St Louis Supercross - Feature Review - Dirt Rider Magazine

At least going into the St. Louis round of the Amp'd Mobile/AMA Supercross Series, the big story was the beginning of the Lites East, including a few of the AMA Arenacross regulars signing on to do battle.AMA AX Champion Chad Johnson was on board his new YZ250F for the MotoworldRacing.com/PPG Yamaha team after his first AX championship. "Me and Junior Jackson put a lot of work into it, and with Yamaha, Dunlop, Wiseco and all of them supporting us, it helped out a whole bunch," Johnson said. "We got the bike two weeks before the series started, and I think we were still more ready than everybody else at that round. It's just the way Arenacross is. It starts early in the season, and it's hard to be prepared. I was just happy I had Junior on my side. He's quick with the wrenches, and he was able to make stuff happen."But St. Louis was his first race on a 250F in months. "I'm just trying to get a feel for the bikes," he said. "I didn't get as much time on the bike as I would've liked since I was so busy with Arenacross, but I'm getting used to the bikes, used to the tracks, and trying to put the MotoworldRacing.com/PPG Yamaha up on the podium." He finished 12th.Brock Sellards, second in the AMA AX series, but unlike his fellow AXers, he raced St. Louis on a 450. "Well, I didn't have nothing going, so I just brought my Arenacross bike to this event, changed the jetting and gearing, and we're just seeing how we can do on it," Sellards said. "I didn't have a 250 four-stroke to run. Yeah, I just want to go out there and finish up there as good as I can. I'd like to be top-10, but it's hard to tell. I really don't know what to expect. I just know that's what I would expect out of myself, so that's what I'm shooting for." Part of his decision may have had to do with keeping his number 18. If he scores a National point, he can keep it. There are no National points on the line in the Lites class indoors, and he's not planning on racing outdoors. "Yeah, I want to keep 18 for sure," he said. Sellards missed making the main event.Yet another Arenacrosser named Johnson made his 2006 SX debut in St. Louis, as Team Faith's Kevin Johnson climbed aboard his YZ250F for the first time this season. "Towards the end, I got it going—won about four of 'em, I think," he said of his AX season, in which he finished third. "It should've been five. One of 'em, my bike seized, but it was pretty good at the end." He was hoping the 250F would be an easy transition. "I didn't think it would bother me much," Johnson said. "I've been riding the 250F for all of two weeks now at home, but shoot, I've been practicing on a 2005 YZ, and the '06 is way different. I've got to get used to that. It's actually bothering me more than I thought it would. I'm a little off the pace. I'm coming out of the corners expecting it to hit, but it never does. I hope to adapt fast. I'll be all right." He finished 14th.Fourth in the AMA Arenacross Series was RockStar/Bloodshot Suzuki's Greg Schnell. The 2004 U.S. Open winner was on board a Pro Circuit-modified RM-Z250 at St. Louis. "We've done a little bit of testing," Schnell said. "I did a lot of testing before the US Open and the bike was really good then, so it's good now. Riding a two-stroke all year, then going to a 250F, it's a little bit of a change. I started riding the 250F again about two weeks ago, so I think I still need to get used to it a little bit, but it feels all right right now. I'm just running it." Unfortunately, Schnell got stuck in the gate in his heat, then got a poor start in the LCQ and finished one spot outside of a qualifying position. "I'm pretty pissed off right now, actually..." he said after receiving the Asterisk Mobile Medical gas card. He went on to thank Asterisk, but he was rightfully upset about not making the main.St. Louis marked FreeNissan.com's Robbie Reynard's second race on a 450. "Everybody else is on it, and I just figured I'd get on it with them also," 17 said. "It's a lot easier to do some of the obstacles out there with them. You've got to be smooth and stuff, but mainly you've just got to have the horsepower for the starts. I'm not comfortable, completely. Last week, I didn't feel 100% on it. I didn't trust myself and stuff like that, so I'm still trying to work out the bugs. The team's working really hard. The guys here at FreeNissan.com are doing all they can. I've just got to get my head straight and start riding. I'm used to the two-stroke, but practicing I feel great on the four-stroke. When I come to the race, though, it's a smooth-riding bike, and I'm not really aggressive, so if I don't get a start, I'm just sitting behind everybody because I'm not aggressive on it. You've got to ride it different. You can't charge as hard because if you charge on it, a lot of times you'll go slower. You've just got to find the balance of everything, and I'm still working on it. Everybody's 