We’re already coming up on Round 6 and moving east with the 2011 Monster Energy Supercross Series. I’ll give a little insight here into the race at houston and of course will include my predictions for the race. Lets start with the east coast Lites class.
Lites
This will be the first week of the east coast lites series, all new riders and all new races. Its hard to pretend that i might know what we can expect from the first race in this series, no one can really have any idea. There is definitely some talent on the east coast and i think we might see it early and often. There is of course high expectation on Dean Wilson on his Pro Circuit/Monster Energy Kawasaki. During outdoors he showed a lot of speed and pretty much ran up front all season long. This kid has an extremely awesome ability to keep his Kawasaki on two wheels when most people would lose the bike. With all the speed he carries and the uncanny ability to keep the bike upright i expect to see him in the top 3 for each race of the east coast series, barring any sort of crash.
Dean Wilson is the sure favorite coming into the east coast series but there are many other contenders we could see ahead of him. Justin Barcia though a little bit wild on the track, has the most speed out of these riders. If he can keep his bike upright i think we will definitely see him taking the top spot on the box multiple times this season. A lot of riders get nervous when they are around Barcia because he can be all over the track, we’ve seen some riders put up no fight just to avoid any contact with Barcia. Another rider who looked extremely promising towards the end of last season was Blake Baggett. Baggett has moved to the Pro Circuit Kawasaki team this year with Wilson. With a new team and a ton of confidence i expect to see Baggett coming in with a consistent 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place finish all season.
Last but not least we do have a new comer to the lites class, Malcolm Stewart will make his professional debut in Houston. I haven’t seen a lot of riding from this kid, but with James Stewart for a brother i would expect a lot from him. I don’t want to make any bold predictions since i don’t know a lot about Malcolm Stewart, but i will say i am “super pumped” to see him on the track and find out what he has. Houston is going to be an exciting race, the Houston track does not look too technical so i expect to see Wilson and Barcia flying around this track. Bring on the east coast lites!
Houston Lites Class Prediction:
1. Dean Wilson
2. Blake Baggett
3. Justin Barcia
4. Ryan Sipes
5. Nico Izzi
450
After last weeks win there is undoubtedly the “Bubba is baaaack!” bandwagon forming. No question that pretty much any and all articles i have read since the race have included someone speaking of Stewart. I have to admit he did look good at Anaheim 2, definitely a side of Stewart the Supercross nation has been waiting to see. I wouldn’t say that i believe Stewart checked out like he used to. He only won by a margin of about two seconds and never had more than a five second lead over 2nd place. Some may argue this is just the new patient James Stewart we are seeing and that once he had a comfortable lead he took it easy. This is a possibility but i believe Villopoto still has the speed to make a pass on Stewart and to make it stick.
I’m extremely excited to see the Houston Supercross, the track does not look very technical so it will be extremely fast. I think this track will play out perfectly for Villopoto. With his ride style of fly or die every race this track will work perfectly for him to ride wide open. Houston is the track i seriously think we will see the battle that everyone has been waiting for between Stewart and Villopoto. No washouts included, this is going to be an awesome race to watch. I am going to put Stewart and Villopoto in the top two like usual,but which order to put them in is the hard part. Following them its impossible to deny that Chad Reed has been looking much better from week to week. You can tell he is gaining confidence with each box and looking more dangerous after each race. If we do see any kind of crash or washouts from the front 2 you can be sure that Chad Reed will be there to take the place away.
Behind the top 3 riders there is a huge mix up of who we could see from week to week. RacerX did a cool article on Justin Brayton and you can check it out here http://racerxonline.com/2011/02/09/going-for-the-w-justin-brayton. I’m a huge fan of Brayton. He works his ass off from week to week, puts in consistent races and never bitches. He has an excellent attitude all the time and it would be hard not to recognize this. I think he has promising skills on the supercross bike and i expect to see him top 5 consistently for the rest of the season. I don’t believe that Brayton has the speed to run with Stewart, Villopoto, or Reed, but after them i think he is there. I expect Brayton to be a contender for the box next season.
Of course we can’t leave out thoughts on Canard, Tedesco, or Dungey! As far as Canard goes, i think he is fast and he’s fun to watch but i don’t expect him on the box much more this season. It’s tough to say that because i think he has the potential to do it, it just doesn’t seem like things are coming together for him as of late. Tedesco has been a starting machine we always see him up towards the front after the start but he is not able to run with the younger, faster riders. He is another very respectable rider and i’d like to see him make the top 5 soon. Dungey still shows no aggression and after last week when he DNF’d it’s going to be interesting to see how his race style changes. It’s pretty obvious that Dungey is right on the edge of being out of the points race in the Supercross class. Notice i said on the edge… this is because we are not even halfway through this season yet and there’s always the possibility of a bad crash with the front runners. Dungey needs to get some aggression going and starting making top 5 finishes if he wants a chance. I’m not even sure top 5′s can help him at this point,but as the defending Supercross champion i would like to see Dungey at least make the box. As much as his championships have been questioned i would think we would see more fire out of him to prove a point.Whether we see anything that i’ve mentioned above or not, Houston is going to prove to be some amazing bar-to-bar racing it’s almost a guarantee.
