RXI V17-07

GATE PICK SCIENCE RACING’S MOST IMPORTANT DECISION

#PRIVATEERLIFE UNSUNG HEROES OF SUPERCROSS

JULY 2014 VOLUME 17 NO7

JULY 2014

HOW TO START A

MOTO XXX / #PRIVATEERLIFE / COBRA / AMA MOTOCROSS PREDICTIONS

RIOT

THE MOTO XXX STORY ROCKSTAR ENERGY RACING’S JASON ANDERSON

AMA MOTOCROSS

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BOLD PREDICTIONS

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V17#7 CONTENTS

FLAT-LINED Justin Barcia shows Ryan Dungey the low road in St. Louis.

PHOTO BY: GARTh MILAN/MCG

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FEATURES 94 GATE DROPS We staked out a single spot on the Detroit Supercross gate to tell the story of an entire race, one start at a time.

106 #PRIVATEERLIFE Being a privateer in our sport has never been harder, but a talented and dedicated group of riders are still giving it all they’ve got, every single weekend.

118 HOW TO START A RIOT An oral history of the debut season for Moto XXX, a wild experiment that fused punk rock and dirt bikes and sent motocross down an entirely new path.

130 10 BOLD PREDICTIONS Our staff offers its opinions on the state of racing to come in this summer’s Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.

140 MAY 5, 1974 The 1974 Appalachia Lake National in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, featured drama, excitement, confusion, and even sabotage. It’s an interesting slice of moto history you probably haven’t heard about.

150 ATTACK OF THE COBRAS Twenty years ago, Bud Maimone tried to build a better minicycle for his son; in the process, he changed amateur racing forever.

RACER X ILLUSTRATED (ISSN No. 1099-6729) is published monthly by Filter Publications, LLC. at 122 Vista Del Rio Drive, Morgantown, WV 26508.

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V17#7 CONTENTS REGULARS 16 MASTHEAD 20 CONTRIBUTORS 24 GATE PICS 34 REASON FOR BEING 40 PIt PASS 46 THE FEED 52 NOISE 58 ELECTRONIC PING 60 ONE RACE, ONE PAGE 62 VOICE BOX 65 RACERHEAD 88 X MARKS THE SPOT 90 RACER EXPOSURE 164 GARAGE INSTOCK 168 MIXED MEDIA 170 2 TRIBES 174 5 MINUTES WITH ...

182 X RATED 184 INSIDE MOTOCROSS

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW STORY We are proud to announce a partnership with Husqvarna Motorcycles, who has a rich history of performance and excellence. We are looking forward to sharing our story with you as it plays out.

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CONTRIBUTORS: CARLOS AGUIRRE, RAY ARCHER, CAMERON BAIRD, ANDY BOWYER, BROWNDOGWILSON, JACK BURNICLE, ADAM DUCKWORTH, SARAH GUTIERREZ, KINNEY JONES, STEPHAN LEGRAND, JAMES LISSIMORE, DICK MILLER, SHAN MOORE, ZACH OSBORNE, RONNIE RENNER, RYNE SWANBERG, THOM VEETY, SARAH WHITMORE

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Online content manager Kayla Olliver is the most recent addition to the Racer Productions/Racer X HQ in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Having grown up in an off-road racing family in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kayla is no newcomer to dirt bike racing and has been around it her whole life. Starting full-time in early December of 2013, she took on the task of keeping all the MX Sports and Racer Productions websites up to date with all the relevant information racers need to connect with the series. Away from the office, you’ll find her off-roading in a Can-Am Commander, at the movies with friends, reading, or completing one of her many DIY Pinterest projects.

Growing up in New Hampshire riding dirt bikes, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, and more, Jeff Proctor also took an early liking to drawing. Along with comic books and skateboard decks, he used his extreme-sports background as inspiration in his artwork. He’s done some incredible work over the years, and in 2006 he moved cross-country to Portland, Oregon, to start working for Nike Skateboarding. Since then he’s also been riding the amazing Pacific Northwest trails and freelancing from his home studio. Jeff illustrated our feature “How to Start a Riot” this month, starting on page 118.

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V17#7 CONTRIBUTORS

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BIG CITY BLASTOFF When the starting gate dropped for the 450 main event at MetLife Stadium on the outskirts of New York City (albeit in New Jersey), it marked the first time since the mid-nineties that Monster Energy AMA Supercross visited the Northeast. More than 62,000 fans turned out to support the race and see Ryan Villopoto (1) clinch his fourth straight championship.

PHOTO BY: SIMON CUDBY

GATE PICS

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RYANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WAY For only the second time in the forty-year history of AMA Supercross, one rider, one mechanic, and one team have claimed four straight #1 plates. Ryan Villopoto (holding the plate with his wife, Kristen), mechanic Mike Williamson (hand on rear fender), and the entire Monster Energy Kawasaki team now join Jeremy McGrath, his mechanic Skip Norfolk, and the 1993-â&#x20AC;&#x2122;96 Honda factory team in this very exclusive club.

PHOTO BY: SIMON CUDBY

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RED STARE When the 250SX East Region Championship began with a wave of winners on green machines, few might have guessed that control of the championship would ultimately fall into the hands of any other brand. But after Adam Cianciarulo, Blake Baggett, and Martin Davalos all ended up hurt after winning races, GEICO Hondaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Justin Bogle jumped at the chance to win his first pro championship.

MAIN PHOTO BY: GARTH MILAN/MCG INSET PHOTO BY: SIMON CUDBY

GATE PICS 29

PREMIER GREY NUBUCK // WINDHAM

KEVIN WINDHAM

Y O U J O I N E D T H E D V S F A M I LY T H E D A Y Y O U S TA R T E D R I D I N G PA R T I C I PAT E @ D V S M O T O O R D V S S H O E S . C O M / / S O C K E T T O ‘ E M

REASON FOR BEING hen I started doing research on the 1974 Appalachia Lake National in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, for this issue (page 140), I knew exactly what happened there. The campground went bankrupt in 1975 and the land used for the track was sold off. From time to time I stop by for a look; the track’s faint outline is still there.

That got me thinking about the other eleven tracks that made up the ’74 schedule, and with the help of fellow fans, Facebook groups, and websites like VintageMX .us, I got updates on all of them.

The series started with the Hangtown National, run by the Dirt Diggers Club near Plymouth, California. It was much more of a sand track than the hard-pack of today’s Prairie City OHRV Park in Rancho Cordova,

W

BY DAVEY COOMBS

The Grand-Am track in Hamersville, Ohio, just east of Cincinnati, hosted a single, muddy national in ’74.

It’s almost impossible to find and is now a housing site, according to Steve Lorbach, who went looking for it recently for American Motorcyclist. He wrote a guest column called “Searching for Hamersville” that’s up now on Racer X Online.

Next was Manning Raceway, outside of Salt Lake City. This badlands track sat atop a mountain on a family farm and held a 125 National combined with an Inter-Am in ’74. The race and track are most remembered for the wildfire that erupted when a smoke flare fell off a skydiver who was descending during the opening ceremonies.

Kansas’ Baldwin Motocross Park also ran a combined Inter-Am/125 National in ’74, but the trail runs cold after that—even Kansas-born friends like Andy Bowyer and the Hahn brothers don’t recall the long-abandoned track, which was about two miles outside of town.

Mid-Ohio was next. It was a major hub of motocross in the seventies, hosting Trans-AMA races, Inter-Ams, the 125 U.S. Grand Prix, and three different nationals. It closed in the eighties and reopened briefly a few years back, but its world-class auto-racing facility is going full-throttle.

Next came another Ohio track, Delta Motorsports Park. It remains one of the longest continuously running tracks in the country, sitting right next to the Ohio Turnpike west of Toledo. Due to its size, the big events are long gone—the last national there was in 1976.

Founded by Donald Kessler in the 1973, Mexico, New York’s Moto-Masters Park hosted a national the very next year, as well as Trans-AMA and Inter-Am races. It’s still up and running local races, but the only New York national now is Unadilla.

Jack Moore’s Highland Hills track was located about an hour east of Cincinnati off Route 50 and was immortalized in Charley Morey’s iconic photograph of “Tony D. and the Jammer” battling at the ‘74 500 National. That was the facility’s one and only major race, and then it closed for good.

Finally, there was the bayou track called Motocross West, right on the banks of the Mississippi River. Known locally as Waggaman, it hosted four nationals, including the legendary “Battle of New Orleans” that is the basis of the film One Chance to Win. The track closed in 1978, though promoter Marion Phillips is still an active rider.

Know any more about these old tracks? Get in touch: DC@racerxonline.com.

KNOW ANY MORE ABOUT THESE OLD TRACKS? GET IN TOUCH. where Hangtown moved in 1979. The old track has sat unused since, though there was an attempt to revive it recently for vintage racing. What’s really cool is that the Dirt Diggers are funding a permanent monument on the property to commemorate the old Plymouth track.

Baymare, farther south in Moorpark, hosted big regional events in the late sixties and early seventies, but ’74 was its one and only national. The track stuck around for some time before being shut down. It’s still out there.

Buchanan, Michigan’s RedBud—the fourth round in ’74—is the centerpiece of the series today. The Ritchie family racetrack, founded in 1972, hosts big local and regional events, as well as the Red Bull RedBud National every July Fourth weekend.

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PIT PASS

WE GET YOU IN!

CUDBY

CUDBY

Hmmm ... the mapping software is giving directions to Vegas.

Jeremy Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s game face.

CUDBY

RV the lionheart.

CUDBY

CUDBY

Christy LaCurelle keeps warm at the RCSX.

KTM kings for one really cool day.

DC

Anderson and Thompson are twinning.

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CUDBY

Zach Osborne or Groucho Marx?

DC

CUDBY

The Weys stroll the Emerald City pits.

Keith Lynas always has his retro on.

Oklahoma is OK with Trey.

Helloo, we’re down here ... with the T-shirts and the abs.

CUDBY

CUDBY

CUDBY

Brayden is Dungey’s biggest, littlest fan.

Beeker and Roger at the 2014 NJSX/hugfest.

CUDBY

“Who left that green scratch on my door?”

OPERATION SUPERCROSS

CUDBY

CUDBY

CUDBY

Cycle Ranch’s Brian and Riley Schopen.

More work goes into getting a round of Monster Energy Supercross ready (and tearing it down) than you might think.

The operations crew at Feld Motor Sports has been at this for quite some time now, and the talented and efficient team members make it all look (relatively) easy week in and week out. They set up things like the show office and will call and build the structures on the track, and once TV cuts off at 10:30 p.m., they get started tearing down everything you see on the stadium floor. The build takes four days to complete and only five hours to tear down and place back into the eleven trailers that haul it, and then it’s on to the next round.

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PIT PASS

WE GET YOU IN!

CUDBY

CUDBY

Denney and Rabon survey the scene for Rock River Racing.

Jason Anderson poses for some Facebook photos.

CUDBY

Barcia shows us his whoop-skimming technique.

CUDBY

Scott 24/7 Champion.

DC

CUDBY

Look what Roczen found in his gear bag!

Shannon C. and Kurt B. at the MotoGP.

It’s not every day you get to see an alien riding a dirt bike, unless you’re Rockstar Energy Racing global motocross manager James Hanson—and even then, you’ll be seeing it from inside a costume. Hanson was poking around on the internet one day when he stumbled on a website selling costumes.

One thing led to another … and he ended up with a costume from his favorite ’80s TV show, ALF. Not long after, he was ripping up his backyard mini-moto track and reading Racer X in full extraterrestrial regalia. “The funny thing is that I stuffed a bunch of plastic bags in the nose so it wasn’t so floppy,” Hanson says. “Then when I put goggles on, it plugged the other vent holes!” The entire staff of Racer X sincerely hopes Hanson is not a cat owner.

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GUILLEN

ALF MOTO

Cianciarulo & Stratton cruise the COTA pits.

Never leave your keys in the ignition unattended.

DC

CUDBY

CUDBY

Dean and Olly make their Monster Girl kissy faces.

Byrner, COTA’s Mel Harder, and Reedy wait for Rossi.

Guess who’s giving the high-5.

CUDBY

DC

CUDBY

Two Stewarts, one Klingensmith, all smiles.

SX floor announcer Lurch and his daughter, Londyn.

Nicoletti’s abs of steel did their job.

CUDBY

CUDBY

CUDBY

RV tells Jenny it’s impossible for him to go 5 mph.

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CUDBY

THE FEED It seems like there have been a lot of racers coming down with food poisoning lately. If they are on strict training diets, why are they getting sick so much?

Beth Brooks Mesa, AZ Beth: Thanks for the note. I can’t answer for the pros, but I personally am not on a strict diet, yet I got food poisoning—or maybe beer poisoning—the last time I went on a long trip. Travel will do that to you! DC

I’m sure you already know this, but Ryan Villopoto is the man. I just attended the Toronto SX and was disappointed by his absence all day.

However, once the points were on the line, the points leader proved why he is the three-time defending champ and lined up. It was truly amazing watching #1 learn the track in his heat race and improve significantly in the semi. A sixth-place in the main with food poisoning? This guy deserves the title, there’s no question there.

Amazing. Hats off to the champ.

Torin Linton Hockley Valley, Ontario

During the Seattle SX they asked whether or not RV’s domination is good for the sport. While it is certainly not good for the competition, RV’s elite abilities have led him through the pearly gates of motocross and into the status of “legend.”

All sports have their legends— it is a rare and awe-inspiring result of competition. From Babe Ruth to Michael Jordan, Dale Earnhardt Sr. to Wayne Gretzky, Carmichael to LeBron, all of these guys have one thing in common: abilities and performances so incredible that they inspire, make

JK J K

Ryan Villopoto can ride through a lot of pain and illness.

MAIL

us wonder, and let us dream and strive to be our best.

Love him or hate him, RV is raising the bar in the sport to new levels. We should all consider ourselves lucky to be a witness.

Jeff Giarratano Shelton, CT Why can’t there be a one-minute-lap minimum required for supercross?

I noticed there was a difference of eleven seconds per lap between rounds two and three at Anaheim.

Over three and a half minutes seems to be a lot of time to lose.

Mark Malonson Clinton, MA Mark: Good point, though I believe much of it has to do with Feld Motor Sports’ attempt to add variety to every round, and sometimes that variety means a shorter track. DC I was reading CC’s in your May issue regarding the number of fans in attendance for the Atlanta Supercross, which featured winners Ken Roczen and Martin Davalos.

It got me thinking: When was the

These photos are from the wedding of my son Rocky Ciletti Wa and Trisha Watson, with Rocky’s daughter ring Sarah as ringbearer.

They were married September 13, 2013, at Eagle Hills golf course in Eagle, Idaho, pastor H. Mushman presiding. The vow were taped inside, and the wedding vows go Racer X is going to be a wedding album.

Terry Williams Boise Vintage Cycle, Boise, ID

TERRY WILL RECEIVE A PAIR OF 100% ACCURI GOGGLES. 46

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WILLIAMS

LETTER OF THE MONTH

BLAKE BAGGETT

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THE FEED

CUDBY

CUDBY

thanks to Amy and Tim Richie for making their great track available.

Mark Bury Kalamazoo, MI

Reed and Roczen, the last foreignborn riders to win in U.S. SX.

last time two foreign riders swept both classes at an AMA Supercross race? I’m sure you guys have written about this subject on racerxonline.com, but I’m just too lazy to go check it out!

Jorge Rodrigues Portugal Jorge: The answer is Las Vegas 2011, when Chad Reed won the 450 class and Roczen the 250s. DC As a longtime reader of your magazine, I’d like to comment on the KTM company bringing all of the full-sized motocross bikes to RedBud for demo rides. After riding each bike on the track that I race on, I had a better idea of which model fit me best and which bike I felt faster on. The bikes were run all day by approximately one hundred riders, and durability didn’t seem to be an issue.

I really enjoyed the light weight and feel of the 150 SX two-stroke, but I ended up buying a 350 SX-F. Thanks, KTM, for being a real customer-orientated company, and

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Thought it would be cool to do a follow-up with Ryan Sipes to get his take on racing GNCC versus the nationals/supercross. Here are some questions it would be cool to ask him: Which is harder physically, thirtyplus-two or three hours? How do you compare the intensity levels between moto and GNCC? Which is more technically demanding, supercross or GNCC? How does your training regimen differ for the different off-road disciplines? What’s been the biggest surprise you’ve encountered in GNCC so far? How would the top riders in GNCC do if they focused primarily on racing moto/supercross?

Phil Harris Jefferson, MD With the Racer X crystal ball, can you tell me what the biggest technological advancement will be in production motocross bikes within the next ten years? Some say air shock or full traction control or even electric bikes. What do you see on 2025 bikes that will be as radically different as going from two- to four-strokes?

John Bell Sunderland, Ontario John: Tough question. The joker in me wants to answer “threestrokes!” but it’s a truly interesting question. I am going to guess it will be some kind of easy-to-use electronic gadget that allows you to make changes mid-race to adapt to on-track conditions. And bold new graphics, of course! DC As a lifelong two-stroke rider and owner, I understood the AMA and the manufacturers’ initial reluctance to allow 250cc two-strokes to ride with 250cc four-strokes ... ten years ago. But as four-strokes have continued to advance, I question the

remaining resistance to allow them to race alongside the four-strokes at the professional level. Wouldn’t allowing 250cc two-strokes to race with the four-strokes inject some excitement into the sport, allow some privateers a fighting chance to compete at a lower budget, and give us something to talk about while watching the races?

Sure, the manufacturers who don’t currently make two-strokes may protest, but really, if a handful of YZ250s and KTM 250s show up at the races, is it going to eat into their profits that much? Will teams have to test a two-stroke and fourstroke for each track to see which is better? Will the Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki teams be potentially at a disadvantage? Maybe. But wouldn’t that make things more interesting?

Perhaps a rule that prevents teams from running both twostrokes and four-strokes during the same season would limit the “double R&D.” I hope people aren’t claiming it’s “better for the environment,” because I don’t think the eight ounces of two-stroke oil burned at a supercross race will really deplete the ozone layer that much.

I keep beating the drum and am disappointed the sanctioning bodies don’t have the guts to give it a try. What do you think—why not give it a shot? It’s not like 250cc two-strokes are dominating the amateur starting lines, right?

Andy Mitchell Charlotte, NC Andy, thanks for the note. While changing the rule may seem like an easy fix, it’s not, and it presents as many problems at the professional level as solutions. The playing field is even right now for all five (soon to be six) OEMs, and they all like racing against equal equipment, both in SX and MX. Forcing them to return and reinvest in two-stroke development by changing the rules would be more risky than rewarding, in my personal opinion. DC

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“Blos engine “Blose’s blose blosed up.”

Weege thought thoug he was hilarious with this quip Toront from Toronto.

“I tthink Weege’s sense of humor Blose.”

Racer X Online comment from reader R “Carlsbad.”

CUDBY

“I saw a lot of guys here with our shirts on and there were chicks jocking them, so I’m prov my point. If you get a Maproving fia Moto Crew shirt, chicks will be jocking you.”

