USA Insider No.121: Red Riders

Welcome to our weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto’s USA Insider presented by Lucas Oil. Penned each week by our man on the ground, Transmoto’s US Correspondent, Jason Weigandt, the USA Insider presents the story-behind-the-stories of the AMA supercross and motocross scene.

The news this week sits in Bercy, France, as Honda Muscle Milk teammates, Justin Barcia and Trey Canard, were once again close — maybe too close — during their battle for the King of Bercy crown. Bercy pays the top US riders in start money, only, so there’s zero additional bounty to take the actual event win. If you see someone really pushing, it’s merely for pride, and when a rider (Barcia) is slamming a teammate to claim the victory, eyebrows raise.

Barcia and Canard have been locked in the same truck for much of their Pro careers (2009 and 2010 on the GEICO Honda Lites squad, 2013 and soon 2014 on the Honda Muscle Milk 450cc team) and they often end up evenly matched on the track. Through two European weekends, first in Italy and then France, their speed averaged out nearly identical. Honda tries its best to treat both riders as equals, but they’re almost too equal. Monster Energy Kawasaki gives Ryan Villopoto and Jake Weimer equal treatment and equipment, but everyone knows who gets the better results over there. Over at Honda, things are so close that during the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, the team technicians found that when practice was over, they had to even be careful which rider they chose to talk to first. Get with Barcia first too many times and Canard might start to wonder, and vice-versa.

I might add that Barcia and Canard really want to like each other. First, I think they both prefer a fun environment and would rather not work with that sort of tension. Second, they can both be funny guys, and if they were just hanging out watching a game or something, they’d get along fine. When you visit the Honda truck on a good day, these two can both cut loose pretty well and you wouldn’t see or feel any of the past transgressions. It can actually get pretty comical. At this year’s Monster Energy Supercross Awards Ceremony, the SX producers at Feld Motor Sports put together a hilarious video of Trey and Justin progressing from bitter enemies into best friends. It was just for fun and completely random — the skit even pretended that they travel from race to race together in the Honda truck. Beneath it all, though, art imitated life. These two really can be friendly, but it’s just that darned competitiveness that gets them, and the fact that they’re always right near each other. Hey, if you beat a guy five times, you would be frustrated if he beats you five times, also.

All adds up to an extra dynamic under that Honda tent, and it’s going to make life hard. Yes, they have two riders pushing each other in every practice and every test session together, but effort and intensity have never been lacking for either. I believe any gains from the inter-squad rivalry would be overstated. The hard part will be keeping emotions in check for the long season ahead. Most of the time, the Honda truck will still be a source of good jokes and good friends. But don’t be surprised if some emotions spill over – they’re just too competitive, and too close.