100% behind me here, but I can't have anymore weekends like I've been having, though." Robbie didn't make the main in St. Louis, but he'll probably get it figured out shortly.RockStar Suzuki's Mike Brown made the switch to a four-stroke at Anaheim III, and at St. Louis, he switched back to the two-stroke RM250. "The motor was awesome, I just didn't feel like I could handle it good," Brown said of the 450. "Jumping and stuff like that, I didn't feel comfortable on it. I didn't have fun riding it, and if you're not having fun, you're not going to do any good, so I was really liking this thing. The only reason I changed is because I felt like I was the only guy out there. I had to do something, but I wish I would've just kept riding this thing. I'm having fun again riding this, and I think when I have fun, I do my best. I just felt like I couldn't make it go where I wanted. If you go off a jump a little bit sideways, you're going that way. Corners were a big difference. The weight of it. It was basically a stock bike with a little bit of stuff on it, and it has to be heavier. I think that made the biggest difference. The weight of it."Many fans were rooting for Brown just because Brown was on a two-stroke. "I signed a t-shirt that said 'Keep the two-strokes alive', so it ain't the reason I do it, but if it helps, it's great," Brownie said. "It's good. If they still have fun riding two-strokes, it's the same for me, too. It's supposed to be work for us, but if you're not having fun, you're not going to be good for your work. But the team doesn't care what I ride as long as I qualify and have fun. Outdoors is more my deal, really."Brown has always been a bit of a two-stroke guy, though. "I might not be the fastest guy on the track, but I feel like I'm going faster on the two-stroke," he said. "I rode the four-stroke at Anaheim, and I don't think I passed a single person all day. It's hard to race on it. Ricky and all them guys make it look easy, but it's time on the bike, for sure, and getting the bike setup. I'm happy to be back on this though." He finished a season-high 7th in the main event, and was on the lead lap at the finish.Yet ANOTHER racing Johnson—Keith, older brother of Kevin—was on a new bike in St. Louis, as he lost his Subway/Coca-Cola Honda ride after San Diego and showed up in St. Louis with a brand-new YZ450F. "Well, after San Diego, I went home and I was sitting in my garage getting ready to work on my bike, and I got a phone call from Chuck Schulz (the manager of the Subway team) saying he was going to have to let me go because my performances weren't up to par," Keith said. "As soon as I heard that, I got on the horn and started trying to get myself to St. Louis. Luckily, I know some people who own a Yamaha shop, and they're pretty cool, because it's my dad, and he knows I'll hurt him, so he gave me a bike. I put it on the MotoXXX truck, and they brought it out. Enzo set up suspension, I showed up, and here I am."Keith has always been a two-stroke guy until this season. Now, even his Yamaha is a thumper. "It's just the way things are going now," Johnson said. "You can't be competitive on a two-stroke anymore. The four-strokes are so good. The new Yamaha is leaps and bounds ahead of the old one. The old one was a handful, which is why I chose not to ride it. Now they're making the tracks to suit the four-strokes, and everybody's riding them, so the bumps and turns are made for four-strokes, so it's just better."He was still in his Answer gear from the Subway team. "Yeah, I just was kind of winging it this weekend because I didn't want to get myself into something and then maybe have an opportunity to get on with a team," Johnson said. "First time I rode my bike was last practice, out there with all of the ruts that I hate, so it was exciting. It will be eventful to say the least. Maybe I should've waited until next weekend, but hey, it's like old times. This is how we used to do it. We just run it. Just show up. Pops is here, I'm riding with my brother—the Team Faith guys let me pit with them."Keith took a pretty great personal risk leaving his family's Star Racing Yamaha team to go ride with Subway, and now he's without a ride. "I guess I thought I was a pretty good judge of character, but apparently not, because everything sounded really good when I got involved with them, and then they just started going downhill real quick after that," he said. "It was more of an all-show, no-go. I needed help with the bike to make me mentally stronger, and I just wasn't getting the support. I was basically told to ride whatever I got and to be happy with it. I wasn't riding as fast as I should've been, but at the same time, I was never really given the opportunities to build myself and my confidence up before the season started. I started behind the eight ball and stayed behind it. And then getting released for poor performance, there's no clause for that in the contract. I don't