Thanks for the memories

I’ve just been given the tragic news that Supercross: The Movie is apparently Supercross: The Moving On. I think it’s gone from theaters already.

I’m glad I enjoyed this summer for what it was: the summer when both the Dukes of Hazzard and Supercross played in theatres. You just know these moments won’t come around again – I doubt the sequel to either of these is right around the corner. So you have to enjoy the moment. It’s like when I was a kid rooting for Don Mattingly and the Yankees, and “Donnie Baseball” was the best hitter in the game. Then he hurt his back in 1990 and was half the player he was after that. I just prayed and hoped and dreamed for one more summer when he would get hot and be the Mattingly of old. Not 1991. Not 1992. It wasn’t looking good in 1993. It was over and done – three years in the doldrums and now you’re just a mediocore player.

But then in like June of ’93, it happened. He got hot! It was like the old Mattingly – every ball hit was a line drive. Averaging more than an RBI per game. Just dangerous, dominant and lethal at the plate.

This time I knew I had to enjoy it, because it would be the last summer to do so. I’m sure every baby boomer from my area still has memories of Mickey Mantle – and it’s too bad the great moments from your favorite player are only present for the first few years of your life, and then they’re just memories for like the next 50 or 60 years. But that’s the way it was going to be with me and Donnie. 1993 was the answer to my prayers to see him good one more time.

By the end of the year Don got tendonitis in his wrist and cooled off. The Yankees slumped down the stretch and missed the playoffs again. Mattingly retired after two more mediocore seasons. But at least I had that summer to see him at his peak. Got to savor the moments.

Unfortunately, the two movies didn’t live up to the hope. The Dukes made me more angry than Supercross, though. The Dukes is nothing more than the movie. If they don’t get it right, it’s over. Supercross? Hey, if the movie disappoints you still have the real sport going every weekend and it’s still awesome.

Regardless, I saw the General Lee and dirt bikes on the big screen this summer. It won’t soon be forgotten.

Have you been watching the Loretta Lynn’s TV shows on OLN? Even though I had a part in the deal I hadn’t seen them myself until yesterday. Holy crap are they good. I’m really pumped with how it turned out, and when you think of how much stuff happens at the ranch and how hard it is to fit that into 30 minutes, well, it would be easy to be disappointed. But they’re good. Sadly, we didn’t get to show the PW50 races – there was a protest there that really messed the show up. And that’s not a side of the sport to show off, anyway, the whole “protests in the 4 – 6 year old class.”

Of course, you want to show this event in all of its glory and not promote the ugly side. But you know, isn’t that part of the deal? One of the things I thought could have been shown more in Supercross: The Movie is just how much a successful career means to a person’s life. I’m not sure fans of the fringe even know. For the top few kids at Loretta’s, a good performance down there can change their life. Forever. And their parents’ life. This is major pressure, major heartbreak and major drama. That’s what makes this race good, for better or worse.

But hey, you don’t want to get a camera in a 12-year-old’s face when his bike breaks or he gets beat, or when reality hits that there are 3 other 12-year-old’s the in the country who are faster, and will now be making the money he could have made somewhere down the road. But that’s life down there. That’s life in this sport – sink or swim. That’s real drama that would make for good TV or movies, but it’s just not right to show it on the Loretta’s TV show and the movie people missed it. They tried. The Carlyle brothers were sinking or swimming in the movie, choosing between a life as a rich and famous racer or as pool cleaners. And they were racing to avenge the death of their dad or something. In reality, the choices are subtler but just as dramatic. Parents are spending HUGE money going to the races, and only .000001 percent will get a return on their investment. That’s a lot on a kid.

Anyway you have one more chance to watch the Loretta’s minicycle show – sans footage of tears or angry parents or anything like that. It’s a good happy fun event for most people, and the show does an amazing job depicting that in 30 minutes. Check it out on OLN tomorrow (Thursday) at 11:30 a.m.

This just turned into the longest plug ever for a 30-minute show. Thanks to Don Mattingly, Bo and Luke Duke and Trip and KC Carlyle for helping out.

 

-blogandt

 

Wedding Party

The happy couple.

Well what a weekend it was.

I am not a planner. I work in the now, and I don’t like to take 5 minutes to think about something when I could spend those five minutes actually doing something instead. Planning? That’s valuable work time being wasted.

Except for the fact that I screw up a lot of projects and have to re do them or fix them and waste more time than I would have spent in the first place. I’ve learned my lesson but man, is it hard to change. James Stewart and Travis Pastrana just can’t seem to keep their cool and race like they can, right? Well, they were both able to get away with that for a long time, and now old habits die hard. The more you are able to skate by like this, the harder it is to change.

The Racing Paper had to get done. It’s been a rough few weeks as we tried to find a way to replace our designer, Jason Hooper, who has done such a good job with TRP that he’s being whisked away by Racer X. We tried several alternatives to get the paper done, and we finally found one in a guy named Waylon, who lives in Alabama but seems plenty ambitious.

But when it came down to the nitty gritty it was still us hanging over Hooper’s computer trying to get the thing done. We were due to the printer on Monday, but Hooper couldn’t work beyond Friday. He was getting married.

So he worked as hard as he could right up until 4:30. Then he finally had to jet off to his rehearsal dinner. I felt really bad for making the guy work to 6 a.m. finishing the paper in the spring. I feel even worse now. Friends and family members were checking into town all day long and there we were, making corrections and changes on his computer. If I had planned that paper out a little better….

I had to leave eventually, too, because I had a date up in Pittsburgh, and free Friday nights don’t come very often for me. But I didn’t have time to really study the directions, and I got all crazy lost and didn’t even make it to the poor girl’s house. Instead she had to meet me somewhere. Great way to start things off, but I think all is forgiven. If I had planned my evening out a little better….

Anyway the Saturday Hooper wedding was great, and everyone likes Leslie and Jason. There are two kinds of couples out there: ones that take away from the fun and ones that add to it.

You know the latter: they’re either arguing all the time or making out, and that just makes everyone uncomfortable. And they give off this strange tension where you feel like every word you say, or every story you bring up, could be incriminating evidence that you weren’t supposed to bring up.

But some couples are cool. They don’t get jealous if they talk to other people, they don’t argue, make out, or tense everyone up. That’s Jason and Leslie, the Hoopers.

So we were all pumped up for the wedding on Saturday. The reception began at 3 p.m., and when we realized we’d have to be “having a good time” late into the night, we feared the worst. Or the best. Hey, weddings are supposed to be big nights, and we would have loved to produce some crazy stories so the Hoopers could constantly be reminded of their big night.

But the attention remained on the couple. For some reason, it didn’t turn into the epic bash we feared it would. The Racer X crew was subdued and nothing got broken or ruined. We didn’t even offend anyone!

Be careful with this party at your wedding party.

I guess the wedding worked out the way it should.

And eventually so did the paper. And the date. And hey, I was still working with mom all week on the house, and although we didn’t plan a damn thing there, it’s all shaping up pretty good.

One of these days I’m going to learn my lesson and plan some stuff, but as long as things keep (barely) working out, it’s hard to change.

Congratulations, Jason and Leslie.

---

Major credit goes to Ali "Hurricane" Mills, who managed to make the Hooper wedding in between signing up riders for the AMA D5 State Championship MX at Pleasure Valley. That track is over two hours from Morgantown, people! So Ali hit the road after sign up and changed into her dress AT A TRUCK STOP heading to Morgantown.

---

Hmmmm. Does it sound like Mike Brown is calling Ricky Carmichael a liar in his press release? This is sadly one of those stories we will never know the truth on. But I know Ivan Tedesco had better ride well in France, now.

---

Supercross: The Movie isn't exactly tearing up the box office. C'mon people, support the sport. And my name. It's in the credits. I don't want to be known as a box office bust here, okay?

