Monday, January 14, 2013

2013 Supercross | Phoenix | Wrap Up



Phoenix is in the record books and should we be surprised how round 2 unfolded?  I thought we’d see less uncertainty but that’s not how it turned out.  Suffering from emotional exhaustion at the loss of my Denver Broncos to the Baltimore Ravens, round 2 was a welcome relief.  The heat races were great, the drama surrounding the top riders continued and the racing of course was unpredictable.  Our team in the booth and track-side were on however I wonder if Jeff Emig realizes he’s coming off as a bit of a bully around Ricky Carmichael.  It doesn’t seem to bother RC but as a viewer I’d like to see a little more respect around the Greatest Of All Time.

Ralph Shaheen and the boys ran a poll on Saturday just before the mains asking the audience to pick a winner in the 450SX class.  The top 4 picks were no surprise but you would have noticed how split the audience was which just goes to show how difficult it is just to pick a winner.  I’m attempting to pick the top 10 which is proving to be immensely difficult.  I’m not deterred however, my motives are more than just picking winners and losers and my goal by the end of the season is to call 80% of my predictions correct in at least one race-a tall order for sure. 

I won't bother with a play by play, you can find that anywhere so I'll keep my post brief.  I've always been very critical about how predictable Supercross, and Motocross, has been and it's about time we see them mix it up.  Doesn't make this little project of mine any easier but it sure is a whole lot more entertaining.  If I could add just one thing to the sport it would be helmet mics.  I recall during the 2012 Monster Energy Cup the broadcast team attempted to listen in on Mike Alessi's mic but you couldn't hear anything.  My suggestion would be to mic up the guys in the gate, perhaps even in the pits leading up to the gate, something similar to SoundFX on the NFL Network-now that would be awesome!   

I was 20% in the 250SX class and 10% in the 450SX class so plenty of room to improve.  Next week we’re in Anaheim again so this should be pretty interesting.  A1 was not what we expected so I have to decide if my approach should change for A2.  I’ll come to a decision this week so check back to see how I decided to approach Anaheim 2.  It looks like the lineups should be fairly predictable so I’ll adjust for some other factors and let’s see what happens.  One housekeeping note; going forward I’ll include post race analysis of the riders in the upcoming weeks predictions instead of having two separate posts-I’ve always believed less is more so I should start to practice what I preach. 

This week, in the 250SX class I called 3 of the top 5 just not in the correct order so that has to count for something.  I didn’t give Davalos a shot but after this week I better give him a second look.  I got the Tomac and Osborne picks right but left out some other guys on my cheat sheet and I was pleased to see them in the top 10.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Jessy Nelson in the top 5.  I felt he could challenge for the 10th spot so great ride for the young Honda rider.  One of my picks I’m really struggling with in the 250SX class is that of Blake Baggett; I didn’t even see him in the lineup.  I don't know what's going on there so I'll just have to make an educated guess with him-remember I'm just an outsider looking in.  Hey Adam Schefter, have any tips for me? 

I made a bold prediction with Villopoto that he wouldn’t be racing this past weekend in Phoenix.  I did however add that if he were in the lineup that he would place 3rd and I had the call correct until Canard made a mistake-c'mon man!  I think I should be more concerned with Stewart’s knee; RV looked great.  I was off by 1 with Barcia and Reed but I did get the Weimer call correct.  This 450 class is not as predictable as most would have guessed which is great-wouldn’t it be cool to see a new winner each week?  I’m in the ballpark with some of these picks but the mistakes are having significant effects on the results.

As the season rolls on, I should start to improve my results.  I attended the Phoenix SX last year and wasn't able to make it this year but I thought I'd share a photo anyway.  Picks are on the way so check back.

The Roostr

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