You know that one time of year when your whole family gets together, your parents, all your brothers, your sisters, the cousins, the aunts and uncles, the in-laws, the whole big family.

Well that was December 7th for the DC Moto team. It's designed to be the one time of year when all their team gets together at the DC Moto Training Facility at Pala Raceway to ride, shoot photos, and talk with the media culminating in a Poker Night benefiting the Road to Recovery Foundation. The non profit organization is founded by action sports agent and former pro motocross/ DC athlete Jimmy Button, dedicated to helping motocross and Supercross athletes who have been injured.

The whole team was out at the Track including hall of fame inductee Jeremy McGrath, Travis Pastrana, Robbie Maddison, newly named rider of the year Nate Adams, Josh Hill, and more. One rider was noticeably late to the party. Maybe DC leading lady Jolene Van Vugt was too busy working out? No actually she was stuck in travel hell. Her flight from Canada was canceled, so she took a 4 hour bus ride in the middle of the night to Detroit, hoped on a plane which had to land due to an emergency on the plane. She eventually made her way to the track to deliver on her responsibilities. So not only is she ridiculously fit, she's extremely determined.

Check back for video from DC Ride day as well as exclusive interviews with Pastrana, McGrath, and Adams on the long lasting effects of injuries in motocross.


Photos courtesy of DC Moto

You've already re-lived round one of the 2007 Toyota Motocross Championship from Hangtown, now let's jump into our swayback machine again and revisit round two, High Point. Remember, these are the good 'ol days of the James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael Premier class battles, Ryan Dungey getting dialed in on the Lites class, Windham still looking young and spry and Josh Hill was still a face in the front of the pack. Round one of the Monster Energy Triple Crown of Motocross kicked off at High Point as well, so mucho dinero was on the line.

High Point's podium shook out like this:

Motocross Class
1. Ricky Carmichael
2. James Stewart
3. Davi Millsaps

Lites Class
1. Josh Grant (1st AMA overall outdoors)
2. Ryan Villopoto
3. Jason Lawrence

Pre-Show - 13min 10sec
Davi Coombs and Jason Weigandt open the pre-show from High Point with a great rundown of the differences between round 1 and 2 of the 2007 Toyota Motocross Championship.

Out in the pits, the shockingly beautiful, and currently very much missed 2007 Ms. Motocross Leticia Cline is interviewing Rob Buydos about the vintage race happening throughout the weekend. Weigandt picks Millsap's brain while he warms up for practice and pulls a few interesting tidbits about High Point while at it.



Post Show - 16min 03sec
This Post Show features a montage of scenes from around the facility and a lot of familiar, but shockingly younger faces. David Pingree and Jason Weigandt chase down the details of the weekend. In the Lites class Grant ran strong out front with a familiar duo in Villopoto and Lawrence behind him.

In the Premier class Ricky Carmichael was airing out the finish line single well beyond what anyone else was capable of which helped him put some distance between him and the pack. There was some exciting racing going on between the GOAT and Stewart but at the end of the day, it was all RC4.



Coming up on Wednesday is Southwick, stay tuned! Until then, here's a preview of the action from the sandbox:

Rumors were swirling yesterday about Josh Hill suffering an injury sustained while practicing for X Games 16's Speed & Style event. Today it was confirmed that, in fact, Hill of Temecula, Calif., sustained a broken femur while practicing a backflip.

Get well soon, Josh!

The 2010 Monster Energy Supercross Season has been dominated by 2 pairs of riders: 1 pair shows up and wins every weekend, and the other pair does not. Of course we're talking first about the two riders who have been dominating the series this season, current points leader Ryan Dungey and hot on his heels, Ryan Villopoto. That other pair is defending champ James Stewart and former champ Chad Reed, and they've been out of contention since Round 3. The story that hasn't been told is about the dynamic happenings behind the front two -- the rider who will find that final spot on the series podium -- the Best of the Rest.

Analyzing the top candidates individually, it's plain to see that consistency is what's lacking in the war for the final podium spot.