-blogandt

 

des Notions

Yeah I think I used that title before. But man is it good. Anyway I'm struggling along trying to get the latest issue of TRP done (look for it at Steel City) while moving, entertaining mom and juggling some dates. I was considering staying off of the blog for the rest of the week. But then this whole Motocross des Nations thing ramped up the controversey machine again.

You know, that's one of the things we've really missed about this event. The controversey. We've never had an easy time picking the MXdN team. This year the team was a tough call of course, what with Bubba and K-Dub hemming and hawing over the whole deal, but we knew that Brown and RC were our boys. But then Brown went through one of the strangest slumps I've ever seen, instantly turning from a race-winner to a top-ten guy at best. Brown simply hasn't been close lately. You might like him or respect him or think he deserves to go because of what he has done in his career. But no one cares if Team USA finishes second at the des Nations. It's win or bust, and when you see five or six Yanks pulling Brownie every moto, well, what can you do?

And I know what you're thinking: "WHAT ABOUT THE T-SHIRTS!!!!???" Well, I can tell you we have a big pile of shirts with Brown on them in the room right next to me, and Mike Farber is putting them in boxes and sending them out. Someone has quite the collector's item there.

But let's not focus exclusively on Team USA. Have you see the entry list on Racer X? Certainly some other teams can be a force. How about Slovenia, with their team managed by Joze Vaupotic, with Jelen, Kragelj and Moze? Or the all-powerful Cyprus squad, with Dimitris Dimitriou as the manager, and Koumasi Zannettos, Dimitris Kosteas, and Marinos Tsaggaras?

Lithuania's team manager must have the longest last name ever known to man: SAPRANAUSKIENE.

And even Iran has a team, with Mahmoudreza Jadidi in the MX1 class, Mehran Hematian in MX2 and Hamid Karinzadeh in the Open class. A lot of people have been wondering what will happen when RC and Karinzadeh meet up. Now we're about to find out.

Anyway this is one race I'm glad I'm not announcing. But I'm glad Team USA is back in it, no matter who pilots the 250F. If Slovenia is in it, we should be, too.

 

-blogandt

 

 

I missed a few days here due to the moving process. I headed to Jersey after Broome-Tioga and couldn't find my way to our FTP site to upload the blog. If you missed the Sunday night race report, it's on Racerxill.

Anyway yesterday was an all-day drive back to WV, with Mom riding shotgun. I had a pickup bed and trailer overflowing with junk to bring to the new place, and eventually it was like 2 a.m. and we were still on the outskirts of Morgantown. Moving is hard. Luckily I had a brand-new couch to crash on once we got to the house.

---

After Hooper's bachelor party on Thursday, our crew was still running high on adrenaline all the way to Binghamton. On Saturday we were coming down the elevator, and Matt Ware suggested we all scream really loud and see what kind of reaction we get when the door opens at the bottom. So we started screaming. Two seconds later the door opens and OF ALL PEOPLE to be standing there, it's Roger DeCoster. He gave a look of shock, asked us if we were okay, and then got on the elevator.

---

So .... let's not beat around the bush here. Let's talk about :The Movie and :The Credits. First of all the movie wasn't good, but it was exactly what it should and needed to be. Sure, I'm watching it thinking "you know, you could make an AWESOME movie about a rider who had all this talent and success as an amateur, and his parents spent every dime they had to get him to the top, but then he lost the drive and his ride. He partied, parents got pissed, sponsors dropped him. He toils in Europe and as a privateer, meanwhile a new talent comes out to take over the sport. But then the guy meets a great girl, buckles and down and realizes he only has one chance to make it. So the guy rejuvinates his career and trains harder than ever, overcomes some blackballing to get some help from his old friends, and then comes back in one dramatic unbelieveable finish. That would be an AWESOME movis and it would show people the many human dramas of motocross and supercross."

Sorry, that ain't gonna' happen. It just won't, ever, so this is what we're stuck with. But hey, :The Movie isn't supposed to hook us, it's for the 14-year-old who thinks dirt bikes are cool and will really like them now. At least I think that's the deal. Major props to the people that bankrolled this in an attempt to take the sport to the next level. If it works, I'll become :The Movie's biggest fan.

One great thing about the flick is that people you know are all over it - racers, mechanics, Tom Carson, Doc Wobbles, and Ping is all over it. Even has Tyler Evans back in a scene where he's standing there all pissed off and trying to look tough. But no actor is that good....

So it was cool to see our buddies and Racer X and stuff all over it. Hell, it was pretty damn cool to just see dirt bikes in the movies!

But the piece de resistance came when the text started heading to the top of the screen. We stuck around to see what names we knew, and then the credits started listing everyone on the staff at the supercrosses, including yes, the webcast team.

Now I'm famous.

But I have to continue moving into that huge new house I own (things change quick when you're in the movies).

Come on back tomorrow.

-blogandt

 

MY NAME WAS IN THE CREDITS!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[Hello, sag card.]

-blogandt

 

Binghamton: The Movie Theater

We're in Binghamton for the national, and it's basically industry movie night. Everyone here has seen Supercross: The Movie last night, is seeing it right now, or will see it at 9:50 (like us). If you base ticket sales on what happens here at the Regal in Binghamton tonight, this will be the biggets blockbuster ever.

P.S. James Stewart is actually back. Dude, that guy still has some crazy talent.

-blogandt

 

We Survived

Barely.

-blogandt

 

Blogandt: The Blog

So I’m now a homeowner. I was really dreading the whole process of buying a house, but it’s just a necessary evil – paying rent is stupid compared to the investment of a home. But beyond the investment, I really couldn’t care less about houses. I like working and going to the races, so I’m rarely even home anyway. But, I’ve been floating the “I own a house” thing to every girl I know for the last two days. Hey, if you have it you need to get some use out of it.

Anyway, when I was walking back from the podium at Millville, I started thinking about the house closing this week. I guess I can now officially say that motocross has been very, very good to me. It’s how I make my living and pay my mortgage. And it’s the greatest sport ever. We’re pretty lucky to have it.

Of course I’m the luckiest of them all because I’m just robbing the sport blind and making huge money hand over fist every weekend. Then I’m sinking it into my mansion instead of giving back. That’s how I roll. Hey, if you can afford a house in in West Virginia that doesn't roll, then you a playa. And that's me. Thanks, motocross.

---

It’s here and it’s official. No last second changes, vetoes or recalls. This is it. Supercross: The Movie is now public, and it’s still called Supercross: THE FREAKING MOVIE. Supercross: The Movie. That’s the name. What sport’s movie can you think of that followed a similar path? Nascar: The Movie? No, Days of Thunder. Baseball: The movie? No, Major League, The Natural, Bull Durham. Skateboarding: The Movie? No, Gleaming the Cube. Hell, On Any Sunday was called On Any Sunday, not Dirt Bikes: The Movie, and that was a documentary. What about calling it Full Throttle or Wide Open of any of the standard-fare “extreme” titles that surround the sport? Maybe even Full Throttle: Wide Open. That would rule.

So Supercross: The Movie hit theaters yesterday. But of course, even though it debuted in 2500 theaters, which is right in there with the big blockbusters, and even though Carmike Cinemas has it listed on their website as “The Featured Movie of the Week,” Supercross: The Movie is still not screening at the Carmike Cinemas in Morgantown. Of course. So at some point between Binghamton, moving, and the Epic Jason Hooper Bachelor party tonight, I’ll have to see it. Somewhere in heaven, Winner’s Take All must be shaking like Roger Maris was when Mark McGwire was chasing his record.

---

What’s up with broken legs in GNCC this year? Now Rodney Smith, Bill Balance, Glenn Kearney and Jason Raines have all injured their lower legs during the season (although none of them did it in an actual GNCC race). Raines did his last week, breaking the tib and fib above the ankle by merely dabbing his foot and not even crashing. Rodney did his the same way. Anyway, Raines didn’t seem that bummed when I talked to him. The bottom line is injuries like that can’t be prevented, so there’s no reason to get mad. If you were doing something stupid or riding over your head, that’s a different story. I think that’s why Rodney and Jason both took the injuries so well – what are you gonna’ do?

