Story and Photos by Jeff Kardas

As the rain and cool weather headed east across the country, so did the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Rolling into not-so-Hotlanta, Georgia for round eight and the opener of the Eastern Regional championship, there was plenty of excitement in store for the 67,000-plus fans that made the trip to Atlanta. Heck, even Ricky Carmichael decided to show up. In case you missed out on the Race Report, check out the links below and when you’re done, read on through this week’s What Really Happened to get filled in on everything that went on behind the scenes.

(Above Photo): RC made an appearance in Atlanta.

Race Report: Read about what happened on the track and find out what happened to the favorites.

Race Report Gallery: Take a look at some of Kardy’s photos from the evening’s racing.

(Above Photo): Carmichael prepares for his parade lap before the racing gets started.

Most of the evening’s excitement centered around all of the new faces in the Supercross Lites class, with a gate full of riders that the fans hadn’t yet seen on a Supercross track. As if that wasn’t enough of a draw for fans, though, this was also the Supercross debut for several top prospects, namely Torco Racing Fuels/Honda’s Trey Canard, Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki’s Nico Izzi, and the rookie who’s reputation has certainly preceeded him—Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy’s Tyler Bowers.

(Above Photo): Tyler Bowers was impressive in his first AMA Supercross.

(Photo Above): French rider Ben Coisy is filling in for injured Ben Townley in the East Coast SX Series.

Another fresh face that piqued everyone’s interest was France’s Ben Coisy, who earned a ride on Ben Townley’s dormant Red Bull Honda Racing factory CRF250R. In what could only be described as an ‘interesting twist’ to an already intriguing East Lites series, Coisy came to American Honda fresh off an utterly dominant French Supercross season where he destroyed the competition in nearly every round. The call from Honda came out of nowhere, according to “Benji” (as his compatriots call him), as he spoke with us through an interpreter. “I was just skiing in France and my cell phone rang. It was my manager Allison Turner, she called me and said, ‘Hey, I need you in America to test the bike, right away,’” Coisy said. The next day, Coisy was on a flight to LAX and heading to American Honda headquarters in Torrance, California. “I tested for one day, and the next day I went to the headquarters and they ask me, 'Hey, we want you to ride the east coast for us, will you do it?' So of course, I said, “Yes!”

While Coisy’s prowess on European Supercross tracks is a good indication of his talent, the one factor that hasn’t been touched on is that he’s been primarily a 450 rider for the past couple of years. Now, not only is he learning a new series in a new country on a new team, but on a completely different bike as well. “It is a lot different,” Coisy said. “It [the 250cc four-stroke] is much lighter and a lot different handling, but it is an incredibly bike. I’ve lost 20 pounds to help out a little bit with starts and everything else so I hope to be competitive for sure." Lack of preparation could have possibly resulted in the mediocre night for Coisy, with a couple of mistakes putting him into the LCQ and in next to last position after lap one of the main. Coisy, however, pulled it together to reach his goal of a top-10 finish.

(Above Photo): Coisy finished 10th in the main, achieving his goal.

Let’s not forget about that Trey Canard kid we mentioned earlier, either.

(Above Photo): Canard won his debut SX. It was a major goal of his.

Everyone knew coming in that Trey would be a force, but his results on the night probably surprised even him. Canard absolutely dominated the Lites class in Atlanta, leading every single lap that he was on the track and holding the fastest lap in practice until Grant beat it, but just barely. After demolishing his competition in the main, Trey took a victory lap of pure youthful exuberance, which continued onto the podium and in what must have seemed like endless post-race interviews. “I am so happy,” Canard said. “I really can’t think of any words to describe this moment, it’s obviously something I’ve dreamed of for as long as I can remember! I do want to dedicate the win to my deceased Dad, passed away in 2003.” After a nasty crash in practice where he nailed his chest and face on the crossbar, Canard had his doubts going into the heat races, but was able to pull through with flying colors. “That one actually scared me quite a bit, but I got through it okay,” Canard continued, “And I just couldn’t possibly be happier right now with how the night ended up”. The other rookies also did quite well, with Bowers crossing the line for a hard fought fifth while Izzi ended up with a heat race win and an eighth in the main after a rough 15 laps.

(Above Photo): Villopoto crashed hard in the main event and withdrew to the pits. There is no word on his condition right now.

There’s also no question, though, that despite the rookies riding well, a lot of attention was centered around the return of Ryan Villopoto in Atlanta. The new number two’s presence on the rack was a relief for the fans, but likely quite the opposite for his competitors. Whether or not “RV” would be able to make the opener in Atlanta was up in the air after reported complications with a recent wrist surgery had been somewhat overblown in the weeks leading up to the opener. And, even though Villopoto did seem to be holding back a bit during the practice sessions, he was still able to nail down a few laps quickly enough to secure the second fastest lap in practice just behind Josh Grant. Right after that is when everything fell apart.

(Above Photo): This is the wall jump that took Villopoto out.