Josh Hill
Currently 3rd, 177 points. Main event results: 6, 3, 2, 2, 2, 9, 6, 9, 6
Up until four weeks ago, the answer was clear: Josh Hill. In fact, up to that point, Hill was looking like one of the three favorites for the title, as he'd nailed four 2nd place finishes in a row and seemed to have excised the demons from his past. But then the mediocre results started to pile up and, as of Daytona two weeks ago, they'd become just as common as his stellar results were earlier in the season. There was no official explanation from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians/Yamaha team as to just exactly what was going on with Josh, but Hill has stated semi-publicly that he's struggling with some broken bones that may be affecting his breathing. In other words: broken ribs. If that's the case, he should be on the home stretch of recovery by now, yet his result and riding last weekend in Canada did not show evidence of that.

Davi Millsaps
Currently 4th, 152 points. Main event results: 9, 9, 8, 3, 1, 5, 5, 3, 5, 18
The perennial under-performer, Red Bull Honda Racing's Millsaps has made a career of being inconsistent with flashes of brilliance. He's won a main event again this year (Round 5 in San Diego), but he's also barely made the top 10 a few other times, and he crashed out last weekend in Toronto and scored only 2 points. He's struggled with a sore shoulder (or two) already this year, and before he crashed out of the main in Canada, he'd also gotten tweaked in practice earlier in the day. It's a safe bet that Davi's not at his best, so the prediction here will be that Hill will be able to hold off the #18 "Big Treat" of Davi Millsaps for the final podium spot.




Kevin Windham
Currently 5th, 147 points. Main event results: 3, 6, 5, 10, 3, 3, 14, 4, 5
The undisputed veteran and elder statesman in Supercross, Geico Powersports Honda's #14 Windham has been fairly consistent this season -- at least when compared to Hill and Millsaps. He's made the final podium step on three occasions, and hovered within the top 5 four other times. Unfortunately, KDub's also fallen as far back as 14th, which is unfortunate because if that poor result is thrown out, he'd be sitting ahead of Millsaps and may be motivated enough to make a run at Hill for the 3rd spot. Based on Windham's season thus far, it's difficult to predict how the rest of his season will go, although it's safe to say he should finish ahead of Millsaps enough times to more than make up for that 5 point deficit.



Justin Brayton
Currently 6th with 136. Main event results: 8, 8, 6, 6, 5, 6, 4, 6, 18, 9
By far the most consistent rider from 3rd to 7th in points, MuscleMilk/JGR/Toyota's Brayton has been improving every weekend. No doubt benefitting recently by an even more depleted field, Brayton has been remarkably good at finishing 'just behind' the front pack every weekend. By definition, he's been the 'Best of the Rest' on several occasions, but he needs to kick it up just a bit right now to take advantage of the ailing Hill and Millsaps and the non-existant Reed and Stewart. Unfortunately, Brayton's suffering a bit from an injury sustained at Daytona which left him walking off the track after just 6 laps. His result suffered in Canada, where he finished an uncharacteristic 9th, but he's sure to smell blood in the water while a couple of the riders in front of him are also having physical troubles. If Justin can take advantage of the situation, he could potentially move into 4th in points by season's end, which would be a huge accomplishment for him.

Ivan Tedesco
Currently 7th with 135. Main event results: 7, 4, 9, 7, 3, 10, 10, 4, 18, 4
Now just a single point behind Brayton in 7th is Vali Motorsports' #9, Ivan Tedesco. Ivan's had an up and down season too, with results ranging from 3rd to 18th, with a few 4ths thrown in to balance out other mid-pack finishes. There's no question that Tedesco occasionally shows the speed that's needed to hit the podium, but when Hill gets back up to pace it's not likely he'll be able to beat him. Ivan's battle at this point is to try and land within the top 5 for the season, but to do so he'll have to overcome the consistent Brayton and speedier Windham to do it.

