“Cooksey’s Hard Truth” presented by Scott Sports is a weekly editorial written by Chris Cooksey. Throughout the year, Chris will be diving in and out of controversial subjects and bringing you his hard truth about the racing and the riders from around the world of Supercross and Motocross.
Last Saturday, we witnessed three of the 2018 Monster Energy Supercross favorites all but taken out of championship contention. First, it was Rockstar / Husqvarna rider Dean Wilson whose attempt to even try riding Houston was an amazing feat. Dean gave it a go but was unable to compete due to lingering shoulder pain from his horrific crash at A1. Then there was Monster Energy / Kawasaki rider Eli Tomac. He tried riding practice and timed qualifying but had to park his Kawasaki. The shoulder injury he suffered at A1 while leading the main event was too much for him to overcome.
Probably the biggest injury was Red Bull / KTM rider Marvin Musquin who struggled with the treacherous Houston whoop sections. Marvin lost a considerable amount of time during his heat race. Marvin then tried jumping through the peaked whoops before they had broken down and it cost him big. His crash wasn’t spectacular, but the result changed the landscape of the 2018 season.
My buddy Jason “JT$” Thomas tells anyone who will listen that until Marvin can show an ability to skim the whoops, it is going to cost him. While I don’t think this is what JT$ had in mind, the whoops may have ended Marvin’s bid for the 2018 Championship. Personally, I have endured more shoulder dislocations than I care to remember along with six surgeries. Unfortunately I am a bit of an expert on shoulder injuries and Marvin’s looked bad. His left arm was extended as he hit the ground. At that angle, the shoulder joint is extremely vulnerable. He appeared to have some joint displacement as he looked like he was trying to pop it back into socket or make sure it was in socket.
There are few major problems with an injury like this: torn labrum, torn rotator cuff and stretched ligaments among other things. Sometimes the shoulder will heal without surgery, but if there is structural damage, the joint will continue to dislocate quite easily. Hopefully all three of these riders do not have major structural damage and will be back racing soon. With that said, these guys’ pain tolerance is ridiculous, so if they choose not to ride, there’s a good chance something is severely damaged.
Having your top two preseason favorites dealing with injuries hurts the star power of Supercross. This leads me to make my case for a “playoff” format. Here is a loose outline of what I want to see. Use the current points system for the first 10 races, then take the top 10 riders at this point and make them your contenders. I would like to see a weighted ranking heading into the playoff, maybe give the leader 20 points, second 18 points and two-point gaps down to 10th. This would provide more incentive for riders to re-enter the series after an injury. Eli or Marvin could take 3-4 weeks off and get healthy with hopes of still making it into the top 10 and keeping championship hopes.
In addition, these are two of the most popular riders in the sport, and let’s be honest; if they are not racing, fans will dismiss whoever wins the 2018 Championship as “lucky.” Case in point: Ryan Dungey. Early in his 450 career, Ryan was underrated, and his early championships were because the favorites had problems. At least this was his reputation until his late-career domination. With a “playoff” format, Eli could sit out the first 3-4 races then battle his way into the “playoff.” As it sits now, his chance at the Championship is basically over.
Traditionalists will argue that the best rider throughout the entire 17-race series should be the Champion. As much as I agree, I am also aware how difficult it is to maintain attention on a series when the stars are hurt and the series has a runaway winner. The sport needs tight championship races for storylines and entertainment. Without the drama created by a tight championship race, fans have too many other options for how to spend their Saturday nights. Imagine if all Chad Reed had to do was get into the top 10 with six races to go. He is riding on a badly damaged ankle, but he will get better as the series moves forward. I imagine he will have raced himself into shape by round 11, and with a clear slate, imagine the excitement.
I really hope the series doesn’t become a runaway as fan attention is very high, but we live in a generation of short attention spans. The hard truth is the series needs something to manufacture season long excitement or we will be talking about the outdoors by Daytona.
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