What’s too bad is the dynamic duo of 2004 won’t even get on the track together for a single time in 2005. Raines is done for the year, but now Smith is coming back in North Carolina this September. This is going to be good.

---

Yes, you read right: Hooper’s bachelor party is tonight. It's actually being all planned out by the Brits around here, so it's actually called a Stag Doo (some sort of British thing). The poor guy is getting married next weekend, so it’s on now. Someone will probably end up dead tonight. If there’s no Blogandts after this, at least you know I went out in style.

---

Have you done your part to support Team USA at the des Nations this year? They're fighting for our freedom and need your help. Okay, they're not fighting for freedom but it's going to be a damn cool race if we can get the funding.

Bound to be a better seller than the '02 Comp Park shirts.

Shirts cost $25 and 100% of the money goes to sending the boys to Europe. I think we farmed out some really cheap T-Shirt labor overseas to make that kind of profit. Go Team USA!

Just kidding. They're made in Pennsylvania. Really. Click here to order online, or call 304-284-0080, or send a check or money order to:

Team USA 2005
122 Vista Del Rio Drive
Morgantown, WV 26508

Beacuse Team USA STILL still matters!

-blogandt

 

The Speed Trap

(Now starring a bigger font! And TFS pics!)

Spring Creek in Millville is about as good as it gets for a motocross track. The huge hills, deep sand and big jumps are the kind of stuff everyone thinks they like – probably until they get out there on it. We all dream of being the guy who rips through sand and sprays big roost while riding WFO – and then leaps up and down the big hills and just hammers sand whoops. But to actually see the fast guys out there on it, it’s a totally different story. These guys are FAST and that track is ROUGH and it’s pretty amazing how good every single rider in the pro field is. For us mere mortals, you’d be dead after one hard lap of that track.

But this year Millville brought in something new to give you an idea of just how good those good riders really are. They brought a radar gun and an LED screen into the whoops. For the first time that I can ever remember, you would find out how fast the riders are really going, and who is going how much faster or slower than everyone else in that section. Lap times are a good indicator of speed – but how about the actual speed?

If you stand near the rough Millville track and watch the pros just pin it all the way around, you know however fast they’re going is pretty darn fast. I was standing with the mechanics on the inside of the first second turn, and man, it was one of the most awe-inspiring things I’ve ever seen. Everyone, even the slowest 250F rider, was jumping the step-up past the mechanics, then pitching it into a rough, sandy right hander – feet on the pegs the whole time – and using the side of the mountain to stay on the track. Then they kept it pinned through a nasty, swap-inducing straight of rough sand. I stood there thinking, “I don’t know if there is anything on earth more incredible to watch than this. This is human beings and engineering and athletic intensity at its absolute best.”

Here's RC jumping past the mechanics and headed to the wall. It's an amazing section to watch - although I see Ricky's own mechanic isn't even paying attention! Meanwhile Barry Carsten's wrench is amazed. Click on this one for more detail.

Later in the lap the riders made it to the whoops and the radar gun. Most riders were between 32 – 39 MPH through there, and Carmichael pegged it up to 44. Think of 40 MPH and the consequences of crashing at that speed. That’s really, really fast. And it’s very, very easy to crash there since it’s the deepest, toughest, gnarliest whoop section in all of American motocross. Imagine dropping the front end and going over the bars at 40 MPH – that’s a big consequence.

So I was pretty impressed. But then again I’m standing right next to the track watching how hard these guys ride. And I’ve ridden myself enough to know that if it looks fast on the outside, it must feel ridiculously fast if you’re actually on the bike. And those whoops are HUGE.

But what if you’re an outsider? A casual fan. A NASCAR guy. Maybe you’ve never been to a motocross race before or have never ridden a dirt bike. To you, 40 MPH sounds like, well, just 40 MPH.

This is supposed to be a race? These guys are supposed to be fast? 40? I’m going faster than that on the on-ramp during my commute to work!

So as cool as that speed trap is, it could work against the sport. We all know motocross isn’t about all out top speed, and even those who have raced their whole lives probably have no idea how fast they go in actual miles per hour. But we do know what pushing the limits on a motocross track feels like – and it’s harder to do than anything you could do in your car on a commute to work.

But some of those outsiders who haven’t tried it yet could become fans of the sport. I hope that speed trap doesn’t make them think otherwise.

---

You know what I like about interviewing motocrossers? They make you look really tall.

---

Goerke! Goerke Goerke!

Um, in case you missed it in yesterday's race report: MATT "BEEF" GEORKE finished fourth in the first 250 moto. FOURTH. Matt freaking Georke. Fourth. In a 250 moto. And I'm telling you he was running the pace of Preston, Fonseca, Wey etc - they were barely catching him. Matt even threw a little fist pump over the finish line. This was just, just crazy that Matt Goerke finished FOURTH.

---

Hey, the environmentalists are getting on our case for riding dirt bikes and ATVs through streams and stuff? Ha! Read this news story about the environmental danger of riding horses through streams. Does your dirt bike produce fecal matter? I don't think so!

-blogandt

 

Millville (2)

There’s a recurring theme amongst each round of the 2005 AMA National Motocross Championship series. Ricky Carmichael runs away with the 250-class win in the most dominant of fashions, and the 125 class introduces another front-runner to at every-growing list of first-time winners, surprise contenders, and impressive comebacks.

At this weekend’s FMF National at Spring Creek in Millville, Minnesota, presented by Scott, Carmichael started work on a ridiculous THIRD year running undefeated at the top of the 250 class. The Makita Suzuki rider has won every single 250 National since Millville in 2003 – and with another big 1-1 performance this Sunday, he’s cleared the two-year mark without a loss in motocross and is headed for year three. Will he remain undefeated at every national all the way through Millville 2006? Not sure about that, but he’s certainly the favorite to win this particular race next year, too. After all, there may not be a track better suited to RC’s style than this one – a dynamic, sandy affair complete with huge jumps and the gnarliest sand whoop section seen on any MX track in the U.S.

Carmichael, of course, handled those and many other obstacles with ease, rolling to 1-1 moto scores and running his streak to 24 nationals in a row without a loss. In the first most he had to pass newly minted holeshot artist Matt Goerke on a Motoworldracing.com Suzuki to take the lead. Not surprisingly, Goerke couldn’t keep pace with RC, or Kevin Windham, who piloted his Amsoil Chapparal Honda into second early. But Goerke hung really, really tough, yielding only to Team Honda’s Travis Preston at the end of the moto to finish fourth.

Carmichael, of course, had a huge lead and another victory in hand.

In the second moto Windham got the start, but Carmichael was quickly past him in the sand whoops and pulling away to victory. Windham would give RC a good run but ultimately have to settle for second behind him (you suppose K-Dub is tired of that happening?)

By the way, this year the Martin family who promotes the event set up a speed trap in the whoops – with a radar gun to tell you how fast the riders were charging through the section. Windham was running 37 MPH, and Carmichael topped out a 44.

Preston and Goerke couldn’t quite replicate the magic in moto two, leaving Ernesto Fonseca and David Vuillemin to battle for the final podium spot. Fonseca took over third in a heated battle with DV12, getting around on the last lap to make the box.

In the 125 class the spotlight shined bright on yet another first-time winner, Team Honda’s Andrew Short. After a few near-misses on moto wins at Colorado and Washougal, Short showed up at Millville on a mission. He used a great start to pull away and win moto number one while a host of riders battled behind him. Eventually Mike Alessi would finish second, marking the one-year anniversary of last year’s “Believe the Hype” pro debut. Josh Grant came from out of the pack to finish third in the moto. Other favorites had trouble. Grant Langston had a brief crash cost him a few spots, Broc Hepler crashed hard in the first turn and ended up 24th, and Mike Brown would struggled again and wind up outside the top ten.

