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Matthes Report

The Matthes Report: Lakewood

Matthes on a few topics.

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There’s a week off here in America after three straight Lucas Oil Pro Motocross rounds. That’s it, after this, as there’s six in a row, so enjoy the barbeque sessions now riders and industry members. It’s just going to get major busy from here on in!

Some thoughts on an injured star from over here, then interviews with Lakewood 250MX winner Joey Savatgy and factory Honda team manager Dan Betley fill my MX Vice report this week.

Big news over here was the injury to Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey, who crashed and broke some vertebrae in his neck in a somewhat innocent crash at Lakewood. The fact that he’s now out six to eight weeks with this injury is a huge blow to KTM, Ryan and the series. It’s incredible that these upcoming nationals will be the first ones that Ryan has missed since 2007 when he was on a 250! That is incredible in this day and age.

With Ken Roczen running away with the first six motos of the year (yeah, yeah we know he lost at Glen Helen but it was still a runaway) he’s now got a thirty-point lead over Eli Tomac, who now assumes the mantle of ‘guy trying to stop Roczen’.

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Ryan Dungey will miss a national for the first time since 2007!

KTM/Simon Cudby

With six in a row and then a two-week break Ryan’s diagnosis would be to come back at the last three and line up for some wins. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he and the team just held him out of the rest of the series, the two USGP’s (although he wasn’t committed to either one yet) and unfortunately the MXoN. That would leave him in line to come back for the Red Bull Straight Rhythm and then the Monster Energy Cup.

I hope I’m wrong because it would be great for Team USA to have Dungey back on the MXoN team, but we don’t normally see these high-caliber riders come back late in a series they don’t have a chance at.

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Joey Savatgy will once again be running red at High Point next week.

Spencer Owens

Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy answered everyone’s questions about his win at Hangtown with a convincing win at Lakewood with 2-1 finishes. It probably should’ve been 1-1 if not for a late race fall in moto one. Savatgy’s got the red plate now with a weekend off and after the race in Colorado I caught up to him to get his take on things.

MX Vice: Us in the media, we were talking about how this weekend was really big for you. Obviously Glen Helen didn’t go well so we thought you needed to come in here and show that Hangtown’s ride was for real. I think you did it.

Joey Savatgy: Yeah like you said, I don’t necessarily, no offense, care what the media thinks. But, for me, especially it was very important that we regroup. I wasn’t feeling that great last weekend at Glen Helen, no excuses, but was a little under the weather.

I still thought you rode well though, coming from the back.

Yeah, we didn’t have good starts or ride that great. But we had a long week at the farm. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure. Got my rear end chewed out and all sorts of fun stuff. We put in the work during the week. We’ve been putting in the work all along. Now it’s starting to come together and everything’s clicking. It was important for me, especially. I know that I have the speed regardless. It’s all about execution and at Glen Helen we didn’t execute. Bad starts, didn’t ride that great, didn’t feel that great, but we worked through it and came into this weekend feeling really good.

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Glen Helen has been the only rough patch in Savatgy's season.

Spencer Owens

First moto was probably one of the best rides I’ve ever had in my life. Everything was clicking. It felt good. Unfortunately, I went down but the second moto we got a good start and put ourselves in a position to win. That’s the biggest thing. Every weekend with as many guys as there is, as long as we can put ourselves up there and in a good spot to win, I feel like we have a really good chance.

Alex Martin caught you in the second moto, I saw you look back and then to your credit you picked it up and held him off. How’d you do that?

It’s a double-edged sword. The first moto when I passed Jeremy (Martin) I was like, all right, I’m putting my head down. I wanted to try to pull a lead. I did and I had a goal in mind. I’m not going to say what it was, because people don’t need to know. I was laying the hammer down and it was just a dumb mistake. I could have taken a little bit – I might have lost half a second – but taken a different line, not follow the lappers, and we would have avoided that.

So we go to the second moto and I’m in the lead, I have a little bit of a lead. I’m trying to be conservative but not too conservative. Then when I saw he was catching me, it was like, all right. I did it until I looked back going up the hill and I saw that it was a blue bike with a red plate and I was thought that was Jeremy. So we had to pick it up. We had to go faster.

