What Really Happened: High Point National

By: Motocross.com

Posted: 06/16/09

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Words and Photos: Jeff Kardas

High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris PA – home of MX Sports, crazy crowds, unpredictable weather and the most unique circuit on the series today. Despite a wide variety of changes over the years, High Point's managed to keep its dignity and style after over 30 years of racing action.

Track builder and designer extraordinaire Marc Peters was called in to action a couple of years ago by the Coombs family to give this storied venue a makeover. What he did was stretch it out, mix it up, and add in a bunch of carefully considered jumps and humps that not only maintained the previous likeness but created a much more interesting racing surface for the riders and fans alike. This year, Peters further switched things up with a few more tweaks that made for a really interesting track with a couple of wacky jump combos that kept even the top pros on their toes all day. The surface itself was near perfection, with just enough ruts to keep it interesting and soil that was moist but not muddy or dusty. Ok, we were impressed with High Point this year. There, we said it.

A bit of a bummer, though, was a quite low crowd turnout. Was it half of last year? Maybe not quite that bad, but it was certainly way down and it's unlikely we'll get an official crowd count to compare. We've said it before though, and we'll say it again: The bottom line is that the on-hand crowd simply isn't as important as the at-home audience. That at-home audience this weekend was quite possibly the biggest ever, since for the first time ever a motocross national was shown live on network television. That probably means that more people watched the 2nd 450 moto from High Point than will attend every single national this summer combined – AND the summer before that. That's a huge amount of progress in a very short time for the sport's new promoters (MX Sports), and hopefully it's something they can maintain. With lots of talk about fewer factory teams next year and budget cuts across the board in the industry, the more attractive the sport can be made to pull in outside sponsors to foot the bill, the better off we'll be.

So if there's anything else to be a bit bummed about despite this phenomenal new audience base is the fact that the racing they've been watching is so... boring. Full props are given to those racers still out on the track gutting it out, of course, but despite how hard they go, fans in the know can only think of what could've been. What could've been if Villopoto hadn't pulled out, Alessi hadn't crashed out, Stewart decided to show up, or Lawrence didn't, well, JLaw himself into oblivion. Chad Reed's a huge talent in the sport, but he's not quite a household name (yet), so the coverage and racing seems painfully lacking.

But you know what? It's time to forget about the what-ifs, the no-shows and the guys not out on the track racing – it's about the guys who ARE out there, and this whole season will be a lot easier to swallow if we stop saying things like "of course Reed won, everyone else is gone". Doesn't matter. Reed's out there, he'll be winning, and Shorty, Grant and Tedesco will be within striking distance so let's enjoy it for what it's worth.

Before that though, we must say that a strong rumor going around the pits was that Mike Alessi did crash while riding on the actual High Point track itself, not on some other private track that had been previously reported. The rumor states that what actually happened was Mikey tried to quad (!) the double-double section way in back (by the old amateur start area, or where you may have seen Josh Grant wad up and his bike hit the truck), overshot the landing, and whiskey throttled off the track. That's when the handlebar cracked his knee cap and his season went bye-bye. That's what we heard, at least.

So, back to the racers who were actually out on the track. Of those, maybe the most interesting point can be made about Andrew Short. It must be incredibly frustrating to him that he finishes top 3 almost regardless of who else is in the race. Whether RC, James, or Alessi are up front, Shorty's always on the podium. Now, with ALL of those guys gone, he's still 2nd or 3rd – what's it take to get a win?!? Moving right up there with him, finally, is his teammate Ivan Tedesco, a welcome and refreshing new face to get up there. IT rode with a lot of passion at High Point, and was aggressively attacking the track for much of the 2nd moto before Reed finally chased him down. After losing 2nd to Short (thanks to a 2x4 stuck in a rut that put him and many others down), he came down to the podium area and let out a very frustrated "F*%!", before chilling out and taking his helmet off. You'd had to have tickled him to get a smile on his face during the podium ceremony he was so upset with himself, so what that hopefully means is that he feels the fire burning again and he'll be up front battling all week. He'll need that fire and more for next week's race in Colorado, at what is considered to be Short's home track – Lakewood. Andrew's always done great there and top-2 seems likely, because of course Reed will likely be just a bit faster. Another guy we're betting will be really good at Lakewood is Ricky Dietrich, the Cinderella story of the series so far, and the man who Kawasaki is pinning all of their hopes on to get their KX450F onto the podium this summer. Dietrich is fit to the max – as a former WORCS champion, he's used to riding pretty much pinned for 2 hours at a time on some of the roughest and gnarliest tracks in existence, and there's no lack of jumps (unlike GNCC), either. The big story of the weekend was how Ricky pulled the ironman and, after racing High Point, hopped in a rental car and hauled the mail up to Pittsburgh to fly into Portland so he could line up at the WORCS round in Oregon on Sunday. He made it to his hotel at around 2AM, got to the starting line in time and was riding well before crashing hard and ringing his bell. Despite getting up slowly, Ricky still managed a solid 7th place finish, and when combined with his 6th overall at High Point, he no doubt increased his fan base ten fold in one weekend. Way to go, Dietrich!

