Words/Photos by Jeff Kardas

With both titles already wrapped up the previous weekend, Round 11 of the AMA Toyota Motocross Nationals seemed like a bit of an afterthought. Thankfully it took place at Motocross 338 in Southwick, Massachusetts, which is a track that tends to create its own drama and this year was no different.

In what was no doubt a genuine sand track at some point in the previous 32 years of hosting the National series, Southwick is now a bit different. Set onto a hard base, it's really more of a silty and/or really-worn-down sand track that leaves teams in a bit of a predicament as far as tire selection goes. Many opted for the nearly paddle-like Pirelli Sandcross, while other choices ranged from soft-intermediate to even hard pack tire selection. It was pretty easy to tell who used what, as some riders slipped and slid through the flat, slick, rutless inside lines while others railed the deep stuff that pushed up onto the outside. When compared to a Belgian sand track (the most famous being Leirop and Lommel), Southwick isn't a sand track. When compared to any other U.S. National track (besides maybe Red Bud), Southwick is a sand track. Regardless, it's an interesting and brutal round that always brings out the best and worst of riders from all over the world. Speaking of which, we're going to make this What Really Happened more about individual riders and their stories than about the racing as a whole. So here we go...

The biggest story of the weekend was probably the inclusion of GP star and perennial sand master Marc DeReuver of the Martin Honda team. The likeable Dutchman lives in the very town of Lommel, which means he's used to riding in the sand all the time. He nearly won the overall at the GP there this year via a 1-1, had it not been for a last minute fall in moto two that relegated him to an ‘also-ran' finish. "Calimero" as he's known came over here because he had a couple of weeks off from the GP schedule, and thought it'd be a fun race to try (again) and get a good finish. He did well, and impressed everyone both with his speed (2nd fastest in both practices and 3rd in moto one) and his personality (when he joined James Stewart for a one-on-one interview during the RacerX pre-show). DeReuver's a good man, and the event was richer because of him – kudos go out for having the guts to get off his own continent and race the big boys in their own sandbox.

The next biggest story was the rookies and how they were holding up since their debut last weekend in Millville.

PJ Larsen came to Southwick hoping for a bit better than 15th like he'd ended up in Millville. What he got was a scare on Saturday after not transferring from his practice straight into the finals (more on that later). After he won his Consi easily and everyone was on the same track for Sunday practice, Larsen threw down a top 10 laptime to give him an early gate pick and a real shot at a good finish. Rounding turn one just outside of the top 10, he held strong the entire race...up until the final lap when his KX250F went caput, leaving him to push it from the track. Moto two was even worse, when PJ made only a single lap before leaving the track. Not sure what happened there, but look out for PJ at Steel City – that's about as close to a home National track as he's got, and we should see what he's really got this Saturday.

In Steven Clarke's case, Southwick actually was his pro debut since he opted out of the long trip to Minnesota to try and be more prepared for the Southwick silt. He did well. Clarke pitted out of the same trailer as Cody Cooper and the rest of the Suzuki City/OTSFF boys wayyyyy in the back of the pits and had plenty of fans flipping through their programs to figure out ‘who that 211 guy is'. A couple of excellent starts and an amazing run in the first moto to push Geico Powersports' Daniel Reardon all the way to the checkers resulted in a 9th place finish. Moto two wasn't quite so good for the British blazer, but the moto-world took notice of his speed, no doubt, so this was a solid debut from a seemingly solid rookie.

Arguably the victim of a questionable qualifying system, Larsen's Xtreme Team Green teammate Hunter Hewitt failed to get into the Sunday program. With uncompetitive lap times and a crash in the Consi, Hewitt looked fast and aggressive as usual, but ended up watching from the sidelines on Sunday. Look for him to have something to prove at Steel City, too.

Do you see that photo above? That's Geico Powersports' Blake Wharton leading the first moto ahead of Brett Metcalfe and Ryan Dungey – not seen, Ryan Villopoto behind Dungey. This was no fluke – Wharton holeshot and put the hammer down and stretched the three fastest riders in the Lites class out for several laps before finally conceding into 4th by the checkers. Stellar follow-up to a stellar debut ride? You betcha. Trey Canard eat your heart out.

We'll lump Ben Lamay (pictured above) and Vince Friese, as well as Ben Evans who was out with injury, together here since they're all rookies who raced the big boy class and had no impact whatsoever. We'll chalk it up to them not being much for sandy tracks and having bad weekends, and we'll hope for better results on the hard pack of Steel City.

In the Other-Notable-Efforts-But-Non-Rookies category, the following racers made an impression at Southwick, whether it was good or bad:

Motosport/Xtreme Kawasaki's Kyle Chisholm had his best National ride ever at Southwick. The friendly, fast, sand-loving Floridian pulled two killer starts and held on for a pair of 5th place finishes which resulted in a 4th overall and a jump from 14th to 10th in the series standings. That's 3 points behind Josh Grant and Trey Canard (both of whom will be out of action next weekend) and 10 ahead of teammate Andrew McFarlane. On a bizarre-but-true note, Kyle received a call from his team last week that his services won't be needed next season, which at this point means he's on the job market and will be working harder than ever to prove he's deserving of a great ride. Look for another great ride from Kyle at Steel City as he makes a run for the top 8 in final series points.

