In 2011 MotoOnline.com.au became a fully-fledged dirt bike only website, covering the best of Australian racing as well as following our greatest exports as they do work overseas. In a bid to give you guys the best coverage possible on our Aussies in the U.S. contesting the AMA Supercross and Motocross series, we decided there was only one man for the job – welcome aboard Steve Matthes to the MotoOnline.com.au contributor list! The PulpMX.com boss and Racer X regular (plus former factory mechanic) will provide a monthly perspective on our Aussies over there in a manner that only Matthes can. To kick things off, here’s a quick report card direct from the States as Matthes takes checks out the current Aussie contingent…

G’day mates!

Hey, I’m just trying to fit in around here at MotoOnline.com.au as I bring you a column from over here in America. Or, as Chad Reed calls it, ‘Ameriker’. Some of you may know me from Racer X magazine and online, or maybe it’s the Monday night PulpMX.com Show I host over on my own site.

No matter if you know me or not, I’m here at MotoOnline.com.au and am going to dish out my take on the AMA Supercross and Motocross series. Take that everyone, a Canadian living in America and writing for an Aussie site. Try to process that while you throw another shrimp on the Barbie.

The 2011 Supercross series started with way more questions than answers and we’re starting to figure some things out in this, the most exciting season that I can remember in my 16 years of either being a mechanic or a media dude on the circuit.

The sub-plots are everywhere and I don’t even know where to begin. Well, I kind of do actually.

Let’s hit things off the right way with you people and I don’t mean talk about Crocodile Dundee and its impact on me as a little kid, but by giving you guys an honest and candid assessment of the Aussies racing over here in the land of fried food and drink cups the size of a small ’roo.

Matthes is a big fan of the TwoTwo, Australia's greatest ever dirt bike export.

Chad Reed – Grade A
We all know what a big-time guy he is to you guys, but I have news for you – he’s big-time over here as well! Fourth all time in SX wins and, as I type this, the points leader in the 2011 series despite only wining one race.

Ryan Villopoto has five, James Stewart has three and even rookie Trey Canard has one more win than Reedy. Despite that, he’s been consistently consistent (is there any other kind? Inconsistently consistent doesn’t quite flow off the keyboard) to be leading by three points with five rounds remaining.

It’s been a remarkable ride for the two-time SX champion. He’s on his fourth bike in four years, started his own team, at the beginning of the series had the least amount of OEM help out of his competitors and I promise you, not very many industry people or other riders thought he stood a chance.

Reedy was off the pace at the opening rounds and wasn’t a factor. I can tell you for a fact that many people were happy for his podium ride in Oakland because no one wanted to see an old warhorse go out with fifths and sevenths.

But a funny thing happened. Reed started getting better and better as the series went on. It’s been my experience as a mechanic and knowing all these riders that it is incredibly hard to actually get better and faster in the middle of the season. The travelling, the races, trying to maintain your physical fitness and nurture the bumps and bruises all at the same time leaves no room for improvement.

The work is done in the off-season and by Anaheim, you’re supposed to be peaking and trying to maintain that balance. But leave it to the kid who left home to race the 250GPs to do it differently, I guess.

Reed started getting better, started getting a bit more help from Honda (in the form of triple clamps with an off-set that primary suspension sponsor Pro Circuit wasn’t able to produce) and getting more comfortable with the bike. By the time he broke through in the rain in San Diego, the story was beginning to become something that not even Hollywood could write.

He’s got four second places, with two of those after he led with a lap or less remaining. On pure speed, he’s probably third or fourth out of the top five guys but as he told me after Toronto, “I don’t give a damn how many wins I have if I can win the title”, so we’ll see how it goes.

One thing is for sure, he’s a savvy veteran who can dig deep if he needs to and he’s incredibly mentally strong. He does not care if he gets beat by 30 seconds one week, he’ll come back the next one and throw it down with the top guy. If he pulls this off, it will be amazing.

South Australia's Brett Metcalfe is a rookie in the 450 Class, but has been ruled out of recent races through injury.

Brett Metcalfe – Grade B
Brett Metcalfe finally made the jump up to the 450s full-time with the Suzuki factory team alongside defending champion Ryan Dungey and big things were expected of Metty.

The friendly, underrated Metcalfe had broken through last summer in the outdoors and was in demand this season. The learning curve is steep and Brett himself told me that the week-in and week-out grind of racing 450s every week (up until this year, Metty had been a 250 rider and had breaks in his series) was the biggest adjustment for him.