Houston 450 Prediction:
1. Ryan Villopoto
2. James Stewart
3. Chad Reed
4. Trey Canard
5. Justin Brayton
Lites
This will be the first week of the east coast lites series, all new riders and all new races. Its hard to pretend that i might know what we can expect from the first race in this series, no one can really have any idea. There is definitely some talent on the east coast and i think we might see it early and often. There is of course high expectation on Dean Wilson on his Pro Circuit/Monster Energy Kawasaki. During outdoors he showed a lot of speed and pretty much ran up front all season long. This kid has an extremely awesome ability to keep his Kawasaki on two wheels when most people would lose the bike. With all the speed he carries and the uncanny ability to keep the bike upright i expect to see him in the top 3 for each race of the east coast series, barring any sort of crash.
Dean Wilson is the sure favorite coming into the east coast series but there are many other contenders we could see ahead of him. Justin Barcia though a little bit wild on the track, has the most speed out of these riders. If he can keep his bike upright i think we will definitely see him taking the top spot on the box multiple times this season. A lot of riders get nervous when they are around Barcia because he can be all over the track, we’ve seen some riders put up no fight just to avoid any contact with Barcia. Another rider who looked extremely promising towards the end of last season was Blake Baggett. Baggett has moved to the Pro Circuit Kawasaki team this year with Wilson. With a new team and a ton of confidence i expect to see Baggett coming in with a consistent 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place finish all season.
Last but not least we do have a new comer to the lites class, Malcolm Stewart will make his professional debut in Houston. I haven’t seen a lot of riding from this kid, but with James Stewart for a brother i would expect a lot from him. I don’t want to make any bold predictions since i don’t know a lot about Malcolm Stewart, but i will say i am “super pumped” to see him on the track and find out what he has. Houston is going to be an exciting race, the Houston track does not look too technical so i expect to see Wilson and Barcia flying around this track. Bring on the east coast lites!
Houston Lites Class Prediction:
1. Dean Wilson
2. Blake Baggett
3. Justin Barcia
4. Ryan Sipes
5. Nico Izzi
450
After last weeks win there is undoubtedly the “Bubba is baaaack!” bandwagon forming. No question that pretty much any and all articles i have read since the race have included someone speaking of Stewart. I have to admit he did look good at Anaheim 2, definitely a side of Stewart the Supercross nation has been waiting to see. I wouldn’t say that i believe Stewart checked out like he used to. He only won by a margin of about two seconds and never had more than a five second lead over 2nd place. Some may argue this is just the new patient James Stewart we are seeing and that once he had a comfortable lead he took it easy. This is a possibility but i believe Villopoto still has the speed to make a pass on Stewart and to make it stick.
I’m extremely excited to see the Houston Supercross, the track does not look very technical so it will be extremely fast. I think this track will play out perfectly for Villopoto. With his ride style of fly or die every race this track will work perfectly for him to ride wide open. Houston is the track i seriously think we will see the battle that everyone has been waiting for between Stewart and Villopoto. No washouts included, this is going to be an awesome race to watch. I am going to put Stewart and Villopoto in the top two like usual,but which order to put them in is the hard part. Following them its impossible to deny that Chad Reed has been looking much better from week to week. You can tell he is gaining confidence with each box and looking more dangerous after each race. If we do see any kind of crash or washouts from the front 2 you can be sure that Chad Reed will be there to take the place away.
Behind the top 3 riders there is a huge mix up of who we could see from week to week. RacerX did a cool article on Justin Brayton and you can check it out here http://racerxonline.com/2011/02/09/going-for-the-w-justin-brayton. I’m a huge fan of Brayton. He works his ass off from week to week, puts in consistent races and never bitches. He has an excellent attitude all the time and it would be hard not to recognize this. I think he has promising skills on the supercross bike and i expect to see him top 5 consistently for the rest of the season. I don’t believe that Brayton has the speed to run with Stewart, Villopoto, or Reed, but after them i think he is there. I expect Brayton to be a contender for the box next season.
Of course we can’t leave out thoughts on Canard, Tedesco, or Dungey! As far as Canard goes, i think he is fast and he’s fun to watch but i don’t expect him on the box much more this season. It’s tough to say that because i think he has the potential to do it, it just doesn’t seem like things are coming together for him as of late. Tedesco has been a starting machine we always see him up towards the front after the start but he is not able to run with the younger, faster riders. He is another very respectable rider and i’d like to see him make the top 5 soon. Dungey still shows no aggression and after last week when he DNF’d it’s going to be interesting to see how his race style changes. It’s pretty obvious that Dungey is right on the edge of being out of the points race in the Supercross class. Notice i said on the edge… this is because we are not even halfway through this season yet and there’s always the possibility of a bad crash with the front runners. Dungey needs to get some aggression going and starting making top 5 finishes if he wants a chance. I’m not even sure top 5′s can help him at this point,but as the defending Supercross champion i would like to see Dungey at least make the box. As much as his championships have been questioned i would think we would see more fire out of him to prove a point.Whether we see anything that i’ve mentioned above or not, Houston is going to prove to be some amazing bar-to-bar racing it’s almost a guarantee.
Houston 450 Prediction:
1. Ryan Villopoto
2. James Stewart
3. Chad Reed
4. Trey Canard
5. Justin Brayton
2/10/2011 7:27am
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