during the 450 main they showed some aerial shots of Barcia (in more ways than one..) on some of the bigger jumps. those whips he does :huh are sick but it is my guess that those also have to gain him serious laptime advantages over those who either don't whip or don't whip to that extreme. that kid has one thing that the other's don't and it's inside his head. the others want to win - he expects to win and he knows he can and it could prove a lethal combination. but again those whips, and I saw them up close at the skyshot at Unadilla last august are f'ing sick and are a clear advantage it is almost that he somehow is still accelerating as he is coming back down to terra firma as opposed to a launch into the air that physics dictates should lose speed. that kid is fearless and this could get ugly for orange green yellow and blue bikes.
To me , Barcia has always stood out with his aggressive style. Even if he isn't the fastest rider on the track, he looks like he is. He just attacks everything, reminds me of Bob Hannah. Plus, the kid seems to work hard at it, and looks to be pretty level headed. I think more championships are headed his way.
Agreed... Barcia is fun to watch, and he was dialed in last night. Another advantage he's got... he hasn't had any nasty injuries yet. I can't help but wonder how the bad get offs and season ending injuries haunt riders like RV, CR, TC, Bubba etc. Its gotta always be in the back of their minds that they are one slight mishap away from lots of pain and the end to their season. RV has even commented on this in some of his interviews. I still wouldn't count out RV though... he set the fastest lap time in the main, but his crappy start killed his chances. I think STARTS are going to be more important than ever... these guys are so fast that the guy who gets out front on the first lap is going to be hard to catch. If RV would have got the holeshot last night, nobody would have caught him.
Barcia was doing some crazy whips in qualifying and Reed actually out did him with a monster one. However, from what I was seeing, Barcia (and all of them for that matter) were keeping the showmanship way, way down in the race. It was very businesslike over the triple, triple, single. We were right in front of the section where Davalos launched it so we had a good view of all the aerial action. It was cool to hear them rap out the rev limiter or do a brake tap to control the flight path. When Barcia got the good start, he immediately checked out. This gave him a huge advantage. All of the guys were taming down the jumps when in traffic. They would often triple, double, double our section when it was tight. Much slower that way, while Barcia is continuing to check out. Don't get me wrong, he looked really, really good, but his starts helped him a bunch!! Who was the Kawi rider that moved over on Dungey? That was wicked. I just saw him being forced wide and the next thing I know he and his bike are coming off a tough block like a helicopter. :huh Those guys are beasts to get up after those get-offs and just blast off at top pace! RV was taking the sandy berm corner at a pace that was easily 150% of everyone else! I hope some pics show up of him dragging his bars through there. He was amazing on that corner. He could take it high or inside and just blast through with incredible speed. Wow. Tomac was the smoothest rider of the night. Just putting down laps-real fast laps with great style and smoothness. He will rule next year. Roczen is close and may pull off a win or two if Tomac falters, but only if. Canard is way cool. He just has a good vibe about him. (Don't go there). He smiles and is having fun. I have a new repect for him that I should of had a long time ago. Speaking of Davalos, was that incredible or what? By all rights he should have been hauled off in the meat wagon and then he comes back with THAT! badass of the night! I have been studying the two styles of RV and RD and have come to the conclusion that if the track has good inside lines, Dungey will do good. If it's loose and it favors the fast high lines, RV will romp. No one can turn an inside line like Dungey. Lots of guys can fly in the corners, but he has a knack for carrying speed in the inside where there is nothing. Just my opinion. Chase field sucks. Can you believe that it's 40 degrees outside and they have the sides off the stadium all day and letting the cold fucking soak in? I have never seen 50,000 people so cold INDOORS in my life. Everyone was so cold that they were wearing blankets, buying hoodies and wishing for gloves. There was one stand selling coffee (that I could see) on our level and it had a line of around an hour. Fuck that. The guys selling cold beer were complaining that who in their right mind would hang onto a cold beer in temps like that. The bathrooms were a hygenic disaster. No soap, and all the paper towel dispensers were empty before 7:00 PM. So you have 50,000 guys pissing without washing their hands. Un-funking acceptable. The pits are fenced like a maze, stuffed and jammed around the downtown area so that it takes forever to get through that convoluted mess. Then you get to reverse and go back through the maze to get in the arena. All in all, a great time, but my god, it could be so much more. I can't wait for Dallas where they have HVAC, a sound system, a ginormous TV, and bathrooms with paper towels.