Did you find something out there or you just say ‘hey, I got to bear down and pick it up’?

A little bit of both. I started taking a few different lines, but the biggest thing for me was I had to bear down and go a little bit faster than what I was. I wasn’t necessarily conserving anything, but I was making sure I was hitting my marks. Whereas once Alex caught me it was kind of like, ‘alright, we got to go and not think so much and just throw it in there.’

Do you like this track?

I do. I’ve had terrible results here in the past. But I’ve always qualified good here and we did it again this year. Like I said, the biggest thing for me is I have to execute.

Give our readers an idea of how slow the bike is here at altitude.

I would imagine it’s comparable to if you left a rag in your air box and you’re wide open. The bike is just not going anywhere! A mod 125i might be as fast as our bikes at normal altitude.

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Trey Canard finally has his starts sorted out, to the delight of his team manager.

Honda Racing Corporation

Factory Honda riders Trey Canard and Cole Seely are looking good to start the nationals with good starts, some podiums and a consistent presence up front to start the season. I caught up to Dan Betely, who’s a former championship-winning mechanic for Jeff Stanton and guiding the big red ship. Of course Dan wouldn’t say anything, but we fully expect Ken Roczen to join Cole Seely over there for 2017. We touch on those rumors at the end of the interview.

MX Vice: All of us experts said that Yamahas and KTMs would be up front on these starts. Your riders, however, have been getting off the gate very well to start through the six races. You’ve got to be stoked on that.

Dan Betley: Yeah, if you can change I’d definitely switch over to team red, Honda power.

Did you find something? In supercross we spoke all year about Trey’s starts and everything else. Did you find something or is it just these guys are happier outdoors or what?

No, [Jason] Weigandt asked me the same thing. It’s really not. We do have a setting that we use for this race in particular, but we’ve been getting good starts for the beginning of the outdoors and really motor hasn’t changed that much. It wasn’t like we found all this horsepower or something. Starting in supercross and staring in outdoors are two different complete animals. Some guys have figured it out for both and some guys, like Trey, started coming around at the end of supercross. He’s got it figured out now. So actually all three guys including Bogle are all good starters.

Seely was very impressive in the first moto. People probably won’t talk about him, but he ripped through the pack to get a really good finish. Trey finished on the podium. In the second moto Seely ended up third, so it was a good day for you guys.

Yeah, I’m really happy for the whole team. The engine department, chassis guys, everything. We’re clicking really well. We’re working well together. I’m just happy that we seem like we’re getting some momentum, we’re moving forward. Cole especially. He knows where he’s weak and he’s working on it and he’s got a new programme. I expect big things out of him, I really do. He’s got a lot of talent and he’s working on those weaknesses. Actually, I didn’t except a whole lot from him today. He came into the race saying he hurt in places he never knew he hurt before, but two solid rides from him and Trey also. I was really happy.

We know Trey’s fast, we know he’s an outdoor guy, but Cole’s opening some eyes from Hangtown (third for twenty-eight minutes) to now. He’s been impressive.

Yeah and he’s never really been considered an outdoor rider before. He knew that was his weakness and he’s working on it. I’m stoked for the future.

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Cole Seely has opened some eyes thus far, as he was looked at as supercross specialist.

Honda Racing Corporation

What do you think about this track, facility and all that? These are things that people ask you about, as a team manager. What do you think about this place?

I like it. I really have always liked coming here. I actually remember coming here in like the ‘80s, believe it or not, and this place was an armpit. With what they’ve done to it, I really enjoy coming here.

What can you tell us about 2017 silly season for Honda?

It’s still silly. I can’t really say. We’re talking about when we’re going to release some of the information. I know people get all bent out of shape that we can’t say what we need to say, but people need to realize a little bit there’s a lot of reasons behind the scenes why we do what we do. A lot of it involves sponsors.

Yeah people forget that there are staffing issues, people’s lives are affected by what the riders are doing.

Staffing, people, whether they’re going to be around or not be around. Everything has to be taken into consideration before we release what we’re actually doing.