Villopoto struggled all night with starts, making it through the first turn, and just never quite seemed like his normal dominant self. That’s without even mentioning the problems he encountered several times (including two key crashes) on the second of two wall jumps. Could it have been the phantom wrist injury? Could it have been the track conditions? We’d guess a little bit of both, but getting absolutely slammed by Josh Grant in the Main event didn’t help either. Villopoto didn’t finish, and there was no word on his condition as of yet.

(Above photo): Josh Grant had some bad luck in both the main and his heat race.

Torco Racing Fuels/Honda’s Grant had his own share of trouble in practice, as a faulty ignition in the first session left him standing still after only a couple of slow laps. During the racing, he was docked five seconds after allegedly tripling under a flashing red light and falling in the main event first turn, forcing him to work through the pack to end the night in sixth.

Also of interest was Villopoto’s new teammate on the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team, former 125 East Coast Champion Branden Jesseman, who was making his debut on the sport’s premier Lites team in Atlanta. “BJ” ended the night with a sixth in the main following a first turn fowl-up that left him mired deep in the pack early in the race.

(Above Photo): Mike Nasakaitis is the owner of the new Rockstar/Suzuki City/OTSFF squad.

Joining the big names like Grant, Coisy and Villopoto were a slew of lesser-knowns and triple digit riders trying to make their own mark on the sport. In what’s becoming a more and more exclusive series, privateers are harder to come by in the pits. Making life easier for several of these deserving riders are two teams who focus purely on the east coast and supporting a couple or several riders. One of these teams made its debut this past weekend – the Rockstar/Suzuki City/OTSFF Lites squad. Headed by owner Mike Nasakaitis, this startup team supports five “A Team” riders as well as three on a “B” squad, receiving support out of the back of the team’s 18-wheeler. Nasakaitis’ roots in the sport go deep, with a history that consists of wrenching at the GP level and owning the dealership—Suzuki City—in Biloxi, MS, which is the team’s primary sponsor. “We started the team to help out a couple of local guys race Supercross last season,” Nasakaitis said. “Then, I guess when the old Rockstar Suzuki team went away, Cole Gress called and asked if we wanted to help put something together to help out more Suzuki riders for this season and we went for it.” Along with Rockstar and Suzuki support, the team kept the Factory Suzuki look and feel by running Answer gear with the full Rockstar treatment. “We are also lucky to have RG3 on board, we’ve become one of four RG3 service centers in the country,” Nasakaitis said, “So our guys actually went out there and trained with them, and we are fully capable of providing all of their services right from our shop.” The A Team riders consist of Justin Sipes, Tyler Medaglia, Willy Browning, Jimmy Albertson, and Geddy Karle. The team’s primary goal is to get riders into the main event, and since they’ve spent so much time at the Millsaps Training Facility in Georgia this winter, Nasakaitis is hopeful of even a top five out of this group. “I know how fast they’re going, and I know a few of them have what it takes, so we’ll see how it goes.” One of the members did make the main—Jimmy Albertson—but the results weren’t where he was hoping.

(Above Photo): Jimmy Albertson was the best finishing rider on the new Rockstar/Suzuki City team.

(Above Photo): We spoke with Kenny Ivers about the Chaplin Kawasaki team that fields Ricky Renner and Robbie Marshall.

The other high profile east-only team is the Chaplin Kawasaki effort, another dealer-based but factory-backed team, this one based out of Connecticut. This is the second season that shop owner Kenny Ivers has taken his team on the road, running with KX250F’s under riders Ricky Renner and Robbie Marshall. So often, teams at this level aren’t able to get out and do much—if any—testing prior to getting the riders onto the track for the first race in the series. “We didn’t get to do much testing together for this series,” Ivers said. “We just don’t have the budget for luxuries like that. We got the kids’ bikes as soon as we could and they practiced on them, but no formal testing really. While the team is supported well with parts and gear, the primary money source is still us at the dealership, but we’re lucky to be associated with Mitch Payton at Pro Circuit and Dave Gowland at Kawasaki, plus with Factory Connection helping us, I know the bikes are competitive. We took them up to MotoWorld in Connecticut last week. It was their first time on the race bikes, and the guys say they’re the best bikes they’ve ever ridden, so I know we’re heading in the right direction with what we’ve done.” Chaplin’s riders were off the pace in practice, but race results were a bit better, at least for Renner, who holeshot and led the LCQ before finishing second behind Ben Coisy, and ended up 17^th in the main.

(Above Photo): Ricky Renner made it to the main event through the LCQ.

(Above Photo): The two wall jumps made for some interesting racing and longer lap times.

Of course, a lot of the interesting bits of news happen in the pits and on the track, but this season adds a new twist with many of the tracks being a point of interest—and that was especially true this weekend. Starting off with the full-on retro design at Anaheim II, to the last two (and future four) rounds being designed by the riders themselves, suddenly the track design itself has been thrust into the spotlight more so than ever before. There’s a bit of speculation as to the how, who, and why about the recent track changes, so we cornered Dirt Wurx crew manager Norm Bickley to get the lowdown on what’s going on with track design.

