With the Phoenix round officially in the books for 2010, and the jitters diminishing from round 1, Fantasy Racing is in full swing. With only two rounds down, we’ve seen some excitement coming from the 450 class. For the second time in two weeks we’ve seen the former AMA Supercross Champion Chad Reed DNF’ing both main events. For some this might not be a surprise (haters) and for the rest of the masses we were thrown for a loop. Who would have thought that with a successful outdoor season and some great racing down under, we would see Reedy struggle to stay on top of his game? If I was his accountant I’d better check to see if he bet the farm on his Supercross results. The word is that Reed has broken his hand and underwent surgery on Tuesday to have a plate installed, and will be sidelined for a minimum of 6 weeks. We wish Chad Reed a speedy recovery and hope he uses this break to prepare to come back stronger than ever.

Now for the man who was plagued with a string of bad luck, James Stewart, we got a glimpse of the old 259. This has nothing to do with his exceptional talent, but more about his crash to finish ratio. If you’re in the “know”, you’ll understand that statement. The theory is if Stewart can keep it on two wheels he’ll win the race, but if he can’t keep the rubber side down, well you saw in Phoenix what the results of that can be. In Heat Race 2 Stewart endured a horrific crash with Kyle Partridge over a triple that would leave a grease mark down the backside of most people. They came together and both hit the deck hard. Here, watch this video if you haven’t seen it yet.

That wasn’t the end of Stewarts luck though. Stewart returned and won his LCQ, but had another run in with Reed during the Main Event. This is the crash that put Reed out and caused a big stir amongst the pro keyboard jockeys. Bench racers from all across the message board land have their opinion of whose to blame and blah-blah-blah. Watching the footage didn’t throw up any flags of wrong doing on both parties involved, and to reiterate what Jim Holley of the supercrossonline.com webcasts, it was just a racing incident. And there hasn’t been any talk, which I know of, involving the AMA/FIM of docking any positions or points or even money for that matter. And if you missed the drama and want to come up with your own opinion here’s a video of that incident.

Ok so that led Reed to his 2nd DNF and at no surprise, it also left Stewart with a 15th place finish (or 6 points). But to the surprise of some (yeah I know Jarrod42 called it before the season) Ryan Dungey ran away in the Main Event, taking center stage on the podium. All that can be said about that is, WOW! Dungey has proven himself in the past on a 450, but who would of thought he would also take the points lead after the second round. I know the season is a long ways away from being over, but to see him jump out of the gates pinned is nothing short of amazing. Villopoto hasn’t been on the radar much and flying low-key gave him success and a 2nd place finish. Speaking of radars, is Josh Hill going to surprise some people this year? Watching him ride was like watching him ride 2 years ago. He is on fire and with a 3rd place finish in Phoenix he should be a top runner going into A2.

On a final note for the 450’s class from Phoenix we did have 1 rider who paid out big time, Manual Gomez. 40 points went to whoever chose him, but come on lets face it would you have picked him. Although there’s not much on the table for points, it paid off to those who did their homework and took a little risk. Like the great Wayne Gretzky said, “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” (That’s for you Canadian fans).

Some notable remarks on the 250 class, it’s becoming a bit predicable. Weimer, so far, is running a perfect season (well 2 races that is) taking another win at Phoenix. His good friend and former team mate, the MotoSport.com backed rider Ryan Morais, took his spot on the podium with a 2nd place finish. Some are saying these two will be battling it out for the West Coast Championship, which everyone should encourage. The big payout rider for Phoenix went to Travis Baker. No further mention on that one. I didn’t see that one coming, but I guess I never do anyways, haha.

Looking into this upcoming round at Anaheim the weather gods have struck the golden state with a watering of proportional amounts. As of Wednesday the weather forecast shows that Anaheim and surrounding areas will be hit with a sizable storm that will bring rain, wind and possible tornados. Who would have thought a mudder for Anaheim? Well when you run a race in an open ceiling stadium in the middle of winter, you’ll get these situations from time to time. Here’s a Doppler radar look into SoCal:

Akir Narita Anaheim 1 2005

Mudders for Anaheim goes like this: ITS ANYONES RACE. Remember Akria Narita? I’ve got to throw him out there, Narita podium for MotoSport.com in 2005 in the 125 class. He was able to beat out some of the top 125 riders, Lamson, Tedesco, and Metcalfe to name a few, for a 3rd place finish. And I’m sure if you’re reading this your scratching your head and asking yourself, WHO? But that is why rain is such a great equalizer. It brings everyone down to the same level and I don’t care how many laps you pound out at Washougal after 10+ inches of rain, you will always be in for a surprise and you will be no faster than the guy in front of you.

So button down the hatches and fill your buckets up with water, because the boat is leaving for A2 and Noah has no room for losers.

Good luck to everyone at Anaheim and thanks for reading.