Sometimes us in the media, we’re competitive too with the other media guys where we want to break things or get things. So we’re probably partly to blame.

I don’t blame you. That’s your job, and you guys do it almost too well. But unfortunately we try to keep things quiet for reasons that I stated and then things just get out. They leak out through clothing guys or agents or whatever.

Can you believe the stuff that people tell me?

It’s nuts. It bewilders me how you guys find out about the things you find out about. Literally within hours of things happening, you guys find out about them and it just really pisses me off.

Words: Steve Matthes | Lead Image: KTM/Simon Cudby

Matthes Report

Matthes Report: Daytona

Predictions from Steve Matthes!

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The 2021 Monster Energy Supercross series riders and teams just had their first week off of the season this past and when the halfway flag gets thrown this Saturday night at Daytona, we’ll officially be halfway through the 450SX series.

Here are some random predictions on some random things in regard to both the 450SX and 250SX classes.

– It’s been a while since we saw anyone not named Cooper Webb or Ken Roczen win a 450SX main event but we may finally get someone different this weekend. Now, don’t hold me to that because the top two riders in the points have been so good. This is Daytona though. This is something different for the guys and we know how good Eli Tomac is down at the speedway. I’m not going to stamp a Tomac win but it says here he will be more competitive this weekend than he has been. Good vibes will be hanging in the air for ET and even if he does not get a start, he can make it work there. I predict a strong performance for Tomac this weekend with either a win or a runner-up ride.

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– Honda’s Chase Sexton makes his return to racing after a crash in Houston while leading the 450SX main. The #23 will be a boost to the series and I think he’ll do something memorable this weekend. I do not know what exactly; maybe win a heat, lead some laps or podium the whole thing? I’m not sure but Sexton will make a splash. You watch!

– Jason Anderson has been getting progressively better since his awful opening round and subsequent finger injury. Now, how much his improvement had to do with the harder packed Orlando track is something we’ll see. I think he’s on the right track to be top five or on the podium at Daytona.

– Marvin Musquin is very good at Daytona – he’s had some hell of good rides there with a couple of 450SX podiums and a win in 250SX. It’s been a hot and cold season for Marv, but he’ll be hot this weekend.

– Dylan Ferrandis was great at Orlando 2 but had just an eleventh to show for it after he had to pull into the mechanics area for mid-race repairs. On this track, with more of an outdoor-ish feel to it, I think Ferrandis really shines. I predict a top five for the Yamaha rider. Yeah, I said it.

– I predict Justin Cooper wins the 250SX West main event. Boring, right? I know. This series is his to lose now with Jeremy Martin out with a shoulder injury. Cooper was not even at one hundred percent at Orlando 2 and he did that. Wait until he gets an extra week of prep for this one.

– I’m not sure what Star Yamaha team owner Bobby Regan said or did to rookies Nate Thrasher and Jarrett Frye in the time since Orlando 2 but I guarantee you it was not good. I’ve heard many stories about how Regan has talked to riders under the Star tent and with both kids underperforming at their first ever supercross, I predict they both come out with better performances than what we saw in Orlando. How much better? I do not know, just better.

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– Garrett Marchbanks does not win this main event like he did last year but he does end up on the podium, which is a good result for him and his team.

– Troll Train will shine this weekend and redeem himself after KO’ing himself last race. That’s what “we” do.

– I think Martin Davalos will fall down at some point in this weekend’s main event. I hate being a negative Nancy here but he’s done it in every single race this year but one. I cannot see how Marty gets through a rough and tumble Daytona track where things change every lap without making a mistake but maybe this is exactly what Marty needs to stay on two wheels!

– I predict that Kyle Chisholm will continue to Chiz, because Chiz will always Chiz. In fact, he might have some extra Chiz happening because he is usually pretty solid at Daytona.

– This one is not tough to predict but Ken Roczen will continue his great season with another great ride. Hey man, I can’t be wrong if I just predict stuff like this!

Thanks for reading!

Words: Steve Matthes | Lead Image: Align With Us

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Matthes on: Alex Nagy

Feel-good story from Orlando.