know why we have contracts if people are going to do stuff like that, but maybe this will be a blessing in disguise. I get to hang out with my family again, ride a Yamaha again, and just be around happier people, I guess."Rookie Martin Davalos, from the Star Racing Yamaha team, won his daytime qualifier and was leading his heat race before going over the bars in the whoops. Even so, he finished an impressive 11th in his first-ever professional supercross.Makita Suzuki's Broc Hepler was MIA in St. Louis, as his broken foot hasn't healed enough for racing just yet.SoBe/Samsung Mobile Honda's Josh Grant, who has improved immensely over last year's SX form, went down in the whoops and knocked himself silly after running the third-fastest laptime in the main event. He should be ready for round two in Atlanta.One of the two comeback stories of the race was Chris Gosselaar. Only a couple of months ago, Lil' Goose didn't have a ride for 2006. But at St. Louis, he was on board a Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki KX250F as a replacement rider for the injured Troy Adams. "There was a lot of pressure on me," Chris said. "I didn't want to be the one who didn't perform. Mitch was just, 'Man, you've got to be on the box tonight!' The whole time out there, that's all I thought about. I did it, so I'm really happy."He says it was a bit of a case of not knowing what you have until it's gone in 2005. "That last year I was on Amsoil, I worked my butt off," he said. "I got hurt, and I wasn't healthy until probably the end of the season, and then I started doing good. I was training with Ricky every day, and then I made the switch to that Motoworld Racing team, and then I was still doing the same thing at the beginning of the year, and every time I rode that thing I was just devastated. I just gave up. I didn't even want to race anymore. I told those guys I didn't want to do it, but I just had to keep doing it. I was just so down, and now here I am. I think it was a good thing last year, though. I learned a lot, and now I know I've got the best bikes, and I just need to do what I do. I'm going to do everything I can to show everybody I deserve what I have. There's a lot of people out there before this race that said, 'Oh, he can't do this.' A lot of people on Motonews, I'm not going to name any names, but I see that stuff and it just motivates me. I'm just happy to be up here to shut a lot of people up."Team owner Mitch Payton told us how he informed Chris of his new deal with the team. "Probably the best part about it was that he called, and we decided to pick him, so I called him and said, 'Oh, we decided to go with someone else,'" Mitch said. "He goes, 'Nuh uhh!!!' He was all stressed out. I'm like, 'Yeah, yeah...' I let him suffer a little bit, then I said, 'No, we're going to do it.' He says, 'AWESOME! AWESOME!' So I said, 'Now, call your dad and tell him that we picked the other guy.' So he called his dad and did the same thing to his dad. He goes, 'Oh, they didn't pick me. They picked so-and-so.' 'Nuh uhh!!' He got his dad with the same deal. It was kind of cool. We had talked amongst the guys, and he was our guy, so we're stoked about it. We're really, really happy, more for him than anybody because he's had a couple bad years, and he's shown that he has speed, and I think tonight, I thought he had the pace for sure. He caught up to Davi at one point. We kind of set a goal where I really could care less about the win, it was just getting him on the box. He started off good, and we did that, so we achieved our goal, and I think we just have to let it play out. Each week, if we can get a little bit stronger and keep him on the box, that's our goal. We'll take a win when it's there, and if we can't get that, our goal is to sit on the box. As I told him, last year, if a guy could've been on the box every single week, that would've won the series, so I'm good with that."The Pro Circuit team has brought a lot of riders back from the brink in the past. "It's not me, it's our group," Payton said. "We have a really good group, and we try to work really close together to set goals and make it happen. For him, we had goals, and I try to make our guys—even the riders—work together. They work well together, and we make sure we give the riders really good bikes, and we think that helps their confidence. I think we've made some good gains on our bikes, and I think that's good. I think by outdoors, we'll have substantially better bikes, so I think that's going to be really good for my guys. I think it gives them a comforting feeling so that they have no excuses and it's all up to them. A lot of it's them, though. It's all those guys. We're lucky in that we pick good kids and stuff, but look at Ivan. He was successful, and now look where he's at. We were lucky with him. Now look at Grant. Grant's going to be a good 250 guy too. They bust their ass."But the big story of the St. Louis Supercross