Leo
BY STEVE
ers
lie
......-......._-------::-:-,z
hey say you've got to know when
to hold 'em and know when to
fold 'em - well, by "they" I mean
Kenny Rogers. Anyway, it's hard to
know who to hold and who to fold
anymore when we all gather in our
esteemed editor's office to make our
picks for our weekly supercross pool,
because frequently, by the time the
race starts Saturday night, a couple
more big names are missing from the
starting gate.
I don't think the tracks are any
more or less safe than they used to
be - if you think about it, they have to
get increasingly more daring and difficult as the riders and machines
progress. Can you imagine if the riders were racing on the same tracks
today as they were in 1976? Or for
that matter 1986? But it's pretty
funny how excited everyone is about
supercross when the season starts,
but by the time the series heads back
East, half of the top riders are injured,
and all of a sudden the fair-weather
fans don't care anymore.
The way our pool works is as follows: We all draw numbers (1-12)
from a hat, and whoever has the lowest number picks a rider first, the
highest number last, and a rider can't
be picked twice. Then, we all draw a
second rider in reverse order from the
first picks (last to first, first to last).
We do this for each class, and the
lowest total score by position (first
pays a point, 20th pays 20 points)
wins. If there's a tie, the win goes to
the best single finish. With this in
mind, a 1-4 is impossible to beat
because the best anybody could do is
a 2-3, and since both total five
points, the 1-4 wins in the tiebreaker.
The problem is, at the beginning of
the year, I would usually end up with
David Vuillemin and, maybe,
Stephane Roncada, and I figured
either of those riders could threaten
for a podium, or even a win. Now that
so many riders are on the D.L.,
though, picks look somewhat lopsided - like you end up with Ricky
Carmichael and Keith R. Johnson.
Nothing against Johnson - he's a fast,
dedicated rider - but he's no Ricky
Carmichael.
Many of our favored first-round
and early second-round picks are
gone now. Mike LaRocco has been
out for the last two weeks, though
he's been attempting to ride. Michael
Byrne is riding 125s. Travis Pastrana
is out. Stephane Roncada is out.
Sebastien Tortelli is out. Ivan
T
:I:
:;)
