By most pundits’ accounts, there’s something special about Red Bud Track-N-Trail in Buchanan, Michigan. One look at the dark loam snaking through the grassy hills just north over the border from South Bend, Indiana, and any true fan’s gut fills with excitement. And that was just for today’s practice session!
The session (two of them, actually) went off without a hitch, with the riders playing over the circuit’s many jumps, including, in the back section, the sky-shot LaRocco’s Leap (which none of the 125s, or YZ250Fs – were attempting today). Fellow Floridians Ricky Carmichael and Tim Ferry looked to be playing with each other around the track, but turned in some impressive lap times nonetheless. Ditto for Kevin Windham and Sebastien Tortelli.
KTM Red Bull’s Grant Langston rode practice today, and is planning to race tomorrow. Practice must have been good for his shoulder, because he put himself at 80 percent before riding, and 90 percent at day’s end. Obviously, surgery for the third-degree separation has been put on hold.
Langston was sporting some brand-new 2003 Thor gear in practice today, as was SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Bobby Bonds, but don’t expect them to wear it tomorrow. The gear was only worn for photos, and will be officially debuted at Washougal.
There are a couple of new big-rigs in the pits, as Team Snowcross/Arctic Cat showed up for its first National. The squad, which will also race snowmobiles in the Snowcross Series, rides Suzukis and consists of 125cc riders Tucker Hibbert and Matt Judnick, and manager/250cc rider Jamie Grosser. The other truck isn’t technically new, as it was formerly utilized by now-defunct FMF Honda, but FMF boss Donnie Emler has loaned the hauler to Southern Supersports Racing (which also has outside-industry backing from Pilot Travel Centers, Mountain Dew, Frito Lay and Gatorade.
With not much action to speak of on the track, we’re instead forced to gossip about Silly Season, which has really gotten into high gear lately. Of course everyone is waiting for Carmichael to officially reveal his switch from Chevy Trucks Kawasaki to a Honda, but don’t expect an official announcement before the end of the season. This deal (which still hasn’t been confirmed) is too big to be corroborated off-hand. Not so for Frenchman Steve Boniface, who KTM Red Bull manager Sel Narayana confirmed today has signed with his team for 2002. Boniface rode this year for Amsoil/Dr. Martens/Journeys/Competition Accessories, but he’ll join Langston, Kelly Smith and Brock Sellards (who just re-upped) next season (David Pingree has not re-signed).
So who will replace Boniface on the Factory Connection-run Honda squad? We heard a good rumor about one particular rider, but when we spoke to officials on the team and at Honda, they refused to confirm (“We’re holding a couple of people’s hands, but we haven’t kissed yet,” Honda Competition Director Chuck Miller coyly chuckled). We had decided not to write anything, until we heard the same rumor from yet another reliable source. As a compromise, we’ll tell you that the (rumored) 125cc replacement for Boniface rode a 250 during the supercross season, but that he’s now racing in Australia. Oh, and his initials are Michael Byrne. As for whether it’s true or not, we’ll see…
Word has it that Nathan Ramsey has signed with Honda to race the CRF450R, but we haven’t been able to confirm that yet. We do know that Ryan Hughes (who has been staying and training with Jeff Stanton in Michigan) has not yet re-signed with the team, however. Ernesto Fonseca’s agent has definitely approached Suzuki about a 250cc ride, but signing him would be difficult since they already have two expensive riders. Word has it that the Fonz, who was earlier rumored to be going to Mazda Yamaha, is also talking with Honda (How big will Big Red be?).
David Vuillemin and Tim Ferry both say they haven’t re-signed with Yamaha yet, but that they hope and expect to. Both riders should be worth substantially more than what their old contracts called for, and intuition dictates that they’d be sought after by others, but Vuillemin, anyway, said he is “90-percent sure” he’ll be back.
Oh, Roger DeCoster admitted to being approached by Honda, but although his contract with Suzuki is up after this year, he says he fully expects to be wearing a yellow shirt again next year. If so, he’ll have Buddy Antunez riding a 125 for his team, as the Arenacross champ has signed an SX deal with Suzuki for 2002 (he’s eligible, since he sat out AMA racing for two years). Danny Smith has also re-signed to continue riding a 125 for Suzuki, and although Rodrig Thain has gone back to Europe to recover from his injury, DeCoster expects to sign him again for 2002.
Larry Ward would love to race both supercross and motocross in 2002, and although he’s happy at Moto XXX, he says he “can’t ride for free.” According to Ward, he didn’t want to go an entire season without racing, because the teams would forget about him, but he hopes to land a decent deal for next season. “Hopefully Moto XXX will get a nice, big outside sponsor,” added Big Bird.
That’s about it for now, except to say that according to TFS Steve Bruhn, there will be at least as much action on the gear-switching front this Silly Season as there is with team-switching.