Alessi pulled one of his classic holeshot in the second moto, and combined with his second in moto one looked to have the perfect anniversary celebration going. But Short and Langston were on the gas and charging in the second and third spots. With the overall on the line, Short reeled Alessi in and went to work, but Alessi tried every trick in the book to hold him off. They battled, but eventually Short made the pass and headed for the overall. Langston would get stuck battling with Alessi as well, and the hold up would cost him just enough to let Short get away.

It truly was Short’s day. After a few weeks of leading motos only to lose it down the stretch, the Colorado native was strong all day long on one of the roughest tracks on the tour.

Meanwhile, series leader Ivan Tedesco continued to stretch his points lead despite carding just 6-6 moto scores. With assorted troubles for contenders like Brown, Hepler and Langston, “Hot Sauce” is holding a 50+ point cushion with just six motos remaining this season.

P.S. All apologies to Matt "Mike" Wozney, who I called Mike for some dumb reason while mentioning him here on Friday. I think I'll just stick with calling him Woz for now on.

-blogandt

 

Millville

Motocross is awesome. I'm not sure what other sport or past time or hobby packs in just enough popularity for national events to be held in nooks and crannies around the country - we're in Minnesota right now after a week in Tennesse and a weekend in Washington state - and pack in people from all over the world - we're traveling with a Brit this weekend - and yet still it's the same familiar faces every weekend.

Tonight we ended up at the venerable Outback Steakhouse in Rochester MINNESOTA. This is key. Years ago Jeremy McGrath booked a flight to Rochester NY for the Millville race, as legend has it. And this year Spy goggle rep Johnny Cuzo did the same. But we're feeling Minnesota right now (Feeling Minnesota is the most overdone phrase now - I could have sampled the Sound Garden lyrics for the title of this column but it's so overdone at this point I would be even less cool than I already am. It's like when my Aunt Valerie started running a shirt that said "Can't Touch This" in 1991. If the phrase, trickles down to housewives, it's over).

Anyway we went to the same Outback we have run here for a few years (p.s. anyone who knows some tragically uncool people, please stop them from from running the phrase run before it's dead like Feeling Minnesota). Here's a lesson on Outback: the bar tenders ALWAYS write their name down on a piece of paper, fold it into a little tent, and put it in front of you. They do it at all Outbacks all over the place. Writing the name and putting it in front of you DOES NOT mean the waitress wants to date you. Trust me, I misintepreted this and ended up dating and Outback bartender for a full year. Eventually I thought she was cheating on me - until I found out they write their name down for everyone.

Outback draws all the moto people because it's like five-star dining to them. I got to buy Davi Millsaps a water. Then Ryan Hughes and his mechanic Jonathan came in. Ryno is back and racing this weekend! Honestly, I heard he was done but that shows what I know. Either way #105 is absolutely positively done after these last four races. I told him to kill his engine and push his bike over the line at Steel City. He probably won't, but either way take your time to cheer for one of the toughest racers of all time.

Later on our ad man, British Jason Berry had taken on one too many "ales" and started slurring all over everyone in the place. The Brit accent saves all, though. Good times.

Finally I spotted Rick Johnson hanging out waiting for a table. I'm not sure if RJ knows me or not, but I do know him as one of the all-time greats, and if the Mount RUshmore of Motocross contains DeCoster, Hannah, McGrath and Carmichael, then RJ is getting the shaft. The guy was the king in his day...

So I decided to buy him a beer. C'mon, it's Rick Johnson, and I was as nervous buying him a beer as I would have been for a chick even though we've given each other the "what's up" nod every weekend for the last few months. I told him "This is for winning the second and third motos of the 1987 Motocross des Nations in the mud at Unadilla. You saved our ass, man. It was muddy as hell and you whooped the world's best open riders on a 250 - and you were a Californian!"

I still remember that race like it was yesterday, even though I was like nine years old at the time. But he earned that beer I bought him tonight with his ride that day.

Motocross is awesome.

P.S. Bubba is out AGAIN?! He was back on track to race for one day and now he's hurt and out AGAIN. And Kawasaki also discovered the lead in their gas at Budds Creek was due to lead chips in their old gas cans. I'm telling you, embattled Kawasaki PR man John Ewert can't be sleeping well these days.

P.P.S. I told amateur MX photog specialist Mike Wozny I would run one of his pictures in the Blog like three months ago - but he was screwing up and taking pictures of racers. Dude, I wanted pictures of me looking all cool next to celebrities.

So here I am with a celebrity. Okay, it's Vanilla Ice. He's kinda celebrity-like. And I really don't look too cool with my unkempt sideburns, "I forgot the proper hair care product in the announcer's booth" and the overbite psuedo smile. C'mon Wozny, make me look better! Photo by Mike Wozny

 

-blogandt

 

DMXS Video

The high of Loretta Lynn’s is finally starting to fade – but if you want to ramp up the enthusiasm again, I wrote a race report that’s up on Racerxill.com right now, and we finally, finally have the last installment of MX SportsCenter up and running. It's been a long time coming.

I met two guys named Kevin and Joey at the Atlanta Supercross in 2001. They were running a little paper called Practice Track, and Racer X Managing Editor (and now my boss) Bryan Stealey introduced me to them. Kevin immediately said, “Billy Robinson is looking pretty fast tonight, isn’t he?” I said, “Yeah but I heard he’s slipping like a young girl in her first pair of heels.” With that Winner’s Take All reference, it was on.

I talked to the guys every few weeks, and then late that summer Kevin called me and said they had bought some space on the internet, and he and Joey were going to try an internet radio show about motocross. It would be kinda’ like Radio Fox at Loretta Lynn’s. That show had already carved quite a rep as being funny and edgy, and it was hosted by DC and Scott Taylor from Fox. They had big time guests and laughs. But unfortunately, it only took place for one week a year, and could only be heard down at the ranch.

Kevin and Joey somehow got Tim Ferry and Ron Tichenor on their first show, but when I tried to listen in on a Mac in the Rowan University computer lab, it just buffered and went haywire. That happened a lot back in those days. The show ran through some server called Live 365, and it seemed to have problems all the time. It was too bad though, because Kevin and Joey had a way of getting the racers to let their guard down and say some funny stuff. It was the most real you’d ever hear the racers, but I think about 12 people were listening back then.

They called the show the Dead Motocrossers Society, a nod to that elite group of poetry buffs from the Dead Poets Society movie with Robin Williams. And this was a pretty elite group since almost no one was listening.

Eventually they hooked up with a guy named Evan who was more interested in making DMXS a shock jock show than a motocross show. That alienated probably half the listeners (six of them). Luckily a guy named David Izer came in to save the thing. They dumped Evan and installed David, as well as a new server and a whole lot more credibility.

They still didn’t have many listeners. But eventually the show had enough credibility that Tim Cotter asked Kevin, Joey and myself to take the reigns of Radio Fox at Loretta’s in 2003. In some ways, it had all come full circle for those guys. They tried to be like Radio Fox, and eventually they actually were Radio Fox.

On and on it went. People started listening to DMXS, but Joey grew tired of putting in so much work for so little support and recognition and listeners. He eventually killed Practice Track and left DMXS. Now he’s working at his step dad’s KTM shop and announcing races in GA. Joey’s about the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He was too nice for the business, I guess.

Slowly but surely DMXS trudged along. They got a big hit when James Stewart called them and asked if he could be a guest in December 2003, because he wanted to defend his decision to race a 125 for one more season. They also had David Bailey as a guest almost weekly. Credibility rose, listeners started coming, and things picked up steam.

Kevin and I got to host Radio Fox again in 2004. Each night the DMXS crew and the Racer X crew would hang out in that announcers tower late into the night, rapping about motocross and making jokes to anyone who would listen. I’m not sure how many people were tuned to the internet or the ranch radio station on those nights, but I didn’t really care. That was the most fun I had ever had doing anything. We were laughing and bench racing and laughing and bench racing.

