Zero and Hero – Washougal

Hero

Justin Barcia came into 2012 with a plan. Jeff “Six Time” Stanton joined team Barcia not as a trainer or a coach, but more of a mentor.  Stanton has said he cannot teach Barcia how to ride or find speed, Barcia already has that.  What Stanton brings to the table is experience.  How to manage a championship, how to mentally prepare for a difficult day. It is often said the championship can be won or lost on your worst day.

Supercross….check.  East coast champ.

Going into Motocross would be a different ball game.  I don’t know if Stanton could ever be called a tactician, but they looked at the last couple champions.  Basically, if you finished with about a 3^rd place average, you won.  Dean Wilson averaged 22.4pts per moto last year.  Trey Canard averaged just 19.75pts per moto in 2010 when he took the title.  Consistency is the key and  Barcia is currently averaging 21.5pts.  He’s in the window.

You can see in Barcia’s interviews after the race he is not animated or out of control about lappers or when Baggett catches him from behind and passes him.  He is sticking to the plan and that plan may be starting to pay off.  This weekend Baggett made more mistakes in the first moto than Stevie Wonder at a driver’s test.  Barcia motored on to the win.  Second moto, not so much the same scenario, but Barcia stuck to the plan: score points.

The next two rounds at Southwick & Undadilla should be good opportunities for Barcia to make up some ground on his 11 point deficit.  He almost won Southwick last year and held off Ryan Dungey at Unadilla last year on a 450.  He just needs to stick to the plan.

Zero

I may catch some flack, but the Zero this week is the WMX.  Sure, I am sure you will say something like “any of those girls can kick your ass on a bike”.  That may be true, but so what.  The truth is the series right now is three to five minute filler on TV between the 450 & 250 motos.

Have you seen the ratings for the WNBA?  I haven’t, but I’m guessing none of you know either. Why? Because you don’t watch the WNBA. I tried to Google it but Google got bored and gave up on the search. They are athletic, but so is the Jr. High boys basketball team. It’s just not entertaining to watch when you can watch the best of the best compete elsewhere. Same goes for the WMX.  It may have its place, like Loretta Lynn’s, but not on a Saturday at the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.

The only folks that watch that race are probably the parents and boyfriends. Hey, I’m all for the girls going out and shredding it up.  They are tough and athletic, but the racing looks more like amateur racing compared to the Lucas Oil Outdoor National races that bookend the women.  The average lap time of the slowest 250 rider that completed all 15 laps of the 2^nd moto: 2min 26sec.  The average lap time of Ashley Fiolek who went 1-1: 2min 28sec.  The fast lap of that 250 rider: 2 min 20 sec. Fiolek was 2min 27sec.  That is a big gap to clear to get near the elite