Ryan Dungey has shown his talent on all types of terrain so far this season, and nothing has been able to slow the rookie down. But this weekend, Dungey will see a new challenge. Sand. The Southwick track is the only sand track in the 12 race AMA Motocross series, and could cause some problems for Dungey, as well as the rest of the MX field But even with sand in the mix, Dungey is the clear favorite. He has been absolutely dominating this season, and has an 111 point lead over Andrew Short. If Dungey can come away with the overall win this weekend, he will have clinched the AMA Motocross title with two races to go. If Dungey does clinch the title at Southwick, he will become the only rookie to win both the AMA Supercross and AMA motocross titles in the same year.
A lot of people were looking forward to seeing Dungey go head to head with James Stewart again, but after reentering the MX series at Unadilla, Stewart has called it quits. Stewart was hoping to earn a spot on Team USA by competing in the closing rounds of the MX series, but the team was picked, and Stewart was left in the dust.
Andrew Short did make Team USA, and he'll by trying to show his worth at Southwick. Short has yet to win a race this year, mainly due to Dungey's amazing performance, but he'll be going after it this weekend with all he's got for two reasons. One, to keep Dungey from clinching the title, and two, to show that he was the right choice for a spot on Team USA.
Short might be able to hold off a Dungey title for now, but it seems inevitable that the Rookie stud is going to walk away with the MX title eventually. Short really needs to look out for Brett Metcalfe, who is only 14 points out of second place.
In the 250 championship, Christophe Pourcel and Trey Canard will battle it out in the sand. Pourcel currently leads by only 16 points, due to a DNF at Unadilla that gave Canard hope for the title. Pourcel still has the advantage, but one more misstep could open the door for Canard.