Nick Wey on his sales techniques.

OVERHEARD. OVERREAD. OVERSAID.

Grant Langston’s call when Bowers nearly crashed into the Milwaukee Arenacross podium/Fox Sports 1

“I woke up Saturday morning with gnarly stomach pain so bad that I couldn’t even stand up. Was able to push myself into a cab to get to the stadium to see if the docs at Asterisk could help me out, but one look at me and they sent me in the ambulance to the hospital.”

“If by ‘stressing’ you mean ‘clearing out a space above the fireplace for his 2014 supercross championship trophy,’ then yes, I think he’s probably freak ing out. Otherwise, no.”

“Dog hair from Steve Matthes’ dogs. So I can put the loose strands on my goggles and feel like a real racer.”

Pingree doesn’t think Ryan Villopoto is worried about James Stewart getting a few race wins/Racer X Online

A survey respondent respondent’s reply when asked which items they’d like to get with a s Racer X subscription.

CUDBY

Nickname of the last corner at Glen Helen’s new national track, being built

by Jody Weisel. It’s a nod to the notorious takeout of Ivan Tedesco by title rival Mike Alessi back in 2005, after which Alessi tried to hold Tedesco’s bike down and even shut it off.

Ryan Villopoto on the illness that nearly knocked him out of the Toronto SX/Fox Sports 1

“I lo look at the schedule every sch yyear to see if I can make it to a race....

I’m excited to watch this feature tonight.”

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“Tedesco Turn.”

NASCAR legend Jeff NAS Gord slips into some Gordon stoc stock-car-speak while getting ready for the 450 main even event at the Houston SX/ Fox Sports 1

“I don’t know if you guys got to watch me on Supercross Live! or what, but I was throwing down.

You should have seen me. I was faster than Villopoto for sure, and then … um, I ended up seventeenth in practice.”

Privateer Adam “The Seven Deuce Deuce” Enticknap after Toronto practice, which points leader Villopoto skipped due to food poisoning/Racer X Films

“I had a race to try to win and make some stuff happen, like ghost rides for my bike and stuff.”

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“Tyler Bowers is over at the podium before the race is over!”

“I’d punch myself in my face if I ever did that.”

Photographer James Lissimore, observing other photographers taking selfies with Monster Girls.

“They would also punch him in the face.”

JT$’s response.

Forget titles and points—Justin Bogle had his priorities in Toronto/Racer X Online

“I told him that it’s the only time he’s ever made money off his team.”

Kenny Watson, after losing a $50 bet to Smartop/MotoConcepts owner Mike Genova in the manager’s tower at Seattle/ PulpMX Show

www.racerxonline.com

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CUDBY

“Right when I hit it, I knew I had broken it.

Right on the line I said to Patrick, ‘I thin I broke my think fo foot.’

I tried to block it out and ended up winning t heat.” the Justin Brayton wasn’t going to let a broken foot get in his wa way at the St. Louis SX/ Racer X Films

OVERHEARD. OVERREAD. OVERSAID.

North Carolina native and privateer Ryan Zimmer on his nonexistent Instagram account.

“It’s tough to beat two of the biggest legends of our sport. The other guys shouldn’t be ashamed nor bummed about not being able to beat those two guys straight up.”

David Vuillemin on Villopoto and Stewart’s 2014 SX season/ PulpMX.com

“Remember when we always used to say, ‘Screw training, let’s go to the mall and buy Doc Martens & flannel?’”

Denny Stephenson reminisces about the old days with Jeff Matiasevich in Seattle.

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“Youthstream is looking for another country to take the 2014 date—we would stay away from Syria, Venezuela or Sudan no matter how big a sanction fee they are willing to pay.”

Motocrossactionmag.com on the announcement that the Grand Prix of Ukraine, set for August, was postponed due to the threat of invasion by Russia.

“Any day of the week, anywhere, sand, supercross, hard-pack, we can go to Anaheim now. I will ride anything, it is my job and I will ride and go fast and that is what I do and that is my job. I like hard-pack and I like sand and that is why I ride every day of the week, in all conditions, all the time.”

Max Anstie on his versatility/MXLarge.com

“A while back some of you had brought up a question of whether the medical attention that Adam Cianciarulo had received in the main at Toronto had constituted outside assistance. The answer is yes. This was an issue that had never been brought up before. In the future, the medical crew has been instructed that if they need to treat a rider during a race, the helmet comes off, and he’s done for the event.”

Vital MX boss Steve “GuyB” Giberson on the AMA’s new policy, which came about because of Adam Cianciarulo pulling off the Toronto track and having the Asterisk Mobile Medics pop his shoulder back into place.

“They just turn into a big wavy S by the end of the night.”

Troy Lee Designs/Lucas Oil/Red Bull Honda mechanic Shawn Bell on Malcolm Stewart’s tendency to squeeze his radiator really hard during the race.

“I just love those podium pictures. It looks like all the riders are smaller than all the Monster girls.”

“I had to use some other riders out there for traction, and I apologize for that.”

Douglas Fredrickson after checking out the St. Louis photo gallery by Simon Cudby where James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, and Justin Barcia, were on the podium.

Becca Sheets, the FMF Steele Creek GNCC WMX runner-up, on the podium after the extremely muddy race where she had to go right over some of her competitors/RacerTV.com

“The message here is that patients with spinal cord injury may no longer necessarily say it’s a sentence of complete, permanent paralysis.

Spinal cord injury is devastating, but now there is hope.”

Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the federal agency that helped fund a study in which men with paralysis used electrical stimug lation via a current through the spine to move their legs and ankles voluntarily/ USA Today

HILL

“I’m just your local redneck. Not about that social media life.”

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ELECTRONIC PING

BY DAVID PINGREE //

ailure is a part of life. I don’t care who you are or how good you are at something, you are bound to fail at some point. And your character will be defined by how you respond to that failure. I used to think the best way to get over a devastating setback was to get out and go for a light jog and then just keep

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over and over that you can and will win, and your success is dependent upon you believing that. And yet there you sit at the end of the season, watching some other knucklehead spraying that champagne. We get it, guy walking around with a giant #1 on the front of your jersey.

You’re the best. Woo hoo. We’re all really happy for you.

If my tone seems to be coated in bitterness, it’s because I am the king of failure. I had several legitimate shots at a 125 supercross title and they were all derailed by injury or mechanical failure. I almost had a 250 Supermoto championship wrapped up until a broken arm relegated me to second once again. As a team manager, I watched our TLD riders—Seely, Hahn, Townley, and Gieger—come ever so close to winning races, only to finish second. I am the consummate vicechampion—or the first loser, if we’re to believe all those No Fear shirts from back in the day.

Rebounding from failure is what really matters, though. I like to mope around the house for a day or two when something goes wrong, but then I know I have to put on my big-boy pants and get to work. Learn from the mistakes that led to your previous failure and move forward. Like Truman Capote said, “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”

In terms of motocross racing, you have to pull a tear-off and start over every Monday. You give your absolute best effort and the results will sort themselves out on the weekend. Good or bad, you have to be content knowing you did your best. Greg Albertyn was a big influence in my life in the late 1990s, and he changed my perspective about a lot of things. After a particularly disappointing race I was explaining to him that I just wanted to get certain results and I would be content. He assured me I wouldn’t. He told me that even though he had won three World Championships and a 250 National Championship here in the States, he still felt like he failed by not being as successful in supercross.

If we base our happiness on racing results, we will never be happy. If it weren’t for Albertyn’s help at that time, I might be living in a different city right now using a completely different name.

Thomas Edison had to fail a lot before he finally built a working light bulb. You could clown him for screwing it up again and again or call him a genius and be glad you aren’t reading this by oil lamp. Edison said he never failed, he just found ten thousand ways that it wouldn’t work.

Looking at it through those glasses, I spent an entire career figuring out a few thousand ways not to win a championship. I’m awesome.

I AM THE CONSUMMATE VICECHAMPION—OR THE FIRST LOSER, IF WE’RE TO BELIEVE ALL THOSE NO FEAR SHIRTS FROM BACK IN THE DAY. running until I was in a different city and then change my name and start a whole new life. I’ve grown a little since those days.

Motocross, like many individual sports, is especially difficult in this arena. Unfortunately, we have sort of a Ricky Bobby mindset in moto: If you ain’t first, you’re last. There is only one champion per year in each class out of a whole gate full of riders. Maybe there are only a dozen or so who believe they can win, but even that leaves eleven disappointed riders at the end of the year.

If their expectation was to win, they failed when the season was over.

As a racer, you spend each day riding, training, and working on building your confidence. You tell yourself 58

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@DAVIDPINGREE

HONDA APPAREL

OFFICIALLY LICENSED T-SHIRTS, HOODIES, HATS, & ACCESSORIES

ONE RACE, ONE PAGE

The 1993 Glen Helen National

By David Pingree

n August 1, 1993, Glen Helen Raceway held its first national motocross race with the help of a promotional group called Motolink. This wouldn’t be just another national, as a new format was being pushed as the sport’s future: In order to simplify television coverage, the traditional two-moto

KUHN

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Doug Henry (16) and Jeremy McGrath (15)

format was replaced by one forty-minute race. Roger DeCoster helped promote the event and believed, at the time, that this was what the sport needed in order to grow. Also new for this event was the day it occurred—for the first time since 1973 at Daytona, a national was running on Saturday instead of Sunday.

This race stands out for me because it was the first pro national I ever raced. I was not prepared physically or mentally, and my bike was not even close on a mechanical level. Things looked good right out of the gate for me, right? The race featured heats to qualify riders into the main-event-style finale. This round also marked the last round of the 250cc championship, which was split at the time with the 500cc series. The 125 class went all summer long, just as it does now.

Notably, the weather was so unimaginably hot on that day that forty minutes of racing took a very real toll on all the riders. Record-high temperatures saw 60

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the mercury jump to 105 degrees on Saturday, and the smog was so thick you could barely see across the infield.

The 250 class started with Mike Kiedrowski—who had wrapped up the title at Kenworthy’s in Ohio the week before—going down hard in practice and pulling out of the event. He would leave for the hospital with a concussion, contused back, and lacerated tongue. His absence opened the door for his Kawasaki teammate, Mike LaRocco, to get his first 250 National win by working his way past early leaders Damon Bradshaw, Steve Lamson, Jeff Matiasevich, Mike Fisher, and John Dowd. Jeff Stanton gated poorly and would struggle to move forward.

Several riders fell apart from the heat and smog as the race wore on. “I felt pretty good, but I was having trouble breathing because of the smog,” Lamson said. “Every time I tried to take a deep breath, I would start coughing.”

The 125 moto saw a continued battle between Doug Henry and Jeff Emig for the points lead. Henry would pass Emig and win; Emig, dealing with some on-track issues, would finish fourth. Suzuki’s Ezra Lusk and Damon Huffman rounded out the 125 podium. Henry was so physically exhausted from the race that he had difficulty recovering from motos for the rest of the season (not unlike what happened to Eli Tomac a few years back when he cooked himself in Texas). You may recall hearing of Henry’s physical maladies and subsequent intravenous fluid treatments during the course of that summer. It was the topic of much controversy, and as a result, IV fluid therapy is no longer allowed if a rider plans to continue racing that day.

Somewhere way back in the pack was a young rider getting a very rude welcome to the world of professional motocross. At one point I pulled into the mechanics’ area and told my dad I didn’t think I would be able to finish. But after a scolding, I soldiered on to fifteenth despite seeing spots and experiencing my first brush with heat exhaustion. I’ll never forget that feeling. And in order to keep the scoring consistent with the rest of the series, points from that day were doubled. In my case, I was scored as though I had gone 15-15 on the day.

Despite rhetoric from the AMA that the series was going to move to the one-moto format for all of 1994, it never happened. Fifteen years later, MX Sports would move the races to Saturday, but it doesn’t sound like the single forty-minute moto will ever make a comeback. For that reason alone, the 1993 Glen Helen National will go down in history as a unique afternoon in motocross history.

VOICE BOX

BY JASON WEIGANDT //

awasaki’s Team Green program has churned out more amateur and pro stars than any other. I think the list of great American riders who didn’t go through that program is actually shorter than the list of ones who did. Beyond McGrath,

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@JASONWEIGANDT

14 and then just keep the wins coming forever,” but that’s hard to do.

Other riders have proven it can be done the other way. By the time you read this, you’ll know if Cole Seely is a 250SX Western Regional Champion—but regardless, he’s already won, really. Seely wasn’t just a long shot to have this kind of success, he really didn’t seem to have any shot. Five years ago, Seely was nobody at the races. He had some help from a privateer Suzuki team but was struggling to even make Lites SX mains and never cracked the top ten.

The next year, the Troy Lee Designs team grabbed him as a late replacement rider when another rider got hurt, and he took full advantage.

Seely is now besties with Justin Brayton, and their common bond is obvious (okay, Brayton’s old mechanic Rich Simmons is Seely’s mechanic now, but the ties go deeper). Brayton’s path to 450SX podiums and a factory ride was anything but predestined. He came from arenacross, but not with piles of race wins and titles. I’ve got a friend back in New Jersey named Chris Hunter who raced professionally as a privateer. In the last race of his career, the 2003 Steel City National, he went 21-22 behind Brayton’s 20-21. Six years later, Brayton won a moto at Steel City. There is not anyone, probably including Justin himself, who thought he was going to rise that far.

Weston Peick is the latest rags-to-riches tale. He’s been improving each year and knocking on that door, but it took forever for someone to actually answer it.

What takes so long? And how does this kind of talent go unnoticed? How did these guys slip through the cracks in the first place? Each had a hitch in the typical steps. As an amateur, Seely at one point got so burned out on racing that he quit for a few months.

Peick started out as a racer, and then his family took a massive detour and didn’t race for years. Jump off that amateur moto assembly line and you’ll be off the radar for a long time. And Brayton, by the way, wasn’t even on that assembly line in the first place.

Peick’s is not a sob story. He’ll be racing on good bikes this summer and making legitimate money, just like Seely and Brayton. Are these guys going to challenge the records of MC, RC, JS, and RV? Probably not, but they’re going to make a solid living in the greatest sport in the world, doing something they obviously love. That’s a story that can inspire the next kid raised in arenacross, the desert, or just trying to make 250SX main events as a privateer.

WHAT TAKES SO LONG? HOW DOES THIS KIND OF TALENT GO UNNOTICED? HOW DID THESE GUYS SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS IN THE FIRST PLACE? Carmichael, Stewart, and Villopoto lies probably a hundred other riders who enjoyed great careers. Villopoto has lived the dream to its fullest, going from Team Green minicycle success to one of the greatest pro careers ever without switching brands once.

That, then, is the model program, and seeing RV’s considerable success, he’s probably the one most riders are trying to emulate right now. However, there are other riders in the fray who should be a bigger inspiration to a wider swath. Villopoto showed talent and drive at an early age, and winning begat more winning (although he did have to deal with Mike Alessi in the am ranks, who blocked him from quite a few titles). It’s easy to say “Go out and win at age 62

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V17#7 RACERHEAD V17#7 RACERHEAD V17#7 RACERHEAD V17#7 RACERHEAD

RYAN VILLOPOTO IS IN! (UNLESS HE’S OUT...) BY JASON WEIGANDT

A

CUDBY

s the industry started turning an eye toward the summer’s Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, rumors began circulating that a recent knee injury would force Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto to skip the Nationals. We heard this from multiple sources while also noting a lack of Villopoto sightings at outdoor testing sites. In the April 11 Racerhead column at Racer X Online, our editor-in-chief, Davey Coombs, addressed the issue flat-out, clarifying the nature of the reports while hoping they weren’t true.

These days, when an outlet reports injury news, the parties involved—the teams and riders and agents—tend to go a little crazy. Yet the next day at the Seattle Supercross, we heard nothing—no denials, no accusations of making stuff up or becoming the “TMZ of the sport.” Villopoto and his team had two weeks

“Exactly,” Villopoto said. “That was my point when you threw that question at my nuts at the press conference the other day.”

So there you have it: Ryan Villopoto said himself that he’s racing the nationals. We were relieved, as were all of the readers and regulars on Vital MX (several Racer X staffers among them) who speculated that he might choose surgery this summer. All those seemingly connected reports that Brett Metcalfe was already on RV’s bike in April and that he’d be coming back from Canada to race in Villopoto’s place turned out to be false positives.

The whole episode did feel similar to last year, when we wrote that Rockstar Energy Racing’s Davi Millsaps would miss the Nationals with a knee injury, only for him to denounce us on Twitter ... then two days later announce the he would indeed miss the Nationals. Or when we reported that Chad Reed has a separated shoulder from his San Diego crash and was likely done for the rest of the SX series, only for his camp to chastise us for jumping the gun.

No one likes to report bad news, especially when it involves injuries to racers. We were happy to hear that all those rumors were wrong and that Villopoto would be out there racing this summer. Yet even as we were going to press, the day before the Las Vegas SX, there was still a chorus online and across social media that whispered to us that this story still wasn’t finished, that it may yet take another sharp turn and go a totally different way.

Good thing we have a website to keep up with it all.

“I am riding Nationals.” to try to head off the injury reports but instead went low-profile.

When I asked Villopoto about his future at the New Jersey prerace press conference on April 24, he sidestepped it, saying only, “At this time of year, every one of us is dealing with something.”

After he won his fourth consecutive SX title at MetLife Stadium in late April, race reporters didn’t let it drop. Freelance journalist Steve Cox asked point-blank, “Are you racing the Nationals?” and after pausing for a moment, Villopoto responded with “I am riding Nationals. Have you not seen anything up until this point saying otherwise?”

“We’ve seen tons of stuff saying otherwise!” Cox replied, to which Villopoto countered with, “Yeah on VitalMX,” referencing the popular online forum. “At this point in time, I’m riding the Nationals, yes. Otherwise you can go read Vital if you want.”

Finally, I added: “You seem like you’re riding good right now, for whatever injury you’re supposedly dealing with.”

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RANKING THE JUSTINS

10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW

THE GOODS

STEWART VS. CARMICHAEL

Somebody had to do it

… about being a pro racer

Casualwear, valves, and gloves

To 48 and beyond

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THEN AND NOW: RYAN DUNGEY BY SIMON CUDBY

Tickets purchased by privateer Ronnie Stewart’s mom for family and friends to attend the New Rutherford SX, just over an hour’s drive from their home in Easton, Pennsylvania.

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Years since riders from Belgium swept the podium of a premierclass FIM Grand Prix before Clement DeSalle, Jeremy Vanhorebeek, and Kevin Strijbos went 1-2-3 at last month’s Italian round. The 2006 all-Belgian podium, also in Italy, featured Stefan Everts, Strijbos, and Steve Ramon.

FATHER’S DAY EDITION

9

Americans who have won premier-class Canadian National Championships since 1958: Matt Goerke, Paul Carpenter, Doug Dubach, Brett Devries, Ray Sommo, Jim Turner, Mike Runyard, Dick Garlepy, and Joe Bolger.

