Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 6, 2015 P109 lost to their 7-1-1, well, I do not blame you. The reason is that the MXoN is first and foremost a team race, with points scored per rider, per moto, with one throwaway moto result. There- fore, individual overall results have no bearing and they beat us by two points, with Belgium a distant third. Fair play and congratula- tions to France for hosting and winning one of the greatest Motocross of Nations events in history, and to our boys for riding the wheels off those Yamahas! We'll get 'em next year. While I am at it, huge con- gratulations to former motocross racer Ryan Sipes who became the first American to win over- all in the 90-year history of the International Six Day Enduro. Sipes won multiple AMA Super- cross races in the 250 class, including the Dave Coombs East-West Shootout, before making a successful transition to off-road racing a couple years ago. Well done, Ryan! By now, I think almost every- one knows that Eli Tomac will be shoring up the floundering factory Kawasaki motocross team next year. Who will be joining him there is anybody's guess, but my money would be on either Justin Bogle or Josh Grant. Bogle is a former 250 Supercross champion and a great rider who has not reached his full potential. Grant is a prior Supercross and National mo- tocross winner, and also is a great rider who has not reached his full potential, the difference being that Grant has been at it around seven years longer than Bogle has. Grant put in some good rides for Kawasaki this year, most notably at the recent Grand Prix of the USA, where he finished second overall and won the second moto, beat- ing the newly crowned World Champion, Romain Febvre, in the process. "You're only as good as your last race," is a common lament among professional racers, but might be one that Josh is hoping Kawasaki truly believes in. In other news, Chad Reed and his Discount Tire sponsor- ship dollars have landed over at Factory Yamaha, along with some former employees of his now defunct TwoTwo Rac- ing effort. Lars Lindstrom, who wrenched for Grant at TwoTwo, and Shane Drew will reportedly join Reed at Big Blue. This is a nice wedding gift for Lars, who will be tying the knot at the end of this month. It seems odd that Reed chose Lars over Mike "Goose" Goselaar, his super- star wrench during a few of his championship seasons, until you consider that Goose lives in Idaho, not the easiest commute to Yamaha's Cypress headquar- ters. Other unconfirmed drivel that found its way to my ear has a Honda employee mumbling that it would not be an impossibility to see Kenny Roczen on a red bike at Anaheim 1, the only thing needed is a check for two million to buy out his contract at RCH. Considering Trey Canard and Cole Seely are inked for 2016 and, at this point, seem just as likely to win a Supercross Cham- pionship as Roczen, I think the Roczen-to-Honda rumor is un- likely. In these days of billion-dol- lar tech company start-ups, two million dollars may not sound like a lot of money, but given that American Honda and all the other factory race teams lose money on their racing efforts, it's probably two million more than they want to spend. A couple of other things I heard are that Slaton Racing will be U.S. Suzuki's 250 factory satellite race team, with motors built by Boyko Racing. I may be wrong about half the stuff I have written so far, but I know that those will be some fast Suzu- kis. I consistently pulled third gear holeshots at Carlsbad and Saddleback on an RM250-C that Ted Boyko built for me; that was the fastest 250 I have ever ridden. The RM-Z250s may have a couple more strokes than my C model, but I am sure Ted has a couple more tricks up his sleeve and it will be good to see some Suzukis up front in the 250 class again. CN

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