Here come Las Vegas *yawn*

Or as the kids on the internet are saying these days, "meh."

Here's the thing: NO ONE expected this year's supercross championship race to go down to the wire like last year. And that's simply because the only racer willing and able to do what it takes to actually challenge James Stewart, up and retired. By mid-season, Chad Reed seemed to be willing to experiment with crashing into Stewart as a means of slowing him down a bit, but that was obviously a faulty strategy from the start, and to his credit, he never seriously pursued it.

No one had any other solutions, so James piled on the points until he reached Seattle, where he iced the titles for good.

Now there's one more race to run, and it's going to be aired LIVE, and there's absolutely no reason to watch it.

Okay, check that... if you're a motocross fan, you're going to watch it anyway, because we just like to watch racing, period. But even if the titles were still on the table, the outcome would barely be in doubt. Unless James simply decides not to race, we know he's going to qualify with the fastest laptime in practice, win his heat and win the main. That is a foregone conclusion... the only thing to do is hope the production company's cameras show him for more than a few laps so we can admire his style and grace on the bike.

That, and maybe Ivan, Kdub and DV12 decide to give Ferry a run for third place money. But that might be asking too much. Those guys have their sights set on the outdoors already.

Now in the 250F Dave Coombs Sr. Memorial East/West shootout dealio, maybe... nah, Ryan Villopoto is gonna crush 'em all. It will be cool to see if the "other" Ryan, Ryan Dungey of Team Makita Suzuki, has anything for #51, but I sort of doubt it. In my mind the best outcome would be a tight three-way battle between all of the young factory hopefuls, Ryan V., Ryan D. and Team Yamaha's Josh Hill. That would be a great preview of the Nationals. But again, the titles are set, and there's more incentive to simply survive Vegas and move on to the outdoor championships healthy, rather than to get involved in a knock-down, drag out battle in Sam Boyd Stadium and risk getting hurt.

So the promoters are in a difficult spot: they have a race to sell, but all the racers have very good reasons to avoid racing. What to do? Well so far, they have attempted to put focus on the racetrack itself, issuing a press release that notes that the start straight for this race is, at 800 feet, the longest in supercross history. Um, okay, that's something. Honestly, the SPEED TV crew have a challenge on their hands, and I'm not particularly hopeful that they'll rise to the occasion.

But you better believe I'll be watching to see how they handle it.