Troy Dog
450SX Title
WE DID NOT SEE THIS COMING! In the Nashville press conference I asked Eli Tomac how his mind was knowing that he could essentially clinch the championship in two weeks. Well, I guess this is why we race 17 races because now literally everything has happened. Tomac ruptured his Achilles tendon without even crashing, mid rhythm section. I didn’t have that on my bingo card. That’s it. Tomac has had surgery and when he went into that tunnel it made Chase Sexton the champion. This will go down as one of the most wild 450SX championship endings of all time. I just hope that we get to see Tomac race again, but that could be the ending of an all-time great career.
Team Solitaire
If you didn’t notice, Team Solitaire collaborated with Vurbmoto and the Troy Dog Squad at Denver. The T-Dog Squad helps privateers get more exposure and tells their stories when they go unnoticed by the TV broadcast. Solitaire ran the pineapple butt patches and then Cole Thompson finished 9th and Dominique Thury finished 18th in the main event. I’m pretty sure Thury dropped his lap time by 6 or 9 seconds, which is no coincidence. I’ve been trying to get Solitaire on the program all season and some would say that I went too far, but I disagree. When I believe in somebody or a team then I’m very passionate about their success. Thank you to Ryan Clark, Chris Elliott, Thompson, Thury, and the entire Solitaire organization for being awesome. I’ll have another column out this week dedicated to them.
AC
The sport in general should be very happy for Adam Cianciarulo for his podium finish in Denver. AC is one of the most humble, nicest, and genuine people in the sport. He’s been through so much adversity and injuries over the years. He’s still one of the most marketable athletes in the sport. I really loved AC’s podium interview and the emotion he showed on TV. That guy is resilient. To be knocked down that many times and still stand up on the podium was truly remarkable and we should be making a bigger deal out of it. It’s a great story line. Fall down 8 times, stand up 9.
Career Bests
If you look down the list of the 450SX class results from Denver, you’ll find that most of the riders had some career best finishes. I’m just going to go off the top of my head due to the deadline I have looming, but let’s take a look. Justin Hill: 4th, Shane McElrath: 5th, Grant Harlan (T-Dog Squad): 9th, Justin Starling (T-Dog Squad): 10th, Anthony Rodriguez: 11th, Josh Cartwright: 12th, Michael Hicks: 15th (first 450SX main), Devin Simonson: 16th, Tristan Lane: 17th. All of these guys are crushing it right now and I’m loving it.
Hampshire/Kitchen
The battle of the night was between Levi Kitchen and RJ Hampshire for the win in the 250SX main event. The way that RJ absolutely cased his balls off and still came through and caught back up to Kitchen was impressive. Kitchen rode well, but he has to feel like he should have had a win instead. He would have had to throw down some serious heater laps right after RJ’s case because RJ was not going to be stopped. He was absolutely ripping and he smelled blood in the water. When I talked to RJ last week he kept saying how much fun he was having on his dirt bike this year. He loves the amount of progression that he’s had in his riding this season and he’s enjoying the team around him. Oh yeah, he just signed on for another two years in the 250 class with some 450 action mixed in. Hampshire will be the man to beat in this class if he rides like he did in Denver.
Main image: Honda HRC