RUD

MX BY THE NUMBERS

2014

GUTIERREZ

2005

PLATED

Consecutive Amsoil Arenacross Championships for Babbitt’s Monster Energy/ Amsoil Kawasaki’s Tyler Bowers, who clinched this latest one in Salt Lake City.

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STYLE CHECK BY STEVEN BONNAU

RANKING THE JUSTINS PHOTOS BY SIMON CUDBY

REDBUD 1999

Ricky Carmichael

1. Barcia

Nick Wey

2. Brayton

3. Bogle

4. Hill

5. Sipes

6. Starling

7. Freund

Miles that Don Emde and friends will ride, over the course of eleven and a half days, as they retrace Erwin “Cannon Ball” Baker’s cross-country ride—same route and amount of time—to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the then-record ride from San Diego to New York City. They will use newer bikes and better roads, though—Baker did it back in 1914 on a 7-horsepower Indian!

$25K

Donation from Road 2 Recovery to support the Asterisk Mobile Medics team.

R2R co-founder Jimmy Button handed the check to Mobile Medics co-founder Dr. John Bodnar at the San Diego SX, the same race where Button suffered his career-ending crash in 2000—and received emergency treatment from the same Doc Bodnar.

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3,300

CUDB

Brock Sellards

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Michael Brandes

Dunlop-equipped riders, in forty-six total classes, who won division championships at the 4th Annual James Stewart Freestone Spring Championship in Wortham, Texas. That includes multi-class winners Austin Forkner, Lance Kobusch, Hannah Hodges, and Ryder DiFrancesco.

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COVER ME BY STEVE MATTHES

I

t hasn’t been an easy climb to the top for Rockstar Energy Racing’s Jason Anderson. Winner of the 2010 AMA Horizon Award (given to the rider who shows the most promise at Loretta Lynn’s), Anderson was

picked up by his current team, Rockstar Energy Racing, which was then supported by factory Suzuki.

Anderson struggled that rookie season, to the point that team owner Bobby Hewitt and manager Dave Gowland made the decision to send him home during his rookie year. That’s a rare call for our industry, but one that worked out: After catching his breath, Anderson came back that summer a better rider.

From there, he worked on his craft and dedicated more time to being a

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professional. Slowly but surely, that Horizon Award committee didn’t look

JUSTIN BOGLE Shine On

too far off the mark. Anderson won his first supercross last year when the team was still on Suzukis, but it was this year, after the switch to KTM, that he became a real force.

Gowland’s been there for Anderson’s whole career, and he’s happy to see his pupil finding success now.

“He’s much more confident and in better shape than when we first got him,” Gowland says. “I think everyone goes through transitions into the pros, [and] the class was stacked! He had different expectations of what it took, and we had to regroup. He did that. We’ve always been a team that stuck behind our guys. We’re not going to burn guys. We were around Jason as an amateur and knew what he was like.”

Anderson has won every way imaginable during this 250SX West Region series, from dramatic last-lap passes to outright domination, collecting four wins and holding the series points lead from the start. If he wins the title,

THE CHOICE OF CHAMPIONS

he’s bound for 450s; if not, he’s the favorite for next season.

It took a little longer than a lot of people expected (or than he would have liked), but Jason Anderson is here, and his future is bright. We’re pleased and honored to give the #17 Rockstar Energy Racing rider his first Racer X cover.

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RCH CHANGES BY STEVE MATTHES

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Josh Hill CUDBY

icky Carmichael and Carey Hart’s RCH Racing venture has fielded a team for two seasons now, with riders Broc Tickle and Josh Hill enjoying some success but not quite realizing their lofty expectations. On factory Suzukis and under Mark Johnson’s management, the team made some big changes going into the 2014 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship; if you believe the rumors, they’re stepping up to another new level for 2015.

For this summer, when numberone rider Broc Tickle went down with a serious back injury at the Toronto Supercross, the team picked up its former rider Ivan Tedesco to fill in.

He’ll have Tickle’s spot until the #20 is ready to come back to racing, which won’t be until at least the halfway point of the series.

“We brought [Tedesco] in as a test rider to help make the bike better,” RCH general manager Kenny Watson says. “And even if Broc wasn’t hurt, he was going to be the test guy for the team. But it worked out that he can fill in. We feel like he’s one of the best testers out there, and we’re

Weston Peick

trying to make a position for him on the team for years to come.”

The bigger change was made when the team parted ways with Hill after supercross, replacing him with privateer Suzuki rider Weston Peick. Hill hadn’t been happy with the bike, the team hasn’t been happy with some things Hill had done off the track, and Peick has been getting factory-level results with his privateer effort. The decision was made to see if he could bring it to a new level with improved support.

“I’m going to have to leave my guys as well as all my other main sponsors, Fly Racing, and everybody else to do this,” Peick told us. “For my career, this is getting my name out there more and excelling to the next level. Everybody understands, and it was the best idea for us. I’m definitely super excited with the whole thing, being able to get the opportunity to have that. I just want to get at it and start testing and get the season started.”

As for that ’15 rumor, RCH could be set to land German superstar Ken Roczen. That would suggest that this summer is just a preview of greater things to come for them.

PRO CIRCUIT TITLE FIGHT BY ANDREW FREDRICKSON

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Martin Davalos soon grabbed the red plate and points lead, but it would only last one race. His chain broke while he was practicing at Milestone MX, causing him to eject and land hard on both ankles, breaking one and badly injuring the other. With surgery required, his title fight—and the team’s—was over.

“We put everything together,” Davalos said after his injury. “We had a plan. It’s been a great year to me. It kind of sucks that it had to end the way it did, but … it’s out of my hands. It’s a tough sport, and it’s a sport where things change quickly.”

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t’s been a 250SX East Region title hunt that Mitch Payton and the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki squad would like to forget.

Throughout the entire Eastern series, Pro Circuit riders were seemingly in command. In Toronto, that all changed. Adam Cianciarulo had been dealing with shoulder issues, and his shoulder popped out during the race, leaving him unable to finish the race—and requiring surgery. Soon after, Blake Baggett took a rock in the eye while practicing and was forced to the sidelines.

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THE BUZZ COVINGTON The California teenager is straddling the world right now, racing MX2 on the Grand Prix circuit while prepping for his Lucas Oil Pro Motocross debut in May. But after a solid third in his first race, Covington has struggled a bit. He had planned to join Mitch Payton and the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team in the States for the rest of 2014 but has since received a two-year contract with CLS Kawasaki in Europe.

2014 SERIES

TRANSFERS We all love watching Kevin Windham’s ridiculous transfer leaps as part of the opening ceremonies, but we also knew that sooner or later he was going to throw one away. It finally happened in Houston, where K-Dub crashed hard while practicing on Friday afternoon. He checked out all right but passed on the next night’s show. Time to revisit some simple heel-clickers?

THE FACTORY ADVANTAGE

SUPER

PERFORM ENHANCED ENGINE COOLING SYSTEM

GUTIERREZ

LIVIA As in Lancelot, the fast French girl who scored a point in MX2 for a twentieth-place moto finish at the Grand Prix of Thailand. But she was lapped four times by race winner Jeffrey Herlings—and twice by the man just in front of her in nineteenth, Thailand’s Thanarat Penjan.

HORSEPOWER GENERATES HEAT. REDUCE THAT HEAT AND YOUR ENGINE WILL GAIN HORSEPOWER AND LAST MUCH LONGER THAN STOCK.

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PALA The popular California track may be closed for good, according to a press release from the Pala General Council, which voted to “terminate the lease of the track operators over their failure to provide proof of insurance to one of three policies required to securely operate the raceway.”

The track has been closed since mid-March.

PRACTICE CRASHES Over the course of two days in April, four of the world’s top riders—250 East Region points leader Martin Davalos, GP moto winners Max Nagl and Glen Coldenhoff, and Australian MXGP rider Todd Waters—were all injured in practice crashes.

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10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT... BEING A PRO RACER BY DAVID PINGREE

They are incredibly sensitive when it comes to their careers.

Don’t believe me? Go ahead and insult a rider’s talent and watch him lose his mind. Trust me, he won’t sleep that night.

2

Racers are narcissists.

The world revolves around them—because to be successful, it has to. Those who don’t put blinders on and focus get distracted and lose ground to the guys who are zeroed in on riding, training, eating properly, recovering, hydrating, resting, and repeating.

3

They skim through motocross magazines looking for pictures of themselves.

Sad but true.

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They have a million pairs of shoes.

You thought Carrie from Sex and the City had a collection? She’s an amateur. Etnies, DC, Adidas, DVS, and many other shoe companies are heavily involved in the sport and supply riders with boxes and boxes of shoes.

It always ticked my wife off that my sponsors’ shoes and T-shirts took up the lion’s share of our closet.

1

6

They would rather look good and get paid than be safe.

How many pros do you see wearing chest protectors?

How many wear cheaper helmets because they get paid more money to wear them?

7

They don’t fly first-class.

Not at first, at least. After a few years of building up miles, some will get status upgrades and sit in the big seats on occasion. Champions will be seen up front a little more often.

8

They are stubborn and competitive in everything.

You can’t play a game of ping pong without it feeling like a world championship match. I once had a race with two other guys to see who could drink a milkshake the quickest. These are the qualities that make them great on a bike (well, not the milkshake part).

4

Racing professionally is almost impossible.

Statistically, you are more likely to win the lottery than make millions racing motocross. I have no charts or graphs to prove this, but if you look at the number of kids racing and number of pros making good money and then use the most current math techniques, it’s pretty obvious.

9

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Riders spend most of their days sweating.

Three to four hours at the track in the morning are followed by a couple hours on the bicycle in the afternoon or in the gym. That’s usually followed up by some type of flexibility routine in the evening.

AMBROSIONI

5

They’ve got each other’s backs.

Most riders would run each other over without blinking an eye on the track, but if somebody gets hurt or falls on hard times, the entire industry rallies around them in a pretty amazing way. The pro racing scene is definitely a family. Dysfunctional and crazy, sure, but still a family.

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RACERHEAD PHOTOS: KINNEY JONES

SPROCKETS. CHAINS. CHAIN LUBE.

DMXS BYTES

EXCERPTS FROM THE INTERNET’S TOP MOTOCROSS RADIO SHOW “She’s like, ‘You should just quad-quad that every time, because it’s really faster.’”

Trey Canard’s wife is new to the sport, but he gets a kick out of her advice anyway “I did a really small version and went up that little wall and let it go. I was hoping that my bars weren’t too bent and my mechanic Hutch doesn’t punch me in the face for that.”

GEICO’s Justin Bogle earned his first career win in Toronto and celebrated by channeling Brian Deegan’s infamous ghost ride over the finish line, albeit on a much smaller scale

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“That is why I’ve got Malcolm! I have to put him through anger-management classes because he’s like my little son also. Trust me— I ain’t feeling any pressure!”

James Stewart is too busy helping raise his younger brother to worry about kids and marriage, like many of his competitors in the pits are

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“I think Indianapolis was one of the gnarliest ones for sure. It’s kind of crazy when you watch the 450A practice and guys are straight-up bonerairing the triples.”

Matt Lemoine, who took his first pro podium in Toronto, speaks to some of the challenging and rutted East Region tracks this year “I used to weigh 279 pounds back in 2005 or 2006 when I started riding.”

There was really never a good time to be Weston Peick’s suspension guy “It’s the personality, and you have to be funny. It’s like you guys wanting me on the show every week. I can tell you it’s not my looks or riding!”

Privateer hero Jimmy DeCotis has several marketable skills that have helped with securing rides ... and the ladies “You can run over your own head in Endurocross.”

Tyler Bowers is pondering what to race during the offseason after wrapping up his fourth Amsoil Arenacross title, but he’s wary of the challenges of Endurocross

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They’re available for urpretty much every fourstroke motocrosser out there and are distributed through Parts Unlimited, so you know you can find them almost anywhere.

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100% RIDEFIT AND iTRACK GLOVES Back in the ’80s, 100% was an iconic moto brand, and it was resurrected a couple of years ago with a new goggle/eyewear line. The company has added gloves to its product range, combining style and function to produce a well-made and durable glove. The Ridefit and iTrack gloves are simple in design, allowing for a lightweight and comfortable feel on the bike. The Ridefit has slightly more detail with a TPR closure system to ensure proper fit. I have been using these gloves for a couple months now and am very happy with their performance. David Langran.

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STARTS VS. WINS: JAMES STEWART & RICKY CARMICHAEL

W

hen we found out that both Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart reached forty-eight Monster Energy AMA Supercross wins in the

same amount of starts, we started wondering: How did they both get there? This chart details the routes each rider took.

50 45 40

WINS

35 30 25 20 15

JAMES STEWART

RICKY CARMICHAEL

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MARKS THE SPOT

7TH ANNUAL RACER X INTER-AM

STORY BY LYLE LOVETT PHOTOS BY LYLE LOVETT AND STEVE COX

If the smell of burning two-stroke oil brings a smile to your face and floods your mind with fond memories, we are kindred spirits.

I was excited when Scott Wallenberg, my friend and publisher of this magazine, invited me to this year’s Racer X Inter-Am. He invited me last year but I couldn’t go. I was happy to have a second chance.

This was the seventh annual edition of the popular event, which Wallenberg and his pal Tim Kennedy originally thought up as a way to have a vintage race in their hometown. They (From left) The author teamed up with the Owyhee Motorcyraced on a 1977 Husqvarna 125CR; Owhyee Motocross cle Club to hold the race on the winter and Boise make a beautiful track of its beautiful, 80-acre riding background for racing. area in the Boise Foothills, just north of town. And because it’s the first race of the Pacific Northwest Vintage Motocross series, it attracts the most avid vintage racers in the Northwest.

Wallenberg was a factory Monark rider in the early ’70s and Kennedy has been a vintage racer since at least ’95, I know from experience. That’s when I met him in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, at the bottom of a U-shaped ditch I suddenly found myself in during the first lap of practice. Kennedy helped get me, my fractured wrist, and the loaner ’74 Honda CR250 Elsinore I’d been riding back to the pits.

I

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LOVETT

COX

OWHYHEE MOTOCROSS BOISE, ID APRIL 5 & 6, 2014 WWW.IDAHOVINTAGEMX.COM

For this year’s Boise Inter-Am, Wallenberg arranged a very sweet 1977 Husqvarna 125CR for me to ride, courtesy of Terry Williams and Curt Mastrude and their team at Boise Vintage Cycle. With the help of DeCal Works, they even mounted my old local racing number on it: #32.

My buddy Bill Kasson, the now-retired former owner of Kasson Yamaha in Austin, Texas, joined me on the trip. Our first stop Friday evening was Boise Vintage Cycle, where we joined Wallenberg and this year’s special guests Lars Larsson, Mark Blackwell, David Bailey, Scott Cox, and John Gregory.

We met the affable Larsson in the parking lot. He and I talked about our mutual friend the late Richard Sanders and his shops, Cycle Shack and Iron Horse Motorcycle Supply in Houston. Larsson had set them up as some of the first Husqvarna dealers and Torsten Hallman distributors in the country. I started working at Cycle Shack when I was 14, and Sanders hired me to work in the parts department—my first job outside my family.

Mark Blackwell and I have been horse-show buddies since 2001 (I must have been 15 when we first met). We see each other several times a year at reining events, where we compete in the same class. The idea of riding in the same class as Mark doesn’t seem right to me, even on a horse.

LOVETT

COX

Visiting Boise Vintage Cycle felt like being home.

Even though I didn’t know everyone there, I felt as if I did.

Everyone spoke a language familiar to me. I felt like I was back behind the parts counter of Cycle Shack, listening.

From there we went to a charming pizza and chicken restaurant called Pizzalchik, where Wallenberg occasionally sits in on vocals and guitar with the house band. We both ended up playing and singing a little that night.

I have to admit I was a little nervous about riding the track, since my last outing on a vintage bike lasted all of about ten minutes and ended in the emergency room. The plan this time was to ride practice and then a few parade laps with Larsson, Blackwell, Bailey, and Wallenberg. I felt honored to be asked to line up with them. Once Kasson and I drove through the gate Saturday morning and found our parking place in the pits, my nerves went away. Everyone was so welcoming, so friendly, and seemed really happy just to be there.

Washington’s Dallas Nyblod was there with his ultra-trick Jawa and his personally machined custom triple clamps and side-chain cover. Dr. Ed Sims had year-accurate gear to match each of his bikes; on Saturday he rode his ’73 CZ 125 with gear to match. Longtime Owyhee Motorcycle Club member Ray Hale, now past 70, didn’t race but brought his perfectly restored

Pentons for the rest of us to see and enjoy. CZ Willie Brown, 72, was racing for the first time since his stroke.

He held out his throttle hand to show me he couldn’t close it all the way, but he told me he just had to get back out and race. The Ossa kid—Billings, Montana’s Leland Loper—looked, as he won his first moto, to be about my age. He turned out to be 75. Fred and Fran Villopoto, Ryan’s grandparents, were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that weekend—racing.

With my first whiff of bean oil, I (From left) The Evolution fell back in time to 1971. I stood in Amateur and Intermediate the Boise Vintage Cycle pits admirclasses were stacked with ing the Husky 125 they’d prepped riders; Scott Wallenberg for me. It was perfect. The track (13) does battle with Shaun Cossins (599). was perfect. There wasn’t a braking bump that didn’t suit the bike’s vintage suspension. Jumps were nicely rolled at their tops, throwing riders gently out, rather than abruptly straight up. The ground was sandy and deep. In my first lap of practice, when I twisted the throttle enough to feel the hit of the little Husky’s narrow powerband and charged up and through the right-hand sweeper after the first jump, I experienced déjà vu. But it wasn’t. I really had been there before.

I looked ahead to the next corner, as I looked forward to spending the rest of the day among kindred spirits.

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PRESENTED BY

EXPOSURE

SPOTLIGHT ON FUTURE STARS

CHASE SEXTON

BY AARON HANSEL DOB: September 23, 1999 Hometown: La Moille, IL Classes: 85cc 12-14 Modified, Supermini Bike: Yamaha YZ85

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Sponsors: Yamaha, Rock River Yamaha, GYTR, Yamalube, Dunlop, Bell Helmets, Ethika, CMS Artworx, Atlas, Spy, Alpinestars, FMF, Never Summer Industries, MSR, Pro Taper, Works Connection, DeCal Works, EVS, DVS

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Racer X: How did you get into racing dirt bikes?

Chase Sexton: My dad started racing when I was 1 or 2, and he got me a bike and I started riding it.

Then when I was 4 I started racing.

Talk about some of your recent highlights.

I just broke my collarbone, so not much recently! But last year I went to the Czech Republic for the Junior MX World Championship for Team USA, and I got second at the Monster Energy Cup. I won four championships at the Mini Os too. My biggest highlight of all time, though, was definitely winning Loretta’s in 2011. The Monster Cup was pretty cool, too, but being 11 and winning at Loretta’s was amazing.