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There are a lot of cool stories in the pits in the course of a year of Monster Energy Supercross but let’s face it, these days with COVID-19 still affecting everything, things still suck. Although the racing in Orlando was cool, in terms of some fans being there, it’s still not supercross, you know?

In Orlando, we had a cool story going on though. Privateer Alex Nagy made his first ever main event via his third in the 250SX LCQ. Nagy is a privateers privateer, you know? There are guys that are what you would call privateers but they are on teams and sometimes have expenses covered – some guys get everything paid for but not factory help at all and we still call them privateers. The word “privateer” has changed a ton over the years for sure, but there is one thing that’s not in doubt and that’s that Alex Nagy is a privateer.

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Nagy had lined up for 132 races and had made 118 night shows, most of them in the 450SX class. The 250SX East series has been wrecked with injuries so that definitely helped Nagy’s case, but he’s also been riding very well. In Orlando, we saw history!

“I honestly haven’t even kept track of how many night shows or how long,” Nagy told us after the race. “My first year of racing supercross was in 2013, and I did that on a 250. Then every year after, I’ve been in the 450SX class. This is kind of like my first time back in the 250SX class. I’m glad I was finally able to capitalise on a good coast to ride and be able to put it in the main finally.”

Look, once he made the main the rest was gravy, right? Nagy rode pretty well in the 15-minute main event though to end up with a fifteenth on the night. That’s pretty decent for a guy who’s not used to racing that long. Nagy got six points toward ditching his three-digit number and getting one of those two digits that the cool guys get.

Surely Nagy was going to reward himself with some sort of extravagance for his efforts, right?

Nope.

“I’m going to spend the night here. I spent the night here last night. I spent the night in the van the night before, and I’ll probably spend the night in the van tomorrow night too,” he told me. “It’s kind of funny because even in Indy I stayed in the van. I didn’t run it, didn’t use the heat in it and didn’t have a heater. I just had four sleeping bags and I just ground it out.

“Honestly, it sucked. It was cold waking up in the morning. Then when you are kind of cold and then you’ve got to put cold clothes on or cold gear on, that was rough. Like I always say, you don’t even really think about it. It’s just in the past.”

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Nagy spending the time in freezing cold Indianapolis sleeping in his van for rounds four through six is next level. Hey, he loves the sport and it shows!

This is a part of the issue I have with the MXGP series. Yes, there are wildcards out there that some riders can get but it’s not easy to show up at an MXGP and race like it is for riders over here in SX and MX. That’s one of the things, in my opinion, that make motocross great. A guy can get a bike, modify it a bit and line up with the world’s greatest riders. Talent is the separator, not money spent. Nagy has spent time riding in the winter down in California but unfortunately not this year. His program is, how we say, pretty loose!

“I didn’t even have an off-season because I was in Illinois the whole time. All I did was ride. I would ride with a track that was half snow, and then two jumps of dirt. That was all I did. I wasn’t in California. This was the least prepared I’ve been going into a year, and I did the first round on a 450 and was able to get in on it which was sweet. I was stoked on that, to make the night show.

“Then I wanted to do a 250 the whole time, but I didn’t get the bike that I’m riding until the night that I left for Houston. I pretty much just had a brand new 250. I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll race the 450 at the first one and then switch the suspension over.’ I broke the bike in in the parking lot. The first time it ever saw dirt was the practice at Houston 2, which is pretty funny.”

The thing about that is he broke the bike in around the pits and he hadn’t ridden the bike on a track until the first practice at Houston 2! The bike had stock bars, stock grips, a stock head pipe and suspension modified last year. Yet, somehow, five rounds later he’s in the main!

Nagy’s now going to race the much-more competitive 450SX class while the 250SX East series is on hold and I don’t like his chances to make the main there. However, Alex Nagy will be out there sleeping where he can and practicing where he can. Nagy’s enjoying his life and now he’s got that main event on his record. We need more Alex Nagy’s in the pits.

Words: Steve Matthes | Lead Image: Align With Us

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Matthes Report: Ken Roczen

A look at Ken Roczen’s triumphs.

