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American Motocross

Chad Reed once again made headlines last weekend in one of the biggest crashes we’ve ever witnessed at Spring Creek during round seven of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship.

The TwoTwo Motorsports team owner/rider was catapulted from his factory Honda CRF450R on the opening lap of moto two on Saturday, resulting in a monumental scare for the TwoTwo.

In fact, it was a pivotal moment for the sport in general when Reed remounted and raced to 14th, which was just enough for him to keep his red plate with five rounds to run.

Why was it pivotal? Because Reed has been the headline act in the U.S. this year after forming his own team, a positive storyline in what has otherwise been a pretty straightforward season (apart from the James Stewart saga of course!). Without Reed, the series just wouldn’t be the same right now.

So now we do have five rounds left, it’s officially the business end of the season. Any mistakes from this stage could prove costly to the point of no return, which is why I think we’ll see a mix of speed and consistency from Reed and the Ryans – Villopoto and Dungey.

When you watch the opening moto at Millville though, Reed was in stunning form and as long as he isn’t too shaken or injured following his get off, he’s the one to beat. Scans this week revealed he has no broken bones and was back to training yesterday in Florida.

One standout to me last weekend was Trey Canard in his return to racing for American Honda. He was fast from the outset and surprised with the pole position in qualifying, and he backed that up with an overall podium. Canard could play into Reed’s favour as the title goes down to the wire.

While we’re on the subject of Spring Creek, we have to send out congratulations to JDR/J-Star/KTM’s Tye Simmonds following his ninth place in moto one. Rumours have been rising that the team will be Lites only next year, but you wouldn’t expect Simmonds to go back to the Lites or to any other team for that matter.

Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire, so reading between the lines it would be nice to see the team become an official Lites program of sorts for KTM – similar to PC for Kawasaki or Factory Connection for Honda, which also runs a 450 rider. We’ll have to wait and see what happens here…

Australian Supercross

Global Action Sports has unveiled the formats for this year’s Monster Energy Super X series, which will see the return of traditional formats after missing them altogether last season.

Don’t get your hopes up though, because the Traditional round will only be the season finale at Ipswich, which will see a 20-lap main event in the Opens and 15 laps in the Lites.

Apart from that they are all mixed across the board, including the Suvival, Double Header and Triple Header formats during the season. We’ll outline the entire structure in Breaking News tomorrow.

By the way, in case you missed it, we’ve already reported that Under 19s will be introduced to Super X this season, plus it’s been confirmed that television coverage will be delayed by a week following each event this year.

Australian Motocross

Last night saw MotoOnline.com.au at Monza Imports’ launch for the 2012 FOX and Shift range in Melbourne. It’s the first time we’ve seen Mini Bikes in action centre stage at a nightclub, and many soaked up the opportunity in a fun-filled event.

We’ll have more on the launch in the coming days, but you won’t be disappointed with what the American brands have come up with for next year’s range – set for release in Australia on 1 September.

It’ll be back to business this weekend though, with the Moree round of the MX Nationals marking the penultimate round of the season and just one week out from Coolum’s season finale. It’s set to be huge and it’s going to set up the title tilt of a lifetime.

Fingers crossed Jay Marmont is up top the task this weekend though, because the defending three-time champion tweeted this afternoon that he’s suffering the effects of a flu and has been couch-ridden for two days.

It’s not ideal for his preparations, but never count him out. Besides, since his first tweet he’s already promised he’ll be good to go for this weekend!

Jake Moss was confirmed out earlier this week after undergoing shoulder surgery from his Albury accident, and his Serco Yoshimura Yamaha will be taken over by Luke Styke, who has raced as a privateer this year. It actually means that we’ve seen the last of Moss at Serco Yamaha for now, as he’s confirmed to be switching to CDR and the 450 for Super X.

Serco always does a good job of placing replacement riders on the seats of injured riders’ bikes, giving some a unique opportunity in the past including Adam Monea during Super X last year. Monea has become a super sub of sorts, also riding Craig Anderson’s Honda earlier this year in the nationals.

Substitute riders could become more and more vital in coming years as sponsors fight for all the exposure they can get, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more teams doing it in the future. Don’t forget, Michael Phillips was originally a sub for Todd Waters at Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing, before earning himself a full time seat for the season even after Waters returned.

Before we go, don’t forget to sign up to our MX Nationals Fantasy League that we’ve got up and running in the iMoto Community.

That’s all for this week, a short one by our standards, but nevertheless a calm of sorts before the storm takes place over the next fortnight when the MX Nationals go down to the wire. Thanks for stopping by.

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