Beyond these 5 players, the gap in points back to Nick Wey in 8th is too large for any hope of getting into the top 5 in points. Furthermore, after examining the pack behind the two Ryans out front, it becomes apparent that the real battle may not be for 3rd, but for 4th and 5th. The wildcard Trey Canard is also shaking things up a bit, taking another point away from each of these riders each time he finishes in front of them -- and he's done so in 3 of 4 attempts thus far. Of course, that will change when Trey gets back on the Lites bike for the final two rounds, but his spot in the top 3 will likely be filled by the return of Chad Reed.

The prediction here, then, goes with Josh Hill staying right where he's at and, while he may lose a few points here and there to Millsaps or Windham, and barring any injury that keeps him out for more than a weekend, he'll end up with that final podium spot for the series.

The Lites classes in both regions is equally interesting and we'll examine that next week after the East gets another round under its belt. This weekend's race at the new Cowboys Stadium near Dallas should be a good one, and will be televised on SPEED this Sunday, March 21, beginning at 5PM EDT.

Every season there is a surprise or feel-good story that fans can unite in cheering for and San Manuel's Josh Hill is certainly one of those riders. After a forgettable year in 2009, Josh seems to have found a great fit with his new team, as his results have shown. The last time we had him on the show, during the off-season, he was contemplating getting a degree in Criminal Justice at DeVry as a back up plan if he failed to land a ride. We think Josh would have been a great CSI tech, but we're certainly glad he is back racing and on the podium where he belongs.

Another great subplot to the supercross season is the emergence of Troy Lee Designs team as a legitimate podium contender as they continue to mix it up with the industry's best every week with their manager David Pingree calling the shots. Ping has once again assembled a solid team that not only race well together, but actually seem to like each other while doing so. We'll get his always entertaining perspective on the season so far and his plans for unleashing New Zealand's Ben Townley back on the motocross world this summer.

The all-new Nuclear Cowboyz Freestyle Motocross tour is coming to the Georgia Dome in our backyard on Saturday, February 13, 2010. The tour has assembled the world's greatest cast of FMX riders, including legends like Adam Jones, Mike Mason, Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg, Ronnie Faisst, and our good friend, Nate Adams, to take the sport to a whole new level in this ground breaking two-hour scripted performance that is getting awesome reviews industry wide. Nate "The Destroyer" Adams will be on to give us some insight and a behind the scenes look into the next chapter of FMX. Check out www.nuclearcowboyz.com for ticket sales and more information. We will be giving away some free tickets on the show tonight, so be sure to tune in live for your chance to win.

For those of you that have listened to our show for many years, you know we love us some Tucker Hibbert. The Monster Energy Arctic Cat's top rider will be going for a possible 10th overall medal this weekend at ESPN's Winter X-Games 14. Tucker has been killing it on the national snocross tour and hopes to continue that steak into his eleventh Winter X Games appearance. Tucker will also be trying his sled skills in the new Knock Out competition which is based on the Moto Step-Up at the Summer X Games. We always support him throughout the winter since he always comes back to motocross when the snow melts. Make sure you watch and support him on ESPN and ESPN2 this weekend, and check out www.tucker-hibbert.com for more info.

Motoendurance.net 's Robb Beams is one the hardest working trainers in the business and with clients like Ashley Fiolek and Adam Cianciarulo you can understand why. Robb will be helping with the Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Championship and the Ricky Carmichael University on March 7-8, 2010, and will give us all the details tonight. You can get more info at www.MXSports.com about both events. We always enjoy having Robb on for his infinite knowledge on training and nutrition and will ask a few questions on those topics as well.

DMXS Radio is going on it's 10th-year-anniversary and we are joining with some friends that have been with us, and supported us, from the beginning this Friday night for some comedy club fun. We invite anyone in the Atlanta area to join us at the Buford Variety Theater on Friday night to see our good friend Jarrod Harris and other comedians perform at this impromptu DMXS reunion. You can get all the details at www.bufordvarietytheater.com and we hope to see you there.

www.dmxsradio.com
Wednesday Night 8-11:00 p.m. ET