So things have been happening so fast in the motorcycle racing world that I’m falling behind in getting out the news while still maintaining my one post per day format. As a result, I’m going to cut back on how much I say on each topic for today and try to get out a lot of information in an effort to get caught up…

First, after what as been the most exciting Supercross series in years ESPN decided to drop their option to cover the upcoming AMA motocross season. So don’t tune into ESPN2 this summer if you want to watch Bubba, Ricky, Chad, Kevin and all the others duke it out. Fortunately, OLN snapped up the contract and will be televising the series in its entirety. More good news is that OLN is rumored to be getting David Bailey to handle their announcing duties. Based on what I’ve heard when he’s announced the Daytona Supercross on SpeedTV David should be better at color commentary than ESPN’s Cameron Steele or OLN’s Jerry Bernardo. The bad news is that OLN plans to show the motocross races one week after the event rather than showing them live or tape delayed the same day. The current schedule is to show the 250s on Saturday one week after the race and then the 125s will be shown the Thursday after that. The first race at Hangtown in Sacramento will be shown on May 29th. Tune in and support OLN!

Speaking of dirt bike racing, I never got a chance to give a review of the AMA Supercross finale from Vegas. Neither the much anticipated mano-a-mano battle in the 250s or the east-west comparison in the 125s really materialized. In the 250s, Stewart crashed in his heat race which jammed his thumb and he chose to skip the race. With Bubba out, I think Ricky decided to play it safe rather than risk an injury that would put him behind for the outdoor races. Kevin pushed too hard and crashed out while leading. The result was a big win for Reed, hopefully boosting his confidence for the upcoming motocross season. A big crash in the first lap of the 125s put a lot of the front runners at the back of the pack, so the Langston/Tedesco/Ramsey/Hansen/Walker/Millsaps/Grant battle didn’t happen. Millsaps got the win, somewhat redeeming himself after early season crashes took him out of the east coast 125 championship battle. Like the first race of the season, the anticipation for Vegas turned out to be more exciting than the actual race. Now its time to look forward to the opening of the motocross season this coming weekend…

One person that will be missing the AMA Motocross series is Suzuki rider Sebastien Tortelli who broke his wrist in a practice crash just before Vegas. This is too bad for two different reasons. First, Tortellli has always been a better outdoors than supercross rider. He did well during the SX season, finishing seventh, so looked to be ready for a strong season on the motocross tracks. Second, his job during the SX season was to develop the four stroke RM-Z450 which both he and Ricky Carmichael will be running in the outdoors. Now Tortelli won’t have a chance to benefit from all the development work he did throughout the Supercross season. Hopefully Sebastien can return for the last few motocross races.

Back on the asphalt, the support classes for all the roadrace series have eclipsed the premier series, the only possible exception being the MotoGP series. I’ll try to do some postings in the future that review how these series are developing but I will encourage roadrace fans to tune into the World Supersport, 250 and 125GP races and the AMA Supersport and Superstock races on SpeedTV when they are shown on Tuesdays.

A press release that raised my eyebrows this past week was a message from Yamaha announcing that Doug Henry will be racing a pair of factory supported Graves Yamahas in the AMA Supermoto series. Last season it seemed like the AMA Supermoto series stalled out after a first year growth that surprised and excited many of us fans. This faltering seemed even more clear when the first round of the ‘05 season was cancelled dropping the season to only seven rounds. Having Yamaha join KTM in the series as factories with supported teams should help add some much needed prestige this season. Lets hope they can get Honda enticed into fielding a full factory supported team and get supermoto growing again.

In the MotoGP world, Tony Elias has now joined the injured list after breaking his wrist and leg in a testing accident on Monday. He will miss the June 5th MotoGP race at Mugello. The list of who is healthy in the MotoGP paddock is pretty short these days. Its even worse if you think of the mental beating that everyone has taken by Rossi. Those bruises to every other rider’s confidence could be more damaging than any back or wrist injury.

The sad news coming out of California this morning confirms everyone’s worst fears that Team M4 Emgo Suzuki rider Vincent Haskovec has been paralysed after his accident at Infineon Raceway. The Team Hammer web site posted an official announcement. This is sad, sad news not only because Vincent was a popular rider but because he had taken a big step forward this year as a rider and was a genuine contender for the Superstock title. Add in that he was the top non-factory Honda rider in Formula Xtreme and its easy to see how big a hole his absence from the paddock is going to create. My best wishes go out to Haskovec for a speedy recovery to full health and that he has all the support he can get for the rocky road that lies ahead for him.

I think that’s enough for my first effort at catching up. Tomorrow I’ll post my review for this weekend’s AMA race at PPIR.

[image from the OLN TV web site.]