Tyler Bowers & Justin Barcia Discuss 2019 Arlington Supercross Run-In

INSTAGRAM | @tylerbowers
INSTAGRAM | @justinbarcia

Of the many moments, incidents, and issues that transpired at the 2019 Arlington Supercross, few have the same talking points, history, and proactive people involved as the disqualification of Tyler Bowers for a take-out on Justin Barcia. It would be tough to find two current riders with a more storied history of aggressive riding, as both have had a number of storied run-ins with competitors and each other over the course of their careers, but a look at the details that led up to this incident and the decision by race officials make it stand out more than others.

For many race fans their understanding of the incident is limited to just the footage shown on the television broadcast and the commentary from announcers Ricky Carmichael and Ralph Sheheen, which was portrayed as “payback” for a run-in Bowers and Barcia had at the 2018 Las Vegas Supercross that left Bowers with a broken lower leg. However, a lengthy social media statement by Bowers provided more insight and added more to the story. Knowing that only so much could be said in an Instagram caption, we reached out to both riders involved for more clarification.

The contact occurred on lap four of the 450 Heat Race Two when Bowers and Barcia were ranked in seventh and eighth, respectively, positions that were enough to advance both directly to the Main Event. As the two navigated the ruts of a left-hand 180-degree turn, Bowers blasted into Barcia’s left side and sent the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing bike over the top of the Tuff Blocks while Barcia dismounted and walked down the turn. The impact caused Bowers to tip his Triggr Racing Kawasaki over, but he was able to remount and rejoin the race for a twelfth-place finish; Barcia was not as fortunate, as he spent a few moments looking over his own motorcycle and went multiple laps down. Both riders did not finish within qualifying positions for the Main Event and regrouped for the LCQ.

In our conversation with Bowers, he did not shy away from the fact that he intended to make contact with Barcia, as he was frustrated with the Yamaha racer’s tactics in the early portion of the heat race. “I could hear someone on me revving the crap out of their bike for a few laps, just going over the top and I thought, ‘I bet it’s Barcia.’ So, he stuck it in through one corner and when I saw the blue front fender I thought, ‘There we are.’ When we down that option lane, he went outside and pulled up next to me in the corner,” Bowers explained. “I had the inside leverage and decided I was going to be as aggressive as he is, that I wasn’t going to lay down for it. There was going to be contact made no matter what. But what happened on the last jump in the rhythm, one the camera kind of missed, was he swerved over to block the inside line. And rightfully so, I get it, but at that point, we were too close and I knocked the crap out of him. We were going to bump, but it was worse because of that. It wasn’t retaliation like I planned to kill him going into the corner, it was just me holding my own and not letting him stomp all over me. Unfortunately, we both went down and that was kind of the end to it.”

Bowers explained that although the two have a history with one another, the Arlington incident was not solely due to the run-in that happened in Las Vegas last year. “I laid down for this dude all last year, even before he broke my leg. If I’m faster than someone I’m going to go for it, but if I know that I’m not feeling it or holding a guy up, I’m not going to stay in the way. Last year there were times that I wasn’t feeling it and I didn’t hold him up, I would get out of his way, but he would aim at me. This went all the way to Vegas and everyone saw that. The thing about Vegas is that he’s run into me numerous times, but since I’m 200 pounds, I don’t move easily and if you hit me I don’t go flying. Just because I’m heavy. So to hit me hard enough to fracture a bone, that would send a normal guy flying.”

So what restarted the rivalry? Bowers said that the two had another, less documented battle a few weeks ago in Oakland which damaged his bike and started the initial conversation with the FIM. “This year there was an incident in Oakland when in one of the slow speed flat corners he jumped into me and it was almost head-on. I went to Gallagher and told him to do his job, that I was tired of it happening all of the time. That put a hole in my swingarm and bent my brake rotor and brake hanger. They looked at the tape at said, ‘Well you didn’t even go down.’ And I told them I know, it’s because I’m heavy, but I know what he was trying to do.”

