Morning Espresso: Your Weekend Recap

Welcome to Morning Espresso where we recap some news from around the world.

Factory Connection Losing GEICO as Title Sponsor

PulpMX/Racer X’s Steve Matthes dropped a bombshell on Saturday after Ironman. According to Steve, Factory Connection is losing GEICO as a title sponsor for 2021.

GEICO Honda gonna lose GEICO as title sponsor next year. Sucks they were informed this late. That was a great partnership for both.

— Steve Matthes (@pulpmx) August 29, 2020

This is absolutely huge news. GEICO has been a sponsor of the team since the summer of 2008 and with the insurance company pulling its sponsorship this late, it leaves the team scrambling to try and secure a title sponsor before the supercross season.

The story of how GEICO came to the team is a cool one. Factory Connection Suspension owner Rick Zielfelder told Racer X the story in 2018:

GEICO was a life preserver. Basically in 2008 Jeff [Majkrzak] and I were pretty happy. We’d gotten a sponsorship from Torco race fuels. Wasn’t quite a million dollars at that point, but it was pretty dang close. I remember Saturday morning riding to Phoenix SX. We’d already built everything, painted trucks, awnings, everything. Going to the second round at Phoenix, Jeff and I arrive to the track, we get a call saying that the owner had just been arrested on tax evasion charges. So we knew there was trouble. We fought and looked at everything we could look at to salvage whatever we could salvage, but it was clear that we were low on the order of what was going to come from the assets that were left. So the GEICO thing happened for the summer at a discounted rate, but it helped smoothed over the serious cash flow issue we were in.

The whole thing came together working with agent Bob Walker at that point in time. It worked well for both sides. They were happy with what we did, and it turned into this multi-year relationship. And it’s been a great relationship. I’m super, super thankful. It’s the foundation of what we have, at this point.

Anderson/Anstie Updates

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson pulled out of the first moto early and did not line up for moto two on Saturday after aggravating a previous arm injury. According to the NBC Sports broadcast, a plate in Anderson’s arm was bothering him and he’ll go in for a scan today (Monday). His status for Friday at RedBud is unknown at this time.

Twisted Tea/HEP Motorsports’ Max Anstie confirmed on social media that scans have come back negative on his jaw after a big crash in the second 450 moto on Saturday at Ironman. Anstie said he originally thought he had suffered a broken jaw.

“Not the way we wanted to end the day. They thought my jaw was broken but just got the results back from the scans and I’m alright. It just feels like Conor McGregor gave me a left hook”, he wrote.

We’ll update his status for round 4 at RedBud on Friday once it’s known.

Ride with AC During Moto 2 at Ironman

Herlings Is a Mad Man

The first round of the Dutch ONK series took place at the sandy circuit of Boekel on Sunday and Jeffrey Herlings dominated the field in the second moto. Herlings’ fastest lap was nearly 10 (!!) seconds faster than second place Micha-Boy De Waal. Further, he lapped all the way up to second place (!!!) and won the moto by over two minutes. He won the first moto by over a minute.

Wright Wins Again in Canada

The Rockstar Triple Crown Championship traveled to Sand Del Lee over the weekend (they are running three moto formats in 2020) and Dylan Wright won the 450 Class (1-3-2) to extend his points lead over Phil Nicoletti (6-1-1).

Through four rounds, Wright holds a 24-point lead over Nicoletti. American Matt Goerke is third in points, 53 back.