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I don’t know about you, but the factory teams need to bring back fill-in riders. This topic gets brought up at least four times a year and most recently with the news that Adam Cianciarulo will be retiring at the end of the Supercross season.
Will Monster Energy Kawasaki bring in a fill-in for the summer? Pulpmx’s Brixton Raycin Matthes has reported that they won’t. With that being said, he’s been wrong before about many things, including not having me on his show last night.
I personally enjoy when fans get their pitchforks out and start yelling about how so-and-so privateer DESERVES that ride. I mean sure, in Kawi’s case it’s a little different since they will only have the truck going to the race for Jason Anderson. It makes me personally want to throw up thinking about the amount of money that it takes to send one guy racing when I have the staff and parts in place for two. Then again, it isn’t my money, so it doesn’t matter how I feel. The truck was always going to the race before the Cianciarulo announcement.
Who would Kawi even bring on? Ty Masterpool is the choice of everyone it seems. The HBI Racing team was built around him and he clearly can run inside of the top ten without a factory bike. After that, is there a guy putting in the rides worthy for the spot right now? Unless you were to poach from a rider from another team, the top 28 in 450SX points all have a team to call home. That’s a pretty significant fact right now!
After that you have guys like Jeremy Hand, John Short, and Jerry Robin who have all shown a flash of brilliance this year and over the years. Yet, I don’t think they move the needle when it comes to getting a fill-in ride for the outdoors. This is where I get bummed out because it would be awesome to see one of these guys on that bike.
I remember fifteen years ago or so that when a factory rider got hurt you’d hear about a fill-in the next week and it was always so cool to see who earned the spot. Matt Goerke even won the Southwick national in 2009 as a fill-in Factory Yamaha rider! John Short could do the same this year against 96-year-old John Dowd, but we will NEVER know now.
Even when you look at the landscape of the teams last year, most of the factory riders were hurt when the outdoor season started. That’s when guys like Ty, Grant Harlan, Garrett Marchbanks all stepped up to run with the remaining factory riders inside of the top ten. It was a renaissance of sorts for these guys, but they were never offered a spot on the factory teams.
The fill-in rider isn’t important anymore and that’s a shame. Maybe one day it’ll make a comeback. Or maybe Kawi does in fact put a rider on the bike. I’m just going off Raycin Matthes’ word here.
IF Monster Energy Kawasaki DID do a fill-in rider, who would you pick for the spot? Let us know in the comments.
Main Image: Octopi Media
Harri Kullas.