With one round remaining in the supercross series, the outdoor series is getting ramped up and ready to go. So we’re in a weird dimension where the titles are wrapped up, the guys want to do well at the last race, but they also have to keep one eye on the upcoming motocross opener in Hangtown.

Oh and did you hear about the Monster Energy Cup in October? Yeah, if you can escape the barrage of press releases touting every rider and his mom excited to win the million bucks, you might check that out as well. Anyways, here are some random thoughts about supercross, motocross and whatever else may be on my mind.

The big news coming up will be who will get the factory Kawasaki of Ryan Villopoto now that he’s out for the year with a bum knee? The early favourite was Broc Tickle who rides for the Monster Energy Pro Circuit team on a 450. The PC team is going to be thinned out trying to keep up with Tickle racing the 450 and the other four guys riding the 250 class so naturally, Tickle jumping up would seem to be the perfect fit.

Only word has it that Monster (in this new-age world we’re in, sponsors drive many decisions) wants to have a little faster rider have a chance at the bike so Tyla Rattray’s name has been thrown into the mix. It’s probably going to happen and Tickle will go back down to a 250 to keep everything nice and proper.

Rattray wanted to do 450 MX this season, but couldn’t get a deal that he liked and went back to the PC team on a 250 indoors and out for 2012. Jimmy Button, Rattray’s agent, told me that Tyla desperately wants to race 450 outdoors so this does seem a nice fit if you’re not going to take the more-obvious choice Tickle.

Is Tyla Rattray about to get the call to replace RV on the factory Monster Kawasaki team? Image: Simon Cudby.

But this just in, PC’s defending 250 MX rider Dean Wilson is having shoulder trouble. We heard earlier in the week he would need surgery, but it now appears that he’s going to try and tough it out. But still, that’s not good news for Wilson and PC. And yesterday one of the teams other racers, Darryn Durham, dislocated his shoulder practicing.

So is Mitch Payton, the owner of Pro Circuit, going to be pleased to go into the nationals with an injured Wilson and Durham and no Rattray? That’s the question we’ll see answered later this week or early next week.

I’m still guessing Rattray will be on the Factory Kawi 450 this summer and will be in the mix to get some podiums with his teammate Jake Weimer, Honda’s Andrew Short and Justin Brayton, Yamaha’s Davi Millsaps and Suzuki’s Brett Metcalfe.

The first two spots for the 450 nationals looks like it will be a battle with KTM’s Ryan Dungey and Suzuki’s James Stewart. Yeah, I said Suzuki. It’s not official, but look for it to be early next week.

Stewart is taking one hell of a chance here in getting out of his JGR deal when he could have collected the money all year and not raced but he’s betting on himself big time. All it’s going to be is the most interesting story all summer, can James win again?

Expect to see James Stewart on a Suzuki for the outdoors. Image: Simon Cudby.

It looks like Honda’s made their choice for a fill-in guy as reported weeks ago in this space and it will be Tommy Hahn. The former factory Honda guy went at it as a privateer this year for a race and half before getting hurt and missing the entire supercross season.

Hahn’s got himself a great opportunity here on a great bike and besides, Tommy’s always been better outdoors than in. I’d look for some great results out of the former national winner this year. He’s been focusing on nothing but outdoors for a while now.

Those poor dudes at Troy Lee Designs Honda, they thought that they were going to be set up nicely for a good season of nationals before disaster struck. Christian Craig’s broken wrist has not healed in any way shape or form like the team thought it would and he’s out for at least the first half of the nationals.

Craig put in some great rides here and there on the 450 last summer. The team is auditioning different riders for the spot (one of them being privateer Billy Laninovich) on the 450. It’s star racer Cole Seely will be out for a while with internal injuries he received at Salt Lake City so looks like TLD will bring up one of its amateur racers to fill that spot.

Third team rider Travis Baker concussed himself at SLC and might miss some time from that as well. It was all nicely planned out before the season for the TLD guys but in this sport, in this year, you just knew it wouldn’t stay that way.

Kyle Regal has been a stand-in rider at H&H of late, but he now looks certain for JGR Yamaha. Image: Simon Cudby.

Still talking about fill-in riders, JGR Yamaha’s going to need one after Stewart is officially released next week. Looks like they’ve gone with Stewart’s old teammate Kyle Regal. Regal wasn’t racing supercross until getting picked up by the Hart & Huntington team and has had a rough go of it since.

But the saving grace for Regal is he is definitely faster outdoors than indoors and has found himself on the podium a couple of times as a privateer. Regal will be teamed with Davi Millsaps for an attack on their old teammate Stewart and with no love lost between James and Kyle, look for some fireworks at a national near you.

With the last round of supercross this weekend in Las Vegas and with all the titles wrapped up, I think we’re looking at what may be the most chill, subdued supercross in the history of the sport. The racers are already taking Vegas easy with all the, ahem, other stuff to do in Vegas and besides, no one really wants to go down on the ground with nothing to gain right?

The 250 class saw some radical changes last year in the fact that both series had main events where the heats would be and then where the main event would be was an east/west shootout. The guys were all jacked up for the mains and when the shootout came it seemed that it was the biggest parade ever in the history of supercross.

East champion Justin Barcia washed out early in the race and spent the rest of the race doing whips for the crowd every lap. It was a forgettable race and while I admire the promoters for trying something different, it didn’t work. Now this year, with absolutely nothing at stake the guys will either go balls-out for the win or more predictable, once again just ride around.