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It’s not too hard to imagine that, although Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen just grabbed his second win in a row in the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross series, he should actually have four wins. He passed Houston 1 winner Justin Barcia a couple of times in the first main of the year and, of course, we all know that lapper Dean Wilson cost him another win.

It’s not a stretch to imagine Roczen with four wins out of five races to start the season and his current points lead being even bigger, right? He has been amazing and on it right from the first round and it’s cool to see; having Roczen healthy, happy and fast in SX is a good thing for the sport.

One of the things I was wrong about, and boy there’s a lot, was Kenny’s adaption to the all-new 2021 Honda CRF450R. The bike barely shares anything with the 2020 model and I’ve seen plenty of riders and teams at the highest levels struggle to figure out new models. The most recent Kawasaki, for example, wasn’t easy for Eli Tomac and the Team Green guys to get a handle on right away. The 2009 Honda. The backwards-motor Yamaha – there could be a book written about trying to get that bike set-up and working right.

The point is that with data acquisition teams are able to get improvements done to the bike but it usually takes a year. Then of course parts and 2021 Honda 450 bikes themselves were late getting to the USA only adding to my thought that this might be a year where the team and Roczen are constantly learning. The fact that Tim Gajser was on it all last year in the MXGP’s probably helped a bit but SX is quite a bit different from MX as we all know.

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We had Roczen on the PulpMX Show on Monday and I asked him about the bike.

“There’s always little things that could be better, but I think ultimately it comes down to the stock bike has to be good from the get-go to be able to start off and not have huge problems,” Roczen said. “Our previous bike was not quite like that – it was a very difficult bike to set up, especially for all different kinds of conditions. We are in a super good spot.

“My bike is very raceable, especially in the conditions that we have had. It’s been rough. It’s been rutty and tacky. I think it will just be that much better even when it gets a little bit more hard-packed. I think we have had the most difficult conditions. I think everybody would agree with that. We are just solid.”

Honda’s had former SX/MX winner Trey Canard aboard to help with the testing the last couple of years and there’s no doubt that he has been a huge help to the team as far as getting a base set-up down so that the team does not waste a lot of time with Roczen testing. He’s able to just focus on himself.

“I’ve said this a few times; this bike is not a revolutionary bike. Honda has done this in the past with big steps like the dual mufflers or the aluminium frame and, although this bike is different, it’s not so different from the previous model. We were never so far off with this bike; it was pretty good the first day we rode SX. We could race it like this. It gave us a good head start on things

The biggest thing for me is there is less rigidity in this frame. At the end of the mains when the ruts are choppy and bumpy, you have to be perfect. This bike makes a difference and the rider can sustain a hard effort. These guys are going fast the whole time. The power is also more usable in more ways.”

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The new “thing” for the factory teams is having someone like Canard, or Ryan Morais at KTM, who is still a great rider, knows how a bike works and can eliminate some directions that the team wants to try. I’ve been there as a mechanic and spent some long days at the test track trying clamps, bearing races, cams, pistons etc. and trying to get through what works and what doesn’t. The riders themselves don’t really enjoy those days. The quicker you can get the testing over, the better. The riders can then focus on putting in laps and getting themselves ready for the season.

“I think the last three years, I’ve learned a lot. At first we would come up with something and he [Roczen] didn’t like it or he didn’t win. The wins for me as a test rider were hit and miss. I’ve gotten to know him better,” Canard says about specifically testing for Roczen.

Yeah, maybe I was off on my take of him figuring out a new bike or maybe Canard has been such a massive help that they have overcome those usual new bike blues. Either way, Roczen looks as good as ever here to start the series. I wondered if Canard himself was surprised at how good the #94 and the new Honda 450 look so far?

“I’m not surprised at how good he looks. The last year and a half, his health has been a struggle. Even the races he did win, it seemed to me he wasn’t happy with the way he rode. He came a long ways since we started SX – we started a bit late due to the nationals going longer. When he took that time off this past summer, I got a sense he would get things sorted and he did.”

That’s the understatement of 2021 so far.

Words: Steve Matthes | Lead Image: Align With Us

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