WTF?

If you were at Washougal, or if you listened to it on the racer x motocross show on motocross.com, you know what happened by now. But for those of you who weren’t there, you missed out. Judging by the first motos it would appear to be a really boring day. 2 Kawasaki pilots swept wire to wire in the first 250 and 450 motos, in Ryan Villopoto and James Stewart. But the 2nd motos were the complete opposite of the first 2. Wild doesn’t even begin to describe the madness that all 28,000 fans witnessed at Washougal MX park.

Starting with the 2nd 250, Ryan Villopoto crossed the holeshot line in about 20th positioin with Hepler, Dungey and Townley all out front. Ryan Villopoto was riding like a man possessed, absolutely killing all the berms around the Washougal track, and putting in consistant laps as much as 3 seconds faster than anyone else on the track. One lap he was 5 seconds faster than Hepler, Townley, and Dungey! Townley had to work to get by Dungey but eventually found himself in the driver seat in the moto and that’s where he would finish.
The most action happened in the last few laps with Villopoto almost going down again, Hepler actually going down, and Dungey riding like a seasoned pro and finishing second. Dungey showed real heart in both motos and is really looking like he will become a true contender in the near future. Before the start of the second 450 moto, David Pingree said that maybe Stewart will go down in the first corner and we’ll have a race like in the 250 class. Well Mr. David “The Fortune Teller” Pingree, that’s exactly what happened! Bubba crashed in the opening lap and was left in 37th place. Just like we’ve seen him and Ricky do time and time again, he would have to come back through the pack and try to salvage the best possible moto finish he could. Well just like his younger Kawasaki “teammate” James Bubba Stewart was blazing through the Washougal course, and soon found himself battling back into the top 10 passing guys like Tedesco, Vuillimen and Alessi. With about 3 laps to go, it looked as if Stewart had settled into 3rd place and would take the overall over Grant Langston who had won moto number 2. It looked like it was going to be another close finish between 3 riders. Tim Ferry would have been in third with a 2-3, then Langston in second with a 4-1 then Bubba with the overall with a 1-3. This is where things get crazy. First, James Stewart crashed in one of the easiest parts of the track, and remained down. As the entire field went by the #7, everyone had their eyes fixed on James Stewart, who appeared to be favoring his knee.

That would have given Langston the overall win ahead of Tim Ferry. It was a very sad sight for everyone, with James having his second injury of the 2007 season. This one also looked more serious, since it was a knee injury. Knee injuries aren’t something you bounce back from in 2 weeks. I don’t know what it is the motocross gods have against Bubba but he just cannot catch a break. He’s one rider I wouldn’t blame for doing a Supercross only deal (I’m just kidding ) What happened next was very odd to say the least. Kevin Windham came across the line in second on the last lap of the race and appeared to slow down. No one was sure if it was mechanical or if he was injured or what, but about 3 turns later, Windham was pinning it riding harder than he had all moto. So it obviously wasn’t the bike, and if it was an injury, that’s the fastest recovery I’ve ever seen. It turned out that K-Dub thought the white flag was a checkered flag (maybe the boys at Honda need to get Kevin some contacts or something) and thought the race was over, only once a blazing Tim Ferry blew by him did he realize that the race was still on. This effectively, moved Ferry into second place, and gave him the over all win with a 2-2. If I was Tim Ferry I’d feel pretty lucky that the overall was given to me by someone not even in the overall contention. What a whacky series of events. So Washougal proved to be exciting like last year, only in a very very different way. But one thing I keep finding to be very true in all the outdoor national rounds is; Kawasaki’s dominance. They have won all but 1 overall in each class. Josh Grant took High Point in the 250 class, and Windham took Unadilla 2 weeks ago in the 450 class. Besides that, it’s been nothing but a green Kawasaki bullet train, barreling through the AMA nationals this season. Looking to the future, it looks like this injury might have really taken James Stewart out of the championship hunt this time, and that leaves the door wide open for guys like Ferry, Short, Langston and even Alessi. One X-Factor to consider is, the next round is Millville and a rider by the name of Ricky Carmichael will be present, so we’ll see how that plays into the mix next week. I would imagine he would win even if Stewart is there, but if Stewart isn’t there, it’s going to be a pretty easy 1-1 for RC. We have 4 rounds left in the AMA Nationals, and at this point, I believe that anything can happen. I wouldn’t be at all shocked if Bob Hannah came out of retirement and cleaned up the last 4 rounds and beat up all the officials who denied him the championship trophy. I mean why not? Everything else has happened this season, what could possibly happen next?

WTF? 2007-07-30T16:29:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Admin