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| Photo: racerxonline.com |
What a privilege it was to witness such an effort by a SX athlete, like a Minotaur plowing through the competition, James Stewart shut down a lot of his critics with a devastating performance. I thought one of the most important passes was that over Justin Barcia. Racing through the field can take a lot out of you but to keep it all together and make the pass for the lead says a lot about James' shot at a title. Villopoto could have taken it easy but he was racing to retain his cushion over the rest of the field and that's exaclty what he did, perhaps he senses the winds of change. I was thrown off by the Roczen fade, he is usually a strong finisher but for some reason he wasn't on last week. Other than the Stewart beat down and Villopoto's hairball there wasn't a whole lot to speak of from the 450 class.
The 250 class on the other hand could see some significant impacts from Saturday night with Adam Cianciarulo going down and losing the points lead at the same time. Baggett also going down was the nail in the coffin on a very disappointing season. He was on pace for a record performance but he just couldn't win the battle over the whoops. Justin Bogle had a find ride and now sitting third in points the title chase is tight and certainly within reach of the Geico Honda rider. Martin Davalos is in the catbird seat if Cianciarulo can't make it back, all he has to do is keep Bogle close and ride mistake free, which has been a bit of a challenge for the Kawasaki rider. We had some outstanding performances from a couple of riders, James Decotis and Matthew Biscegila, both scoring in the top tier of the Toronto TRAP (see charts below).
I was curious to see how my top 10 performed on a relative basis so I calculated the percentage change (PC) from one race to the next. The list below shows my predictions for St. Louis plus the PC from Detroit to Toronto.
450 SX (+/- handicap) / PC
1. Stewart, J (-1) / 38.95%
2. Villopoto (+1) / -13.67%
3. Roczen (+1) / 204.43%
4. Barcia (+1) / -19.35%
5. Dungey (+1) / -0.66%
6. Peick (-1) / -19.22%
7. Brayton (+1) / -23.09%
8. Short (-1) / -13.19%
9. Wilson (+1) / 32.86%
10. Hill (-1) / 18.61%
250 SX (+/- handicap) / PC
1. Baggett (-1) / -34.41%
2. Davalos (+1) / 67.02%
3. Bogle (+1) / -6.48%
4. Lemoine (+1) / -23.64%
5. Martin, J (-1) / -27.41%
6. Friese (+1) / -7.21%
7. Thompson (+1) / -10.40%
8. Decotis (+1) / 156.43%
9. Cunningham (-1) / 9.45%
10. Martin, A (+1) / 17.94%
A quick look at James Stewart's numbers clearly confirms what we saw and heard from number Seven with the Suzuki rider earning the highest score in the class. The results for Roczen of course reflect his DNF at Detroit so we need to take that into consideration when evaluating his relative performance. The numbers also look fairly accurate when reviewing Martin Davalos' score. It's interesting to see how a rider can have a better finish yet score lower on the grid. In the case of James Decotis and Weston Peick, they actually finished in the same position but notice how their performances differed from one race to the next. Looking at my notes it seems to have come down to the start although I can't help but compare the top scorers, Decotis, Davalos, and Wilson to Stewart. Did these guys actually have better performances than Stewart? Ask them and you're likely to get mixed opinions but it appears to me that Decotis and Davalos had better relative performances than James Stewart but that should not diminish the fact that he had a remarkable personal effort.
It's still too early to tell how accurate these numbers are so further testing will be needed before any definitive conclusions can be made. Thanks for checking in.
The Roost'r
The Roost'r
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