There’s a pretty cool video of you on YouTube racing against 450s on your Supermini at Sunset Ridge MX. Yeah, I was in Schoolboy 1 and they combined us with 450 B in the same gate drop. I practice with the 450 guy in that video a lot, and I knew that he was going to be the main competition, but I didn’t know I was going to beat him. But once I beat him in the first moto, I knew I had to beat him in the second!

When will we see you line up for a pro race?

I’m not sure. I’m hoping to turn pro by 17 or 16, somewhere around there. I’ll be 15 next year, so I’ll probably be racing Schoolboy 1 and 2. Then after that I’ll probably race B, but I don’t know. I haven’t really planned it out yet. I’m sure I’ll do pretty much whatever Yamaha wants me to do!

What’s it like being 14 and having a big sponsor like Yamaha behind you?

It’s awesome. They’ve supported me since 2011, since I won a Loretta’s championship. They’ve been great and have supported me at every race. Whether I have good or bad motos, they’re always there.

Who’s been your biggest influence in racing?

That’d have to be my dad, since he got me started in it. I just got a new trainer, too, Robbie Reynard, and he’s definitely been motivating me every day.

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For one night, we patrolled the absolute center of the Monster Energy Supercross world: the starting line WORDS: JASON WEIGANDT “Take that one,” Michael Byrne says. “Straightest shot to the first turn.” Byrner spent fifteen seasons as a full-time pro in the U.S. and now works the sidelines for BTOSports.com KTM teammates Andrew Short and Matt Goerke, as well as holeshot master Mike Alessi during the week. Starts are the most critical aspect of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, and this month, we’re putting the holeshot process under the microscope.

At Ford Field’s Detroit Supercross, we’ve decided to study one single gate all night long. Byrner recommends the one fourth from the inside. There’s a good chance, he says, that the main-event holeshots will come from there later in the evening.

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7:35 p.m.

250 Heat 1 GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle gets the first gate pick. He was second in timed qualifying; Adam Cianciarulo will pick first in heat two. Sure enough, Bogle goes right to that fourth gate, “mainly for position,” he explains. Position is key here because there are no ruts to choose from—not a single bike has rolled over the gate yet. Bogle’s mechanic, Grant Hutcheson, goes to work building a rut of his own with his Alpinestars boot.

Bogle gets a good jump, but AG Motorsports’ Kyle Peters comes in from the outside, forcing Bogle to brake to avoid a collision. Gavin Faith wisely tucks underneath and shoots into the lead on his TiLube/Stormlake Honda.

The privateer wins the heat.

Bogle, who has been struggling with his starts all season, must do better through turn one in the main.

WEIGANDT

WEIGANDT

7:49 pm

Behind any given Monster Energy Supercross starting gate is a constant scramble as riders and mechanics prepare for the best jump possible. And they have to use their hands and feet, because the only grooming tools allowed behind the gate belong to the official in the doghouse.

96

250 Heat 2 Cianciarulo picks the gate seventh from the inside. There are now ruts to contend with in front of the gates. These are the secret sauce of gate selection, because mechanics and riders are only allowed to work the dirt behind the gate. The condition of the rut and dirt in front of it, then, becomes the most critical part of gate selection—even more than lining up inside or outside. As two-time AMA Supercross Champion Ricky Johnson used to put it, “Condition over position.”

After just one start, gate four already has a hole in front of it, so while Bogle took it first earlier, it’s not chosen until Rockstar Energy Racing KTM’s Cole Thompson grabs it with the fifth pick.

Surprisingly, only one 450-team person is on the floor watching this—but there’s no surprise that it’s Tony Alessi. No one takes starts more seriously than the Alessis. What’s Tony looking for? “The rut in front of the gate,” he says, concurring with RJ’s theorem.

Such studying rarely matters, though, because Mike Alessi generally selects the first gate to the outside of the doghouse. Which spot is Tony looking at now? “Status quo,” he says.

Thompson gets a good jump, but riders from farther outside again make a sweep.

Cianciarulo gets to the first turn first, but his teammate Martin Davalos overtakes him to get the lead and the win.

Thompson claws his way forward to finish fifth. The heat-race wins went to riders in gates five and three. Gate four isn’t getting the love, and it’s because of the hole forming in front of it.

8:03 pm 450 Heat 1 “Status quo” works well for Smartop/MotoConcepts’ Alessi, who jets across the start to beat a bunch of riders to the turn.

“It’s just balls,” Mike explains. “A lot of guys aren’t willing to go into that first turn around the outside wide

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V17#7 RX Gate Drops.indd 3

4/29/14 4:16 PM

WEIGANDT

FREDRICKSON CUDBY

CUDBY

CUDBY

For our study, we chose to focus on the fourth spot from the inside at the Detroit Supercross. Among the riders who would choose that gate were Nick Wey (27), Ryan Dungey (5), Justin Barcia (51), Cole Thompson (52), and privateer Ronnie Stewart (606 above), who used it to holeshot the 450 LCQ.

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WEIGANDT

WEIGANDT

open. They’re worried someone on the inside is going to come into them.”

Alessi holds it wide open and holds off nearly everyone, save for JGR/Toyota Yamaha’s Justin Brayton, who started a few gates farther inside and gets the holeshot.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart had the first pick in this heat. Gate four might offer the best position, but that hole in the rut is scary, so he grabs gate three. Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey, with the third pick, selects gate four, and his mechanic, Carlos Rivera, works the rut with his Fox boot. Dungey’s rut is tight, just barely wider than his rear tire. Stewart, next to him, has a comparatively wider rut, carved by his mechanic, Rene Zapata. They can work the rut behind the gate all they want, but the hole in front is the issue. Dungey doesn’t get a good start.

WEIGANDT

WEIGANDT

8:15 pm

Race officials are very strict in terms of who’s allowed where once racing starts. While the 30-second girls and officials get to walk in front of the gate, riders like James Stewart (7) can only inspect the ruts from behind it. No matter, the rut that formed in front of gate four (upper left) was obvious to all, including master start groomer Mike Williamson (above).

98

450 Heat 2 Ryan Villopoto’s mechanic, Mike Williamson, should leave a tip jar on the starting line.

He takes rut building into the realm of performance art—he even lifts the rear of the bike into place so he doesn’t disturb his sculpture. Then he takes a rag and cleans residual dirt out of the knobs.

In contrast, Justin Barcia selects gate four and does all the work himself. “That’s the way I’ve always done it,” says Barcia, known as one of the best starters in the business. Villopoto ends up with a deep, flat rut, while

Barcia’s is shallow.

The gate is held extra long in this heat. Barcia flinches, so he gets a bad jump, which means he’ll have to shut down a little early and get back on the gas. That digs an even deeper hole.

Ah, but position. Barcia enters turn one in tenth but just uses the inside line to emerge in second. “The inside is safe,” Byrner says.

Barcia, despite the flinch and the bad jump, wins the heat. But he leaves a seriously jacked-up rut behind.

“I dropped the gate at five and a half seconds for the first heat and seven and a half for the second,” explains Dan Rager, who drops the gate inside the doghouse. “I like to mix it up.”

8:21 pm Track Maintenance Rager is in his sixties and worked a variety of AMA positions at the races before taking over the doghouse a few weeks ago in Dallas. He’s seen his share of starts.

“I came back from Vietnam and needed to do something crazy,” he explains. “My brother raced dirt bikes, so I got one. I’ve done hand-on-helmet starts and rubber-band starts, forwardfalling gates.… One time in Charlotte I remember the forward-falling gate, and the 500s bent it!”

Dan has a stopwatch to decide the seconds. “There are two rules,” he says. “Has to be between five or ten, and the 30-second-card girl has to be gone!”

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V17#7 RX Gate Drops.indd 5

4/29/14 4:17 PM

The Holeshot Machine 8:34 p.m.

8:49 p.m.

250 LCQ Crosley Radio/RiderSurance-backed privateer Jacob Baumert takes gate four with the third pick. He does his own work on the gate, leaving mechanic/ agent/truck driver Brandon Parrish to hold the bike. He gets a good jump out of the gate but Ganon Audette crosses in front of him from the inside, they collide, and Baumert ends up way back.

He finishes twelfth in the LCQ and misses the main.

450 Semi 2 Ken Roczen has the first pick and goes sixth from the inside, same as Hahn. “This one has the best rut in front of the gate,” Roczen says. “I want it to be smooth.”

RCH Racing’s Broc Tickle picks second and goes for the fourth gate. His mechanic, Tony Berlutti, wears an Oakley shoe on his left foot and a riding boot on the right for gate packing. The real news is that, with only sixteen riders in the semi, the track crew closes off the inside three gates. No one can line up next to Tickle, so he shoots off the gate straight as an arrow. He gets into turn one first, but more importantly, gate four is starting to look good again.

450 Semi 1 Brayton has first pick and uses the same gate he holeshot with in his heat.

Wil Hahn picks second but stays outside as well. Hahn’s mechanic, Shawn Irwin, goes back to the condition-overposition concept.

“We wanted to go inside but the ruts are bad,” he says. “Some guys will double-clutch and the rut gets wavy. You’ve got to stay away from that.”

Nick Wey has the fourth pick and goes for gate four.

He doesn’t get a great jump but cruises down the inside, makes a move, and ends up with the holeshot. Score one for position.

As soon as the gate drops, Feld Motor Sports’ Sean “Gary Busey” Jacobi runs out to drag giant Tuff Blox and banners across the start. There’s an army of supercross personnel down here making sure everything happens smoothly.

9:06 p.m.

450SX LCQ Pennsylvania privateer Ronnie Stewart has second pick and chooses gate four. Tickle’s good launch a few minutes ago helped clear the way, and Stewart nails the start and grabs a picture-perfect holeshot—he’s the only rider all night who will lead the field into, through, and out of the first turn. He goes on to finish third in the LCQ and make the third main event of his career.

9:21 p.m.

250SX Main Event “Check out those flames,” Gary Busey says. “He’ll make ’em dance.” Busey and fellow track man Zach Lawson are showing me the flame machine that controls the burst above the starting gate. You

CUDBY

8:43 p.m.

“I think I got fourteen of twenty-four holeshots that outdoor season,” Andrew Short says of the summer of 2010. Back then Short was a factory Honda rider on a CRF450R, and he credits the brand’s so-called data bike used in testing. In those early days of EFI and on-board electronics, telemetry and data acquisition helped Shorty become a better starter.

“For me it was a great opportunity to learn how to maximize my rpm, the release of the clutch, and how quick you could shift to third gear,” Short explains.

“It helped figure out that if I could shift in under two seconds, we could really improve the starts. But every time I would come in they would say things like, ‘Hey, you shifted at this point, at this rpm, and pulled it down to 7,000 rpm and then it had this much torque.’

“It was cool to have the opportunity to work with those guys,” the veteran adds. “I think they were leading the forefront on that technology. A lot of it came from the road race side. They kind of conquered it before everyone else.”

Andrew Short (3) holeshots the 2010 Motocross of Nations MX1/MX3 moto.

Short is quick to explain that the team wasn’t using traction control or other tricks on the bike.

Instead, Honda was able to break down starts scientifically and build the perfect combination of clutch release, rpm, throttle, and shift points. Then it was up to Short to execute that plan in the motos.

“I was one rider that was able to adapt and use that information, and I cared about it where other riders didn’t care at the time,” he recalls. “I even ripped some massive starts at the des Nations in Colorado, which was a career highlight for me. Once I learned it, I could replicate it every time.”

Now that all bikes have EFI, telemetry and data acquisition are commonplace for the big teams. And as you’d expect in the field of electronics, what was state-of-the-art in 2010 seems rudimentary now. Many bikes today even use different engine-setting maps specifically for starts—although ironically, Short’s BTOSports.com KTM does not.

“I’ve always been kind of old-school, but I was definitely able to learn some things back then,” he says.

100 www.racerxonline.com

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WEIGANDT WEIGANDT

WEIGANDT

WEIGANDT

GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle (32) chose gate four for the 250 main, while Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey (5) did likewise in the 450 main. Neither took the holeshot, but both stayed off the ground and finished on the podium.

think flames can dance without a choreographer? Nope.

Lawson works the buttons like a manic texter. “I count to three, get into a rhythm, and let it go,” he says.

Beneath the flame machine, Bogle goes back to gate four, the same one he used in his heat. Gate five has the worst ruts now, and no one wants it. Baggett surveys it and walks away, choosing to go farther outside. It gets so bad that the AMA’s Tim “Tool Time” McAdams, the official in charge of loading the gate, has to hold a finger up to signify there’s still one inside gate remaining. Matt Lemoine, with the lucky thirteenth pick, takes it.

Unlike the factory mechanics, Lemoine’s wrench, Tim Bennett, is wearing skateboard shoes as he packs the dirt. No worries—Lemoine nails the start and gets his bars ahead of Bogle.

Bogle learned a lesson from going wide in the first turn of the heat, so he jams on the brakes, slides inside, and comes within about an inch of the holeshot. Soon he’ll work his way into second and finish there, behind Cianciarulo. It’s Bogle’s best start and finish of the season thus far.

9:54 p.m.

450SX Main Event Seven laps into the 250 Class main event, the 450s head to the gate. James Stewart gets the first pick and immediately looks toward the inside, surveying gates three and four. Like he did in his heat, he goes with three. Although

Tickle and Ronnie Stewart helped clear it, there’s still a hole in front of gate four. Tellingly, Barcia has the second pick in the main. Remember, he used gate four in his heat, flinched, and ruined the rut.

He chooses not to use it again and goes to gate two. “The rut was jacked up,” he explains.

Villopoto uses the very inside gate. No one has pulled a good start from here all night, but this is common practice for the threetime Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion.

“He doesn’t care about the holeshot,” Byrne says.

“He can win with a top-five start. He just wants to make sure he doesn’t get taken out in the first turn. Remember: safety.”

Villopoto’s mechanic Williamson builds another work of art. “Yeah, but what sucks is this guy is going to do a practice start and ruin it all,” Williamson says of his rider.

Next to him, Barcia works his own gate, so he’s careful not to launch too hard for the parade lap.

“I’ll only do a practice start if we made a big bike change and I need to test it,” Barcia says. “I’ll let Schnikey [mechanic Mike Tomlin] fix it up a bit.”

“Hey, if you’re checking out ruts, look at my piece of art,” Josh Hill says from his spot just inside of the doghouse. “I even put little traction grooves in mine and everything. It hasn’t actually worked yet this year, but it sure looks sick!”

Dungey, with the seventh

102 www.racerxonline.com

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FREDRICKSON CUDBY

CUDBY

Stewart lined up for the 450 Class main between Dungey and Justin Barcia (51), with Ryan Villopoto (1) on the far inside. None would get the holeshot—that went to Honda’s 450 fill-in rider Cole Seely—but Stewart, Villopoto, and Dungey would go 1-2-3. As for Bogle, he nailed down his best finish yet with a second in 250SX behind Adam Cianciarulo.

CUDBY

pick, selects gate four. He’ll have to deal with that hole.

“Most weeks you need to get at least the fourth pick, but two weeks in a row no one picked the fourth gate,” he says. “There was a little bump in it, nothing terrible.

I was like, ‘All right, I’ve got to get out of this.’ And I did a really good job—I actually got out good and then clipped somebody—Brayton, I think—to the right of me and he took my hand off the handlebar, right off the throttle.

So I was like, ‘I’ve got to grab the throttle!’ It was crazy!”

This time, the inside positioning saves Dungey, as he’s able to follow Villopoto around the inside and make passes.

But Stewart uses the better rut to get a quicker jump and get into turn one ahead of him. Stewart ends up with a great start and Dungey a bad one, and that tells the story— James wins the main from the front while Dungey has to make moves to finish third, behind Villopoto.

The man winning the $1,500 Nuclear Cowboyz Holeshot bonus is 450 parttimer Cole Seely, riding Trey Canard’s Honda. He uses the same gate he had in his heat to grab another holeshot, but Stewart shoots past on lap two to take the lead. Dungey closes up on Villopoto for second but can’t get him, so he settles for third. At the end of the night, the difference in winning and losing isn’t a few seconds or even a few bike lengths—it’s the size of one small hole in front of gate four. X

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www.kiska.com Husqvarna reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice, in colors, materials, equipment, specifications, MSRP and models. Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations! The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost.

MOTOCROSSTCTWO-STROKEFCFOUR-STROKE

FE 250: $8,649 MSRP

FE 350: $9,549 MSRP

TE 250: $8,349 MSRP

TE 300: $8,549 MSRP

FE 501: $9,899 MSRP

Photos: H. Mitterbauer, S. Cox

ENDUROTETWO-STROKEFEFOUR-STROKE

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8,079 likes The always super-pumped @rstewart606 having the best year of his career in â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14 #RonnieStewart @yoshimura_rd @troyleedesigns @rekluse_motorsports @6dhelmets @njmotocross @thedirtcandy #supercross #sxonfox @supercrosslive @cudby photo

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TRACK PROVEN, OFF-ROAD WINNING

AB ABO B UT BO UT BR BRI R AN N “TH TH HE GEN ENE NERAL N ALLL”” DEEEG A EG GAN N: Br an Bri an Dee Dee De e ga gan gan a is i a cco--fou fooouund nddeerr of the nde he M Met e al et al M Muu ish Mul isha, a a, a deeco eccorrat atted ed Fre F ees est stylee Mootoc st tocro oc o ro rosss ride ross i r,, a sixt sixt ixteeen ee ttiimee X Game ee am mes meeda me dal da dal winn iinnn nner err, a fifive vee titim me Luca cass Oili Offffff RRooad ad Rac Raaccing inng ng Champi mpion, mp onn,, on annd a Glo and Global bbaal al Raal RRal allyy Cro rross s R er.

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#PrivateerLife with @rah451 #RashidiKerrison and mechanic coming down the tunnel ready to go with fresh @ridedunlop tires for practice @hinsonracing #PSE #gpssuspension #MTF #supercross #sxonfox @supercrosslive @cudby photo

@tevintapia @dherrlein72 @rob869 airing it out @team3br @3tperformance @bell_powersports @magiksc @dubachracing @unitclothing @dcamman @rekluse_motorsports @motoseat @onealracing @ride100percent @motostarracing @yoshimura_rd @galferusa @ksrwheels @matrixconcepts #supercross #sxonfox @supercrosslive @cudby photo

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#PrivateerLife with Taylor Potter and his mechanic, coming all the way from Warranwood, Australia, to be here living out the dream. @foxheadinc #supercross #sxonfox @supercrosslive @cudby photo

#OzzyBarbaree getting ready for some racing in Toronto for the one Canadian stop of Monster Energy Supercross @mikametals #silkolene @fmf73 #supercross #sxonfox @supercrosslive @cudby photo

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Moto XXX, a privateer fusion of punk rock and motocross, was a thorn in the sides of the factories and the powers-that-be for more than a decade.