Absolutely there is something you can do about it. In both races, he got in trouble because of his start. Get a better start, and avoid all the mid or back of the pack troubles.
Another good ride by Millsaps. Sure he dropped back a bit, but he was more competitive than at any time last year, despite the multiple podiums last year. Last year he got a podium when there were not many big factory riders left in the series. Last night, he started well, made a pass, and rode hard to a third place finish. He was passed by Villopoto, Canard and Barcia. He was not caught and passed by Stewart or Reed. And I believe he retained the red plate, yes? Great media coverage for his new team and sponsors, and a great start to the season for Millsaps.
That's just a Phoenix tradition. I went to a concert once at Sun Devil stadium and people were pissing in the sinks because the urinals were full.
Did anyone else notice RC two riders didn't make the main event. Did they even try to quality or are they already out hurt?
If they're smart enough to put together a segment of previous action that amplifies/highlights some issue that is happening in the current race, more power to them. It's not like there is action happening every second of the race such that they can't miss 15 secs of it live. Beside which, their track record of catching the on-track action live is so abysmal anyway, I'm not sure it matters much. If something happens during that 15-secs, they'll show it in replay which is how we get most of the important stuff regardless. - Mark
90% of the time they're yacking away about some 10th place battle and you can hear the crowd roar and they're clueless about a wreck or pass for the lead.Then they have to go back to it.I really didnt think that was avery good race,either class.Hope to see some battling for the LEAD before its over.Bring on the outdoors!
goes by the name of Jeff Stanton. Stanton was at Unadilla VMX this past June and he stated he talks to Barcia on a daily basis. My take on it (and I could be wrong) is he's got some kind of consultant arrangement with Honda. I believe he is filling the role of mentor and as Barcia has been Honda property since roughly 13 years old it would only make sense that they use whatever means possible to maximize their investment. All things considered he's keeping it on the fairly straight and narrow and seems to know he has a shot at multiple titles and a significant place in MX history. He's been riding forever and seems to be of the 2nd place is no place mindset. It's only 2 races in but the holy trinity of RV/CR/RD doesn't have a lot to show for their efforts. If Barcia is the only one in the on deck circle the next few years could be quite lucrative for him.
Are the three main commentators even on site? I get the impression that they're commentating on the same video feed we're seeing, totally at the mercy of the director's choice of cameras. I too have noted many times where you hear the crowd roaring for a good ten seconds or more before they get a clue that something has happened on track. - Mark
Is it just me or does CARMICHEAL look like a lesbian when he's doing commentary? Not that there's anything wrong with that!
I really have to disagree with almost all of this. You have a race where the leader is barely matching the lap times of several guys behind him, and slowing a little each lap while the chasers are running faster all the time and 4 guys on the same straight in the last several laps of the race with Reed somewhere close but they never showed him. And Dungy trying to come through the pack and not doing so good at that. A lot different than the last ten years or so. A lot going on and coming to the end of the race and what do they do, start showing Villipoto crashing in years past. And not just a short clip, it went on for at least half a lap. If that isn't bad enough it was a rehash of clips they had been showing between races for the previous 3 hours. If you go to one of those races there is a lot going on all the time all over the place, you can see the whole track all the time, it's really hard to keep track of what's going on. But no worry, next Saturday we get nothing until Sunday afternoon and then it will just be some clips. .
I have often thought that they were not even at the races, just watching the video in some studio somewhere. why do you never see them on the track or interviewing a rider? Good observation Mark!
