Troy Dog
Five Things We Learned…is a new-ish installment to the Vurb line of race coverage. It’s a quick hitting piece where I break down five trending topics from the weekend. We’ll put facts behind what happened and break down how it will play out. As always, please feel free to give your thoughts on these topics in the comment section. If you’d like to discuss any of these topics further or have a question for me you can reach me at [email protected].
The Chef Is IN
How about Levi Kitchen, eh? In his fifth attempt at a supercross race he gets his first win! The Monster Energy/Star Racing Yamaha team needed some podiums after the first couple of races and Kitchen delivered a dub and his new teammate Stilez Robertson finished third, including a win in race 2. It was a step in the right direction for the BluCru. I asked Kitchen after the race if his first win was everything that he thought it would be. He replied,”Honestly, it didn’t feel as good as I thought it would. I’m stoked to win and I guess I can say I was the best guy for three motos. With that being said though I probably won’t be completely satisfied until I beat everyone straight up in a 15 minute race.” The Chef is on his way.
We’re Humans!
I’m excited to report that Eli Tomac and Jett Lawrence are in fact humans and not robots from the planet Dirtbikia. Both points leaders in each class looked a bit off all day and each of them had a big crash in the night show, of course Eli’s was a bit more violent. What does it mean for the series? Absolutely nothing. They had a rough night and salvaged great points and retained the red plates. Jett and Eli are going to go back to work this week to make sure that a weekend like this doesn’t happen again, while everyone else will have more confidence knowing that they can be beat.
McAdon’t!!!
What a week for Mitch Payton and his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki squad. Everyone crashed until McAdoo was the only rider left racing on either coast. So, sure enough in practice, McAdoo had a very big crash through the whoops and it looked like PC would be going home early. Well that wasn’t the case! McAdoo got himself ready for the night show and gutted out a sixth overall. You never know, this could be beneficial to him at the end of the season. He posted an update to his Instagram on Sunday and his entire arm is twice the size it should be. Cam has proved his toughness many times in the past, but unlike Jett and Eli, he honestly might be a robot at this point. In the meantime PC has hired Chris Blose to be the fill-in rider on the East. They also signed Carson Mumford for when the West resumes in Oakland.
250 Suzuki Struggles
At Anaheim 1 I noted that the 250 class was full of Suzuki’s towards the front of the pack. Well, since then apparently a lot has changed. At A2, there were only two Suzukis in the night show. HEP’s Dilan Schwartz went 17-15-15 for 18th overall and BarX fill-in Brandon Scharer went 15-20-20 for 19th overall. It’s been tough for BarX lately as Mumford is now at Pro Circuit, Derek Drake is out with an injury, and apparently Ty Masterpool is not with the team anymore. We’ll see how the East Coast goes with HEP’s Marshal Weltin as the lone Zook.
Futures
I’ll probably get a lot of heat for saying this, but after watching Future’s race on Saturday, I don’t think this program is such a good idea anymore. I felt scared for all of these kids. I know it’s SX and it’s supposed to be very difficult, but these guys were crashing all over and making a ton of mistakes. I get it, like T-Dog, if you’re so good, why don’t you go out and do it? That’s not my point. My point is, clearly these guys have incredible skills and they will be duking it out in SX in just a couple of years, that’s a no brainer. They will be great. Maybe we just have these riders practice on some test tracks to get their license? Maybe bring a committee out from the AMA and some teams to vote on who is ready for the big show. I know that will never happen, but I just don’t want to see one of these guys get seriously hurt when they are just thrown into the big show and under the lights in an A/B race. Daxton Bennick, Casey Cochran, Haiden Deegan and Talon Hawkins are ready for the big show, though.
Main image: Yamaha