This is the story about the beginning of a two-wheeled revolution, in the words of those who were there AS TOLD TO STEVE MATTHES ILLUSTRATIONS: JEFF PROCTOR

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Jordan Burns (Drummer, Strung Out): The whole thing started from my hobby, which was filming. I would just film everything.

I was a fan of skate videos, which were awesome compared to the ones people were doing for motocross. We wanted to do stuff that made our sport look cool. Pretty soon we came to the conclusion that although we really didn’t know what we were doing, we thought we could make a cool video. Kurt Haller was using our band’s music in his snowboard videos. I knew Kurt from mutual friends we had in high school in Simi Valley. I told him we were making a motocross video and he started coming out for the shoots. That was over the course of maybe two years, and those shoots became the material for our first release, Moto XXX. Erik Sandin (Drummer, NOFX): I’m not sure how it all happened, but we became the subjects. But Kurt’s first introduction to motocross was Jordan and I trying to do doubles and tabletops for him. Just a couple of complete dorks!

So he was all bummed until we took him to see Damon Huffman ride and his mind was suddenly blown with a real motocross racer and not a couple of idiots. [Ed. note: Kurt Haller declined to be interviewed for this story.]

Burns: The video was probably out for around a year and we were having a lot of success with it—we were all blown away by its sales. We were part of this new movement. Crusty Demons of Dirt had just come out and it was brand new and fresh for the public. People were really digging that kind of stuff, and we had no idea how big it was going to get. When we had the video premiere, the people were blown away. It was very rewarding to see how well it sold.

Kenny Watson (Team Manager): I was living with Jordan,

and the first time I met Kurt and Erik was when they showed up at riding and Kurt was going to film them. They were all beginner riders, and when Jordan said that Kurt was going to go film them, I’m like, “Why would you film those guys? You’ve got to find some better riders.”

At that point I was working for Scott Sheak as his mechanic, but I had been working with Brian Deegan before that and I knew he had nothing going on for the upcoming season.

Since Jordan and Kurt were doing this video, we went to them and said, “Hey, maybe you should get a team together.” They asked how much it would cost and who was going to run it. I said I would do everything and not to worry.

Sandin: Watson was motivated, but I also knew that he was a big talker! So he could have either gotten it done or just said he got it done, and you wouldn’t know either way, really.

Frank Kashare (President, O’Neal USA): We were distributing the Moto XXX videos at the time. The video market was hot and the sales were strong. These guys were energetic, excited, and eager to push the marketing with a race team, and we were happy to get involved.

Brian Deegan (Team Rider): The year before, I was on the Chaparral team but it didn’t work out very well—my bike sucked and there was all of that typical political crap going on. I was over that, and I thought that with Moto XXX we should stir it up a little. I was just frustrated with the politics of racing. So that was the beginning of it all.

Watson: Once we had Deegan, I called Brian Swink, who had nothing going on. I explained the whole deal to him and all he

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really wanted to know who was building the bikes. When I said Pro Circuit, he said, “#@%! it, let’s go.”

Burns: That first weekend was crazy. We rolled in with this box van with a giant flaming eyeball painted on the side. People were tripping! No one had ever showed up with a van like that. The press came over to shoot pictures and we got a good buzz going on about the team. Then we started throwing out free stuff, and as people caught on to that, our crowds got bigger and bigger.

Sandin: I got there at eight in the morning and we were in the weird area of the pits, but I didn’t care—I was just stoked to

just be there. I’m a fan of moto since I was a kid, and I couldn’t believe that I was now the owner of a team racing at the L.A. Coliseum. It was like a dream come true for me. I mean, I was rubbing elbows with Roger DeCoster! It was my entire fantasy coming to life, right there before my eyes.

Watson: Jordan started throwing out CDs and people went bonkers. It was the first time that fans could just come and hang out.

They were sitting on the bikes and we were chucking out CDs and DVDs like crazy. It’s like we were the Beatles or something. But the AMA guys did not care for the team or me one little bit. That was back in the day before it was sort of acceptable to do things like that.

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速 Made in the

USA

Eric Johnson (Journalist): There was this little box van right outside the Coliseum with punk rock blaring out of it and two hundred or three hundred people standing around it, screaming and pushing and shoving to get closer to where Kenny was throwing things out into the mob. I know the promoters were not into it at all, and I doubt any other team was into it either. I remember seeing one of the officials go rushing towards the van to try to stop them from causing a riot.

Deegan: The way I felt is that if you’re going to talk the talk, you’d better walk it too. I knew I had to back this thing up with some results. That’s the bottom line and I had to now actually ride my ass off. But that first night I landed on [Jason] Partridge over the triple and compressed two vertebrae in my back. I was bummed because I had been training so hard with Mark Smith that year—he was a cage fighter who slept on the floor of an apartment I was renting for $300 a month. I was barely making it, but I was training my ass off.

Sandin: I’m sitting in the stands and on the first lap of the 125 main event Deegan lands on some kid and just crushed him.

He fell off the back of his bike and he just laid there and didn’t move. I looked over at Kurt, and seeing as how we all had 50K into it already, I said, “There goes fifty thousand bucks.”

Watson: Swink made the 250 main event but he got a flat tire.

He still tried to jump down the peristyle jump, and when he landed he just crashed and knocked himself out. It was one thing after another for him that year.

Deegan: We were down but we weren’t out, and one week later we were back there at the Coliseum for round two. I was still sore, but I had to race. And I’ll never forget that race. I had a decent start and I knew my conditioning was good. [Robbie] Reynard was out front but he was fading pretty bad. When I

passed him in the air over the big triple the crowd went nuts. I thought, Wow, I’m leading a supercross right now! And then I thought about all those days that I was running five miles then running sprints, and I knew that if I blew this I was an idiot.

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity—something I always believed in.

Sandin: On the last lap, once I knew Brian was going to win, I ran down the stairs, jumped over the wall, ran past security and onto the field. I didn’t care what happened to me.

Deegan: I didn’t know what to do on the last lap. I knew I was going to win, but my whole thing the last few years was about doing crazy stuff. If I knew how to do a backflip back then, I would’ve done that. So I just ghost-rode my bike, which was funny, I think, because it was so unexpected. I stood up and dudes were jumping over my head still racing. I was acting like I was the only guy on the track!

Sandin: I got to the track right as the bike was flying through the air over the finish. I had the feeling like I had won the race. I was never good at racing but always wanted to be. I can’t explain the feeling to this day, but I really felt like I won the race myself!

Burns: I wasn’t actually there in Los Angeles because the band was touring in Germany. I remember looking up the race results online and I had to do a double take when I saw Brian’s name up on top. I was feeling it emotionally.... Man, I might have started crying, even.

Deegan: Of course the AMA took half of my purse money, but they used the footage for years to promote supercross.

Watson: After that race, Deegan started getting a little nuts. He told me that he had reached his life’s goal. He just wanted to win a supercross race, and he did.

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Burns: Deegan gave Moto XXX a long-lasting memory and it was a historic moment in supercross, and maybe even the jump that launched the whole freestyle revolution.

Watson: After things started settling down, one of the officials told us we had to stop doing product tosses and giving everything away. He said if we’re still doing it when he comes back he’s going to have us arrested and charged with trespassing.

I was scared because I knew he was serious, but Deegan asked me if I really thought he was going to do that. I said yes, I think he would do it. So Deegan started teasing me and calling me names and all that, so I just started throwing stuff out again. An hour later a cop car pulls up. They handcuff me and throw me in the back. They drove me out of the pits and the same official was waiting. He said he really didn’t want to do this and asked me again if I would stop. I said I would and that pretty much ended it.

Burns: We got in trouble so much with the AMA’s Duke Finch that one time Erik and I wanted to bring some sort of gift basket to him. We thought that might help but it didn’t work at all. We wanted to shower him with kindness, but when we got into our parking spot that week the arguments started and that was it. I don’t think we even gave him the basket.

Watson: We were looking for attention and a way to stand out, and one of the ideas was to paint everything in glitter—boots, helmets, fenders, everything. The fenders weighed five pounds each because it was resin and glitter from the hobby store plus Elmer’s Glue. For the boots and helmets we spray-painted them and used more glue and glitter. We had more glue and glitter than we had parts! We did a silver bike for Swink and gold for Deegan and somehow we made

the top ten. It was kind of crazy but people still talk about that.

Sandin: The team obviously went on for more than a decade, but that first year back in 1997 was really a special time for all of us.

I’m incredibly proud of all the people that came through the doors of Moto XXX.... Actually, proud is an understatement. It’s truly love that I have for the team. [Racer X’s] Davey Coombs once called us the most successful independent team to ever happen in the sport, and for him to say that, I’m honored.

Watson: We weren’t playing by the rules. We were doing something different than everyone else and there really weren’t any rules to be broken—we were doing stuff that no one ever really thought to be worth having a rule on the books for. We started to make our own rules, and they didn’t like our rules.

Deegan: My days at Moto XXX started what I have now with the Metal Mulisha. I mean, I had Metal Mulisha on my helmet when I won the supercross—it was already rolling—but Moto XXX had a huge part in really getting the Mulisha going.

Sandin: If we hadn’t started the team, I would probably have another million dollars in my bank. That’s probably what I would’ve made from video sales over the years. But I don’t care—it was all worth it.

Burns: Yeah, Erik says that because he’s got another $5 million in the bank! X This is just the start of the Moto XXX story. To read about the rest of the team’s unlikely trip through motocross history, check out Steve Matthes’ future installations at Racer X Online. And if you’re looking for Moto XXX apparel, visit www.motoxxx.com.

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C heck-O ut th e A LL-Ne w #m #mo #motox motox toxxx xx x

#motox #mo tox to xxxo x ffiicall

w w. ww w MO MOTO OXX XXX.c co om m

Throwing caution to the wind, we offer our summer forecast for Lucas Oil Pro Motocross WORDS: RACER X STAFF PHOTOS: SIMON CUDBY

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1 KTM WILL WIN THE MOST RACES. With Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen leading the way in the 450 Class, Roger DeCoster’s Red Bull KTM will have the strongest 1-2 punch in the series. Both riders are incredibly fast, and both have won major outdoor titles— Dungey in AMA Motocross, Roczen in the FIM World Championships. And don’t forget about Marvin Musquin in the 250 Class—he’s been out for supercross but should be 100 percent from the get-go here. And Rockstar Energy KTM’s Jason Anderson now knows how to reach the winner’s circle too.

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2 BLAKE BAGGETT WILL WIN THE 250 CLASS AT GLEN HELEN. With his focus fully on the outdoors after another midsupercross injury, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Blake Baggett should come out fast and leave his mark in San Bernardino.

Baggett rides Glen Helen so often that he has a key to the front gate! He may or may not win this title, but he absolutely flies on his local (and favorite) track.

3 WESTON PEICK WILL BE TOPFIVE OVERALL BY THE END OF THE SEASON.

MILAN/MCG

RCH Racing is obviously going to look different this summer than it did in the spring. Broc Tickle is out with an injury, so Ivan Tedesco will be filling in for him, and Weston Peick is taking over Josh Hill’s spot.

As a result, the popular and fierce Californian finally gets his chance on a factory bike for an entire series. Look for him to excel and maybe even reach the podium before summer’s end.

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5 4

HOPPENWORLD

THERE WILL BE A NEW 450 CHAMPION. As we were going to press, it was still not official as to whether Ryan Villopoto would be out there, but even if by some miracle he changes his mind and makes a go of it, we still believe his suspect knee is going to be a problem. That opens the door for the KTMs of Dungey and Roczen, or the Kawasaki of Chad Reed, or maybe even one of the Hondas to get RV’s #1 plate. And while the veteran Dungey is the likely favorite, don’t count out GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac, last year’s 250 Class champ.

LOOK FOR ADAM CIANCIARULO TO WIN HIS FIRST OUTDOOR NATIONAL. After being knocked out of Monster Energy AMA Supercross with a shoulder injury, Cianciarulo wisely chose surgery over survival mode, forfeiting his direct shot at the East Region Championship. Now he’ll be able to return at some point this summer, likely for the last three rounds, and that’s where this kid’s going to win his first national, just like Robbie Reynard did in 1993.

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6 Over the years, Troy Lee Designs/Lucas Oil Honda’s Cole Seely hasn’t been able to do his best outdoors— usually because he’s been injured. Now he’s healthy, and this summer will see him finally break through and get results equal to his supercross standards. Seely will win his first career moto, and he will win a national overall. At least one.

COX

COLE SEELY WILL WIN MORE THAN JUST HIS FIRST OUTDOOR MOTO.

7 YAMAHA WILL FINALLY WIN AGAIN. It’s been since August 29, 2009, that Yamaha had a winner in outdoor motocross, and you probably can’t even remember who it was. That will change this summer when the diverse lineup of sophomores Jeremy Martin and Cooper Webb pick up speed, along with the veteran Christophe Pourcel, whose practice speed was creating quite a buzz in April and early May. The Frenchman is coming back on a Valli Yamaha YZ250F with more racing experience than anyone in the class, not to mention a chance to avenge himself for time (and titles) lost to injury and unemployment. (And that last Yamaha winner was Matt Goerke at Southwick ’09.)

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9 STEWART WILL BE ON THE PODIUM.

8 HONDA MUSCLE MILK WILL NOT HAVE A SUMMER TO REMEMBER.

But it’s probably not the Stewart you’re thinking of.

The better-known James will always be a threat to podium or even win any time he lines up. It’s just that he might not line up, given his late-season knee tweak. On the other hand, little brother Malcolm will be riding in the 450 Class for TLD/Lucas Oil Honda and has shown enough speed in the past to be on the box.

And now he’s got the experience and the equipment to get there—often.

We believe Trey Canard and Justin Barcia will be up front early but trouble will ensue.

Former 250 Class champ Canard has had a terrible run of bad luck and injuries, and while everyone in the world is pulling for this super-good guy, he’s got to prove his durability by staying healthy before he can be counted on again in this series. As for Barcia, he’s already getting too many questions about where he’s headed at the end of the season. That can get problematic for an athlete and his team, and it will show in the results.

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10 TEAM ALESSI WON’T BE IN CANADA FOR LONG...

OR WILL THEY? If Mike Alessi does in fact head north to race in Canada this summer, we’ll be surprised, but not shocked (nothing Team Alessi does makes total sense to anyone but them). But after seeing Mike have a decent, healthy supercross tour, we fully expect him to challenge for the 450 Class title this summer—the AMA one, not the Canadian one. With some top guys likely out and Glen Helen likely to go well, #800 will lose any chance he has at a major motocross title if he races in Canada on May 31 instead of California. But then again, it’s Team Alessi, which means conventional wisdom is not necessarily in the equation! X

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Jeff Kardas

Ryan Villopoto AMA Member

Where Riders Belong W

hat do Ryan Villopoto, Wil Hahn and Ken Roczen have in common? They’re members of the American Motorcyclist Association. You don’t have to launch 70 foot triples to be an AMA member. When you join, you EHFRPH D PHPEHU RI D QDWLRQDO JUDVVURRWV PRYHPHQW WKDW ¿ JKWV DQWL PRWRUF\FOLQJ IRUFHV DQG SURWHFWV \RXU IUHHGRP to ride and race. It’s where riders belong.

With an AMA membership you get the American Motorcyclist magazine – dirt or street version – hundreds of dollars in discounts and AMA Roadside Assistance at no cost.* Most of all, you’ll stand with Ryan, Wil and Ken to protect the sport we all love and safeguard it for future generations. AMA is where you belong. Join us.

Join at AmericanMotorcyclist.com or (800) AMA-JOIN *Restrictions apply.

The 1974 Appalachia Lake National in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, had it all—drama, excitement, confusion, even sabotage—as well as a small but pivotal place in motocross lore WORDS: DAVEY COOMBS PHOTOS: JIM GIANATSIS / FASTDATES.COM

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Nineteen seventy-four was a big year for dirt bike culture. The Yamaha Super Series of Motocross was introduced. Evel Knievel famously tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in his X-2 Skycycle. Fox Racing was founded in Northern California.

Kawasaki introduced the KX line while Yamaha rolled out its revolutionary Mono-shock, both hoping to compete with Hondaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gamechanging Elsinores.

M

eanwhile, on the outskirts of a farming town called Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, a club calling itself the Mon-Valley Competition Riders hosted its first pro national. The date was May 5 and the place was Appalachia Lake Park, a backwater destination for country music acts like Kitty Wells, Conway Twitty, Barbara Mandrell, and Tanya Tucker.

Appalachia Lake was a campground with a recreational lake and a big wooden stage under a tin-roof pavilion;

a game hut housing pool tables, pinball machines, and a jukebox; plus a quarter-mile dirt track used for late-model stock car racing and the occasional demolition derby.

It was located just off Route 281, maybe forty-five minutes from the small city of Morgantown. The track had only just been built in early â&#x20AC;&#x2122;73 but quickly became a regional hub for amateur racing, alongside places like Honda Hills, BellMesa, State College, Cedar Ridge, and Antietam.

Within a year the MonValley club was applying for

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a spot on the newly formed AMA National Motocross schedule. The Ohio-based American Motorcyclist Association preferred giving these nationals to member clubs like the Dirt Diggers out in California, the Polka-Dots M/C in Michigan, or MX-338 in New England over professional race promoters like the ones who comprised the premier Trans-AMA Series (whose well-known facilities included Saddleback, Unadilla, Carlsbad, and Road Atlanta). The fact that no one seemed to have heard of the Mon-Valley

Competition Riders or counted its rather limited membership didn’t seem to matter to the AMA—though, for the record, the club was formed to host local racing, first at a place called Lazelle-Union, then later Appalachia Lake.

As far as the track itself went, it began with a forwardfalling cattle gate, then went counter-clockwise up and down and around a rural valley that had been timbered.

Spectators could see every step of the mile-long track, which featured a tunnel jump as its centerpiece and just

a few small jumps. What we now know as double jumps had yet to be brought into motocross, and whoopde-doos were a “stadium motocross” thing. But the place had rocks—lots of them—and an old-fashioned creek-crossing.

Admission for the big race was $6 (two bucks for kids) and the national would feature 250cc and Open classes with a combined purse of $6,000. The pre-race activities included a Saturday amateur race, a country show, and finally a frog-jumping contest.

(Opposite) The forward-falling starting gate, which Can-Am rider DeWayne Jones has his front wheel against, would prove problematic at the 1974 Appalachia Lake National. (This page) Pierre Karsmakers (2) was the dominant force in the 250 class, while Yamaha teammate Mike Hartwig (79) suffered bad luck when his seat fell off. That handed the win to CZmounted privateer Tony DiStefano (shown here taping shin and knee guards outside his pants and boots).

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(Left) The souvenir program for the Mon-Valley Competition Riders’ first national event featured Bultaco rider Jim Pomeroy on the cover, but he ended up racing in Europe that weekend instead. (Below) Can-Am rider and defending champ Gary Jones leads Karsmakers over the tunnel jump during the second moto.

Maybe five thousand spectators turned out to watch on a cold and blustery day.

