Welcome to The Weekly Dirt, the place to go each Wednesday to catch up on the latest happenings in the realm of off-road motorcycling. This week, we go around the table with the Dirt Rider staff to discuss the Monster Energy Cup, the EnduroCross series, the upcoming 450cc motocross shootout and more:
Photo Chris Green
Minus the massive arches of the LA Coliseum and the jump that launched riders down to the stadium floor, it’s the first sighting of a peristyle in supercross in 14 years. The Monster Energy Cup went down in Vegas last Saturday and it was quite the show. It was a special event and those who where present witnessed the up and coming future stars of our sport, RV2 dominating all three mains taking home the Monster Million and Ryan Dungey make his Factory KTM debut putting in a solid second overall.
Photo Chris Green
Every hour on the hour the Falken tire drift team hosted a drift demo to spice up the party in the pits. When the high performance mustangs fired up their engines, all heads turned to watch the professional drifters slide their pricey racecars within inches of the cones and K-rails. This was definitely one of the must-see events going down at the Monster Cup.
Photo Chris Green
Every once in a while an amateur-first-time-photographer gets that cool one-off shot that he probably wasn’t shooting for. In this image, K-Dub jumps to the fourth whoop out of five and uses up every inch of travel that his GEICO/Factory Connection Honda has to offer. - Chris Green, Associate EditorIn hindsight, it’s easy to say that Ryan Dungey’s decision to race the Monster Energy Cup was a good one – it gave him and his new team plenty of insight into what needs to be done before the 2012 Supercross opener at Anaheim I. And it gave him a chance to get some saddle time on KTM’s new fuel-injected 450 under race conditions. However, how many other top riders do you think would have taken that kind of risk – riding a brand new (and unproven) race bike on such a huge stage – with less than a week on the bike? It was a bold decision by Dungey – and by Roger DeCoster – that could have easily backfired. A poor showing might have shaken Dungey’s confidence at a critical time when he needs to be building it. However, DeCoster has made very few mistakes in his career (same for Dungey), and as it turns out, it was a brilliant move and I expect KTM to be right in the thick of things come January 7th.
Photo by Shan Moore
In other news, James Stewart is the last big holdout in the 2012 signing derby and it’s keeping a lot of other teams from finalizing their plans for the New Year. The rumor has it that Stewart is talking to JGR, but JGR is still trying to figure out what bikes they’ll be running in ’12 – and it sounds like they will either be on Yamaha again or switch to Suzuki. In addition, the MotoConcepts team was in Las Vegas this weekend for the Monster Energy Cup and they were running white graphics on their bikes and haulers with no sponsor logos, which means they have yet to work out their sponsors, as well. This brings up another rumor that says MotoConcepts has made an offer to Stewart to ride whatever bike he wants. No matter what happens, it will surely need to happen in the next two weeks, because it takes more than a month to get ready for a Supercross season.
-Shan Moore, Rogue Reporter
Photo by Drew Ruiz
For those of us who are more into off-road than moto, there’s still a lot happening right now in the racing realm. The AMA/ GEICO EnduroCross series is headed to Idaho this weekend, and Taddy Blazusiak currently has a perfect season going-he spanked the field at X Games, whipped them in Washington, embarrassed them at Indianapolis, owned them at Ontario, creamed them in Colorado and is now looking to take home another big trophy in Boise. Is there anything that this guy can’t do? Stay tuned to www.dirtrider.com for an update and a video from the race next week. Oh, and don’t forget to go to www.endurocross.com and get your tickets for the series final in Las Vegas before they sell out!
Also, have you seen our Facebook page lately? It’s brimming with cool content, fun links and comments from readers that range from insightful and smart to downright ridiculous and awesome. We’re going to be firing up some cool projects there in the near future, so be sure to go to www.facebook.com/dirtridermag and give us a like. Oh, and if you’re not on Facebook yet we urge you not to sign up, as you’re probably the last human on earth that isn’t into social networking.Lastly, cruise over to www.motocross.com for more from the Monster Energy Cup, including a sweet photo gallery from Steve Cox. That’s about it for now, ride safe DR readers! -Chris Denison, Associate EditorThat’s a wrap for this week. Keep tuned in to www.dirtrider.com for more killer content!