A few months ago DMXS acquired the technology to produce a video feed of their show. With visuals, the creativity flourished. Probably once a week for the last four years, Kevin and I would talk and go off on these wild tangents and skits and comedy ideas about motocross. Some of it spills into The Racing Paper and Racer X, a lot of it goes right here, and some trickles into their show.

But with video … it was the perfect outlet for our ideas.

So about a month ago Kevin suggested to the DMXS guys of maybe doing some video from Loretta’s. The show was no longer to be called Radio Fox, but we could honor its legacy by stepping things way, way up. At first I think we were just going to have a camera in the announcer’s tower. But then we started thinking about showing racing clips and skits and stuff. DMXS had an intern named Matt Crutchfield who was pretty handy with cameras and technology, and they knew another kid named Wes Williams who was making films at all the local races in GA.

Kevin pitched Cotter and DC on the idea and we all decided to try it. We were supposed to have some earth-shattering internet technology there to upload the show. Kevin drove five hours from Atlanta to Loretta’s, and the thing worked on every inch of the drive until about 1000 feet from the announcer’s tower.

But we were determined to do this, so we tried it on Monday night. We had no script or concept of exactly what we wanted, but when it was done on Tuesday morning, holy crap was it better than we ever expected. Wes and Matt are just artists with video and editing. And Loretta’s has such good stuff to show.

Brian Johnson, the DMXS tech guy, figured out how to get it uploaded (drive to a hotel 30 minutes away every morning). And every night the show got better. But ironically, it was so successful that it ended up nearly killing what was the old Radio Fox show. You know video killed the radio star, right? Well efforts that used to go into the nightly radio show were going into the video show instead. And the video took up so much bandwidth that we couldn’t even put the radio show on the internet anymore without blowing up the MX Sports and DMXS servers.

No worries. People really seemed to like the video shows, and now there’s major potential to do this at a whole lot more places that Loretta’s. Out of the ashes of Radio Fox and Practice Track comes something that could really revolutionize the sport. For everyone involved, both those behind the scenes and those who just want to watch it, it’s about time something like this happened.

-blogandt

 

00

Went to see the new Dukes of Hazzard movie yesterday as soon as I got back into town.

Why don't we just all make ourselves feel better and just say this:

IT NEVER HAPPENED

And when the hype dies down the movie will be gone and we can all go back to life as we knew it. And by the way, they actually got the Dukes stuff down right – I don’t have any Cooter Davenport/Ben Jones problems with the changes they had to make to update the show. I'm not going all Star Trek and chastising them for ruining the sanctity of the show. Hell, the show featured a car that could jump rivers for no apparent reason. There is no sanctity there.

But as a standalone movie … it sucked.

So IT NEVER HAPPENED, and we’ll just leave it at that.

-blogandt

 

Loretta Lynn's

(I orginally wrote this in a sleep-deprived but adrenalized stupor at about 3 a.m. Saturday night/Sunday morning. But I didn't get to an internet connection until now. Stuff like that is still a little hard to find at Loretta's)

Sorry we haven’t had a blogandt update in over a week. We were really, really busy at Loretta Lynn’s, and I hope you saw our extra efforts on the MX SportsCenter internet shows, which I think will really revolutionize the sport. Imagine a highlight show on the web the Monday after every national and supercross? Think about it.

Of course, doing the shows added another element to an already busy schedule at the ranch – announce all day, then tape standups for the MX SportsCenter show, then host the nightly radio show, then do voice overs into the night. Sleep a bit and repeat for six days.

Now it’s 3:15 a.m. and we’re finally done with the final MX SportsCenter (or actually I am – the two kids who put the show together, Wes and Matt, still have a lot of work to do). I have to leave for the airport in an hour, so there’s no use in sleeping. Plus, I’m too pumped to sleep anyway. Even after six days of racing from sun up to sun down, then post shows and voice overs and bench racing and all of that stuff, I’m not even the slightest bit bored or tired or over motocross. I love it now more than ever. Myself and the DMXS boys have been putting in 15 hour days, but tonight we spent about 4 hours just watching footage of the race. We’re still pumped, still stoked on the races. This race just brings out the best in a motocross fan.

What a concept this race is. Thank God Dave Coombs was a smart man and put this together – hey, if it didn’t work out the company I work for probably wouldn’t be as successful as it is now, and I probably wouldn’t have a job in the industry, and have ever come to Loretta’s, and have ever realized how great this is. But thanks to Big Dave we all have this: It’s the best race of the year, the best week of the year, and the best time of the year.

I don’t know as much about other sports as I do about motocross, but I just can’t think of any other sport that has an event like this. A national one-week competition which will change the lives of the athletes involved. Do the outstanding high-school quarter backs in the nation all meet up at a competition to see who is the best – all with a six-figure contract on the line for the best and nothing for the ones who only come close? No. Hundreds of good QBs will get scholarships and have years to prove themselves. Here, it’s do or die.

Do gymnastics parents have to spent the entire family savings on bikes, parts and motorhomes, all in the hope that their kid becomes one of the .00000000009 percent that make it? What can you spend your money on in gymnastics besides maybe travel? And by the way that is pretty extensive in motocross, too.

I've also heard that nowadays parents are spending even more ridiculous money on getting their kids into car racing – but c’mon, this is an endurance sport. Where is the training, injuries and heart that you have to put in the place in three motos against the stiffest competition in the worst heat you’ve ever faced?

No other athletic competition can match the travel, physical or monitary commitment than the Amateur Nationals at Loretta's do.

This week will change the lives of thousands of competitors and their families. Really. If you want to be something, you have to prove it here. Period. What other event and sport can you say that about?

So that’s why you don’t get sick of watching the racing down here. There’s so much on the line, so much emotion, you just get pumped up. That’s why after six days of sun-up-to-sun-down racing, we were holed up in a box van watching footage of the last six days when we could have been on the road a long time ago.

Sadly, I never met Big Dave. But I can tell you for sure that he came up with some really good ideas. I just wish he had decided to make it a two-week event, because I’m ready for more.

-blogandt

 

Sorry, I'm Cursed

The bad luck continues: I think I cursed myself winning that minibike race. Everything, and I mean everything involving the sound and PA and internet at the track was perfect at Washougal. I had it all setup by 11 am Saturday. I even called the Racer X office with the internet connection to make sure it worked. Then for no reason, totally inexplicably, it just didn't work this afternoon. I changed nothing and touched nothing between 11 am Saturday, when everything worked, and 11:30 am Sunday, when we're granted access to the web. The thing just didn't work. A box called the ComPack suddenly could produce no dial tone, no sound, nothing. I was cursed and I was screwed. And so were the 10,000 fans or so who wanted to listen to the race on the internet. I apologize to each and every one of you. We spent every minute from the start of our 11:30 window right up until the minute we started opening ceremonies 81 minutes later trying to fix that thing. It was unfixable because I'm cursed right now.

We later went to like plan G or so and patched it together in a complete band-aid setup. Thanks to Tim Cotter for coming up with the backup backup backup plan. And sorry the first 125 moto didn't get broadcast. I mean I'm really, really sorry. I remember what it was like ot be on the other side setting a whole day aside to listen only to get nothing. Bad times, people. I don't really know what else to say.

Anyway here's the race report from 'Shougal.

Ricky Carmichael isn’t just breaking records. He isn’t just dominant. He is rewriting the book on what dominance is. For years, actually throughout the history of the sport, a dominant rider won the majority of the races he entered. Maybe half. Then Jeremy McGrath raised the bar when he started winning three quarters of the supercross races in a given season. At his ultimate peak, McGrath flirted with perfection for about six months. It was historic and amazing and put the sport somewhere on the mainstream radar.

But as incredibly dominant as that run was, it and every other run in the sport is nothing in comparison to what Carmichael is doing. With his incredibly dominant 1-1 sweep this weekend at the Unbound Energy National at Washougal, Carmichael has now gone two years without losing an AMA 250 National Motocross. Two years. Undefeated overall. Hasn’t just won the majority of the races, he’s won every single one of them!