42-year old John Dowd brought his privateer RMZ-450 out to the ‘Wick to remind the kids how to play in the sand. Dowdy seemed tentative at first, but pulled another great overall finish out of the bag with a 6th overall via 9-5 moto finishes. Another amazing ride for a guy who just never gives up.

Speaking of amazing rides, Andrew Short had another one at Southwick. After a superb first moto that put him into the huge gap between James Stewart and "everyone else", Shorty followed up that 2nd place result with a ridiculous run from 30th to 9th in moto two to end up just off the podium in 4th overall. Unfortunately, he still lost two points to Timmy Ferry in the battle for 2nd in the final standings, and now needs to make up 8 next weekend at Steel City. Regardless, he seems a lock for a series podium, which has to make him and Honda happy.

Josh Hill! This kid is fun to watch blast around a sandy track, and this time it actually helped to get him a podium finish – his first of the season! It's hard not to cheer for Hill, who's youthful exuberance is always apparent whether he's around the pits signing countless autographs or blowing up berms for no reason whatsoever out on the track. Hill went 36-3 for 9th overall.

Everyone was talking about Kyle Cunningham's switch to a Kawasaki with only two rounds to go. Motosport/Xtreme called Kyle up to ride injured Tommy Hahn's KX250F for the final two rounds, and he did a decent job of it, finishing right about where Hahn would have had he been at Southwick. While the second moto went way better than the first (19-6 for 11th overall), one has to question the wisdom of such a move so late in the season.

James Stewart himself picked MDK/KTM's Florida sand specialist Matt Goerke to podium this weekend, and it looked like a solid choice. However, after moving flawlessly through the pack in moto one to find himself 5th at the line, Goerke's 2nd moto charge was cut short at the halfway point while he was in 6th and moving up fast when his KTM died right in front of the mechanic's area. Had Goerke managed a 5-5, he would've been ended up 4th overall.

Here's the obligatory Villopoto and Stewart shots that everyone's expecting to see. These guys are good, you'll probably want to put them on your fantasy team for Steel City as well...

And in the "WTF?" category, we have...

Broc Hepler. First moto, 12th, 2nd moto, 19th – where is the FAST Broc Hepler? Despite sticking to Michael Byrne's rear fender for most of the second moto (which only would've put him 8th by the finish), a crash dropped him to 19th and way, way behind what everyone had hoped for B-Hep in his second race back. If Broc doesn't turn on the after-burners and throw caution to the wind at Steel City (his home track and site of a couple of National Lites wins in the past), things are going to be tough on the job market for one of the more talented guys on the circuit.

The same can't be said for Ivan Tedesco. Dropping anchor doesn't quite represent what IT did in moto one after a killer start (see photo at the top of this page). There's nothing not to like about Hotsauce, and we have no idea what's eating him, but it's time to kick it up a notch for the former National champ.

Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy decided to show up this weekend, and pinned all their hopes on a relatively unknown 17-year old kid from Canada to fly the flag for them. Jeremy Medaglia (younger brother Tyler Medaglia), who ended the Canadian Lites season in the top 3 overall riding a Suzuki, got the call from YOT to have a seat on Jason Lawrence's YZ250F to see what would happened. He looked fast at times and even nearly pulled the first moto holeshot before falling early on and ending up 15th, but his luck would change in moto two when he was black-flagged by AMA officials for allowing his mechanic to re-start his bike after a first-turn pileup.

Suzuki City's Willy Browning was another rider who fell prey to the questionable timed qualifying system that exists in the Nationals these days. Browning – one of only 16 riders who's qualified for every National this season up until now – rides the seeded practice, which in the Lites class means he's the second group onto the track. At Southwick, the first (non-seeded) Lites group were treated to what literally looked like a freeway compared to what the seeded guys faced during their practice, and so 17 non-seeded made it straight into Sunday's show while riders like Browning, Larsen, Hewitt, Sean Borkenhagen, Phil Nicoletti, Tucker Hibbert and Alex Miller were left to the Consi. In Browning's case, a fall prevented him from getting into Sunday's show.

The entire U-Tag/Dixon Racing/Yamaha squad came over from the UK in the off-weekend of GP's to put their riders Zach Osborne and Martin Barr into Sunday's show. Osborne created a bit of a stir on Saturday when he ran an ultra-trick carbon fiber subframe/airbox combo (which was quickly nixed by the AMA), then later was reportedly DQ'd for riding a 2009 model YZ450F that he'd reportedly purchased with his own money. We'd received no absolute confirmation of this, but the lap charts don't even mention him ever being in the race. Teammate Barr cruised mid-pack all day, but the fact he even made the show must've been a small consolation for all of the work that was involved even getting to the starting line.

And that about covers it from Southwick. As often is the case, this was a weekend where the interesting stories weren't about the winners or the event as a whole, but individual performances. The 2008 AMA Toyota Motocross Series comes to a conclusion with an unusual Saturday version of the famed Steel City Motocross National in Delmont, PA. Look for same day coverage, as well as week-long summaries of what went down, right here at Motocross.com