The national’s primary sponsors were Fairmont Cyclery, a local bike shop, and the Terra Alta Bank, “Preston County’s Oldest Bank.” Coverage was limited to a few reports in local newspaper, plus post-race write-ups in Motocross Action and Cycle News, which had sent writer/ photographer Jimmy “The Greek” Gianatsis to shoot the black-and-white photos you see here.

The only known film footage was shot by a man named Bob McCullough, who pieced together some

home movies of the race over classic tracks by Derek and the Dominos and the Doobie Brothers. You can find this edited footage on Racer X Online by searching for “Appalachia Lake 1974.”

What you’ll see is a snapshot of American motocross in its preliminary years, a time when factory teams were just beginning to emerge, the bikes were getting better and faster, and the identity of what we now call professional motocross was taking shape.

In other words, you won’t see much in the way of banners or pennants, overhead arches or Tuff Blox, yellow Acerbis markers or corner barriers.

This was pure motocross, almost completely devoid of commercialism, which in turn explains why none of the ’74 Nationals were televised.

W

ith dirt bikes in general booming all over the country in the early seventies, the series attracted all the major teams of the day—the Japanese as well as European brands, plus one from Canada. None utilized the types of big rigs we see at races today (even with privateer outfits), though Husqvarna and Penton, each based in Ohio, worked out of Sprinter-style bread trucks with trailers. The others were in box vans of various sizes, including local phenom Tony DiStefano, who rode a Czech-made CZ for an East Coast shop called Full House. Works bikes were allowed, but the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it would soon become—especially when the Japanese OEMs got serious about winning in the massive U.S. market.

Few fans were allowed in the pits back then, so there weren’t any autograph lines, hospitality areas, or pre-printed posters and handouts. The spectator areas were grassy and open, with one combined cook shack and concession stand, an announcer’s hut atop the hill, and several single-row benches made from trees cut from the valley.

The 125cc class was just getting started in 1974 but was limited to four rounds, three held in conjunction with Edison Dye’s Inter-Am Series, the first true professional

championship in America (though just one year away from its demise). As a result, most fans would not get to see teenage idol Marty Smith, who was just coming into his own in that brief 125cc tour.

After the two-weekendsonly Yamaha AMA Super Series of Motocross (see our June ’14 issue), the outdoor nationals opened in early April with a triple-header (125, 250, and Open) at Hangtown.

The now-legendary Northern California race was not yet referred to as the Classic and was still being held in its old Plymouth location. The Open and 250cc riders would then drive south to Moorpark’s old Baymare Cycle Park, then into the middle of the country for the RedBud National in Michigan (where Kenny Zahrt would win the 250 class riding a Bultaco Pursang).

Appalachia Lake would mark the fourth stop on the tour. After several morning qualifiers, the Open class started the feature program.

It was something of a mess, at least at the beginning. The first snafu occurred when the starting-line referee accidentally waved the red flag instead of the green, which would inform the pack of a clean start. Some riders saw the flag and stopped; others did not, making a complete lap before being sent back to the gate.

After a brief delay, the Open-classers were ready to go a second time, only for the race to be aborted again, for an even more bizarre reason. The head of the MonValley Competition Riders had somehow talked a local politician, U.S. Representative Harley O. Staggers, into drop-

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(Top) DiStefano leads Jimmy Weinert toward the end of the first moto.

Weinert would pass him in the last turn, then get docked a lap for jumping the starting gate.

(Middle) Gary Jones (1) rode well on his Can-Am but was no match for Karsmakers’ Yamaha; fans huddle on blankets against the late-spring cold; Husqvarna’s Marty Tripes (16) struggled that summer.

ping the old-fashioned starting gate by pushing the lever forward. Unfortunately, the honorable but confused Mr. Staggers apparently tried to pull the lever instead, leading several riders to jump the gate when it didn’t fall. More red flags, more flaring tempers.

The third time was the charm for the Congressman.

Mike Hartwig got way out front right away, which was only fair—he had started out toward the front in both previous moto attempts.

The Yamaha factory rider from Michigan put in a solid

performance, opening a lead of “three hundred yards” after just two laps, then winning by a wide margin.

Next came Kawasaki factory rider “Jammin’” Jimmy Weinert, the veteran who had just barely beaten the privateer DiStefano to the finish line. Unfortunately for the Jammer, the same referee who had caused the first false start said Weinert had jumped the gate on the third start, and after some heated discussions, the Kawasaki rider was docked one lap, dropping him from second to ninth.

In the second moto, Hartwig would again open a sizable lead, only to see the seat and rear fender fall off of his factory Yamaha 370 prototype. Forced to stand on the pegs, he still held on for a couple of laps before DiStefano made his way around him and rode off to an easy win. The first four finishers overall—DiStefano, Bryar Holcomb, Steve Stackable, and Gary Semics—were on CZ, Bultaco, Maico, and Husqvarna machines, respectively. “Rocket” Rex Staten finished fifth aboard

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his big-bore Honda. The frustrated Weinert was next.

T

eam Honda had more of a presence in the 250 class, where Billy Grossi, “Gassin’” Gaylon Mosier, and Rich Eierstedt were all racing their silvertanked CR250Ms, hoping to keep up with the master of the 250 class, Yamaha’s imported Pierre Karsmakers.

Karsmakers was a Dutch soldier of fortune whom Yamaha had hired to teach the young Americans a thing or two about motocross, only to be

beaten back by the rulebook: He was allowed to race the Americans but not collect points, as he wasn’t an actual U.S. citizen. The indefensible AMA rule didn’t last long.

Ironically, the man Karsmakers was here specifically to beat—Gary Jones, the reigning two-time AMA 250cc National Champion—was no longer riding for Honda. Instead, Jones and his brother DeWayne, plus a New England hotshoe named Jimmy Ellis, were all signed up to race Can-Ams in 1974, after Gary and DeWayne and their notorious father,

Don Jones, had a falling-out with Team Honda. Having already crossed swords with Yamaha a couple years earlier (and with the Kawasaki and Suzuki rosters already full), Mr. Jones took his sons to the new Canadian brand rather than an established European manufacturer like Husqvarna, Maico, Bultaco, or CZ. The Can-Ams were decent enough but not very dependable, so when Gary’s #1 bike wouldn’t fire near the start of the Appalachia Lake 250 race, no one seemed too surprised. The other Can-

Check out this amazing shot by Jim Gianatsis of the “Gassin’” Gaylon Mosier, a stylish and charismatic rider who joined Team Honda in 1974 to race their sleek CR250M Elsinore. Mosier would go on to a solid career on numerous brands; he died tragically while cycling near Unadilla, New York, in September of 1980.

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American motocross legend Barry Higgins slams his Maico against the bank of the creek crossing at Appalachia Lake.

Higgins, an AMA Hall of Famer who won the very first outdoor national in 1972, still works in the motorcycle industry, helping young riders and their families as part of KTM’s Junior Supercross Challenge.

Ams wouldn’t go either, and that started something of a panic in the pits. After all the plugs and ignitions checked out, the team decided to drain the gas tanks.

What they found, according to Cycle News, was sugar and water. Someone had sabotaged the Jones brothers’ bikes—“The worst form of poor sportsmanship imaginable,” wrote Gianatsis.

Race officials decided to hold up the start to get the CanAms cleaned out and running again. To this day, no one knows who sabotaged the Can-Am tanks.

When the race finally did go, Arkansas journeyman pro Tony Wynn grabbed the holeshot on his Noguchi Yamaha and led briefly before his suspension went sour. Karsmakers soon took over and would go on to dominate both motos.

As for the Jones brothers,

Gary would quickly put the drama behind him and finish second in both motos—equivalent to winning, since he was “first American.” DeWayne struggled in both races and barely made the top twenty.

Coincidentally, the fastest brothers on the day were Honda-mounted Billy Grossi and his older brother Bob, who rode for Husqvarna then; they would finish third and fourth overall. Zahrt would finish fifth aboard his Bultaco, followed by Frank Stacy on another Spanish brand, Ossa. hen the race ended, there was no rush of fans over the fences to steal banners (partly because there weren’t any banners).

Instead, the pit gate swung open and many of the riders and their teams hung out, barbecuing and bench-rac-

W

ing. They soon started filing out of the park onto the main road, driving toward their respective homes, or maybe the Pittsburgh Airport, or just straight into Ohio for the next round of the series.

By the end of summer, things really heated up. With Karsmakers handcuffed by the AMA’s ridiculous rule, Gary Jones was able to manage the championship lead even while riding in second much of the time on his Bombardier-powered Can-Am. His younger teammate Jimmy Ellis, who had missed Appalachia Lake with an injury, would move up to third in the rankings behind Marty Tripes, who struggled with his Husqvarna.

Just before the last round, in New Orleans, Can-Am offered Tripes a bike and a contract, which he signed. As a result, Can-Am was able to advertise that it finished 1-2-3 in the

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final rankings.

In the Open class, Hartwig’s chronic back and knee injuries caught up with him, allowing Weinert and DiStefano to settle the title between them. The Jammer would ultimately take it, but Tony D. would avenge himself by switching from his Full House CZ to a factory Suzuki and winning three straight titles. By then it was obvious that motocross was changing and the once-dominant European brands were being replaced by better-funded Japanese teams. American

riders were also clearly getting more serious about racing, especially as supercross was about to take off.

Four decades later, the Appalachia Lake track is gone, having barely made it another year after that first moderate success. The country music enterprise drove the park out of business, and the MX club soon moved its national to a new track called Keyser’s Ridge in Maryland, and then to another one in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, where it has remained ever since.

And that’s the one minor

detail about the race that still resonates so many years later: The club that organized that ’74 Appalachia Lake National, the Mon-Valley Competition Riders, used to hold many of their meetings in the kitchen of my family’s house on Brockway Avenue in Morgantown, West Virginia. Turns out my dad and mom—Dave and Rita Coombs—were the club’s main officers, and my sister and brother and myself were among its small (and quite young) membership.

Forty years later, we’re still in that club. X

(Top) DiStefano kisses the trophy girl— yes, they actually used to do that—after winning the Open class at Appalachia Lake while Honda rider Billy Grossi looks on. (Middle) Tony D. (17) would trade in his privateer CZ for a Suzuki factory ride. His future team manager? Mark Blackwell (23), who raced a Maico in ’74. And that’s Bob Grossi (11), Billy’s big brother, carving up an Appalachia Lake berm on his Husky.

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For twenty years, Cobra has been a small but dominant force in American minicycle racing

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WORDS: JORDAN ROBERTS

IN THE 1990S, THE BOOMING Japanese motorcycle powerhouses were making bikes for markets with the highest potential sales volume and profit margins. The old adage “What wins on Sunday sells on Monday” was true back then for full-sized dirt bikes, but average kids didn’t need 50cc dirt bikes that could win races; they needed a manageable learning curve and a bike they could learn on.

The kids who race the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn Ranch, however, were far from average. These exceptional youth racers could handle—and needed—more than what was provided for the masses. The Ohio-based motorcycle manufacturer Cobra gave them just that.

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DC

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T he “Cobra kids” immediately began taking major amateur wins across the country, and they haven’t stopped. Davi Millsaps, Trey Canard, Eli Tomac, and plenty of other competitive pro racers came up through the amateur ranks on the American-made minicycles. Cobra’s resources pale in comparison to those of much larger manufacturers, but their achievements are as stacked as their rider rosters.

expectations. But revolutionary changes are rarely met without opposition.

On their way to an explosive tipping point in August of ’94, the Maimones were going racing just like any other family. Brent had qualified for Loretta’s twice before, but a breakdown in ’93 ignited his father’s desire for a change.

When Bud went to the manufacturers and found only minor changes were in the works for the following year, he decided to strike out on his own, contacting the AMA to see what was required to race a self-made bike legally.

With the series homologation rules, Maimone needed to produce fifty identical motorcycles, have them

inspected by the AMA, and have them readily available to the public by June. With that, he put his financial well-being on the line and began tinkering in his New Middletown, Ohio, garage.

Maimone debuted the bike at a CRA banquet to mixed reviews; while the public loved it, the industry withdrew. Parts suppliers were pressured by competing manufacturers, and some eventually stopped contributing. A complete redesign with new parts was required, significantly hampering the production schedule. Maimone made the homologation cutoff date, but just barely.

Production was rushed and quality varied from bike to bike, and consumers and media took notice. For some it looked as if Maimone was stacking the deck in his son’s favor by supplying him and only a few others with quality-built machines.

Those feelings were amplified when Brent Maimone, riding one of just three Cobras in the field, won his first and only championship in 1994, taking the #1 plate away from a young Yamaha rider named James Stewart.

Twenty years after its creation in Ohio, the Cobra Moto company of Hillsdale, Michigan, builds the most successful 50cc minicycles in motocross. The high-performance Cobra CX50 costs more than twice as much as a Yamaha PW50, yet it occupies most of the starting gates at major amateur events.

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The Switch Maimone may have felt overwhelmed, but he’d sunk too much time and money into the project to let it go.

Alongside his wife, Sunny, and a handful of employees, he went to work on the next year’s model. (Brent, by this MARSOLEK

Cobra founder Bud Maimone realized early on that building a quality motorcycle for his son, Brent, would be difficult.

By the time Brent won the 1994 51cc Stock (7-8) AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship aboard the very first Cobra at Loretta’s, Bud had already endured pressure from the AMA, competing manufacturers, and other mini parents—not to mention some negative media attention.

Maimone’s quest to build a better minicycle began as a personal endeavor, but the level of controversy escalated beyond his wildest

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In-Garage Enterprise

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Bud Maimone (above) founded Cobra after realizing there was a niche market for talented youngsters looking for higher performance. His creations figured prominently early in the careers of top pros like Mike Alessi (800) and Eli Tomac (38), as well as future prospects like Haiden Deegan (center right with his father, Brian Deegan).

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In The Red With the change in infrastructure and operations came increased knowledge and engineering capabilities. Not

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After Sean Hilbert and Phil McDowell took over Cobra Moto, they put their shared backgrounds in Ford’s engine-research lab to good use, improving performance and durability as well as assembly-line efficiency at their Hillsdale plant.

ested in investing if we could find an existing platform,” Hilbert explains. “After some thinking, we came down to thinking it was Cobra. We had to go see if Bud was interested, because there were really no other alternatives.”

Hilbert and McDowell went to Ohio in 2003 to make Maimone an offer. Maimone accepted on the terms that he would remain at Cobra and that manufacturing would remain centered in nearby Youngstown, Ohio, for a minimum of three years.

that Maimone couldn’t put together a bike—he surely could—but Hilbert and McDowell brought academic expertise and large-scale manufacturing operations. Though Cobra gained assets in the acquisition, its future wasn’t necessarily guaranteed.

“Well, that’s a painful story, actually,” Hilbert says.

“Bud had a 65 in the works for several years. To be very blunt about it, part of what we thought we were buying was a 65 that was just about ready to go. Just when we took over, the bike was launched, and we had a lot of high hopes.”

Those hopes were dashed by exceedingly poor reviews. In fact, Cobra eventually bought back every CX65 from dealerships and shelved the project. Varying in quality and fairly unreliable, the bike was also heavy and fell short in engine performance—Cobra’s supposed strong suit.

Adding to the new ownership’s problems, the industry and general economy were about to plummet. Yamaha had withdrawn its factory racing efforts, American Suzuki eventually went bankrupt, and jobs in the industry were cut across the board. And Cobra had just thrown away nearly a million dollars worth of inventory.

Then it got worse. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reacted rashly to an influx of lead-tainted products imported from East Asia and intended for

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point, had moved beyond the little bikes.) Within two years, every kid in the top twentyfive of the 51cc (7-8) class at Loretta Lynn’s—including the winner, Davi Millsaps—was riding a Cobra.

Meanwhile, a Michigan State engineering student and motocross enthusiast was working on a Kawasakisupported research program to measure and design better porting for two-stroke engines. Sean Hilbert soon joined Ford Motor Company’s engine-research laboratories, where he met coworker Phil McDowell. Today, they serve as Cobra’s president and chief engineer, respectively.

“I was gone one Friday and Phil was asking some of the other guys where I was,” Hilbert recalls of his Ford days. “They told him I was at a motorcycle race—my dad and I would go up to Unadilla every year—and it wasn’t until that time that we knew we had similar interests. We made a pact then that we’d come back together in ten years to do what we needed to do to break into the motorcycle market.”

Hilbert left Ford to return to Michigan State for his MBA, soon drafting a business plan to manufacture customdesigned motorcycles. Hilbert and McDowell went to the capital markets with their new business proposal.

“Nobody was interested in investing in a startup at that level, but we did find several folks that were inter-

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AMERICAN MADE

GEICO Honda’s Zach Bell is one of many current pros who spent a year or two on Cobras.

He raced one at Loretta Lynn’s 2002 in the 51cc (7-8) Class against a field that included his current teammate Justin Bogle, plus Gannon Audette, Joey Peters, Bryce Stewart, A.J. Catanzaro, and class champion Justin Starling.

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cycles. We’re doing business a little bit differently over there today, but the bottom line is, if not for the push into overseas markets, we would not have survived.”

Better, Faster, Stronger Though Hilbert and McDowell’s dream of owning and operating their own motorcycle manufacturing business had become something of a nightmare, they worked relentlessly to keep the company going. While they fought adversity and seemingly impossible odds, the Cobra kids continued doing what they do best: winning.

From 1994 to today, Cobra has only left one AMA 51cc (7-8) Amateur National Championship on the table, when KTM’s Shawn Rife took the title in 2001. But the previous year, forty-one of the forty-two riders in the class were riding Cobras. The brand’s dominance extends

GIANTSIS

children. They sought to take all children’s products with lead content off the market— and that included dirt bikes and ATVs. Hilbert—along with officials from the AMA, the MIC, MX Sports, and more—made multiple trips to Washington, DC, to appeal to Congress. With help from the public Kids Just Want to Ride campaign, after a long, drawn-out battle, dirt bikes and ATVs were exempted from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. “We were punched in the gut from so many different angles it wasn’t even funny,” Hilbert says. “It was a really tough time to be a motorcycle manufacturer, no matter how big or small you were.

We were scared, but we persevered with some bold moves, like going heavily into the export markets. We actually hired a European sales manager and started a wholly owned subsidiary in Europe to do nothing but sell motor-

obra is one of the most successful American off-road motorcycle manufacturers, at least on the racetrack, but it isn’t the only American producer in the history of off-road competitive and recreational riding. Harley-Davidson, Hodaka, Indian, Penton, Rokon, and Yankee all dabbled in production when the sport started booming in the later half of the twentieth century, although only Harley and Rokon have been in continuous production since then.

Harley-Davidson ceased off-road production in the late seventies but continued making America’s most popular street bikes. Harley subsidiary Buell Motorcycles also had a brief dirt bike program a few years back, but it never made it off the drawing board.

Rokon continues making its unusual two-wheel-drive “mototractors,” a term that might also fit the company’s two-wheeldrive 340 that Don Kudalski and the late Bob Harris raced in 1977!