And there’s no end in sight. With both James Stewart and Chad Reed out for the weekend with concussions, Carmichael was left to battle Kevin Windham, the last rider to beat him for an overall, at the same Washougal track in 2003. But that was still in the 250 versus 450 days. Now Carmichael has a 450 thumper of his own, and he used it to holeshot the first moto and destroy the field. Windham, who has been riding very well lately, got a bad start but rode strong to cut his way into second. Carmichael was already gone by then, but he kept pulling away anyhow just for good measure. With Reed and Stewart out, a battle developed for a rare opening on the podium. After battling with Team Honda’s Ernesto Fonseca, Yamaha’s David Vuillemin ultimately took the third spot.

Carmichael didn’t get as good a start in moto two, with Fonseca and Windham in front of him. On the second lap, Windham tried to force a move on Fonseca, and when he slowed to do it, Carmichael just kept his Makita Suzuki pinned and passed both of them.

After that it was all about the record books, baby. Ricky’s previous win streak stretched also began after a loss to Windham at Washougal, in 2001. He then won all the overalls through the end of that season (including a 125 national to cap the season), and every one in 2002 before losing to Windham at Unadilla in ‘03, just shy of the two-year mark. This time he went all the way, and we’re still counting.

Windham took a solid second on his Amsoil/Chaparral Honda and Fonseca went 4-3 to take his first ever 250 National MX podium.

It was a great afternoon of racing at the Huffman-family owned and operated Washougal MX Park in Washington, quite possibly the most scenic motocross track in the country. Even after an incredible 2200 amateur riders took to the track on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the track was in awesome shape for racing

The 250 class makes the history. The 125 class is the one that’s fun to watch. While Carmichael has a multi-year win streak going in his class (that just doesn’t even sound right), the 125 class witnessed the first rider to even put together back-to-back overalls this year when the suddenly awesome Ivan Tedesco did the trick again. “Hot Sauce” celebrated his first ever overall a week earlier in Colorado by doing it again here, and now extending to a big points lead.

But it wasn’t easy. In the first moto Tedesco had to track down Honda’s Andrew Short and Josh Grant to get into the lead and bring his moto win streak to three. Makita Suzuki’s Broc Hepler charged from just inside the top ten all the way past Short and into second, but he ended up breaking off his brake caliper in a rut and dropped back to fifth at the very end of the moto. It would prove very costly.

Short took second and Tedesco’s Monster Energy Drink/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki teammate Grant Langston charged hard to get third. Meanwhile Jim’s Motorcycle Sales Honda privateer Mike Brown saw the bottom fall completely out of his championship run when he pulled a DNF, apparently with some sort of bike problem.

Short pulled the start again in moto two with Grant behind him again, but Hepler made short work of Grant and then tried to make short work of, er, Short, but fell. He picked it back up and caught Short again, and this time was able to pass him and take the lead.

The pass would cost Short his first ever moto and overall wins. Tedesco started fourth and could only get as high as third, saying he didn’t get into the rhythm he had in the first moto. Short’s 2 – 1 would have beaten Tedesco’s 1 –3, but when Hepler made the pass for the lead, it gave Short a 2 –2, which means he came up just, er, Short.

So did Hepler, whose brake problem in the first moto meant a possible 2-1 score and win became a 5-1, which was good enough for third overall.

Believe it or not Tedesco now has a 41 point lead in what has been one of the most competitive seasons of all-time. Then again, he is undefeated for a full seven days.

 

-blogandt

 

Single Cell Organism

I should have never won that race. The race I won on the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki/Renthal/Parts Unlimited/Moose/Thor/Bridgeston/Asterisk-backed Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki/Renthal/Parts Unlimited/Moose/Thor/Bridgeston/Asterisk machine.

There.

And for the full report, check out Bad Billy's superb race report on Racerhead today.

For the last few years, all of my racing experiences have been marred with bad luck, and all of it usually caused by my lack of planning and thinking. I’m always crashing in the first turn, or putting on the wrong goggles, or forgetting to turn the gas on or the choke off … anyway I’ve blown it many times. But I knew what to do at that Mini Supermoto race on Wednesday, and it was an awesome feeling to make it boring like Carmichael does every week.

Planning got me there. In July, the work load backs off just a tad since Racer Productions goes into a month-long preparation for Loretta Lynn’s and stops holding races. So for once I had time to makes notes, schedules and plans to get work done. By Wednesday I was pretty much finished with my projects for the week. So we would just head to Rocket Rob’s minibike race, have some fun, and get home late because the place is so far away. But no big deal. This was supposed to be the calm before the storm.

There are two mega-weeks during the year. One is Daytona. This year I flew from Pittsburgh to California to St. Louis to Florida and then drove to Georgia and finally Morgantown during a five-stop, ten-day tour. The second big trip is this one: Washougal to Loretta’s.

You can’t just jump into this. You have to ship stuff to each track so you have all of the equipment to get your work done on the road for nine days. You have to fill a lot of roles, too. Besides covering the races for Racer X and Cycle News and all, I’ll be announcing and running the Webcast at Washougal. And then announcing the live show, and the night show at Loretta’s, as well as helping out two different TV crews, all while trying to stay somewhat on top of business at home (The Racing Paper will be due in a week and there’s that whole house buying thing).

This is not a “look how cool and important I am” rant. Nope. It’s just a big setup to the “look how stupid I am” rant.

I had it all dialed and ready, I even convinced TRP advice columnist Ask Ali Mills to drive me to the airport so I wouldn’t have to pay for nine days of parking.

But then this morning I made a major snafu. Unexpectedly, Thursday turned into the worst day of work ever, and in my haste to get it all done and get out the door, I made the biggest, dumbest, worst mistake you can make in this day and age.

I forgot my cell phone.

D’oh!

I’ve come up with a simple system to never lose my phone, wallet or keys. I tap my pockets habitually every few minutes just to check that those three items are there. And I did that this morning. Keys, wallet, cellphone. Got ‘em.

But this morning I was going through the security line at the airport. And I took out my keys. My wallet. And … my digital camera.

My cell phone wasn’t in my pocket. It was still at Ali’s place!

I swear the screwed up Thursday and Friday and no maybe the whole screwed up next nine days is my payment for actually not screwing up the race on Wednesday night.

So now I’m gone for nine days, still trying to wrap up buying a house, trying to arrange press and ad sales for the Loretta Lynn’s races and TV show, and trying to learn how to set up the Racer X Webcast presented by Cycle News for the first time. And I don’t have my phone.

How did we ever live without these things?

So I guess I’ll just be using the blog here as an S.O.S. Tim Cotter, if I need help setting that webcast up tomorrow morning, you might just read about it here. Maybe he can start his own blog with exclusive advice for me.

P.S. I can’t wait for Loretta’s. Cell phoned or not, it’s the best week and the best race of the year. Bar none. I just need to get through this little thing called Washougal.

-blogandt

 

1-1

Anyone who witnessed my incredible/stupendous 1-1 moto sweep and overall victory last night in the Sportsman class at the IMXRacing.com Mini Supermoto I Championships at Quaker Steak and Lube in Sharon, PA is probably expecting a nine page diatribe on how awesome it feels to win.

But I won't do that because I'm too modest. And by too modest, I mean too busy to write nine pages today. I need to get to the airport and head to Washougal, and then from there to Loretta's. But in between I have a hotel room tomorrow - and if they have 'net access in the room - oh brother, it's on.

Did I mention I won?

-blogandt

 

Judgment Day

Whoa, Ivan Tedesco is in the points lead just past the halfway point in the 125 National Motocross Series? Carmichael is still undefeated even after Bubba moved up to the 250 class? And the U.S. is going to the Motocross des Nations? Are you kidding me?

Sounds like a pretty unpredictable year just past the halfway point of the AMA National Motocross Series. It’s been a good year for racing and championship chases, and a tough year for the prognosticators.

