MotoSport Gearhead Supercross Observations - Indianapolis

Welcome to Gearhead Operations Weekly Supercross observations! This is your favorite Gearhead Ryan Roberts, back at it again and giving takes that I should probably keep to myself! Surprisingly my boss Tiffany didn't fire me so shout out to her!

This week brought the circuit to Indianapolis, Indiana for round 9 of AMA Supercross series. Indy has always had soft dirt but watching press day, the ruts were insane and would be the star of the show Saturday night and I have to say they lived up to the hype!

Hot take number one from this weekend: I love hard technical tracks that make the pro's look like squids out on the track. To compare it to a stick and ball sport, The US Open of Golf is played at one of the most difficult public golf courses in the country and the winner is typically around par versus other majors that the winner is 15 under par. Golfers are shanking balls left and right while throwing clubs and at those moments they look like us normal humans, and that is what Indy did to the riders. Tracks like the one at Indy humanize riders we have idolized for years, and I can't get enough of it! I love nothing more than seeing riders hit a rut wrong and have to double instead of triple or run off the side of the track because they hit a whoop wrong. You may be thinking to yourself "but Mr. Gearhead sir, why would we want to see riders look like mortal humans?" Well, you're in luck and I have the perfect answer for you, it makes for great racing! This track needed every obstacle it could manage since lap times were around 46 seconds, and three minutes into practice everyone had the track dialed. The ruts making the track as technical as it was contributed to a nail bitter in the 450 main, otherwise, I think we would have had a night of startcross where the winner was determined on lap one.

Hot take number two: the fake start during practice is the worst idea since giving me permission to write this article. Roczen was almost taken out after he made contact with Webb during the fake start, and it could have ruined a historic night all because of a meaningless start. To top it off, they did two fake starts this weekend instead of the usual one meaningless start! Unfortunately, one day a high-profile title contender will end his season during one of these, but I hope I am wrong about that.

One definite bright spot for the weekend was that it looks like Chris Blose might be finally figuring things out on the Pro Circuit 250. I have always been a fan of Pro Circuit and have felt horrible for the owner of Pro Circuit Mitch Payton this year. One suggestion for you Mitch, I am addressing him personally because I know he will read this, is to maybe go to a local church and get a preacher and perform an exorcism in the rig? Can't hurt right? On the other hand, Zombie Blose did have a season best 6th on the night so maybe Mitch already took my advice already and if that is the case, please send me a pipe and silencer for my bike. Thanks in advance.

Hunter hunted wire to wire in the 250 main event, and it was a great race to browse MotoSport.com and see all the great deals we have for fifteen plus one. Jordan Smith has been improving and hopefully he will start getting into the mix to maybe win one of these. Justin Martin had a solid night on the Club MX bike. He is a previous Indy 250 main event winner and always shows up solid at Indy.

The 450 main was one of those sports moments I will remember my whole life. Seeing Roczen win and get emotional on the podium had me almost cutting onions. This win hopefully brings Suzuki back into legitimacy and maybe will motivate their brass to invest more into the bike and the sport. The nerves I had brewing inside of me during the main made the twenty minutes feel like it lasted three hours. Kenny going through the canyon in the middle line of the whoops lap after lap was just impressive. He won a heat race earlier in the year and then faded in the main, but I remember watching that heat race and noticing how hard Kenny was working to make that bike go that fast and thinking there was no way he could do that for 25 laps. This race the bike looked so much better than earlier in the season, but you can tell it is still a click off everyone else's bike. Taking the bike into account and that it has been over a year since Kenny's last win made this win that much more impressive, and I am pumped for him and his team.

Justin Barcia put in one heck of a ride, and I got to say he is a vibe. His speech after the heat race win had me pumped to watch him in the main. Barcia and I have had our ups and downs over the years, when he was getting booed in Salt Lake after taking out Mookie, I was over him but after Daytona and Indy I am back on the Barcia train!

In honor of Kenny's and HEP Suzuki's win I think there is only one possible Gearhead Item of the week and that is the Suzuki OEM 450 kick starter

As a consolation for those that might not have a Suzuki, a set of Arc levers in honor of Hunter Lawrence snapping Brock Papi's clutch lever halfway through the main while Brock was getting lapped.

P.S. This now makes two Tomac weird races this season, just something to keep an eye out for.