The classic Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company went bankrupt in 1953 but has survived as a subsidiary through many successors, including its latest, Polaris. It now focuses only on classic street bikes.

Hodaka and Penton were synonymous with both enduro and motocross competition through the sixties and seventies but had been phased out by the early ’80s. Neither was a predominantly American company, with Hodaka having Japanese ties and Penton born from the collaboration between John Penton and Austria’s KTM. Cannondale is one of the more recent American ventures. The bicycle company forged into the motocross market in 1998, but its radically innovative designs burdened its engineers with the impossible task of tying them all together into one practical package.

The Cannondale experiment had virtually ended by the time the bikes reached consumers; it was clearly not ready to compete with the Japanese brands.

Today, ATK produces the rare 620cc and 700cc two-stoke Intimidators in limited quantities—you have to get your name on a list in order to purchase one. Zero, on the other hand, is blazing new trails in the electric motorcycle market. While its current model isn’t quite competition-ready, the company has vastly improved over the past couple years and may potentially hold a key to the future of the sport.

Electric isn’t an optimum decision for the current motocross purist, but it may open doors to realms motocross has never considered before.

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After a lengthy period of uncertainty, Cobra has survived and even thrived. So what’s next? No, it’s not an 85cc model. It’s actually not even a dirt bike—Cobra is opening up a new branch called Cobra Aero.

“We are actually expanding outside of the motorcycle market and into very high-performance engines for some different applications,” Hilbert explains. “Since the engine is the thing that requires the highest level of investment and technology, we decided to get involved in some adjacent markets that will allow us to be much more serious players in the engine game. We will have, I

Cobra once again dominated the 51cc classes at Loretta Lynn’s in 2013, as well as the 65cc class, which Jett Reynolds (opposite page) swept. The brand is celebrating twenty years of equipping future stars like Davi Millsaps (bottom left) with bikes built by Sean Hilbert (bottom right) and company.

think, one of the nicest smallengine test labs in the world.

“The other markets are kind of heavily loaded on the military side of things, so that could be anything from engines that power the next generation of drone aircraft to the really small generator sets that soldiers will actually wear on themselves.

“But the reality of the situation is that there is going to be all kinds of things in the civilian world that these drones are going to be used for: monitoring power lines, firefighting, monitoring herds of cattle in the open plains, maybe border patrol, special package delivery.... You’re going to have organs transported from one hospital to another, not from a helicopter but from a little drone. There’s no sense in putting a pilot and a nurse up in the air just to take a liver from one hospital to another.

“There are all kinds of applications coming that these things are going to be used for,” Hilbert reasons. “The cool thing is that by expanding our engine business dramatically, we’ll be able to attract top talent and invest in facilities we couldn’t have invested in only on the motorcycle side of the business.

It’s going to make us stronger all the way around.”

Purists may give the company grief for looking into these avenues, but Cobra didn’t become the most dominant force in junior minicycle racing by doing things the conventional way. X

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to every other major amateur race around the country.

Even before Hilbert and McDowell, Cobra’s ranks included names like Millsaps, Canard, Osborne, Durham, Tickle, Tomac, Baggett, Hahn, and Bogle. Hilbert and McDowell’s continued push kept that tradition alive with the likes of Adam Cianciarulo, Cooper Webb, Thomas Covington, and more.

“During that time, we never stopped heavy-duty R&D on the bikes,” Hilbert says. “We were constantly innovating and putting new ideas and technology into our bikes even though the market was struggling.”

Work also continued on the CX65. After five years of corrective R&D, Cobra released the bike again in 2008. By this point, however, other manufacturers were already pushing boundaries with their 65cc models. The CX65 couldn’t rely on taking the market by surprise as its smaller sibling had. With most top talent going into the 65cc class already looking for long-term deals to carry them onto 85cc and bigger bikes, Cobra was at a disadvantage.

Despite the odds, Pierce Brown swept every moto in 65 (7-9) Stock aboard a CX65 to take Cobra’s first Loretta’s title in the class in 2012. Jett Reynolds upped the ante, becoming the first rider in Loretta Lynn’s history to sweep every moto in both a 50cc and 65cc class in one year—all aboard Cobras.

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Cycle Gear Palmdale 661-273-6113 Cycle Gear Victorville 760-955-2555 Cycle Gear Fairfield 707-426-5688 Cycle Gear Pittsburg 925-757-3903

Morris Cycle Supply Marysville 530-749-9190

Vickery Motorsports Denver 303-755-4387

CONNECTICUT MotoMart Carnegie 925-455-1318

Central Cycle Club Central Village www.cccmx.com

Motorcycle Tire Center Orange 714-516-9059

Cycle Gear Manchester 860-647-1022

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Cycle Gear Orange 203-891-0716

Cycle Gear Sanford 407-324-4820 Cycle Gear Lauderhill 954-746-2172 Cycle Gear West Melbourne 321-952-7478 Cycle Gear Daytona Beach 386-257-0242 Cycle Gear Orange Park 904-269-3740

Cycle City Maui Kahului 808-877-7433 Maui Moto Wailuku 808-242-4000

IDAHO Carl’s Cycle Sales Boise 208-853-5550 Cycle Gear Meridian 208-887-4942 Moto Tech Boise 208-376-8324

ILLINOIS Cycle Gear Schaumburg 847-310-4800 Fox Valley Cycles Aurora 630-851-2910

Lincoln Trail Motosports Casey 217-932-2041 Mattoon Kawasaki Yamaha Mattoon 217-258-2000 Motorcycle Center Villa Park 630-782-2010

Cycle Gear Lafayette 337-264-0352

Powers Motorsports Fremont 231-924-1924

Cycle Gear Baton Rouge 225-293-5860

Recker Motorsports Mt. Pleasant 989-772-9286

MARYLAND A-1 Power Sports Prince Fredrick 443-968-2229

Owen Motor Sports Charleston 217-348-5500

Atlantic Cycle and Power White Plains 301-392-1770

Racer Café, Inc. Saint Charles 630-443-5178

Cycle Gear Laurel 301-490-3490

Riders Choice Racing Oglesby 815-883-9674

Ellicott City Motorsports Ellicott City 410-203-2119

Sunset Ridge MX Walnut 815-379-9534

Fredericktown Yamaha Frederick 301-663-8333

INDIANA Cyclesport Yamaha Hobart 866-6YAMAHA

Heyser Cycle Laurel 301-776-6932

Evansville Superbike Shop Evansville 812-477-1740

RNB Racing Bryans Road 301-653-8218

MASSACHUSETTS Thunder Powersports Washington 309-444-8109

IOWA Struthers Brothers Des Moines 515-282-3634

KANSAS Action Motorsports Garden City 620-272-0300

DC’s Cycle Westfield 413-562-7122 Pilgrim Powersports Plymouth 508-747-6181 Podium Powersports Middleboro 508-947-4747

Dirt Bikes Unlimited Springfield 417-832-1331 Donnell’s Motorcycles Independence 816-478-9393

Cycle Gear Tulsa 918-384-0608

NEW MEXICO

OHIO

Cycle Gear Albuquerque 505-830-4500

Brochak 216 Euclid 216-400-4899

Marshall’s Racing Stillwater 405-377-0192

NEVADA

Champion Powersports Wauseon 419-335-8600

Cycle Gear Las Vegas 702-877-4327 Cycle Gear Las Vegas 702-435-0635

All Moto Depot Stallings 704-321-4447

SPOTLIGHT HEYSER CYCLE SALES

Montana

Staman’s Suzuki Scottsbluff 308-635-8007

Five Star Motors Oxford 248-687-9185

Reno KTM-Motorcycle Specialties Sparks 775-358-4388

KENTUCKY

Magic Racing Shelby Township 586-254-9117

Reno Motorsports Reno 775-322-1499

Mr. X Waterford 248-332-2400

Ride or Race Moto Source Reno 775-856-3855

NEVADA

Shawnee Honda Shawnee 405-273-1400

OREGON AC Powersports Island City 541-663-1111 Atomic-Moto.com Bend 541-728-0690

Heyser Cycle Sales has been providing the Maryland, D.C., and Virginia area with Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis, and Suzukis for over fifty years. The main priority fo the staff at Heyser Cycle’s is customer satisfaction and having fun riding on- and off-road. Heyser Cycle has been involved in all types of motorcycle racing, from local MX to AMA Pro Road Racing and even the Baja 1000. Stop in and mention you saw us in Racer X to receive 20% off your next parts/accessory purchase, or to get your picture taken with our #77 Jimmy Albertson Autographed PBR Tallboy. 2-Strokes Rule!

LAUREL, MD 301-776-6932 www.HEYSERCYCLE.com

Fastoys Kalispell 406-257-8697 Superior Sled and Cycle Kalispell 406-755-7433

Competitive Moto Sports Harrisburg 614-218-9511

NORTH CAROLINA

Robbins Cycles Mexico 573-581-2015

Ely’s Kawasaki Hutchinson 620-665-8962

Best Bike ATV Echo 318-597-9022

Independent Cycles Morganton 828-437-2457

Mikes Cycle Center Raytown 816-356-2453

Cycle Gear Lenexa 913-307-0420

LOUISIANA

NEW JERSEY

Sick Brothers Dansville 585-335-7992

DEALER

Central Motor Sports Mt. Pleasant 989-773-6025

Cycle Gear Louisville 502-426-9746

Motorbikes Plus Portsmouth 603-334-6686

Cycle Gear Edison Speed Technologies 732-248-7737 Howell Mt. Holly Kawasaki248-974-9687 Suzuki-KTM Vincentown Tech Care 609-859-0333 Waterford 248-666-4651 Pit Power Sports MINNESOTA Manalapan Bob’s Cycle Supply 732-851-7404 St. Paul 888-306-2627 PKM Kustoms Toms River MISSOURI 855-722-3756 Cycle Gear Bridgeton 314-298-7222

NEBRASKA MICHIGAN

NEW HAMPSHIRE

NEW YORK 3 Seas Recreation Mayville 716-753-2628 7-S Cycle Supply Leroy 585-768-2330 Hunter Motorcycle Thornwood 914-769-4722 Ithaca Recreation Sports Newfield 607-564-7913 Northeast Cycle Service, LLC Springville 716-794-0705 Parker MX Greenwich 518-692-7025

Cycle Gear Matthews 704-846-0440 Cycle Gear Raleigh 919-329-7858 Cycle Gear Greensboro 336-297-4250 Cycle Gear Fayetteville 910-860-8200 Cycle Gear Gastonia 704-824-1820 Great Western Motorcycles Statesville 704-924-9500

Honda Powersports Cycle Gear Portland of Troy 503-257-7047 Troy 937-332-3440 Cycle Gear Salem Kames Sports 503-589-1515 N. Canton 330-499-4558 Cycle Gear Springfield Ohio Motorsports 541-747-1575 Lucasville 614-456-4704 Zoom Motorsports Precision Prep, LLC Roseburg 541-673-7813 Westerville 614-370-4951

PENNSYLVANIA Wheelsports Reynoldsburg 614-864-0010

Barnhart’s Honda Suzuki Prosperity 724-627-5819

OKLAHOMA Cycle Gear Oklahoma City 405-842-0111

Cernic’s Cycleworld Johnstown 814-539-4114

THE RACER X

DEALER NETWORK

Cycle Gear Allentown 610-791-9880

Neff Motosports Butler 724-282-0659

Cycle Gear Springfield 610-328-9811

Velocity Cycles Mechanicsburg 717-766-2523

Cycle Gear Allison Park 724-444-4260

SOUTH CAROLINA

Five Star Cycle Saegertown 814-763-2453 Fujimoto Racing Middleburg 570-374-8389 I-79 Artic Cat Sales & Powersports Service Mt. Morris 800-633-2556

TENNESSEE I-40 Motocross Lenoir City 865-712-2648 Cycle Gear Madison 615-612-6234

TEXAS Bate’s Discount Cycle Dallas 972-620-0929 Brownlee Racing Plainview 806-786-9870 Cycle Gear Plano 214-473-8044

Blazer MX Greenville 864-242-4456

Cycle Gear Knoxville 865-560-5657

Cycle Gear Greenville 864-322-6626

Cycle Gear Memphis 901-371-9692

Cycle Gear Columbia 803-750-9294

Jim’s Motorcycle Sales Johnson City 423-926-5561

Cycle Gear Almeda 713-941-3364

Oemcycle.com Loudon 888-736-2519

Cycle Gear Greenspoint 281-448-3700

Sloan’s Motorcycle & ATV Murfreesboro 615-893-0150

Cycle Gear San Antonio 210-558-8700

Cycle Gear N. Charleston 843-974-6460

Aspire to Inspire Clothing Company Knoxville www.aspireto inspireclothing.com

Cycle Gear Sharpstown 713-271-5201 TJ Cycle Sales and Service Austin 512-453-6255

UTAH Cycle Gear Austin 512-302-0700 Cycle Gear Fort Worth 817-696-9700

SOUTH DAKOTA Millers Yamaha Lemont Furnace 724-430-1970

Cycle Gear Bedford 817-545-7939

Clay’s RV & Powersports Salt Lake City 901-964-2529 Cycle Gear Draper 801-553-2150 Motocross Incorporated Sandy 801-649-4200

VIRGINIA Cycle Gear Norfolk 757-480-5680

WASHINGTON Cycle Gear Tacoma 253-475-5444 Cycle Gear Auburn 253-876-9999 Cycle Gear Lynnwood 425-640-3003 Cycle Gear Vancouver 360-253-8484 Cycle Gear Spokane 509-535-4330 Experience Powersports Moses Lake 509-765-1925

Leeson’s Import Motors Bridgeport 304-842-5469 Morgantown Powersports Morgantown 304-296-9055 Outlaw Motorsports Morgantown 304-284-0480 RG Honda Yamaha Nutter Fort 304-624-5420

WISCONSIN Mike’s Cycle Shop Menasha 920-734-3363 MX Megastore Manitowac 877-968-6686

WEST VIRGINIA Appalachian Offroad MC Cross Lanes 304-932-0437 Elkins Motorsports Elkins 304-636-7732

Rod’s Ride on Powersports La Crosse 608-788-4514

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GARAGE

INSTOCK

>> ONE INDUSTRIES Graphics Designed And Printed www.oneindustries.com

BIKE BUILD BY DUBACH RACING DEVELOPMENT www.dubachracing.com

>> DUNLOP

TEXT BY DAVID PINGREE PHOTOS BY DONNIE BALES

MX32 Front 80/100-21 MX32 Rear 120/80-19 www.dunlopmotorcycle.com

2014 YAMAHA YZ250F

T

he 2014 Yamaha YZ250F is by far the most improved machine this year. It fared very well in the Racer X Shootout, with some testers picking it as the best 250 of the group. It’s also the biggest unknown. The engine is a new design, and it would be any engine builder’s first try at turning the stock powerplant into a motor competitive at any level. For this project, we agreed that we should at least go to the companies who have the most experience with Yamahas. Doug Dubach, Enzo, and Frenchie at C4MX have been working on blue machines longer than anyone, and we knew they were the people we needed to see.

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>> DUBACH RACING DEVELOPMENT Stainless Steel/Aluminum NS-4 Exhaust System, Radiator Lowering Kit, Hour Meter www.dubachracing.com

>> C4MX Degree EX Cam, Head Mod, Clutch Hub Mod, Ignition Remapping www.c4mx.com

>> RENTHAL Bars, Grips, Chain, Sprocket, Clutch and Brake Levers www.renthal.com

>> HAMMERHEAD Axle Blocks, Brake Pedal, Brake Cap www.hdmoto.com

>> FASTER USA Complete Custom Wheel Set www.fasterusa.com

>> ENZO Fork and Shock Re-Valve www.enzoracing.com

>> INJECTIONEERING Throttle Body Modification www.injectioneering.com

>> DT-1 Air Filter www.dt1filters.com

TO SEE HOW THE 2014 YAMAHA YZ250F PERFORMS WITH THESE MODS, HEAD OVER TO www.racerxonline.com/category/racer-x-films 165

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GARAGE

INSTOCK

2014 YAMAHA YZ250F

D

ubach Racing Development helped coordinate the build by sending the engine to C4MX while they were working on exhaust and chassis modifications.

Frenchie worked his magic on the YZ250F and degreed the exhaust cam to get more torque, opened the airbox, modified the head, modified the clutch hub for more preload, and remapped the ignition. The throttle body was also sent to Injectioneering to be modified.

Dr. D, meanwhile, installed one of its Stainless Steel/Aluminum NS-4 exhaust systems, a radiator lowering kit, and an hour meter.

For the suspension, we headed to see Ross and Will at Enzo Racing. These guys do a great job on any bike, but they earned a reputation as masters of KYB suspension. We entrusted the handling of our bike to them, and they revalved the fork and shock, added an Enzo high-speed adjuster on the shock, and installed the appropriate springs for our setting.

Renthal supplied the chain, sprocket, bars, grips, and Intellilevers. We were hoping not to crash on this thing, but if it did throw us off, there was no way we were breaking Intellilevers.

Faster USA provided our wheel set. They can build you any color combination you can think of, including spokes, hubs, nipples, and rims. They use their own machined hub with Excel or DID rims and do anodizing and powder coating. Our wheels are a black-and-blue combo that looks amazing.

One Industries designed our graphics for the bike. We matched those with a seat from MotoSeat and some new MX32 Dunlop tires.

Hammerhead supplied some bling for the bike, though they were still in the process of making parts for it at press time. They had axle blocks and various blue anodized parts that were a nice touch.

We finished the project off with a filter from DT-1 and some VP race fuel and it was ready to rip. All that was left was to hit the dirt. To see our Dr. D Yamaha YZ250F in action, go to www.racerxonline.com and check out the Racer X Films tab. X

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AMERICA’S GREATEST AMATEUR RACE! 2014 AMA AMATEUR NATIONAL MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

JULY 27 - AUGUST 2

LORETTA LYNN RANCH

HURRICANE MILLS, TN WWW.MXSPORTS.COM

MIXED MEDIA MXGP: THE OFFICIAL MOTOCROSS GAME MILESTONE

GAME

MXGP was recently released for the PC and the last-gen consoles, but here in the States the only means of acquisition is through Steam on the PC and a demo version on consoles. MXGP has a lot going for it, but the career mode is what really shines.

You start off getting picked up by small races teams.

As you earn wins, factory squads will start to take notice and eventually sign you on. Unlike most motocross games out there, everything is actually licensed from real-world manufacturers and tracks in the FIM Motocross World Championship.

The graphics are certainly a step up from previous releases and make for a great experience, although the game does have some shortcomings.

The physics work rather well on the ground, but when you send it through the air, you’ll be quick to notice the game seems to be doing all the work for you. Whiskey throttle is out the window, and throwing whips, while possible, isn’t much fun—the game will always bring you back to center automatically. I would classify this more toward the arcade style of riding, as you won’t find much in the way of simulation in the physics. Overall, if you’re looking for a new motocross game to keep you occupied, MXGP does the trick. Josh Rud

SWIMM: FEEL EP SWIMMMUSIC.BANDCAMP.COM

MUSIC

Discovering new music that you’re stoked on is always a good thing.

