Steve Matthes did it again. His janky privateer race once again got the full treatment from the AMA and Feld Motorsports and took place on Friday at the Denver round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross. The janky privateer race is actually, officially, dubbed the Pulp MX/Yamaha LCQ Challenge, or maybe the PulpMX/Yamaha Privateer Challenge….something like that. Just know that Steve wanted to put money in the hands of privateers who follow the whole series but aren’t consistently making mains, and thus aren’t making the amount of money they would like.
Today is the last day to donate. Visit PulpMX.com to donate now!
It started like this: Yamaha started sponsoring Steve’s PulpMX Show. They agreed to give him a YZ450F to giveaway. Steve came up with the idea of doing something for privateers. He ran a raffle to win the bike, raised some money, and gave it to the privateers. For a few years, Steve simply compiled the data on the riders and handed out the cash. The fifth-place rider each week in the LCQ (first rider not to make the main) was given 25 points per weekend (similar to a first-place finish), the sixth-place rider earned 22 points (similar to a second-place finish) etc. At the end of the year, he totaled up the standings and handed out the money in that order.
The money kept growing each year and eventually the winner each season was making over 20 grand. Steve kept threatening that someday he would maybe instead hand the money out based on the results in an actual Last Chance Qualifier race. Imagine watching the Salt Lake City LCQ and seeing riders purposely slowing down to finish fifth instead of trying to make the main! Choas was the theory, and Steve wanted it. He was joking about sitting in a black leather chair petting a cat on his lap, laughing like a villain while the privateers preform for him and his money. Somehow despite all this, the folks at Feld actually thought maybe they should start working with Steve. They could give him his own race and the AMA agreed to handle it. Boom. Now Four years later, Denver and the privateers on a Friday are an annual thing. Last year the bike raffle raised over 130k which 100 percent went back to the privateers.
Steve’s not getting the chaos he wants, though. Unlike an actual LCQ where dudes kill each other to make the main, Steve’s race, in a way, actually paid too well to too many riders. At his race, guys would get into third, realize that’s a good paycheck, and just minimize the risk from there. Why risk for the win and throw it all away?
Steve’s solution last year was to bring in an inverted, staggered start. A 10-minute race, then a staggered restart in reverse order. Winner of the first race starts in the back of the second race. Chaos. No rider would be able to calculate the math well enough to figure out what was going on for the overall in the second race.
Josh Hill prevailed last year with something like 2-10 scores. This year, it was even crazier. Chaos? A little bit.
First, shoutout to Jerry Robin, who would have been in this race until his terrible crash in New Jersey. Jerry is currently paralyzed from the waist down. His fellow racers wanted to help. Kyle Chisholm won this race two years ago (even while being told to start in the second row, because he’s over qualified). This year he said he would race for free, and whatever he won, he would give to Jerry. Props to Chiz and his Twisted Tea/HEP Motorsports Suzuki team for letting him do that. Anyway, Chiz indeed Chized as expected in the first race, winning it over Kevin Moranz. In race two, Chiz started in the back, very cautiously, circulating in last for about half a lap. Then he started making moves…and got tangled with Devin Simonson. They both seemed to have different takes about what went wrong, but their bikes were locked up and it took a lap to get them apart. Chiz was actually not going to Chiz.
Moranz, meanwhile, knew what he had to do. Get starts. That’s what he usually does. In a normal staggered restart, riders are not allowed to pass until the first turn. For this race, though, the AMA decided to let chaos reign and they told they riders they could pass as soon as the green flag waved. Moranz wisely angled his bike toward the inside so he could make early moves and shove it past a bunch of riders in turn one. Meanwhile, a bunch of riders, including Hardy Munoz, went down in turn two. Moranz advanced quickly through the field, and he had to. Justin Starling, who was at the front of the staggered restart because of a mechanical in the first race, led, but then crashed. This put Marshal Weltin, seventh in race one, into the lead and he was threatening to win the overall. Moranz eventually climbed his way to fourth to lock down the overall math with a 2-4 compared to Weltin’s 7-1. But it wasn’t over! Munoz, after a first-turn crash, was rolling toward the front and bringing Grant Harlan with him! They closing on Moranz, and if they passed him and pushed him back to sixth, Weltin would take the overall. The last lap was crazy, as Munoz threatened a pass on Moranz in the whoops, but then Moranz instead pulled clutch passes on both Logan Karnow and Dominique Thury to get some breathing room. Final overall order: Moranz over Weltin and Munoz.
Phew. It wasn’t quite LCQ-level chaos, but it was crazier than previous years. I guess Steve got what he wanted?
The riders got what they wanted, which was cold, hard cash. Moranz got a check on the podium for $20,000 but that number will climb because raffle entries are open until tonight’s episode of the PulpMX Show so money is still coming in.
Also, the race offers up prop bets where the industry folks kick in more money for the racers. You can see the list of bets of donators below, Steve and his janky crew will have to put together the official list of which riders won them. Are there even official results from this race? Who knows. The janky part of the equation is part of the charm. In this case, selling out—as in making more money—is a good thing.
Enter now before it’s too late!
Check out the full broadcast from the Vurbmoto guys if you missed it!