(Above Photo): We talked to Dirt Wurx's Norm Bickley about the new track designs.

To start with, what is up with this Atlanta track and the vertical obstacles? “Well the way James Stewart designed this track, we really had to do something to add some time, because if we hadn’t we’d be looking at 35-second lap times and nobody wants that,” Bickley said. “So we went back and looked at the A2 design and decided that the walls, as we call them, would be a good thing to try, to see if they added any excitement while also adding some time onto the laps”. Success on both counts, no doubt, as the walls got the lap times up into the mid to high 50-second range and were the scene of several key crashes—not the least of which befell series favorites Chad Reed and Ryan Villopoto. Adding to the second wall was the difficulty of the approach, which was fairly deep sand at the end of a gnarly whoop section. Where’d the sand come from in the track designs all of a sudden? “We tried that at Anaheim II also, and everyone seemed to really like it—riders, team managers, fans, even the photographers, so we keep putting them in,” Bickley said. “They aren’t real happy about it being in the first turn again this weekend, so we had to promise to groom that area after every single race to make it safer—we have a dozer sitting on the outside ready after each race.” Regarding who’s idea (and a good one it was, we might add) to have riders design the tracks, Norm stated that, “It was really a joint effort between us and Live Nation—there were so many times when riders or team managers would come up and either not be happy with the track or want this or that or the other that. We finally said, ‘Hey, maybe they should just do it themselves,’ and the rest is history.”

(Above Photo): Reed crashed in the main while leading and finished a disappointing sixth place.

Believe it or not, there was also some Supercross class excitement to speak of in Atlanta too, not the least of which was Red Bull Honda Racing’s Davi Millsaps’ first-ever Supercross class win.

(Above Photo): Millsaps capitalized on Reed's crash to take his first-ever SX class win.

While his victory arguably came at the hands of a rare Chad Reed mistake, the fact remains that Millsaps is coming into his own as one of the truly elite riders in Supercross racing, and after Atlanta, few can argue with that. Millsaps made note of Reed’s error when we talked with him afterwards. “The win feels amazing,” Millsaps said. “I can’t really tell you how good it feels, but Chad hit the ground really hard, and it’s a bummer that he bailed like that, but I’ve been training really hard this year and I was able to capitalize on that. Chad is a good friend of mine and I owe him $100 for the holeshot award.” As far as how he felt about Reed’s crash and how he felt afterwards while he rode alone out front, Millsaps was forthcoming in his response. “I was bummed for him, but I was kind of excited at the same time. I tightened up when I got in the lead, and I saw that Kevin was kind of closing on me. Then we got to the lappers and everything worked out for me. A couple more laps I think I would have fallen over, I was so nervous!” Millsaps was at the top of a Honda sweep of the Supercross class, with Windham and Andrew Short joining him on the podium.

(Above Photo): After suffering through injuries, Chris Whitcraft is back on the bike.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from factory riders like Millsaps and the like is Supercross class privateer Chris Whitcraft. The Ohio pro rider has been around for a while now, most notably as part of the now defunct Holigan Racing/Samsung/Radio Shack team from a few years back. After toughing it out with several particularly gnarly injuries over the past few seasons—annihilated femur and double compound wrists just scratch the surface—this tough guy is back because he knows one thing, and that’s racing motocross. “I had to go out and buy my own bikes this year, because I knew if I wanted to get any help for the outdoors this summer, I’d have to make an appearance in Supercross too,” Whitcraft said. Prior to coming to Atlanta, Chris hadn’t really been on a bike since the Dortmund, Germany, race where he went over as a last minute fill-in for a team. “Before Dortmund, I hadn’t been on a bike in over a month, but I went over anyhow because I thought it would be a good experience,” Whitcraft explained. “Same goes with here really, I just got the bikes a couple weeks ago and bought them myself at a local dealer.” Whitcraft struggled in Atlanta, crashing hard while following Travis Preston through a rhythm section and spraining his left wrist. But Whitcraft’s problems on the track were the least of his worries as we found out yesterday—both of Whitcraft’s brand new KX450F’s, complete with the Enzo kit suspension, Pro Circuit motors, and various other goodies, along with all of his gear, clothing, and his mechanic’s bike, etc. etc. were stolen along with his van from the hotel parking lot where he was staying. We hope the Atlanta authorities catch up with the guys in on this mess. In the meantime, keep your thoughts positive for Whitcraft.

(Above Photo): Whitcraft had his van with both his bikes stolen over the weekend.

That’s it from Atlanta, where there was so much to talk about that we literally ran out of room. Next weekend the series heads to East round two and the Supercross championship round nine at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. Check back next Sunday for the Race Report, and Monday to find out What Really Happened!