Anaheim I Supercross Press Conference

Don’t be surprised if the 40th Anniversary Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM Championship series, turns out to be a golden season 10 years in advance of the official 50th Anniversary.

With arguably the strongest field of past champions and potential winners since the early 1980s and unprecedented media coverage that includes a new Fox Sports 1 television package with the potential to reach over 100 million households, the sport of supercross is now as hot as it ever has been. That much was in evidence at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California, today, where the worldwide media gathered for the official Anaheim I press conference to kick off the season, which begins this Saturday night in what will be a highly anticipated series opener.

On hand for the press conference were no less than four AMA 450cc Supercross Champions, including reigning three-time champ Ryan Villopoto of the Monster Energy Kawasaki team, 2010 champion Ryan Dungey of the Red Bull KTM team, and a pair of two-time former champions in Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart (2007, 2009) and Team 22/Discount Tire Kawasaki’s Chad Reed (2004, 2008). With three years of dominance behind him, Villopoto is still the man, but any one of these other three has the potential to unseat him. However, they’ll have to look over their shoulders as well, as 2013 AMA Western Region Supercross Champion Ken Roczen, 2013 AMA Eastern Region Supercross Champion Wil Hahn and 2013 Lucas Oil AMA 250cc Motocross Champion Eli Tomac have both stepped up to the 450cc class, giving the series a trio of young lions hungry to battle the established veterans for the win. If history is any indication, Anaheim I is the perfect place for one of these talented youngsters to make their mark. And there are others, such 250cc and 450cc Supercross winner Justin Barcia of the GEICO Honda team, as well as surprise Anaheim I winners Josh Grant (2009) and Davi Milsaps (2013), who are returning to Anaheim for another shot at glory. Any way you look at it, Anaheim I is set to be spectacular.

Adding to the challenge for the riders will be a recently announced change to the format in which the 450cc class will add two more riders to the main event, making for a 22-rider gate just like the 250cc class. The path to the main event will also be different, with a pair shorter, 6-lap heats transferring only the top four directly to the main. Two semis will transfer five more riders each, and the Last Chance Qualifier will also transfer the top four to fill the 22-rider field.

Villopoto has the chance to become only the second rider in Supercross history besides Jeremy McGrath to win four consecutive championships, something that he never dreamed of doing as a rookie back in 2007.

“When I became a pro, I didn’t look that far in front,” Villopoto said. “I was just trying to meet big expectations and take it one race at a time and one championship at a time. And put in all this work and try to surround yourself with great people, and just try to keep the ball rolling.”

But Villopoto was the first to acknowledge that winning a fourth consecutive championship will be a challenge in the face of really stiff competition in 2014.

“You know, for me, (in the past) it was always just racing one or two guys, but now look at this table here,” Villopoto said. “It has changed in the last couple years. There are a lot of guys up here, so to win just one race is huge. And to win a championship against all these guys is also going to be very hard. So, you know, for me I am just trying to take it slow and take it one race at a time.”

Like the rest of Villopoto’s competition, the Stewart obviously feels that he can match Villopoto’s speed and give himself another shot at recapturing the Monster Energy Supercross title, and it is always hard to bet against him. But in the past few seasons the flashes of brilliance that saw him first take the sport by storm a dozen years ago have been checkered by crashes and injuries that have derailed his championship drives. Today at Anaheim, Stewart appeared to be as fit as he has ever been, however, and it was clear that he is ready to go on Saturday night.

“I’m just healthy,” Stewart said. “I haven’t had any injuries or setbacks, so that definitely helps. I took that month after outdoors (Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship) and really got a chance to relax and then went to Vegas and won that one. So, I feel really good. It’s going to be a fight this year, and I’ve got to be ready for it.”

Stewart also responded to critics who have said that he has lacked consistency in the waning laps of the 20-lap Supercross main events during the past couple seasons.

“I’m a good racer,” he said. “I’ve won championships. I’ve won a lot of championships. We’ll see.”

Reed is the most veteran of the former champions in the field, and he is also the only one who owns his own race team. Armed with new Kawasakis and a new sponsor in Discount Tire, the Australian looks to 2014 as another shot at winning the title while continuing to establish his Team 22 brand.

“It has been fun the last few years, and it has been a lot of work, but when I sat down and filled out all the ins and outs and the positives and negatives, I want to see this thing through,” Reed said. “I want it to become what I want it to become, and I want to try to win some races and challenge for the title.”

