Some thoughts on this wild and wacky supercross series and some other things as well:

Well the news that Chad Reed is getting some minor surgery done to his knee and will miss one, and maybe more, supercrosses certainly rocked the paddock. 2013 isn’t going to be a season that Reed puts at the top of his career accomplishments and this news just makes it worse. I spoke to Chad about it on Friday and although he’s fourth in the points with a couple of podiums, he didn’t seem to interested in riding this thing out and trying to secure that fourth spot.

He’s got to get ready for the motocross season to try and salvage something from this so-so season. The surgery isn’t anything major but I think he’ll miss at least one race and maybe longer. Reed’s also got the 2014 negotiations on his mind as he tries to figure out if he A- wants to race another year or B- wants to stay with Honda.

There have been talks between Reed and Yamaha about maybe having the 22 finish his career on the brand he started or he may just stick with Honda as he’s certainly showed that he can ride that bike as well. No matter what happens or when he comes back, the sport is going to miss the two-two while he’s out.

Davi Millsaps had his best race in a while in Toronto and he credited it to the fact that he can get back on the bike during the week. Millsaps has been fighting a knee injury and that points lead I’m sure is pretty heavy as well.

Do I think Davi’s going to win this title? No, with Ryan Villopoto having seven wins to everyone else’s five he’s clearly been the dominant guy and has a 12-point lead but no matter what Millsaps has had a great season. With two wins and some serious speed, Davi’s been the surprise of the year.

Ryan Villopoto is on a roll in the 450SX class. Image: Simon Cudby.

And he showed me something at Toronto because in my opinion the “old” Davi Millsaps would have thrown in the towel after some bad races and declared it the best he could have done. But the 2013 Millsaps, nope he wanted it at Toronto, you could tell the way he aggressively got onto the back of Reed early on and then pressured RV after being passed. This Davi Millsaps is quite a bit different from the one we’ve seen for years.

One of Australia’s favorite sons found a ride in Canada. Brett Metcalfe officially signed his deal with Leading Edge Kawasaki a couple of weeks ago and he’s headed up north for the nine race CMRC series. Metcalfe hopes to race the opening American national in Hangtown and then head up to try and help the team win its second straight MX1 title (Matt Goerke won it last year). Many people are already declaring it a walk in the park for “Bretty” but he’s not one of them.

As a Canadian that tries to attend a CMRC national or two every year and goes to all the USA races, I have a unique opportunity to weigh in on this debate. And while I do think Metcalfe, barring the always-present injury risk, will win the championship (especially with three deep sand tracks on the schedule – sand has always been Metcalfe’s strength) it won’t be easy.

There have been more than a few Americans who have headed up to Canada thinking they’d be pretty good only to find out that the hometown guys do haul ass. Familiarity with the tracks, schedule, lack of track prep which make the tracks not get as rough and the fact that on their home tracks the native Canadian riders have that chip on their shoulder all add up, to me, no cakewalk for Metcalfe.

Riders like Colton Faciotti, Bobby Kiniry (an American but he’s been racing up there for years) and others are going to make Brett’s life tough up there. Still, it’s a nice move for Metcalfe to head up there, he stands to make over six figures plus in salary should he win a bunch and it can be a nice kick start to his career to head back down here, much like it did to Goerke.

Wil Hahn had not won a main event before this season – he now leads the 250SX east coast series. Image: Simon Cudby.

At the beginning of the 250SX East series most people figured it would be a walk in the park for Pro Circuit’s Dean Wilson and then at the opening round at Dallas, Wilson was fastest in both practices and won the main event. The bandwagon was filling up big-time at that point. Well we know what happened after that, Wilson lost a couple of races and then suffered a sx season ending injury.

And with that, there’s an opening for someone in the class to win their first ever championship. And it’s shaping up to be either GEICO’s Wil Hahn (two wins) or Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin (three wins).

Both guys had zero career wins coming into the series and both riders appear to be equally matched. Musquin has won three in a row and only his early season starts have hurt him. Hahn has been a little more consistent but he’s got to break the Frenchman’s streak here real soon.

Technically very proficient, Musquin’s followed the same pattern for two of his wins which is grab the holeshot and check out. The other win was a great come from behind (and get a little lucky when leader Blake Wharton threw it away with six turns to go) ride in Indianapolis.

If you’re Hahn, you sleep peaceful at night knowing that Musquin hasn’t passed you in any of his wins, you’ve always been behind him. These two are equally matched no matter how you break it down and seeing either rider win would be awesome. Stay tuned.

With the only off-week of the supercross series here, most of the top riders will try to squeeze some outdoor testing in this week in hopes of getting some kind of base set-up for Hangtown which is only two weeks after the final round of supercross.

As a former factory mechanic, it’s a tough thing because you’re so looking forward to not travelling and having an off-week to relax and get off the treadmill of pro motocross but on the other hand, you’ve got to build another bike to start outdoor testing on and then head out to motocross tracks to get work done. There’s no rest for these riders and teams, it’s a vicious circle.

After Vegas SX is over, those two weeks before the first national are basically hell weeks. There are long hours put in by everyone on these teams and this weekend, Easter weekend, is about the last time you’re sitting at home trying to get away from it all.