Vegas baby!
By TMX Archives on 15th May 03
on a Sunday and I'm sitting poolside at the St Tropez All-Suite Hotel in sun-bleached and booze-soaked Las Vegas. IT'S NOON on a Sunday and I'm sitting poolside at the St Tropez All-Suite Hotel in sun-bleached and booze-soaked Las Vegas. I stink of cigarettes and half-day-old beer and each tiny movement instigates a symphony of throbbing agony in my muddled and misguided brain. Any real sort of concentration is impossible and every few minutes I pause to murder a curious bee with my yellow legal pad, the backside of which is beginning to resemble a Jackson Pollock masterwork. I'm beginning to wish someone would do the same to me.All this is worth it, of course. We suffer the consequences of our actions - and the more extreme the actions, the greater the toll exacted. Just the other night, as I tripped and tumbled around the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, I was given prodigious amounts of Newky Brown and heavily salted, bottom-shelf tequila - not a good combination by any means but we accept our gifts gracefully and with appreciation.A former motocross and supercross champion sprinted toward me, clutching a miniature digital camera. Cued up on the preview pane was a photo taken just 10 minutes prior in the casino bar of a world champion surfer, stark naked save for a purple feather boa."Well if I'd known she was a hooker," came a nearby voice, "I would have stayed right here!" Thus my attention was shifted, until said world champion surfer approached me with six shots of tequila and a request to 'enhance' his naughty bits should the photo in question ever appear in the pages of RacerX.I'd been in Las Vegas for two hours. But that's the way life happens to you in this place. It's worlds removed from anywhere you've ever been, an island in the desert, surrounded by sand and mountains, as if to keep the sickness from spreading. What happens here stays here. So goes the saying - and it all happens here. And that's what makes it the perfect place to end the supercross season.Last night was the final round of THQ World Supercross GP and the AMA Supercross Series. And while Chad Reed had wrapped up the SXGP title a month earlier (to little or no fanfare from anyone), the AMA title was still on the line. Reed was coming in hot, having won the last five rounds in a row. Defending 250 champ Ricky Carmichael was still in the lead and he only needed a sixth-place finish to clinch the title. Reed's chances were slim but he was there to make a statement. In an interview earlier that week, in fact, he stated that he really didn't plan on being champion - that would wait until next season.As it turned out, he was right. Reed did win the race in Las Vegas but Carmichael held on to second - although he really didn't look like he was pushing too hard. Ricky's too smart to risk losing it all, so he simply cruised around the track and collected another championship. But Reed is for real and his time may come before too long.The real excitement happened earlier in the night, in the Dave Coombs Snr 125 East-West Shootout. The annual event brings together the top riders from each eighth-litre division for a one-time-only battle for little-bike bragging rights. Problem was, most of the top riders were out, including 125 East champ Branden Jesseman, who shortly after wrapping up his title, fell in a corner at the Suzuki practice track and broke his thumb. Also missing from the gate was 2002 champ Travis Preston, Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Matt Walker and a host of other top 125 finishers. That left James 'Bubba' Stewart as the odds-on favourite to take the win in Vegas.Remember what I said about actions and consequences? Well, it was all on display in the East-West Shootout. Stewart was probably the fastest rider on the track in either class - he was regularly pulling off a quadruple jump on his 125 that no-one in the 250 class would even try. But when you go that fast you're going to crash eventually. And when you do, it isn't going to be pretty.Stewart bobbled early in the race, having pulled out to a five-second lead on the second lap. He lost a few positions and in his rush to get to the front of the pack he made a rare mistake. Coming off a triple-double combination, his front end dipped and kept on dipping. Stewart flailed through the air, hit the ground and slid to a stop directly in front of the mechanics' area. He was unconscious for two minutes and he awoke with a broken collarbone and a mild concussion. In the meantime, dark horse Andrew Short grabbed his first-ever supercross win. Everyone loves a long-shot in this town and the fans got a good one.Stewart will be fine, of course. He went to Vegas, took his shot and missed - it's an old story and it happens every day. But he'll pick himself up. Right now, word is that he'll miss at least the first three rounds of the Outdoor Nationals. But you know what? Even money says he'll win the title anyway.As for me, I've got to go. It's early in the day - my last day here - and Doc Wobbly is pounding on the door. Wish me luck.Words by Jeff Kocan, courtesy RacerX Photo by Bingo