Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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SUPERCROSS ROUND 17 / MAY 6, 2017 SAM BOYD STADIUM / LAS VEGAS, NEVADA P76 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES for Reed to eclipse that mark, if he makes every main event (as he should, if he's healthy). However, ru- mor has it that Yamaha isn't re-sign- ing him for 2018, and he definitely doesn't want to put his own team together—again—just to go after a re- cord like LaRocco's. If another team steps up to hire Reed—or if Yamaha reconsiders—maybe he'll be back, but if not, his butt patch said, "That's all folks!" in Vegas. And it might just be for Speedy Reedy. We'll have to wait and see. The other guy who may have ridden his last supercross is the newly crowned 2017 champ Ryan Dungey. He refused to say outright that he's going to retire, but kept reiterating that he has some things to take care of before he knows what he's going to do next year. Earlier this year, rumor had it that Dungey was suffering from some pretty major burnout, and although he seemed to intentionally avoid using that phrase, he confirmed it after winning his title in Las Vegas. "Nothing's wrong...racing's a lot. It's very taxing, especially if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it 100 percent," Dungey said. "There are a lot of races. There are a lot of races between supercross and motocross, and that's a given, and we've got a lot of races outside of that during the off-season and stuff like that, so...nothing was wrong, it was more trying to find that motiva- tion. Doing it last year was good—the back-to-back—and then having to find that fuel for the fire to keep going, and to keep driving. I say that respectfully, not that I don't like racing or anything like that. It just gets to a point where you try to look at what's important and keep things in perspective. I swear, the devil's at work in our lives. I was being tested so much this year, and I got a taste of the other side during the summer last year. I got to go home to Min- nesota, and it was nice, and you're fishing on the lake, and life's good. That was pulling on me. These are intense situations we're in. I think, as riders at some point, you just crave some normality, really. You just want to feel normal. You don't want to always be in a high-pressure situation, and you want to enjoy the simple things in life. We've been on the go a lot. It was just trying to find the motivation to keep driving. Not to mention, it was a great season, but Eli was on it! At Phoenix, he beat us by 20 seconds, and yeah, it put a little dent in my mentality. I was like, 'Wow, I tried everything I had there, and he won by that much?!' That was tough. He stole a lot of wins from us, and he rode really good. Nothing was wrong, it was just more trying to get things right and keep things on track." With all that being said, if you read between the lines, it sounds like Dungey may be consid- ering doing a supercross-only deal to defend his title in 2018. If that's the case, the question becomes, riding for whom? Depending on the dollar figures in teammate Marvin Musquin's new deal at Red Bull KTM, the team might not be willing to fork out the money to keep both. Will Dungey take a pay cut to race just supercross? Will KTM, or Red Bull, find the money to hire him back for at least one or two more years? Or would Dungey actually consider moving on to another team for 2018? A fresh machine and fresh envi- ronment can do a lot to help fight burnout, after all. Honda's Cole Seely sat out Vegas, with Christian Craig filling in for him at Honda, but hopes that his torn abductor muscle (groin/inner thigh) will be healed up enough by Hangtown to allow him to get back to racing. He says the tear prevents him from gripping the bike with his legs properly. This year's 250SX Western Regional Supercross Champion Justin Hill says he plans to move up to the 450SX class next year. "It'd be a lot of fun to run the 1, being that they didn't let me run it tonight, but I think I'm definitely a 450 guy, naturally," Hill said. "When I get on them, they feel like home. That's where I've always wanted to be. If I could've gone straight there from amateurs, I probably would've done it. I think you'll see me on a big bike [next year] for sure." The new 250SX Eastern Regional Supercross Champ, Zach Os- borne, says he'll likely be staying down to defend his title if he can. "I'm not sure," Osborne said. "Like Justin said, it'd be cool to run the number one, but I did a 450 test earlier this year before the season and it went really well, so it's either/ or. I'm not really too bothered about it. I'd definitely like to defend, and I think it's an awesome move they made to allow us to be able to defend, so that's definitely an option for me." Briefly...