Unfortunately, Brett was just getting into the series (he had a top five and was always top 10) when he had a series of crashes at Houston, Atlanta and Daytona that has most likely done him in for the rest of the Supercross series. I haven’t heard anything official, but I did hear that he suffered a concussion in one of those violent crashes so no one really knows when he’ll be back.

Queenslander Michael Byrne's best years in the U.S. were with the factory Suzuki team.

Michael Byrne – Grade C
Michael Byrne has actually been here longer than any other Aussie as he came over in 1999 to ride for the now-defunct EdgeSports.com team that was owned by Jeff Emig.

Byrner enjoyed his best years at factory Suzuki and was definitely a victim of some budget cut-backs as Suzuki let him go at the end of 2009 despite being a top three outdoor guy and tying for an overall win that same year.

I don’t know what kind of pictures that fellow Aussie Matt Moss had of team manager Roger DeCoster, but RD selected Mossy over Byrner and it was a questionable move no doubt about it.

Anyways, Byrner had a terrible year in 2010 and wanted to return to the brand that got him the most success of his career so it was back to Suzukis. The BTOSports.com/BBMX team snapped up the number 26 and big things were hoped for by both parties.

Unfortunately for Byrner, he got hurt at the annual Bercy Supercross in Paris and missed a big chunk of the Supercross season. Jumping in halfway through the series is never the best thing to do but Byrne was forced to do just that.

Since returning he’s had some great rides (Jacksonville) and some not so great ones (his first one in San Diego was his first main event he’s ever missed in America), but he’s getting better despite the fact that a wrist is never the best appendage to hurt on a motocrosser’s body.

Michael is one of the best guys in the pits, he’s a professional through and through and an asset for any team to have. He’s helped raise the profile of the BBMX team and let’s hope that better days lay ahead for Byrne.

Tye Simmonds may only be 18, but he's impressing as an AMA Supercross rookie. Image: Hoppenworld.com.

Tye Simmonds – Grade B
I knew nothing about this guy when he came over. Sure, I’d seen his name in the results of the Super X series and Aussie nationals, but to be honest when I heard that Aussie-based JDR KTM team had hired him I just figured it was a case of him being an Aussie and bros with the team owner. After all, if I had the cash to own a team how much you want to bet that Tim Ferry would either ride for me or manage the operation?

Now having said that, Simmonds has been pretty good. He’s really young and he’s a very big kid on a KTM 350. Actually scratch that, he’s not a very big kid – he’s a monster. Like the blue guy in Monsters, Inc. kind of big.

So to me, knowing nothing about the kid (seriously, someone check his drivers license, I saw him at Indianapolis and he’s got five o’clock shadow! He’s got George Clooney stubble so he’s either not the age he says he is or he’s got some sort of hormone problem. Like, maybe his parents fed him raw Kangaroo meat in a cage his whole life) he’s been really good.

Through twelve races, he’s made six main events and sits 22 in the points. Good job, mate! Why have I graded him better than Byrne? Because I knew nothing about the dude and he’s been pretty good.

Ryan Marmont consistently made main events in his guest rides with the JDR/J-Star/KTM team. Image: Hoppenworld.com.

Ryan Marmont – Grade C+
Another JDR rider (has PJ Larsen applied for Aussie citizenship yet?) Ryan had been racing the West Coast Regional 250 series and seems to be the complete opposite of his brother Jay, who was here for a few years on a KTM.

Jay was, at times, pretty damn fast but would almost always end up cartwheeling his brains out and getting hurt. Ryan is like the little train that could. He’s not going to impress you with his holeshot skills or riding ability, but he is going to go out there and put in a solid 15 laps and finish pretty well.

Marmont made every main he raced, got a best of a seventh and sits just outside the top 10 in points. Like I said, he’s everything that his brother Jay (who I’m glad to see enjoying success back home in the motherland – he seemed like a nice guy when I did talk to him) is not.

Dan Reardon is yet to realise his full potential in the U.S. There's a chance he could be back for more to round out the nationals. Image: Hoppenworld.com.

Dan Reardon – Grade Incomplete
‘Dandy’ Dan raced over here for a few years and to be honest, never did as well as he could have seeing as he had some good equipment at times. The few times that Dandy did do well, (like Hangtown last year) he would get hurt shortly after and have to start from scratch all over again.

Anyways, Reardon came over for the JDR team and rode a couple of races and made one main event. Then he disappeared back to Aussie to ride there. So long Dan, we hardly knew ya!

So that’s it for this month, if you want to send me an email please feel free at [email protected] and float some column topics by me. I do have a few stored up for you guys including titles like ‘Why I don’t like the Dan Reardon theory’ and ‘When Reedy and I hated each other’.

Stay tuned!

For more from Matthes, head over to his website at PulpMX