USA Insider No.180: Mental des Nations

Transmoto’s weekly web-exclusive column, the USA Insider, penned by Jason Weigandt, presented by Ipone.

Tough break for the Aussie MX of Nations team with Jay Wilson going down, but I’ve seen his replacement, Luke Clout, race before at Loretta’s and he has good style and speed. Yeah, it’s not the Reedy/Metty/Byrner days anymore, but every team has to deal with issues, in fact, rarely does a country ever get to send its killer three-piece to the race. On the American side, there have been plenty of wins, but for example we never got to see Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart work together. Both the 2006 and 2007 line-ups were supposed to feature RC and Stew alongside the new 250F kid named Ryan Villopoto. Can you imagine those three on one team? But Ricky got hurt in 2006 and James got hurt in 2007. Ivan Tedesco and Tim Ferry had to pitch in. This race is all about running what ya’ brung.

Which brings me to Team USA this year. It’s not really the A line-up, but enough to potentially get the job done. If I were picking the dream team at the beginning of the year, I’d have had Villopoto and Ryan Dungey on 450s, and Eli Tomac dropping back to a 250 for the MX2 class. Yeah, about that. Villopoto’s attempt at winning the World Championship fizzled, Tomac crashed out and Dungey begged off after six-straight Nations tours. In come the Yamaha boys to the rescue. They’re not slouches, but Barcia was only third in the Lucas Oil AMA 450 Pro Motocross Championship behind Dungey and Ken Roczen, and Cooper Webb will race the Open class on Sunday and he isn’t even a 450 rider!

These three might not strike fear like Ricky Johnson, David Bailey and Johnny O’Mara did in 1986, but they’ve got one thing going for them, and that’s the mental game. It might not be the most experienced line-up ever, but much of that won’t matter because these are salty, gnarly, ass-kicking, pressure eating, competition hating dudes that take no prisoners. Barcia has pretty much built his whole career around hating his competitors, and he earned the nickname Bam Bam for obvious reasons. He’s not scared of anything or anyone. It’s telling that over here in the US, Barcia is yet to mount a real championship challenge to Dungey, but in 2012 and 2013, they were on Team USA together and Barcia was by far the faster man. Pressure does strange things at this event, and Barcia seemed to rise to it while Dungey under-performed.

Webb has come out of his shell in his third Pro season and shows similar moxie. He says what he thinks and thinks what he says, and his late-season mind games with Marvin Musquin prove it. Webb was talking junk to Marvin on the starting line, calling him out in interviews, and even (and I’m not even sure why), going to the line one weekend with an un-lit cigarette in his mouth! One could argue that 450 rookies, Jason Anderson or Blake Baggett, would have been better choices than Webb, who has only raced a 450 a few times. Yes, they have experience on the bike, but Webb brings a certain edge that can really help in a race like this.

Martin plays the humble Minnesota thing like Dungey, but he’s a firery competitor deep down. He dealt with pressure in every aspect of this year’s AMA 250 National Championship fight, and came through when it was needed. The worse the circumstances, the better Jeremy rode. Last year’s des Nations was not good for him, as he broke his foot in Qualifying and could barely even stand. He fought through it and logged his motos, just out of the top ten each time, and in severe pain. Kid is a gamer and he’ll be fired up beyond belief this weekend.

So this team can offer grit, determination and heart. There might have been a faster potential line-up out there, but those guys aren’t available and didn’t pull through. These guys want to go and want to win, and they’ll use any means necessary to do it. That could make all the difference.