First thing on the agenda in this week's Look Forward is a thank you to Kevin Windham who has raced his last event of the 2011 Lucas Oil Pro National Championship. Windham signs out sitting 5th in the points, having led six laps, including one holeshot. But he's done much more than the stats can possibly show - he's making fans happy. He appeals to both the older motocross follower and the young kid and is a true ambassador for this sport. We hope he enjoy the few months off and gets himself into shape for another bash at the supercross circuit. Thanks K-Dub.
As one door closes, a window opens and through that window comes the re-appearance of Frenchman Christophe Po.... only joking, it's Marvin Musquin. After the brutal incident at Freestone, Marvin has had the next five rounds off and everyone's hoping he can make a full recovery. The current MX2 World Champion was looking to make a big impact this year in his first year in America, but a run-in with Justin Barcia's bike put pay to any chance he had of adding the US Nationals crown to his two World Championships. He does have five rounds to try and get his health and fitness back, and the maybe go back to France to be part of the team that tries to win the Motocross of Nations on their home turf.
Already Germany and Italy have announced their MXoN teams and there were no surprises when both named unchanged line-ups from their 2010 teams. Max Nagl, Marcus Schiffer and Ken Roczen will be in St Jean D'Angely for Germany while Antonio Cairoli, David Philippaerts and Alessandro Lupino will be representing Italy, and they've even sorted out their uniform so there should be no repeat of the 2010 fiasco which almost saw the two World Champions sitting on the sidelines.
From now until September there'll be a trickle of team announcements with Team USA usually deciding their riders sometime around the Unadilla weekend. At the moment I don't think anyone can argue with Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey and Blake Baggett representing, but things can change in the blink of an eye in motocross and I'm sure people like Zach Osborne, Eli Tomac and Mike Alessi would jump at the chance to wear the red, white and blue.
Speaking of Chad Reed, I bet he wishes that there was a two week break this weekend, because that crash has got to have left him with a few aches and pains. Despite the crash, he was still able to battle back to 14th place and maintain his lead at the top of the Lucas Oil Pro Nationals.
The gap is down to just six points but it could've well been worse for the Australian after such a horrendous get-off. He does go well at Washougal though and with it being one of the few tracks that Villopoto hasn't won on, it could be a good chance to open that gap back up.
That's of course providing that Ryan Dungey doesn't build on his Millville momentum and sweep the event, because he sits just one point behind Villopoto and is itching to make up the ground he lost in that "fuel incident" at Freestone.
At the moment those three are well clear in terms of speed and endurance but if there is one person that can break into the podium positions, it's the returning Trey Canard. Last week he went 5-3 in his first outdoor of the year which is a good place to build from and it certainly lets the rest of the field know he's back and ready to roll.
It doesn't bode well for all the other challengers that were attempting to get on the podium, especially someone like Mike Alessi who's been 4th in the last three races. The KTM rider has now finished 4th five times and will be desperate to prove that both himself and the machine are good enough to run up front.
Things are slightly more straight forward in the 250 class, in that there is only one manufacturer who's going to win, and that is of course, Kawasaki.
So far they have won all 14 motos to have taken place with wins split between Blake Baggett (7), Dean Wilson (4) and Tyla Rattray (3). Those three are way ahead in the championship and it looks like it'll be a fight to the end for the Pro Circuit teammates. At the moment it really looks like they'll be the only moto winners of the year, but maybe the aforementioned Marvin Musquin can break up that party.
If he can't, then maybe one of the Geico Honda riders will step up to the plate. Barcia almost won at Freestone, but other than that, it's been a disappointing year for the red team.
There is one downer for the Dean Wilson though, and that is his inability to win an overall. For whatever reason he can't seem to figure out the missing link in his moto two performances and take that elusive overall.
Still, it's a nice problem and one I'm sure plenty of other riders would love to have.