Steve Cox | May 2, 2017
There’s a thing I’ve heard a few times recently—often enough to believe it might be some sort of colloquialism—that says, “The cover-up is often worse than the crime,” or some variation thereof. I’m the type of person, now 40 years old, who cares about truth and honesty first and foremost. I’d rather know the awful truth 100 percent of the time than a lie that would make me feel better. In fact, I’ve come to believe that our acceptance of dishonesty in our society is truly at the root of every problem our country faces today. Every single one of them. But I digress. This isn’t about that.
Back in 2014, the soon-to-be four-time consecutive Supercross champ, Ryan Villopoto, lied to me. Rumor had it that he was burned out (he had been burned out for a couple years at least by that point) and was going to sit out his final contracted outdoor-motocross season if he clinched the Supercross title. I asked him directly if he was going to be on the starting line at the start of the outdoor series. He directly said, “yes.”
He lied to me. I reported it, because I trusted him. I felt like it made me look like a jerk. So I called him out on Twitter, Instagram, etc. The thing is, he could’ve just said, “I’d like to be,” or “I hope so,” or even “I don’t know, but that’s the plan at this moment.” All of those things may have been less than truthful, but “yes” was a direct lie. It pissed me off. He’s only human. But he shouldn’t have done it. All is forgiven now, though.
The thing is, there’s no need to lie, especially not in a sport. Sports don’t really matter. They’re fun and great and an amazing thing to spend your time doing, but they aren’t wars or cancer research, you know?
So, it’s especially annoying to me when I see what happened this past weekend in New Jersey. Marvin Musquin—who coincidentally signed a new, well-deserved, two-year contract with the Red Bull KTM team announced earlier the same day—absolutely, 100 percent, without a doubt, moved over for teammate and defending champion Ryan Dungey, allowing Dungey to win the race and giving Dungey three extra points in the championship battle against Eli Tomac (who had a terrible night in New Jersey). Musquin absolutely did move over intentionally.
After the race, apparently there was a lot of acting going on. The official story from the team seemed to be that Musquin and Frankie Latham (his mechanic, and one of the most likable people in the pits) were upset because Frankie and the team told Musquin to go ahead and win, but then Musquin moved over.
The thing is, it’s as plain as day on the TV broadcast that Frankie’s pit board, at the white flag, said “1 lap” on top, and “Ryan” down below. No further message. At that point, Musquin knew it was Dungey behind him. He had passed Dungey for the lead, and he’s a smart racer. He knew it was his teammate and training partner who somehow made up significant time on the track in the final couple minutes of the race. Frankie didn’t have to tell Musquin that Dungey was behind him. And his pit board certainly did not say “win” on it, at least not that lap. The lap before, Musquin stared so long at his pit board that his head almost turned 180 degrees, although we can’t know what was on the board that lap.
So, I can say with near-100-percent certainty that not only did Marvin Musquin move over on the final lap to give the win to Ryan Dungey, but also that the team made it clear to Musquin that they wanted that to happen, somehow or some way.
Now, there are some fans who will try to act as if this title is illegitimate if Dungey wins it by less than three points after the checkered flag falls in Las Vegas next weekend. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Basically the whole point in having a teammate is so that you can help each other out. One teammate finds a setting in testing, the other guy’s going to get it, too. That’s how it should be, and always has been, with the possible exception of the early ‘90s at Team Honda (Jean-Michel Bayle and Stanton weren’t very cooperative).
The only mistake the Red Bull KTM team is making is that they’re trying to cover up what happened. It makes them look guilty of something nefarious, and it could end up tainting the title way, way more than “team orders” ever could.
So, why do it? There’s nothing wrong with team orders, especially in this scenario. It’s the second-to-last round in the championship, and Musquin would’ve been mathematically eliminated from title contention whether he won in New Jersey or not. But Ryan Dungey could win a close title battle in Las Vegas. KTM could win the title. Red Bull could win the title. The team wins the title if Ryan Dungey wins the title. If Marvin won the race, Dungey would be up by six points in Las Vegas. Instead, Dungey leads by nine. That’s potentially incredibly significant. If Tomac wins in Vegas, that’s the difference between needing to finish third to win the title, or needing to finish fourth.
Please, Roger DeCoster, Ryan Dungey, Marvin Musquin, or anybody else, just tell the truth, and do it quickly. There’s nothing to be ashamed of here besides lying about it.
The cover-up is worse than the crime. CN
