Author: Brent Stallo
In effort to truly capture the essence of all that is Southwick, we're going to dedicate this weeks Looking Forward to the wicked awesome people of the New England area. With that in mind, we'd appreciate it if you read the remainder of this article as if it were coming from a Boston local, just for effect. We'll be slipping in some New England slang throughout, so try and keep up.
We're nearing the end of the season, which is unfortunately obvious considering the amount of injuries. A stat that always twark's us here at Motosport. Andrew Short is the most recent victim to the injury bug, but he's only one name on a long list of riders currently filling up the IR list. Both Hahn brothers are out with shoulder injuries, Josh Grant is still trying to figure out how to keep his knee in one piece, Canard is working on healing his second broken femur of the year and PJ Larsen experienced a broken vertebra after a crash at Unadilla. Add to that list, Millsaps, Davalos (broken tooth), Gracyk, Jeff Alessi and Chisholm and you've got one long list of injured riders. And people think football is tough.
Needless to say we hope everyone with injury heals up faster than you can say clam chowder.
We all know what's at stake in heading into Round 10 of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships. Title points, that's what. Dungey is down seven from RV and Reed is slipping away after his mishap in Millville and is now 25 pts down. A wrench was thrown into the 450 class last weekend when Justin "RevLimiter" Barcia caused quite a bit of controversy after battling Dungey and nearly interfering with his title chase. Some say it was racing, some say Barcia needs to tone it down a bit and let things work themselves out. Regardless what anyone says, Barcia is going to do what Barcia does. And that's race anyone he lines up against the best of his ability. One thing is for sure, if RD and Barcia get together again at the Wick, expect fireworks because neither is going to back down. Another thing you can count on is that Barcia is going to have a frikkin' ton of support form the New England faithful this weekend.
In the 250 class Dean Wilson is focusing on being mistake free. He's only been off the podium in two motos this season and if he can continue that streak he'll yank the Lites title at Pala. There's plenty of good racing still yet to come in the Lites class though, that you can count on. Justin Bogle stormed onto the scene in his maiden outdoor national at Unadilla and caused quite a stir, going 6-6 for 5th overall. He didn't make any new friends in the process, either. Blake Baggett was noticeably upset with how aggressive Bogle was in both motos and made no bones about it following the race. Baggett is the only one with a real shot at reeling in Wilson, but now sits 25 pts. back from his teammate.
Southwick will also see the return of the Women. After a long hiatus, Ashley Fiolek and Jessica Patterson will resume their battle for the title. Both ladies were injured during the X-Games, where Patterson experienced a few broken ribs and Fiolek suffered from a mild concussion, but both are reported healthy heading into this weekend. Patterson is coming in with three overall wins compared to Fiolek's two, but Fiolek leads the championship chase 232 to 224. With three rounds left to go for the ladies, this one is going to be a nail bitter all the way to the finish.
Check back in Monday for a full breakdown from the wicked gnarly sands of Southwick.
Until then...
