the technique you need for that bike, or improvements to the bike itself that's helping you get out front?

"I don't know, man. I'm just twisting the F out of the throttle, I guess. (Laughs) Twistin' 'er back and holding her wide open. I don't know, I'm just glad they're coming around before the outdoors start, because once I get on the 450, it'll be even better."

We have heard back and forth, that you'll be on a 350 or 450.

"I test this week on a 450, so it's still up in the air and undecided. Whatever I feel like I can go faster on, and win, and can get my best result, that's what I'm going to race. That's what I'm going to ride."

I heard that you'd bought a 450 to practice on.

"I did. It's a stock 450, and that's what I've been riding in Florida for the last month, doing 40-minute motos. My endurance is getting good, and I'm just looking forward to the outdoors, and more importantly, looking forward to St. Louis. That's my main goal right now."

If you take the whoops out of the equation, have you been getting this Supercross thing figured out?

"I think my whoops speed has been getting pretty good this season. Arguably the whoops were pretty gnarly tonight, and they claimed a lot of people. I feel bad for a lot of riders that got injured tonight. For me it was just about surviving and doing the best that I can and being smooth. That was my goal in the main. Get the holeshot, ride 20 smooth, consistent laps, and not make any mistakes. That's exactly what I did. I ended up top ten and doing good in points. I'm just trying to get into the top ten...somewhere in the top ten would be a really, really big achievement for me this season, because of the stacked field that we have. I think it's attainable. But we'll see. We've still got four races to go, and I still need a little bit of luck to finish in the top ten. But I'm not going to give up."