What I saw at A1

It was a mighty fine night of racing, that’s for sure. LiveNation and Dirt Wurx are to be commended for keeping their sanity and doing a great job at presenting a program in which the racers could do their very best. It may have been hell on the track, but it looked great from where I sat in the stands.

I saw Ryan Dungey establish himself as the man to beat for the West Coast regional division, and it wasn’t during his main event win that he sent this message. Dungey fired the first shot with his resounding heat race win, dominating in almost Villopoto-esque fashion.

I saw the “new” Jason Lawrence confidently stake his claim to fastest practice time, and I was pretty convinced that he was going to eventually pass Dungey for the win in the 250 main. So I was pretty surprised to read a race report in which Lawrence admitted he was “nervous” with Dungey stalking him, so he let him by…! J-Law may be working hard with Ryan Hughes on his fitness, but it seems he might need some help with his mind-game strategies.

I saw Chad Reed crash in practice and go down again in his heat race, and it made me think he was mentally struggling. But when he came from behind to win that heat race, I was very impressed. Reed can really ride Supercross, not that that’s news to anyone. He’s great fun to watch.

I saw James Stewart drag race a red bike deep into turn one during the 450 main start; it turns out Ivan Tedesco went down as well. It’s my speculation that James was bumped and that’s why he went down, but I haven’t read or seen anything to support that. In any case, after watching Stewart calmly dominate practice and his heat, all I felt after seeing him get up in last place was a building excitement. I knew it was going to be a thrill watching him slice through the pack catching up, and I was right. And he saved his most spectatular pass for last, when he tripled past both Langston and Ferry at the same time to take over second place.

In the pits before the races, I saw Jeremy Albrecht entertaining well-wishers wearing Kawasaki green over at his JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) transporter. They had some very nice looking Yamahas.

I saw James Stewart’s dad, “Big” James, giving out his own autographs, which seemed kind of weird. But I guess his name IS James Stewart…

I saw more Monster Energy logos than I cared to at the souvenir stand. I mean, I appreciate the company stepping up and sponsoring the sport, but man… the ubiquitous “claw slash” logo is starting to feel tired. I ended up forgoing an event t-shirt, instead settling on a pretty cool #7 hat (with NO Monster logos).

WHO I saw… I saw the Icon, David Bailey, as well as a very fresh-looking Ernesto Fonseca. I also saw MXi publisher Steve Cox, and Mototalk legend BobbyM. I missed seeing the scourge of Motodrive, Big Lenny, and his protégé BammBamm.

And I just missed Marty Moates altogether.