News 31 May 2011

The Go: Howdy, Texas!

MotoOnline.com.au reflects on Saturday’s AMA Pro Motocross round at Freestone.

Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Brett Metcalfe did Australia proud with a lengthy holeshot in moto two. Image: Alex Gobert.

Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Brett Metcalfe did Australia proud with a lengthy holeshot in moto two. Image: Alex Gobert.

What a weekend… Chad Reed wins, Brett Metcalfe takes a moto podium, plus fellow Aussies Michael Byrne, Tye Simmonds and Dean Porter all put their best feet forward on race day at Freestone.

The Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship is quickly shaping up to be an exceptional season, the type of title chase where unpredictability reigns supreme – just like supercross was earlier this year!

There’s only one thing better than checking out a live round of AMA motocross or supercross, and that’s when the Aussies put in a stellar performance to make the day complete.

Well, that’s exactly what happened on Saturday in Texas as Reedy won both motos as we all know by now, while Ryan Dungey’s hopes for a dominant moto victory in race two were dashed when he supposedly ran out of fuel in the closing laps.

Reed’s popularity here is phenomenal compared to years past, his TwoTwo Motorsports team quickly becoming a fan favourite largely due to Reed’s undivided focus on proving he’s still a contender for wins on any given weekend.

Fans swarm him and media loves him at the moment, but the cool thing is about the nationals compared to supercross is that you can get much closer to the riders and teams.

The outdoors are still a first class series, just a little more low key in the way it’s all run in regards to security and the amount of fans that gather around the transporters. You could say it has more of an enthusiasts feel to it.

Speaking of enthusiasts, watching Davey Coombs work his magic throughout the day – juggling duties between running MX Sports and Racer X – was a pretty cool sight to see. Whether it was television production, organising the event or simply uploading images to Facebook etc, DC is well and truly on it when it comes to helping boost the popularity of motocross.

What was a leading topic on the weekend was the heat, coming in at well over 30 degrees and also being really humid. The sun was blazing, however the main saviour was the fact that it was fairly windy throughout the day.

Mark my words with this: Brett Metcalfe will contend for the title this season. He has been a consistent top five guy in the opening two rounds, his confidence quickly growing with every result he gains. As it gets hotter back east and his development on the bikes continues, Metty will only get stronger from this point out. Finishing second last year as a rookie was certainly no fluke!

The JDR Motorsports operation continues to find its feet in the U.S, with Simmonds doing a remarkable job as the team’s lone rider in the factory-supported KTM semi – albeit on a 350 in the 450 Class as a 19-year-old rookie!

Aussie JDR Motorex KTM Lites rider Brenden Harrison was actually on hand at Freestone checking out the action, travelling over here just a couple of days following the Toowoomba round of the MX Nationals.

All in all from a media perspective it was on point, a great experience and one that we can learn many things from in order to improve coverage of the nationals back home.

We also gathered some cool content that you’ll see filter onto the site in the next week, including a whole heap of extras with the Australians that we don’t usually hear too much about during the year on U.S. sites.

For now though, it’s time to book some tickets for Pala’s season finale to round out the season!

Stay tuned for more of the regular news we could source from Texas in tomorrow’s Moto Insider feature.

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