Bowers was notified of his disqualification as he sat in the staging area for the Arlington LCQ. “I went back to the track for the staging of the LCQ and was watching with some other riders when the officials came up to me. I knew it was going to happen and admit that I deserved a penalty for it. But my stance is that I deserve a penalty and other people do to for the same thing or worse actions,” he explained. The idea of a penalty is not what frustrated Bowers; it was the severity of it when compared to other on-track incidents over the years, including a similar take-out crash between Mitchell Oldenburg and Alex Martin that same night. “There’s no standard. One person might get a penalty and one might get a free pass. I know that I have gotten some myself, getting free passes. They didn’t talk to me after the Webb incident in 2015, that was a pure accident, but they should have at least talked to me. Where is the standard? Things like the Tomac-Musquin thing last year, there is no standard.”

The officials took Bowers into a nearby room to explain the penalty and it was there that emotions allegedly heightened. “They came and got me while I was waiting for the LCQ and took me into a room with Gallagher of the FIM and Mike Pelletier of the AMA. They said they didn’t want to let me race because it was retaliation. I didn’t even get to talk because every time I tried to say something, like how Barcia had been revving at me, Gallagher screamed over the top of me and interrupted, ‘He did not rev at you.’ When I said that he cross-jumped me on the last jump, Gallagher interrupted again and yelled, ‘He did not cross-jump you.’

“It got to the point where Pelletier told Gallagher to leave the room so we could talk, and we did, but they had to make the joint decision and Gallagher wouldn’t let me race,” Bowers continued. “It was just another one of his hothead moments, like when he pulled me off of the track in 2015 and yelled at me in front of everyone. If he wants to yell at riders for acting on emotion, why can’t he keep his head as well? Someone in his position should.”

Bowers agrees that he deserved some sort of punishment for his actions, but feels the disqualification was excessive for the circumstance and attempted to reason with the officials to receive strict probation for the remainder of the season. “One of the things I told Pelletier when we were talking that night was that I thought the punishment was a bit much, but that I’m so confident that it won’t happen again from me because I’ve cleaned up my act and not done anything for two years that if we sat down together the next week with the AMA, the FIM, myself, and Barcia, that we could calmly talk it over and say that nothing like this would happen between us or from us to other riders at all for the rest of the year. But if anything happened like that again from me, I would sit out all AMA events for the rest of the year and he was willing to do that. I want the officials to speak and communicate with the riders, because everyone thinks that we were pissed at each other for last year, not knowing that we had moved on.” This, however, did not happen at Arlington but Bowers expects to have a long talk with race officials this week ahead of the Detroit race.

Despite the past between the two riders, Bowers and Barcia do not seem to be mad at each other currently for the incident. When we asked Bowers if he thought that Barcia was the one that talked to officials first, the Kawasaki rider brushed away the idea. “I honestly don’t think Barcia complained at all. He is aggressive like me and when it happens to me, you take it sometimes, so I don’t think that Justin was the one complaining. I think it was Jim Perry and I get where he is coming from, but it was dramatic for him to raise a fit about it. I told him, ‘This dude rides like this every weekend and this is stupid. This is why there needs to be a standard.’”

We reached out to Barcia for his take on the Arlington crash and past contact. “I really don’t have anything to say other than he made an aggressive pass on me in Vegas last year I made an aggressive pass back and he got injured,” explained Barcia. “Obviously, that wasn’t my intention but unfortunately for me, he can’t let that go and keeps going after me any chance he gets.”

Bowers wrapped up our conversation by acknowledging his past transgressions and indicating that he is actively working towards becoming a cleaner, less aggressive rider than he was in the past. “I have done really stupid things in the past and let emotions on the track get the best of me, but we all heal and move on. I don’t take it too personally when it happens to me and this year was a year gone by from Vegas, so I had moved on with other things to worry about,” he shared.

Although Bowers is not pleased with some of the past passes between himself and Barcia, he has instead made it clear that his current frustration is with a race official. “The guy hit me a couple more times and I was upset about that, so I brought it up to the people that are supposed to take care of it, and they didn’t. What I am mad about is that I tried to race with the same aggression as him and I got a full disqualification.”