Throwdown No.193 – 12/06/14

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The 2014 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship is now well and truly underway. At Thunder Valley over the weekend (Round 3), Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen went 2-1 to take the Overall in the 450 Class, ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart (1-3), and his teammate, Ryan Dungey (4-2). In the 250 Class, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Blake Baggett went 4-1 to secure his first Overall of the season ahead of GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle (3-2) and Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin (1-6). We wouldn’t recommend taking your money off Roczen and Martin this season – they’re both looking great. Round 4 is taking place at High Point this weekend – Dungey could take his second Overall win for the season in the 450 Class, as he hasn’t missed a podium at High Point since 2008. 

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Word on the street is than when Dungey stole the second moto win from Roczen at Glen Helen two weeks ago, the KTM team was pumped up on the action and started high-fiving each other. Kenny took that in a bad way, and now he’s bound and determined to beat the Dunge and show the team what’s up. So far, he’s doing a damn good job. You can read a little bit more on Roczen in this week’s USA Insider, where Transmoto‘s US correspondent, Jason Weigandt, discusses KR94’s switch from KTM to Suzuki for season 2015.

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Dean Wilson to Red Bull KTM? Davi Millsaps to Monster Energy Kawasaki? Ryan Villopoto still 50/50 on retiring from full-time racing next year? Josh Grant to Discount Tire Racing/TwoTwo Motorsports? Malcolm Stewart to Yoshimura Suzuki? Wil Hahn to Toyota/JGR/Yamaha? The silly season is in full swing already! Read more rumours and learn more facts in Part 2 of Transmoto‘s 2015 AMA SX & MX Musical Chairs series, online now. You can read Part 1 here if you missed it.

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It’s been confirmed that Team Honda Muscle Milk’s Justin Barcia will sit out the remainder of the 2014 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, due to an ankle injury that’s going to require surgery, immediately. It’s a real blow for Bam Bam, who’s now in his second year in the 450 Class. He may have raced his last moto aboard a CRF450R, as word on the street is that he’s moving to Toyota/JGR/Yamaha for season 2015. Hopefully we can see him throwing down at the Monster Energy Cup later in the year, though.

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Barcia’s not the only Honda-mounted rider who’s sitting on the couch this week. It’s been confirmed that Penrite Oil Honda Racing rider, New Zealand’s Cody Cooper, will miss all remaining rounds of the 2014 Monster Energy MX Nationals here in Australia. At Round 4 of this year’s series at Murray Bridge in South Australia, Cooper ruptured the ACL in his right knee. It will go down as a ‘what could have been’ season for Coops, after such a strong performance in the NZ Championship, claiming back-to-back MX1 crowns. This begs the question of whether Penrite Oil Honda Racing Team Manager, Yarrive Konsky, will look to find a full-time replacement rider for Cooper’s CRF450R for the remaining five rounds of the MX Nats. Will we see Ben Townley back for more cameo appearances? We will soon find out!

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Word on the street is that Ryan Dungey has stated that he won’t be going to this year’s Motocross of Nations. Ryan Villopoto and Justin Barcia are injured, and James Stewart and Team Manager, Roger DeCoster, don’t get along. So who’s going to represent Team USA in 2014? More on this can be found inside this week’s MXGP Insider column.

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The 2014 FIM Motocross World Championship moves to Maggiora, Italy for Round 10 this weekend. Red Bull KTM riders, Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings will be the obvious favourites – especially as this is Cairoli’s home-round.

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Hell yeah! MX vs ATV: Supercross is coming! Check out footage from the all-new game below. Stay tuned for more details.

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Taking three wins on the bounce, Australia’s Matt Phillips has been on a roll in the Enduro 3 category of the 2014 FIM Enduro World Championship. On Saturday at Finland’s GP round, Phillips was able to carry his momentum over from Greece, scoring an important victory over teammate and E3 class leader, Ivan Cervantes. On Sunday, Phillips aboard his two-stroke KTM 300EXC was fastest out of the traps, blitzing the first five special tests to take an early lead. Opening up a 22-second cushion over Cervantes, Phillips was able to control the day to secure his third consecutive victory. Click here to read what he has to say now that he’s only 12 points shy of taking control of the championship standings. Cervantes will be nursing a sore ankle heading into Sweden’s round this weekend, so we can expect Phillips to want to capitalise.