But I’m willing to stick my neck out and see how my predictions went. First, I would like to report that I’m whipping everyone in the Racer X Office Challenge on the MotoXDream.com fantasy motocross series. But I’m just inside the top ten in my division, DMXS Radio. I’m sure it’s going to come down to another knockdown drag out finish between my self and DMXS’ David Izer.

So I’ll save my best predictions for somewhere down the road. For now, I’m going to regurgitate my Ten Things to Watch for in the Nationals blog from May 19th. Have they actually happened? Lets see.

10. The Sound and Smell of Two-Strokes: They’re barely alive at this point. But still, there are more of them out there in 2005 than there will be in 2006. YoT finally yielded and let Metcalfe race the YZ250F at round six, Unadilla, so he made it five races on the tiddler. And Kawasaki is still carrying the two-stroke 250 flag with Bubba and Byrner, along with occasional scores from Star Racing’s Keith Johnson, Blackfoot Honda’s Canadian Champion Jean-Sebastian Roy, and Brit Mark Eastwood.

But the results haven’t been there. Bubba has been riding the wheels off of the KX250 but hasn’t won anything yet, and Kawasaki had that little D’oh! When they were caught using illegal, leaded fuel at Budds Creek. If you want to hear a two-stroke and smell some premix one last time, you had better get really, really close to the fence.

9. The Langston-Brown-Hughes Love Triangle: I’m really disappointed in this one. It hasn’t happened. At Hangtown, these three looked to be readying themselves for the sequel, or trilogy, or quadrupoly for their world-ranging battles. Besides Hepler, these guys had everyone covered in the first moto of the year, and there were 23 more of these grudge races to come. But sadly, the fireworks just haven’t been there. C’mon. Someone fight somebody or something!

8. The continuing education of Broc Hepler: Here’s what I wrote about Broc on the eve of Hangtown: If he returns to the “Iceman” style of cool, calm, consistency outdoors, he can win it. If he rides as aggressively as he did in supercross, he’ll make some enemies and won’t make it through the year healthy.

Unfortunately, Broc has chosen the latter over the former for most of the season, and now he’s all but eliminated from title contention. Make some enemies? Did you see that pass on Andrew Short at Budds Creek?

7. Doug Henry at Southwick: Doug showed up and delivered, with 6-6 scores for fifth overall on his YZ250. As a matter of fact, he’s the only rider besides Bubba this year to put a two-stroke in the top five!

6. Follow the bouncing Ernesto: Scratch that one. Ernie has been smooth, solid and consistent on his 450 this summer. Good job.

6 (b). Matt Walker: Ernie has kept it on two wheels all summer, but damn, Matt Walker just can’t get it right. I was really hoping he would break out this year but it just isn’t happening. The rumor mill has Matt off of the Pro Circuit squad next season, so he might have missed his chance.

5. The dark horse: Usually someone comes out of nowhere and runs up front in the early 125 nationals – only to completely disintegrate and finish out of the top ten by the time the year is over. This year we had the perfect model in Andrew Short. When he grabbed a fourth in a moto at Hangtown and a third at High Point, and then hurt his shoulder at Southwick, he was in perfect formation with the usual script. But now Andrew has come roaring back, and he nearly won in Colorado. So things didn’t really go to plan here. I guess your dark horse for the year is Ryan Mills, who has gone 1-20-15-31-39 over the last five motos.

5. (b). The return of Ron-Ron: Um, he was only there in name. My prediction that he would offer up one flash of brilliance this summer was way, way off the mark. What happened to those “fitter and faster than ever” rumors?

4. 125 Inconsistency: Hit the nail on the head with this one. This has been a wild, wild class, and only two riders have managed to finish in the top ten in every moto this year (and they’re 1-2 in points). But even those two have spent considerable time off the podium with mediocre rides. But, as I like to say, they’ve been more consistenter than Langston, Hepler, Alessi, Millsaps and the other contenders. Tedesco has been on the podium in seven of 14 motos, only half, but that’s good enough for the lead. Now that’s some awesome racing!

3. Alessis: Everyone dodged a bullet here. If Mike Alessi hadn’t popped his shoulder out at the beginning of Southwick’s second moto, I think my prediction would have come true: Mikey, hey, you may hate him but don’t deny the idea that halfway through the season he could be piling up a points lead while everyone else is stacking up excuses.

And that’s what was happening heading into the second moto at Southwick. As he dove for the early lead, he was going for his second overall in two races, his third moto win in six, and the points lead. But he landed hard and popped his shoulder out, and hasn’t been the same. 800 has proven he can hang in there and score some points when the going gets tough, and next year, the bullet might not miss again. Then again, I can barely predict this year, let alone next.

2. Millsaps versus Alessi: This might be more disappointing then Langston-Hughes-Brown not hooking up. When Alessi made sure to cross Millsaps in the High Point press conference, it looked like it was on. And Mikey has done his part, running up front plenty of times this year, ready for some high profile battling. But that just leads us to –

2 (b). And how about Millsaps’ chances? I know Davi was flying in supercross this year, but I was worried he would just cruise in mid pack like he did last year once he lost a little confidence outdoors. Sadly, that happened, and we didn’t get to see the reignition of Alessi vs. Millsaps. Even when he got a good start, at Unadilla, he tightened up bad. Bummer.

1. Ricky versus Bubba: It has definitely happened, but not like anyone thought it would. All hail to the chief. And by the way who in the world would have ever predicted fans would be booing James Stewart and indifferent toward Mike Alessi?

Like I said, it’s been a bad year for the prognosticators. Let’s review all this again after Glen Helen.

-blogandt

 

Cleveland Rocks

I’m just going to say that road racing is low key. Yeah. I’ll say that. We hung out at the track Saturday and got the full scoop on the AMA Superbike Series, thanks much in part to embattled Kawasaki PR man John Ewert! Yup, I found him in the press room, and I’m impressed he has that he seems to be in full health considering the stress he’s had to deal with on the Stewart front.

Then again, maybe Ewert can breathe easy because people don’t seem so rabid at the road races. The atmosphere was so laid back at Mid Ohio, it didn’t seem right. I never saw or heard anyone cheer. The pits where open to everyone, and the riders were just walking between the fans like no big deal. I saw one banner for Jason DiSalvo around the track. That’s the only banner I saw. Even the podium seemed kind of subdued. At a motocross race, the fans usually run some combination of drunk, wild and crazy. I didn’t see any of those three things here. And where were the ladies? Zero eye candy in Mid Ohio.

Anyhoo Matt Mladin cleaned up in the Superbike race like RC does in motocross. It’s a good time to be a Suzuki fan. The Hondas of Jake Zemke and Miguel DuHamel battled hard in the Formula Xtreme race, with Zemke winning. Honda is the only factory team in Formula Xtreme, they stack it up like the Baja races which no one else supports. So the way it works now, Honda can advertise winning the Daytona 200 and the Baja 1000 every year without breaking a sweat. Also good for the PR people.

It was cool to see the races and stuff, and if I were a PR guy like Ewert on the road racing side I would love it, too. But for a road trip weekend, this was just too tame. So we found some trouble.

I was traveling with Racer X designer Dave Brozik. We decided to head to Cleveland to see our buddy Gregg “The Boots” Lowly playing live with his hippy band, The Recipe. Gregg runs the Road Racer X website during the week, but he’s a drummer on weekends. So we headed north because Cleveland rocks.

We got to town around 8 and found a bar just bursting at the seams with people wearing shirts saying, “I’m Awesome ‘05.” It made for easy conversation starters with the ladies: “Hey what’s the deal with everyone wearing the I’m Awesome shirts?” Must have asked a dozen groups that. Eventually Brozik and I got our own “I’m Awesome ‘05” shirts because we’re awesome too. And everyone in that bar was completely wrecked, because the “I’m Awesome” fest started with an Indians game in the afternoon. By the time we rolled into town, most of these people had been going strong for like 8 hours.