That means making it through the first round with a consistent finish that can be used to be build a championship run over the course of the rest of the season.
“Anaheim has a lot of pressure and a lot of hype around it,” Reed said. “I’m just trying to take it in. It (the championship) can be lost here, but it cannot be won here. Shit happens at this first race, so we’ve got to be careful.”

Dungey, the 2010 Monster Energy Supercross Champion, said that he has been working on all aspects of his program in an attempt to regain the title from Villopoto, and he claims that his new Red Bull KTM is the best race bike he has had since joining the team at the start of the 2012 season. But what remains to be seen is if Dungey can improve upon the lackluster starts that often plague him in the main events. And it’s also about time that the sport’s nice guy got a little more nasty, by not hesitating to make aggressive passes early in the race in an effort to get to the front earlier. If he does, his late-race consistency has never been in doubt.

“I think just overall (I’ve been) getting better in every area,” Dungey said. “I think that’s the goal. When 2013 ends, just try to look to 2014 and prepare. I think that testing went good, everything went really well, and it has been a great off-season. And I feel like we have done our homework, and I am just really excited to get going. I think it is going to be a stacked field this year, for sure, but I am really excited to get underway.”

Muscle Milk/American Honda factory rider Barcia will be looking for his first Anaheim win in the 450cc class, although he is certainly a threat, having claimed wins at round two in Phoenix and round 15 in Seattle in his debut on the big bikes last season. Barcia said that he has been doing a lot of racing and training in the off-season, and his goal is to be more consistent and to try to win races.

“Last year I learned a lot, and I think I am bringing a lot more experience this year,” Barcia said. “I can have fun and battle all of these guys and have an awesome 2014 season. It gets tougher and tougher every year.”

Consistency will be a key factor in Barcia’s success. He’s already shown that he has speed and endurance, most recently when he fought his way back from a crash at the Motocross of Nations in Germany to come within one finishing position of rescuing the event win for Team USA. Expect Barcia to bring that kind of fight into Anaheim I, although staying out of trouble will be even more important during the 20 brief laps that make up a Monster Energy Supercross main event.

Hahn said that his expectations for the 2014 season, his first full season aboard the 450 in supercross, are no different than they were in the 250cc class. His transition has undoubtedly been eased by virtue of the fact that he is still with the GEICO Honda team.

“I was very fortunate to be able to continue the relationship with GEICO (Honda) and make the transition to the new bike and the new class relatively easy for the most part,” Hahn said. “Staying on a Honda is the main benefit there, and we had a good off-season. But my expectation is to run the entire 17-round series, take it week by week and learn as much as I can. I’m comfortable on my bike, and more than anything I am just excited to come out and do battle with these guys—it’s a deep field—and to go see where I stand. This whole table is capable of winning, plus there are few guys who aren’t up here. For me, I think the biggest thing is to try and go out there, get some holeshots and see what can happen.”

The same can be said for Tomac, who may just be the biggest “sleeper” in the field, that one rider who could surprise the established guard with consistent runs at or near the front of the field. Don’t be surprised if Tomac lands on the podium at Anaheim I. The Coloradan appears to be relaxed and confident.

“The good thing for me, like Wil said earlier, is that we are on the same team (as in 250s), so it’s not a totally new program for us,” Tomac said. “I also had a really good off-season, you know, just training and testing and all that stuff. So far it has been good.”

An emerging talent with a World Championship pedigree to go along with his AMA titles, the German-born Roczen has spent much of the off-season in Florida where he now trains with Villopoto—and he certainly couldn’t ask for a better mentor than the three-time champ. While Roczen did suffer a setback when he was injured in a crash recently, he says that is all behind him and he is ready to go.

“I feel really good,” Roczen said. “I did have a little crash in Florida, but honestly I was never worried about not being at A1. I went to a doctor there, and he said that I might have fractured my humorus, but it came out that it wasn’t really that bad, and even when he said that I was actually pretty confident to race here. And now we’re here. Like I said, the field is really going to be stacked, but I mean I’m stoked to be here. I’m going to have some fun this year, and I am hoping for good races. It is important to be up there every single weekend, not just for one race, so it’s about being consistent and putting in good races.”

When the main event gate drops for Anaheim I, you can bet it’s going to be a good race.