Alessi savoring the moment. Posted: 05/31/09 Finally, it happened – Mike Alessi won an AMA Pro National Motocross. The site was Prairie City OHV Area outside Rancho Cordova, CA on a track operated by the historic Dirt Diggers MC at a race better known as: Hangtown. Gold prospectors left piles of debris in their wake in the surrounding hills over 150 years ago, but this past weekend, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mike Alessi left behind years of runner-up finishes and tainted memories to finally stand atop the podium in the sport’s premier class. In the first time in recent memory, Alessi actually made a few passes during a race, and that alone is remarkable. Typically starting up at the top spot, there’s only been one way for him to go, and that’s backwards. This time though, Mike proved he can battle going forward as well as back, after catching back up after falling on lap one while in the lead of the first moto. 909 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	The first time. Posted: 05/31/09 After a bit of controversy shook-up the final standings, Alessi was ultimately credited with 1-1 moto scores (and a perfect 50 points) on the day. If judging by who crossed the finish line first in moto two, however, it was JGR/Yamaha’s Josh Grant who appeared to be the winner and 3rd overall finisher. Upon further review, Grant was docked a position by AMA Pro Racing after failing to roll through the downhill jump section just before the finish line while a rider was down on the track. It’s good to see that the AMA stuck by the rules and enforced them as advertised, but it must’ve been a very hard pill to swallow for Grant. 839 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	250 Moto 2 start Posted: 05/31/09 The start of 250 Moto number 2 gets underway under the late-afternoon glow of a nearly perfect day for racing. The crowd was possibly a bit on the light side, and the program was mixed up a bit from last weekend, with the 250 class getting on the track first due to live SPEED TV coverage of the final 450 moto. In this start, the pack is almost perfectly even, but that wasn’t to last as Alessi’s teammate Ryan Dungey would soon find his way to the front with Christophe Pourcel and Trey Canard in tow. Dungey took the moto win and, when coupled with his 7th in the first moto, he duplicated Pourcel’s point take from Glen Helen, putting the two of them nearly within two points for the lead in the 250 class season standings after two rounds. 1050 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Reed, moto 2 start Posted: 05/31/09 Still unable to become a threat for the win, Alessi’s other teammate – Chad Reed – just hasn’t been able to find the warp speed that previously only he and either James Stewart or Ricky Carmichael seemed to have. Certainly a threat for the title based on his history of consistency alone, Reed isn’t able to dice through riders like Grant and Alessi )not to mention Short and a couple of others) as quickly as many fans had expected. He did ride a solid 2nd moto at Hangtown, though, moving from 5th to 3rd, but wasn’t quite able to get a wheel in on the two leaders who remained just out of reach until the checkers. After the revised moto two finishes, Reed ended up 3rd overall. 1329 Views 1 Comments Rating: 0 Likes
Ryan Dungey Posted: 05/31/09 It’s pretty remarkable that Ryan Dungey and Christophe Pourcel nearly duplicated each other’s previous week’s efforts via 1-7, 1-3 for Pourcel and 2-1, 7-1 for Dungey, which gives him a 2-point margin heading into Round 3. It seems clear that these two are the cream of the crop and that we may be in for another 2007 season where teammates Ben Townley and Ryan Villopoto duked it out every single weekend to produce some of the best Lites/125 class racing of all time. Dungey ended up with a 3rd overall at Hangtown. 1131 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Ryan Villopoto Posted: 05/31/09 It’s almost hard to write this, but it looks like Ryan Villopoto is out for the remainder of the season. After being off the pace all day in both qualifying and the 1st moto, word came in from Monster Kawasaki team manager Mike Fisher that Ryan had indeed suffered the rumored knee injury during mid-week testing, and that his ACL tear was serious enough to require immediate attention if he were to be prepped and ready for next year’s supercross season. This essentially blew the doors open for this summer’s nationals, as Villopoto seemed like a clear favorite after dominating the series opener in Glen Helen last Saturday. It also means that Ryan won’t be attending the MXoN in Itlay, which will mark the first time in his professional career that he hasn’t attended the race to represent the U.S. agains thte world’s best. 1133 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Josh Grant Posted: 05/31/09 This photo of Josh Grant was actually shot just moments before his rules violation of jumping during a yellow/red flag situation on the track. The new flag is similar to a red cross flag, and requires the riders to roll through a dangerous area so as not to endanger a downed rider and attending personnel. Grant clearly disobeyed the rule, while both Mike Alessi and Chad Reed rolled slowly through just in his wake. As ecstatic as Grant was with the win, he seemed to accept the decision with dignity and is just happy to have proved that he had what it took to win a 450 National. 1012 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Trey Canard Posted: 05/31/09 Trey Canard was once again ‘almost fast enough’ to pull off a win, keeping both Dungey and Pourcel honest for much of both motos, even beating Pourcel in moto two. Canard made a bunch of fans out of the press during the post-race press conference, cracking everyone up with some witty and insightful responses to questions that seemed to never stop coming. A couple of the most interesting replies had to do with the fact that he, too, is confused by the new yellow/red flag rule and that it’s tough to figure things out after racing at that pace for a whole moto. He then replied to a question about Jason Lawrence’s latest run-in with the AMA as “well, that’s Jason”, saying he feels his antics and/or alternative personality is good for the sport and that it gives everyone something to talk about. 979 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes
Mike Alessi Posted: 05/31/09 Alessi rode fantastic all day, was always at the front, and hunted down a few riders in that first moto to pull off a convincing win over a rejuvenated Ivan Tedesco. In the press conference, Mike remarked that he felt confident Grant would be assessed a penalty, and that it was obvious for all to see and even everyone at home had seen it since the live broadcast caught it. He was very happy and relived to finally get that first win out of the way, along with the red points-leaders plate for next weekend’s round in Texas. This may just be the confidence boost that Alessi needed to really kick things up and possibly even dominate from here on out. 954 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Justin Barcia Posted: 05/31/09 Justin Barcia once again managed to pretty well freak everyone out at Hangtown, going so blazing fast at the beginning of moto one that only Pourcel could keep him in sight. Dynamic, exciting, out of control – all of these words can be used to describe the 16-year old’s style on the track, but there’s no doubting the fact that with just a tiny bit more fitness (like two laps’ worth), the kid will be hard to beat if he gets out front during a moto. Pourcel himself said that “this Barcia is dangerous on the track”, and that he just hung back to wait for a mistake or for him to slow down instead of going after him – in other words, he once again used the “let the race come to him” mentality to beat the American riders on their own tracks. Regardless, Barcia’s luck ran out in moto two when a mediocre start resulted in a hard crash just after the finish line, which ultimately claimed another rider with a very dynamic and aggressive style – Monster Kawasaki’s Austin Stroupe, who ultimately DNF while Barcia was credited with 29th, and injury reports haven’t been acquired for either of them (Barcia seemed fine while Stroupe, not so much). 1371 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Ratters Posted: 05/31/09 MX2 World Champ Tyla Rattray wasn't quite up at the front runners pace at Hangtown, but he did manage a 5th overall via 4-7 moto finishes. 948 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Jake Weimer Posted: 05/31/09 Weimer was a bit closer to the fast pace this weekend, finishing up 8th in both motos, which probably about 7 spots behind where he planned to be. While still blazing fast, this 250 class is so deep in experienced talent that a mediocre start will almost always guarantee a mediocre result. Weimer's starts have been mediocre. 873 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes
Christpher Pourcel Posted: 05/31/09 Any question as to whether Pourcel was feeling sick this weekend were put to rest after he caught and passed Barcia for the first moto win. When his fitness or health were questioned during the supercross season, several inside sources say he has "good and bad days". This must've been a good one. 884 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Barcia and Pourcel Posted: 05/31/09 Here we witness first-hand the race coming to Pourcel, as the gap between himself and Barcia closed due to a few mistakes by the rookie increased his laptimes enough in the waning laps of moto one allowing the fast Frenchman to catch him. 1203 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Tedesco Posted: 05/31/09 Honda Red Bull Racing’s Ivan Tedesco was loving life in Hangtown. After two great starts put him right where he needed to be to capitalize on any mistakes by others (and there were plenty), he led a good portion of the first moto to end up 3rd overall with a 2-4 on the day. In moto one, he literally wheelied right over the top of Alessi’s downed Suzuki at the top of the off-camber right-hander (“I don’t even know how I pulled that one off”). Also capitalizing on a bad start by Reed and Villopoto laying on the ground with Lawrence and a couple of others in turn two, IT was looking great out front until Alessi got by him. In the 2nd moto, Ivan once again found his way up front, getting passed by Reed for 3rd late in the moto but coming hom solidly for 4th. 929 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Homogenization Posted: 05/31/09 the other half of the mighty Rockstar Makita Suzuki 450 team, Chad Reed’s shown here in hot pursuit during the late-afternoon sun at Hangtown. This was the 41st time a national-level motocross race has been held on this premises, although it’s likely never looked anything like it did this year, as 1200 tons of additional sand (they added a bunch more last year) were worked in, along with a “whole bunch” of rice hulls (yes that’s right, rice hulls) to keep the track moist and loamy. You know, sort of like every other track’s surface on the national schedule. The tracks are losing and/or have lost their individual character, that’s for sure, since so much of that character is defined by the soil make-up. With the exception of Glen Helen and Southwick, we could say this shot was from just about any of the other rounds and nobody would question it. Is that good or bad? Let’s hear your opinion. 1255 Views 3 Comments Rating: 0 Likes