after the race was the 20th and 17th-place finishes of Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart, and Chad Reed's first win of the 2006 season. "The night was not bad, but man, the day was tough. It really was," Chad said. "I had an unbelievable week this week at home, and I felt like I improved a lot of the things that I felt I was lacking, and came here with a full head of steam. I got to the first turn in the first practice and had a little bike trouble, and I was so mad that it just affected me all the way up until the main event. I'm just so happy to do that rhythm section. Everyone was just, 'What are you doing?' and I'm like, 'I don't know what I'm doing!' It was nice to get out there and do it and just start putting some laps together."It took Chad a while to get down a rhythm section that Ivan Tedesco had down during first practice. "I knew I could do it, I just wasn't doing it," Reed said. "There was just some mental block there that wasn't allowing me to do it. I went for it, and it was easy. I was so mad when I did it because I was like, 'Man, what took you so long to do it?' I just started putting some laps together. I enjoyed the dirt, the change was nice. I had a good time. I never really felt pressure from anyone coming up. I knew that when I got in second, I knew that James was there, but that was it. I didn't know a whole lot more. I just looked forward and rode my race."By virtue of James and Ricky's poor finished, Chad now leads the points. "It's a nice feeling," Reed said. "We work so hard during the week to win the title, and to be 15 points down knowing that you're better than that, it's tough to swallow. Now we're 10 points up, and we've got a lot of races to go. The championship is far from over, and these guys are going to fight back. I'm just going to fight with them and have a good time."Reed also indicated that things are cool between him and Tedesco after "Chump-gate". "I think that me and Ivan are cool," Reed said. "I respect Ivan. I think that was kind of the problem when that whole 'chump' thing came up, I think he thought I just disrespected him and it wasn't that. My first year here, I was Ivan's teammate, and he was kind of the OG guy that showed me everything—restaurants and everything. I hung out a lot with him and respect him a lot. I've seen where he comes from and to make it to the 250 class and be a podium guy, that's great. So hopefully we'll put all of this behind us and we can move forward and have good battles."Reed went back to Florida after San Diego, and it made a difference. "I think it's a combination of a lot of things," Chad said. "I had my tracks all changed to the new supercross spec. Out west, I was struggling with that. I was struggling with the whoops. I had to learn a whole new style to get through them, and I basically just built the small ones and tried to deal with that. Being faster in the slick stuff, and I have a good friend down there who has been helping me with my technique, and I'm trying to make things happen. I'm glad I came and won this weekend."Reed is now much more confident. "Confidence is a dangerous thing, so I've just been looking forward to doing what I've been doing and not changing anything," Reedy said. "Just because I got a win and we capitalized on those guys' mistakes tonight—all the time, I'm thinking that 5th is horrible, being so mad at myself, but I wouldn't change my 5th right now for anything. It's a long season, and anything can happen. I'm looking forward to it. I want to be up here and be in the mix with these guys."Ivan Tedesco led much of the main event, eventually giving way to Reed and finishing second—his best finish of the season so far. "I've been getting better and better every weekend," Tedesco said. "I've been learning. And these guys have a good pace going, and they're good every weekend, no matter what the track's like. I've been getting better and better and trying to learn from every weekend. I want to win a race this year. I'll just keep on working during the week on what I think I need to work on and go from there."The rhythm he nailed early in the day that gave Reed troubles kept him in the hunt all night. "It was tough, especially once it got rutted," Ivan said. "I got it out of the way in the first practice, and I felt comfortable there all weekend. It got kind of rutted, and the race line ended up being 3-3-2-1 instead of going 3-3-3, and then toward the end of the race, I started thinking about that, too, and started making mistakes there, too. I'm learning from my mistakes, and I'm learning how to ride the 450 better every weekend. Things are getting better."After his first podium finish of the year, he was reluctant to reveal his next goal. In St. Louis, he said he wants to win a race before the season ends. "I think you just have to have realistic goals, and once you achieve that goal, set a higher goal," Tedesco said. "Like I said, my goal is to