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Former EWC champ, Phillips’ teammate Antoine Meo is currently injured, which opens up the flood gates for former Enduro 2 division champs, Husqvarna’s Pela Renet, Beta’s Johnny Aubert and Honda’s Alex Salvini to take control, in what is arguably the premier class of the series. Current championship standings for all classes can be found here.

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At its first official outing, the KTM Desert Racing Team claimed victory at the biggest off-road racing event on the Australian calendar, with team rider, Toby Price, winning his third title at the 39th running of the Tatts Finke Desert Race in Alice Springs. In doing so, the 2010 and 2012 winner completed one of the most spectacular comebacks in the sport’s history aboard his KTM 500EXC, having watched last year’s event in a neck brace following a broken neck suffered in April last year. Local, David Walsh, finished the event in second Overall, followed by Price’s teammate, Ivan Long. Active8 Yamaha’s Josh Green and Daymon Stokie rounded out the top-five. If you want to check out the highlights from the 2014 Tatts Finke Desert Race, click here.

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“I’ve said it before, Toby is the fastest rider I’ve ever seen and I didn’t expect any less of him than this.” Words straight from the mouth of four-time Finke winner and now KTM Desert Racing Team Manager, Ben Grabham. “I’ve won it four times but this is one of the most satisfying feelings ever, as a Team Manager, to get two boys on the podium – Ivan for the first time, and Toby coming back.” A job well done, boys.

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Two incredible firsts went down at the 2014 Tatts Finke Desert Race. The first award goes to Queenslander, Billy Geddes, who completed the entire course twice, driving a Trophy Truck and riding a bike. This double-effort was made possible by Geddes using a helicopter between the Alice Springs start and the overnight stop at Finke on both days of the event. All-in-all he covered 904 competitive kilometres in the truck and on the bike, plus another 452 kilometres in the chopper. The super-fit competitor finished seventh in the Trophy Truck division and 211th in the bikes. The second award goes to 1992 & 2002 Finke Desert Race winner, Rick Hall, and his daughter, Isabelle, who became the first father-daughter combo to complete the event. 18-year-old Isabelle finished a credible 307th in the bike field aboard her Honda CRF250R, while her father, Rick, finished in 41st on board his Honda CRF450R.

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Check out Daniel “Chucky” Sanders’ epic section from RIDE: The Film, produced by the talented crew at Fourohfour. Their all-new film, RIDE: World Elements, is set to be released in December, 2014. Sanders is currently leading the Transmoto 19 & Under class in this year’s Australian Off Road Championship (AORC).

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CDR Yamaha Off Road Racing Team rider, Chris Hollis, made his X Games debut in Austin, Texas over the weekend, contesting Men’s Enduro-X. Unfortunately, Hollis, the 2014 Australian Enduro-X Champion, didn’t have the best luck on the technical course, and finished in 11th Overall. The event was won by KTM’s golden child, Taddy Blazusiak.

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Speaking of the CDR Yamaha Off Road Racing Team, Hollis’ teammate here in Oz, Daniel Milner, has officially been cleared to ride again. Milner was leading the Outright championship standings in this year’s AORC, before he injured his leg during a training incident around six weeks ago. We can’t wait to see him back on board his dirt bike, hopefully in time for Coonawarra’s round in South Australia next weekend.

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Want highlights and results from the 20th edition of X Games, held in Austin, Texas over the weekend? Grab ’em in this week’s FMX Insider column. Ronnie Renner won Gold in Step Up, Tom Parsons won Gold in Best Whip and Mike Mason won Gold in Speed & Style. Australian riders, Blake ‘Bilko’ Williams and Jarryd McNeil took out Silver and Bronze in Speed & Style. Well done, boys.