That was certainly the case when I stumbled across the band Swimm at a secret mini-festival that took place close to (and at the same time as) the famous Coachella festival craziness in April in Southern California. Swimm played their set to an intimate crowd who were treated to a great show.

The band is made up primarily of Chris Hess and Adam Winn, with an array of musician friends joining in when schedules permit. Originally from central Florida and now residing in Los Angeles, Chris and Adam

describe their sound as “elements of dance music, rock ‘n’ roll, and shoegaze/folk, with psychedelia as the cohesive element,” and that description is pretty much right on the money!

The Feel EP starts off with mellow acoustic guitar and vocals from Hess on “Darkness of Love,” followed by the much more uptempo and danceable track “Feels.” What impresses me the most about this EP is just how varied the sound of each song is, and how the vocals affect the overall feel of each. My favorite track is the last song, “Wanderer,” which starts off slowly but quickly transforms into a body mover.

Keep an eye out for a full-length album from Swimm later in the year. David Langran

PAK X EMH: HIGHLY OVERDUE FRACE MUSIC

MUSIC

This new release has been gaining a lot of traction here in the motocross industry, and for good reason. Highly Overdue is the first full album from Pak X Emh, a group comprised of former amateur standout rider Brad Frace, “Justin Lucas,” and Garrett Merkin. The trio hit the charts big on iTunes, reaching the number-two spot in the Hip-Hop/Rap category for a short time on April 1.

If you’re in the market for some hip-hop tunes, Highly Overdue is for you, and the range on the

168 www.racerxonline.com

record is pretty wide. “On The Hill” and “Hard to Believe” leave you in a more chilled-back state of mind, while “The Mindstate” and “10 Weeks & 4 Days” are a bit more upbeat to get you pumped for what’s next. Definitely something to listen to in staging getting ready for motos.

Whether you’re usually a fan of hip-hop or not, I suggest checking it out. It’s not my favorite genre, but I came away from my listening experience impressed. This album will definitely be getting more playtime from me. You can download the album on iTunes, check out some of the tracks on SoundCloud, or pick up merchandise on www.pakxemh.com to support the cause. Andrew Fredrickson

WES KAIN

ROB VAN WINKLE

RUD

RUD

TRIBES

This month we visit HGTV and the DIY Network to find two longtime friends who love motocross racing, being on the microphone, and remodeling houses. That’s right, it’s The Vanilla Ice Project star himself, Rob “Vanilla Ice” Van Winkle, and his Project costar, arenacross floor announcer Wes Kain.

WE WOULD PROBABLY JUST KEEP BRAWLING UNTIL WE GOT HUNGRY. —RVW FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOW? RVW: The Vanilla Ice Project and Vanilla Ice Goes Amish on DIY Network and HGTV. I never watch anything I do on TV, but these shows get you addicted.

WK: The Vanilla Ice Project.

LAST PERSON WHO MADE YOU NERVOUS? RVW: Robbie Madison. He came over to my house and jumped off the roof into my swimming pool. I thought he was going to die. He dislocated his shoulder and jumped up out of the pool and popped it back in place like nothing happened and smiled. What a daredevil!

WK: Rita Coombs.

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT? RVW: My family, wife, kids. That is the meaning of life. Everything else is second place.

WK: Raising my family, and all my kids being successful.

170 www.racerxonline.com

TALENT YOU WISH YOU HAD? RVW: Kite surfing—not as easy as it looks. I need more practice.

WK: That I could sing.

ONE SPORT YOU WOULD NEVER TRY? RVW: Free diving. Those guys are half-fish half-man. I don’t understand how they do it.

WK: Deep sea diving.

FAVORITE SPORT OTHER THAN MX? RVW: Jet-ski racing. I raced on the IJSBA world tour for a few years.

WK: Football.

FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM? RVW: Miami Heat. Represent. I was born in Dallas, but I grew up in Miami.

WK: Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys.

WES KAIN

RUD

FAVORITE MUSICIAN? RVW: Roger Troutman of Zapp.

WK: Elvis.

LAST MOVIE YOU LIKED SO MUCH, YOU WATCHED IT TWICE? RVW: That’s My Boy. WK: Django Unchained.

TR BES

I TALK TOO MUCH. —WK MOST ANNOYING THING ABOUT YOU? RVW: I never stop moving. I might’ve learned that from motocross—“To win the race, you gotta run the pace.” Plus I can be annoying after a big cup of Starbucks. I talk too much.

WK: I talk too much.

HAMMER OR MICROPHONE? RVW: How about a microphone in one hand and a hammer and the other? I love them both. About “Ice Ice Baby,” when I was 16 it sold 160 million records. And I love poetry, but I found another passion in construction and design. That’s how we get in where we fit in.

WK: I have no choice—both.

WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IN A MOVIE? RVW: Leonardo DiCaprio. He would have to learn how to ride motocross and be cool as ice and hang out with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

WK: Jason Statham.

YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE? RVW: Actually liking a One Direction song that my daughter sings. I never thought I would say that!

WK: M&Ms and cherry Slurpees.

FAVORITE STORE? RVW: Ghetto Swag in Palm Beach, and my favorite coffee spot is Nespresso coffee bar in Miami Beach.

WK: Any underground clothing store that I find clothes where nobody else has them. We’ll go into the hood to get some good stuff.

LAST BOOK YOU READ? RVW: The Platinum Rule by Dr. Michael O’Connor.

WK: The Five Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman.

FAVORITE SONG? RVW: “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley. Perfect therapy.

WK: Besides “Ice Ice Baby,” “Crawling” by Linkin Park.

FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL? RVW: Wood shop, although I was good in math. And that was it.

WK: History.

FAVORITE FOOD? RVW: Vegetables. I know it’s not exciting, but I’ve been a vegetarian for over ten years. You would be surprised how good it is if you cook them right and put the right sauce on them.

WK: Spaghetti and meatballs.

WORST FOOD? RVW: Any meat—so much saturated fat and cholesterol that it disgusts me. And avocados are gross too.

WK: Egg rolls and fish and chips. Both have given me food poisoning!

CHILDHOOD HERO? RVW: Evel Knievel, just like every other motocrosser reading this

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magazine. You gotta look up to the original OG daredevil, not just for what he accomplished on the motorcycle, but the way he spoke and the meaning behind his words is very inspirational.

WK: Clint Eastwood and Evel Knievel.

FIRST BIKE? RVW: Honda CR80.

WK: It was a Benelli 60cc with supermini wheels. I couldn’t even touch the ground.

TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM? RVW: Twitter (@vanillaice), Instagram (@vanillaiceofficial), Vine (@vanillaice).

WK: Instagram (@weskain) and Twitter (@weskainofficial).

FAVORITE NON-MOTOCROSS WEBSITE? RVW: VanillaIce.com or MLS.com, a real-estate portal.

WK: Ebay.

FAVORITE NON-SWEAR WORD? RVW: Ninja.

WK: Heyyyyyy.

IF YOU FOUND $1,000 ON THE STREET, WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT? RVW: Find the owner and return it. But if I can’t find the owner, then I will exempt it as a tip and treat my ninjas to a nice five-star meal.

WK: I’d try my hardest to see if anyone in the immediate area lost it, then I’d put it on my refrigerator. If nobody claimed it, I’d donate it to Toys for Tots.

ALL-TIME FAVORITE TRACK? RVW: Lake Whitney in Texas.

WK: Loretta Lynn Ranch.

WORST PART OF YOUR JOB? RVW: Not enough sleep to charge the batteries. Other than that, hard work pays off and is very rewarding.

WK: Missing a connecting flight and having to spend a night in the airport with no food options. Detroit comes to mind.

WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU THE MOST? RVW: Evel Knievel for his words and Bob Marley for his words to music.

WK: My stepdad Butch, dad Norman, Kevin Kelly, Jason Weigandt, Tim Cotter, Rob Van Winkle, and my mom.

WHO’S IN YOUR REGULAR CREW? RVW: My ninjas. I have a lot of friends, and it depends on where I’m at in the country at the time. At home I’m chilling with Wes, Jeremy, and the boys. Funny thing is, most of my friends are motocrossers.

WK: Rob Van Winkle, Kevin Kelly, Paula Paula Paula, Willie Manning, Jeff Cernic, Rodney Tomblin, Richard White, Clayton Miller, Tony Miller, Bevo—the Wes Kain Mafia runs deep!

WORDS TO LIVE BY? RVW: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery” or “Take life day by day, turn negatives of yesterday into positives,” and “Don’t worry about tomorrow, it hasn’t happened yet.”

WK: Walk a straight path, do the right thing, treat people how you’d like to be treated. You’re always as good as your word.

ROB VAN WINKLE

RUD

WHO WOULD WIN A CAGE MATCH BETWEEN YOU BOTH? RVW: I think it would be a draw—we would probably just keep brawling until we got hungry.

WK: It would be a draw.

HOW MANY TATTOOS DO YOU HAVE? RVW: I only have one tattoo now—pretty much all over, though.

WK: Last time I counted, I have over fifty.

FAVORITE TATTOO? RVW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Secret of the Ooze tattoo.

WK: One for my daughter, Taylor Makenzie.

TATTOO REGRET? RVW: I don’t have any tattoo regrets. In fact, I like my horrible ones the best. When I look at them I crack up.

WK: Yes, any women aside from my daughter.

FFIVE I MINUTES WITH ARNAUD TONUS: SWISS FRONT-RUNNER

BY ADAM DUCKWORTH

DUCKWORTH

Over the last two seasons, only one man has been able to wrestle the MX2 World Championship leader’s red plate from current champ Jeffrey Herlings, and that’s Swiss rider Arnaud Tonus.

When Herlings missed the 2014 Brazilian GP with an injury, the 22-year-old Swiss Kawasaki rider stepped up to

take an emotional first moto win, and with it the championship lead. Two weeks later at in Italy, with Herlings back and on form, Tonus hounded the Dutch teenager and was able to retain the precious red plate.

Racer X: Well done on your first GP win and taking the lead in the series. It’s been a long time coming, though.

Arnaud Tonus: Yes, definitely! My dad, Jean-Charles, used to race GPs, so he gave me the motocross virus.

I was French and Swiss champion when I was young, riding 85s, but never won the European or World Junior Championships. I wasn’t such a big star, so when I started GPs in 2009, I was on a privateer KTM team.

But you obviously attracted the attention of the factory Suzuki team.

I was teamed up with Ken Roczen on Suzukis, and I learned a lot from him. We were really close and still are.

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He’s a good guy and we spent a lot of time together. It was a lot of fun, and riding with him was awesome too.

After that I signed for the British Cosworth Yamaha team for two years. The first year was pretty good, as I got fifth in the world championship and won the British series.

When was the last time a Swiss rider led a world championship?

I don’t think there has ever been a Swiss rider that’s led a major world championship like MX2 or MXGP. There was Philippe Dupasquier who had a few podiums and was battling for the 125 championship in 2002. Julian Bill was good and won the world MX3 championship, but nobody has won in the premier classes.

When you won in Brazil, you gave thanks to former world champion, the late Georges Jobe.

He was a big part of my life. He was a good friend with my dad and was always very close to me. We had such a great relationship, and I lived at his house for two years.

He was my coach and was almost like a dad to me. It was really intense the way he was with me and really involved. I finished the race in Brazil and I felt like it was for Georges. I immediately thought of him, which was very cool. When Georges was alive, I came close to winning a GP in the past, but it didn’t happen. And it finally did this year. It’s the work we did together that really is paying off.

You’re such a smooth rider—people often compare you to Stefan Everts.

It may look like I’m smooth from the outside, but I always feel like I’m pushing at 100 percent. It looks like I’m not trying, but that’s my style and I always ride like that. I can’t really compare myself to Everts, as he’s the greatest, but I think my riding style is a lot like his.

I’m often up on the footpegs, which I learned at a very early age and have always stuck with it. My smooth riding is also part of my personality, as I’m quite quiet and thoughtful. So maybe on a bike I’m like that. I’ve always been natural.

You had some issues in the past with Jeffrey Herlings when he wiped you out at the French GP. How’s your relationship with him now?

I try not to focus on what happened then. I don’t really care if it’s Jeffrey or another rider in front; I want to pass them, as I want to win. I think I can beat Herlings, though. To beat him I have to be the very best I can be and every part of my riding has to be right. I need a good start and to be on top of my game.

Next year you will be too old to race MX2 GPs, so do you have any plans yet?

I am trying to stay focused on keeping the red plate rather than worrying about what I might do in future, but I’m very open at the moment. I’m not sure if I’d like to go to the USA or stay in GPs on a 450.

FFIVE I MINUTES WITH HANNAH HODGES: SUPERMINI SUPER GIRL

BY AARON HANSEL Every generation of racers has a few real standouts, and in the amateur female ranks right now, 15-year-old Hannah Hodges is one of the elite. The Suzuki-mounted AMA Female Athlete of the Year has been turning heads in both the men’s and women’s classes lately, and in the not-too-distant

future we might see her doing the same on the professional level. She took a few minutes out of her busy race schedule to give us the scoop.

Racer X: How did you get into racing dirt bikes?

Hannah Hodges: My dad got me a bike when I was 2, but I didn’t like training wheels and didn’t want to ride it so he sold it. Then I started wanting another bike as soon as he sold it! But once he got me a new one I wasn’t riding it much. All of a sudden when I was 6 I just wanted to ride all the time, and it all went from there.

How’s your racing been going lately?

It’s been going really well. I got AMA Female Athlete of the Year, the Ironman award at the Mini Os, and I’ve gotten six titles so far at the Spring Nationals. I’m 176 www.racerxonline.com

on great equipment—my parents got me really good stuff—and I’m just really excited to be racing.

You race against the boys a lot. Is that just normal for you or is it a lot different?

I grew up racing against guys, so I’m just used to it. I really like racing against them. I have to try really hard.

Not taking away anything from the girls, of course, because there are some really fast girls out there, but I just really enjoy racing with the guys.

Do they give you a hard time?

It’s kind of hard being a girl because some of them think you won’t be up front, but I always try my hardest. I really like being out front when I race with the guys. But they don’t really give me a hard time, though. If anything it’s some of the dads who aren’t okay with it, but I think most of them are okay because they see how hard I work.

Have you ever considered trying to race against the men once you turn pro?

It’s definitely one of my goals. I’ve been working really hard this year and throughout my whole career so far, and I really want to be the first girl to qualify for a national, or even a supercross. I really enjoy riding supercross. I haven’t gotten to race much supercross— I’ve done a little bit and some arenacross, but I really like riding it. I really want to win the WMX too.

Who’s influenced your racing the most?

I’ve really looked up to Ashley Fiolek because of how hard she’s worked. I can relate to her situation, how she’s had a tough road, racing with the guys and trying to get a good program for the girls. That’s pretty much the same thing that I’ve been doing since I started racing, and I appreciate how hard she’s worked to get a good women’s program.

What’s it like being a 15-year-old on the road a lot?

It’s fun. My dad and I drive in the moto-van everywhere.

We’ll be going down the road and he’ll just throw a loaf of bread or something at me, then he’ll look out the window like nothing happened. Of course he always looks over at me and starts laughing eventually. He throws stuff at me all the time. One time we were in a rental car in California and we’d just gone to In-nOut Burger. He had a big basket of fries in his lap with ketchup and everything in it and he just chucked the whole thing at me! I had ketchup, fries, everything all over my lap. He just smiled and didn’t say a word. And I had to clean the car out!

Other than your parents, who is helping you out at these races?

The Lord Jesus Christ, Farren Racing, MAVTV, Lucas Oil, PR2 Racing Technology, Troy Lee Designs, FMF, Smith, Dunlop, Alpinestars, MTF, Impulse, Hinson, Suzuki, VP, EHR, and ICW.

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First stop, the Pirelli: black-tie affair.

182

www.racerxonline.com

ROBERTS

BROWNDOGWILSON

village,” built in 1939. It’s a big and bizarre sampling of this land of ours, done with little toy people, buildings, mountains, and train sets. It’s the most unique thing you will see for $6.75.

Next came the black-tie Pirelli reception at the company’s U.S. headquarters, celebrating its first season of affiliation with Monster Energy Supercross and featuring lots of members of the supercross family, from riders to mechanics, Monster Girls to Pirelli models, the Feld folks and the Fox Sports TV crew, and even an artist who painted a superb SX image on a Pirelli tire.

The next morning we went straight to NYCDT—New York City Ducati-Triumph—to meet up with regular contributor Nick McCabe, then it was off to see that other OG RXer, Jeff Kocan, at his home in Brooklyn Heights….

I just realized that we only have space for 450 words here, and I can’t possibly go into all the cool things we did over the course of the next two days. But it started with walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and ended all lost in Newark, New Jersey, and included the race, the police, 62,003 people, a speakeasy, Lou Lopez, electric motorcycles, a guy from The Wolf of Wall Street, lost Oakleys, two cemeteries, a rainbow, the subway, #signjousting, the younger Racer Xers, and bars and bars and more bars.

When supercross returns to New Jersey in 2015, you really should come with us!

BROWNDOGWILSON

T

he moment that Feld Motor Sports announced the return of supercross to East Rutherford, New Jersey, we knew it was going to be epic. The Northeast has long clamored to host a round of Monster Energy Supercross, but concerns about things like stadium availability, winter weather, and labor costs kept the races away for nearly two decades. Fortunately, when the 2014 schedule was announced, MetLife Stadium made the cut—the same MetLife Stadium that hosted the NFL’s Super Bowl in February! Supercross was coming back to the region in a big way.

East Rutherford—and nearby New York City—is a sixhour drive from Racer X’s home base of Morgantown, West Virginia, and we’ve made the drive many times in the past, whether to go into the city or down to nearby Englishtown for the Kawasaki Race of Champions. And back in 1991, Jeff Cernic chartered a bus and took seemingly half of AMA District 5 to the old Meadowlands SX. This time it was the OG Racer Xers—Julie Kramer, Bryan Stealey, and myself—in my Toyota Tundra. Our goal was to see as much of the city as possible while also checking out whatever roadside attractions we could find along the way to the race.

Our first stop was the Roadside America in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania, home of the “world’s greatest indoor miniature

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DC

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ROBERTS

DC

DC

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#PRIVATEERLIFE The definition of what it means to be a “privateer” in our sport is ever-changing and often argued. For instance, if a big rig takes your bike to every race, are you less of a privateer than the guys in box vans and pickup trucks? Going by this photo, we’d say no. The veteran Chris Blose is lucky enough to have his bike and toolbox delivered to every supercross race in the RCH Racing rig, but once it’s there, he and his mechanic, Chad Geib, are on their own! In Houston, they worked out of this rental car—and worked well, because Blose ended up a season-best tenth in the main event.

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