win one of these sometime during the year, and I led a lot of laps tonight and felt comfortable for the first half, and I just want to build on that and just go from there. That's my goal, so we'll see if I can achieve it."Filling out the podium for the first time this season was Honda's Ernesto Fonseca. "It's been tough," Fonseca said. "It's been a while since I've been up here, and I've been happy that I got my Honda on the podium. We're back here on the east coast, and I think the tracks are a little bit tackier, ruttier, and hopefully I'll gain a little momentum and start doing a little bit better. I think it just helps your confidence, and thing just get a little bit easier, riding a little bit better, and I think mainly it's the confidence that helps you. Sometimes it's just hard to gain it. It comes with time and with rides like this. I know there was some things that happened, but you've got to take it. We're all out there."Fonseca won his heat race after Carmichael exited the race dramatically in the whoops. "I got a pretty good start, and I was ahead, and then Ricky passed me, and then he crashed in the whoops," Fonseca said. "I was kind of surprised. They kind of changed the track a little bit after practice, and they made some tricky whoops up there, and it made it tough. It kind of bit him, and I wasn't very fast through there, but I was consistent. I just capitalized on somebody else's mistake, and that's how I won the heat race."Davi Millsaps won his first AMA Supercross on his Honda CRF250R. And it wasn't all his performance in the whoops that did it. "Normally, it's only the whoops," Davi said. "At Daytona, I was like a second and a half faster in the whoops, but then at the end of the lap, I was only like two tenths of a second a lap faster. I'm like, 'Man, where am I going so slow at?' But now the whoops are like this big , and it kind of sucks for me."Last year, Davi won the opener, but lost the title. When asked what he is planning on doing differently this year, he responded, "Hopefully win the title."Millsaps' starts still kind of stink, but he doesn't think he can get much skinnier. "I already lost 12 pounds, so I don't know how much more I could lose," Millsaps said. "I went from 191 to 179 or 180, somewhere around there. I just want to be consistent, get decent starts like I did this race, and if I can get a top-four or top-five start, I think I can work my way up to the front here. I've just got to stay consistent."Chris Gosselaar's performance created a touching moment in the press conference where he seemed on the verge of tears for most of his portion. "I was in Bercy, just riding a Honda—privateering it—and I heard Troy Adams got hurt and they were looking for someone," Gosselaar said of Pro Circuit. "I tried to call Mitch, and he wouldn't return my calls or anything, and finally I just drove down there. I was like, 'Dude, you've got to give me this one chance, and I'll prove to you that I can be on the box.' It took him about a week of convincing, and he gave me that chance, so he's pretty happy now, I think. They're really happy. I'm really happy with them. I couldn't ask for a better team to ride for. Mitch is a great guy. He pushes me really hard, and the whole team, we've done a lot of testing and a lot of work and I'm really happy with everything."He says he almost quit after last season. "Yeah, I seriously did think about quitting racing after last year," Chris said. "I was so down on myself. I'd come off the track almost in tears. I knew I could do better than that, and now to be up here on the podium, words can't explain it."The other feel-good story of the Lites main was Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy's Branden Jesseman. The 2003 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Champion grabbed the podium spot in his first race of 2006. "I mean, it's just the greatest feeling ever. I've been through a lot of things the past couple years, and it seems like I'm finally starting to get things back," he said.He thought there was a chance he wouldn't make it back up to the top of the sport. "I think it goes through everyone's mind at one time or another," Jesseman said. "I've got good family support, and I think they make all the difference. I have a good relationship with my family again, and I got my personal life back on track, which shows tonight that it makes a difference."He exceeded his first-race goal. "Actually, it was to get a top-five, which I didn't tell anyone, but it was my realistic goal since I haven't done so well the last couple years, but mainly I just wanted to come out and ride the best that I could tonight, and that's what I ended up doing," Jesseman said. "I was a little careful, but I was happy with third after so long . My goal on from here is to go back. I know what I have to work on, and I know for sure that I wasn't happy with my ride tonight. Hopefully, I'll come back next weekend stronger."