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The Moto X Freestyle contest at X Games Austin, scheduled to take place on Saturday night was postponed, and then canceled due to a severe weather warning. The decision was made by the X Games organisers – high winds can be risky for freestyle motocross riders who perform Backflip variations and other tricks. This isn’t the first time the Moto X Freestyle event at X Games has been canceled due to weather – last year, it was also canceled at X Games Munich and X Games Barcelona, due to rain and wind. It’s a good thing we’ve still got plenty of Red Bull X-Fighters rounds to take place this year, to keep us entertained.

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Click here to find out what’s inside Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine’s 2014 June Issue (#44), and be sure to grab yourself a print or digital edition.

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Dream Racer tells the tale of thirty-something-year-old business consultant, Christophe Barriere-Varju, who is desperate to rekindle the glory of his youth as a teenage motocross legend on Africa’s Ivory Coast. Ad-man, Simon Lee, yearns to make a movie, but with a growing family, job and mortgage, his time is running out. The Dakar Rally offers both men the chance to fulfil their dream, but it’s a dream that wouldn’t come easily and an extreme undertaking that will etch itself irrevocably into these two very different men’s lives. For the first time in a feature length film, Dream Racer shows the legendary Dakar Rally in its purest form – no sponsors, no multi-million dollar team, not even a mechanic – just one rider, a motorbike, a film-maker and the world’s most dangerous motor race. Far more than just a motorcycle movie, Dream Racer is a call to arms for anyone who has ever dreamt of doing anything – a spine tingling antidote to the fear of life passing you by unfulfilled. You can purchase a copy of the DVD and check out the official trailer here.

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Yamaha Motor Australia has announced its naming-rights sponsorship of the 2014 Australian 4-Day Enduro (A4DE) to be run at Dungog, NSW from August 11-16. “The A4DE is a dead-set iconic event that puts Australia’s best riders in the limelight,” said says YMA Managing Director and former A4DE competitor, Steven Cotterell. “Being a genuine endurance event, it also showcases the performance and reliability of Yamaha’s YZ and WR range. Knowing the trails and terrain around Dungog, this year’s event looks set to be an absolute ripper.” For more on the 2014 A4DE, click here.

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In spite of initial indications from KTM that their 2015 SX and SX-F models would retain the WP 48mm closed-cartridge fork, it turns out that what we published last week about the new Katos was not entirely true. The 2015 motocross models destined for the Australian and American markets will in fact get a much-revised version of WP’s 48mm 4CS (4-Chamber System) fork. This is the fork that first appeared on KTM’s Special Edition Six-Days models a few years back, and has subsequently been fitted to Husaberg’s 2013 and 2014 enduro models, Husqvarna’s 2014 enduro models and, more recently, KTM’s Factory Edition 450SX-F (the Ryan Dungey replica that’s essentially a 2014.5 model, and was released in limited numbers late last year). More information on this can be found here. 

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It’s frustrating when a bad light is shone on motocross by the mainstream media due to a serious injury or loss of life, right? Read more on the subject in this week’s NZ Insider column, penned by Chris Ritchie.

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Husqvarna ace and Aussie dirt track legend, Paul Caslick, has seen a careful and detailed preparation all amount to nought after he suffered a broken wrist in the early stages of qualifying at the Ausmulch Australian Dirt Track Championships at Old Bar circuit, Taree, NSW. The nine-time Australian champ was considered a serious title prospect in both the 450 and Pro Open classes, but a collision during the first Pro Open qualifier ended his day early. Troy Bayliss went on to claim victories in the Pro Open, Pro 450 and Pro 250 classes.

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This week’s closing video goes out to 42-year-old BMX legend, Jamie Bestwick, who amazingly scored his ninth consecutive BMX Vert Gold medal over the weekend in Austin, Texas. Bestwick, who won his first X Games medal in 1996, now has 13 career X Games Golds. The man is a machine. 

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