Another couple of 450-class guys who look to be improving rapidly (due at least in part because riders who typically finish in front of them are disappearing) are Michael Byrne and Cody Cooper. Byrner looked fast all day and is finally getting back up to race pace, which means a few podiums are likely for him this season. Cooper ended up just behind him for 5th overall via 5-6 finishes, which probably would've been tough even for his faster teammate (Grant) to achieve. Cody definitely looks better than last year, and he seems to be melding very well with the JGR team. Nick Wey is also turning some heads, as he seems to be rejuvenated and charging harder than he has in a long time. Nyk went 7-10 for 7th overall. Gavin Gracyk is picking it up too, as the Cinderella story from the 2007 season is finally finding some of the speed he showed that earned him a JGR ride. Gav ran as high as 6th in the first moto before an ignition problem forced a DNF, but he retaliated for a strong 8th in the 2nd moto. Look for another good ride for Gracyk at Lakewood.

As mentioned previously, the injuries are really piling up this season. After a painless Supercross series, we probably don't need to rehash yet again all of the top 450 riders that are already out for the season. Add to that list a rider who seemed to have a bunch of potential and possibly even podium speed – Geico Powersports' Dan Reardon. "Reardo" (the best nickname ever!) dislocated his shoulder, which depending on its severity, could mean he's out for several weeks or we could see him at Lakewood for the next round. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the latter. Also hitting the ground hard was that high profile crash by the fast little redhead leading the 2nd 250 moto – Trey Canard. ‘Ice' Trey hit the funky off-camber rhythm section slightly cross-rutted and his rear end kicked up off the lip, sending him over the bars and breaking his forearm or wrist in the process. You could hear the crowd gasp as Christophe Pourcel nearly t-boned the downed Honda and its rider, as Dungey nearly did the same. That's about the point when the new ‘diver down' flag came out – on the wrong side of the track and being held very awkwardly – and the next batch of riders came by. That group included Tommy Searle, who was running 4th or 5th at the time. Searle doubled into the section while that flag was displayed but wasn't immediately docked a spot, so it appeared he'd finished in the 3rd position for the moto. That's when the Monster Pro Circuit squad cried foul to the race officials and Searle was docked, which moved their rider Tyla Rattray into 3rd for the moto and 3rd overall. Eventually, after the press conference, that decision was inexplicably reversed and Searle was credited with 3rd. It was surprising at the time and, after watching video of the incident, seems downright bizarre that the decision was reversed. It's safe to say that there's a race shop in North Carolina with a powerful man on the phone to AMA Pro as we type this to try and get a few points back for their rider as well...

More on that Lites class and what's quickly developed into a 2-man fight for the title. With Canard now out of the chase, obviously those two riders are Christophe Pourcel and Ryan Dungey. The Frenchman was finally able to pull off a 2nd moto finish better than 4th, and won both times he was on the track for a max 50 point take on the day. Losing 8 points in the process was Dungey, who's also lost his points lead and the badass red backgrounds on his number plates. Otherwise, the class is sorting itself out behind these two in a semi-uninteresting manner, with Searle and Rattray a ways behind those two and the remainder of the Geico squad scattered somewhere in between. Matt Lemoine did well this weekend, so that's promising, as are Kyle Cunningham's rides the last couple of weekends. Those two went 8-9 overall at High Point, respectively.

So what does the 250 class need to spice things up again? Justin Barcia getting a good start and riding like a wild man out front, that's what. "Dangereux" simply didn't have it at High Point, although it could be argued that running top 5 at a National proves he "had it", that's not the Barcia we need. Maybe he's still dinged up from his crashes in Texas? Let's hope he can find the wild man for Lakewood, which is two weeks away and has dirt almost precisely like what he did so well on at Glen Helen and Hangtown.

We don't want to leave the ladies out either, but their series is also turning into a bit of a snoozer. Jessica Patterson can't buy a holeshot, and Ashley Fiolek can't seem to miss one. Fiolek once again ran away with both motos, but only after Patterson crashed early in the first moto and ended up a distant 4th. She still got 2nd overall, though, which beat out Sherri Cruise's 3-3 even though both scored 40 points on the day. Vicki Golden continued to prove that rookies can run up front (as Fiolek did last year), going 2-4, and a surprising Elizabeth Bash had her best finish of the year in 5th. The WMA schedule resumes at Lakewood.

With that, we'll leave you with a week off to ponder what's gone down thus far in this first third of the 2009 season. We'll also ask you to forget the shoulda/coulda/woulda attitude, and appreciate the racers who are still on the track giving it their all. We'll be back at ya from Lakewood, hopefully with practice pics (that's always a challenge) and our patented Race Report Photo Essay, plus this little summary of What Really Happened by midweek.