So this hottie comes up to us and starts chatting. This never happens. We tell her our deal, motorcycle mag, race at Mid Ohio, I’m on TV, blah blah. We ask her name, and she suddenly clams up and says, “hey, I’m insignificant compared to you guys.” And then she walks away.

It was really strange, and when someone is that unwilling to admit what she is doing, or does for a living, well, I can only think of one job like that. I’ve been to Vegas, and that kind of thing is legal there. But Cleveland?

Turns out the Awesome guy on my right was out begging for money.

Anyway about four seconds later some dude starts chatting with us, and he’s going on and on about how his old girlfriend was a cleptomaniac and wanted to have sex all the time. That’s nymphomaniac, actually, but hey why nit pick. Then he told us he works for former Cleveland Brown Gregg Pruit, and does all of his yard work. Then he started begging us for money.

Turns out he was a BUM. In a bar! Wearing an I’m Awesome Shirt!

In the meantime the mystery girl was out flirting, or perhaps hooking, with several other guys. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I marched over to her and said “you have to tell me what your deal is.” She said her name is Ellen and she’s a fine artist from Columbus. Because she’s fine.

Then I talked to one of the other guys she was flirting with. I asked what her deal was, and he admitted it, “Oh yeah she’s bought and paid for.”

Just as I suspected. She was a HOOKER. A hooker and a bum. And I thought I was awesome.

Looking to save our money from the bums and hookers, we moved next door to watch Gregg The Boots in concert. We were pumped because we were on “The List.” That’s right, we were “with the band.” We told the guy at the door, and he pulled out a list with exactly two names on it: Jason Weigandt and Dave Brozik. Sweet.

Brozik (right) had seen better days at this point. That's our favorite drummer, Gregg The Boots on the left.

It turned out to be a wild one. Somehow Brozik ended up wearing an apron. I flirted hard with some waitress from Akron. We all tried dancing to very little success. Then we ended up going to House of Blues for a few minutes looking for food, and we were redirected to a corner shop called Nick’s, which served hot dogs. But it was late and the grill was off, so they gave us two COLD hot dogs. We ate them outside, using a garbage can as a tray. Then another bum came up to us asking for money. Brozik said “Man, I’m eating a cold hot dog off of a garbage can! Does it look like I have any money?”

Point taken, he left us alone. Then we slept in Brozik’s truck in the parking lot and headed home in the morning.

Cleveland rocks.

-blogandt

P.S. Ivan Tedesco now has the points lead in the 125 National Motocross Series. Who were you betting less money on winning the title this year, Tedesco or Mike Brown?

Spotted on the way home. Wayne and Garth would be proud.

 

Big Pile of Words

Well I blew it on posting things Thursday night. I’m part of the Morgantown Thursday Night Hard Core Mountain Bike Club now (MTNHCMBC) so I’ve gotta’ get out of the office at six p.m. and pedal my legs off until dark. I can’t wait until darkness comes sooner in a few months….

Anyway, here goes:

The PR saga at Kawasaki continues. Just after it appeared things were cooling and a fans were beginning to take a sympathetic look at James Stewart’s plight, Kawi produces another cryptic press release with scarcely any info in it, besides saying Bubba won’t race this weekend for health reasons. Supposedly he hit his head hard in that Unadilla crash, and hey, we’re all for a concussed rider taking time off. But there’s just so little information in all of these press releases it still leaves you guessing….

I swear Kawi’s PR rep John Ewhart has the toughest job in the business. He’s been a star character on Blogandt before, from when Stewart broke his arm in Phoenix, and when Grant Langston kept blaming his KX250F’s broken tranny for costing him the race in Orlando. But Ewart’s blood pressure has to be spiraling this summer, even if he’s bleeing out of his eyes and ears as he has to carefully spin and script each false move by the Kawasaki people. Ewart stood in front of the firing squad at the Hangtown press conference talking about Stewart getting light headed. And he’s gotten super-creative with the press releases, such as saying “Stewart and Carmichael came together over a jump” at Unadilla.

The PR guys have no control over what happens, but they do have to make it all sound good even when it isn’t. And Kawi has to fight off rumors that its bike is slow, Stewart hates the team, or his parents, or the Motocross des Nations, and the fans are turning on him, while he’s pulling out of motos or bumping Kevin Windham off the track or landing on Carmichael. That’s a lot of bad, true of untrue, to deal with. I pitty this poor man right now.

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There was no logical plan for me to go to Colorado this weekend, so I’m off the motocross tour. Instead, I’m going to my first road race ever at Mid-Ohio, which is in the middle of Ohio. Yee haw. Anyway I’m not a huge road racing guy, but I’ve been told once you see one live, you’ll be hooked. But my buddies in college told me that about hockey, and no amount of Devils/Rangers/Flyers made me like that sport. So we’ll see.

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By the way, did you know Nicky Hayden won a round of “The Dating Game” on the Today show? Yup, he was voted one of the 50 hottest bachelors in the world or something like that in People magazine, and then he was on the Today show as a bachelor, and he won. And she didn’t even see his smile until after she picked him!

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Did you hear dear, dear Cooter Davenport (or actor Ben Jones) is telling people to boycott the new Dukes of Hazzard movie? He said it’s all smut and not family oriented. Hey, things have come a long way since 1978. Just look at me. Or, watch some old Dukes shows and notice that while Daisy is hot, she NEVER had a boyfriend for more than an episode. I mean, the three cousins were all single and basically stayed that way forever. They rarely even hooked up with anyone. How is this possible? Did they talk to Nicky Hayden? Anyway, the show is great but it’s just too innocent to make it to the big screen in 2005 without some toughening up. Sorry, Cooter. And by the way his name is Cooter!

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KFC, which, by the way now stands for Kitchen Fresh Chicken as opposed to Kentucky Fried Chicken, has been advertising a 99-cent chicken sandwhich in our area for months now. But at Unadilla, the hotels show New York stations like the Yes Network, owned and operated by the New York Yankees. There, the KFC commercial showed the sandwich at $1.29. That’s because everything is more expensive in Manhattan. But last night I saw a commercial where two guys are eating the sandwiches while walking by a 99-cent store, and saying how much better a bargain it is. Does this commercial play in the New York area? Do they walk by a $1.29 store?

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By the way, special thanks to SPECIALIZED BICYCLES and WAMSLEY’S CYCLES for giving me a good deal on my new FSR XC bike. SPECIALIZED SPECIALIZED SPECIALIZED.

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After writing a press release about Loretta Lynn and Vanilla Ice two days ago, today I finished one up about Travis Pastrana crushing cars at Loretta’s in a monster truck. It just keeps getting goofier. If you’re not going to Loretta’s for the racing, show up for the comedy.

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Well, ye olde Toyota Tacoma has a full tank of gas, so I’m heading to Mid-Ohio, which is somewhere in the middle of Ohio. I’ll try to post some sort of report on the race here. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to wear. Or who the riders are. But I have heard the track isn’t as hard packed as the National in Colorado will be this weekend. I’ve seen video of that place from the last national they held there in 1987 (killer RJ/Dogger battle). It looked like dusty concrete. I hope they’ve made some changes. Either way I’ll be at the road races, dust free. I could get used to that.

-blogandt

 

Laying Down the J-Law

Jason Lawrence and Chad Reed get into a fight? Apparently, as reported by the ultimate motocross scoop artists at Motocross Action. Where else would you stop for the latest news, anyway?

Of course MXA stories have to be reported with a certain bias or even malice, so in their version of the tale, "Jason and his roommate Kyle were out for a nice day at the track, just doing motos and minding their own business."

So now you know whose side of the story MXA is on. And poor little Jason is about to get picked on. "Chad Reed cut in between the two of them and pelted both of them with a handful of throttle from his 450."

But Big Bad Chad wasn’t done bullying. "Then, a few minutes later, Chad Reed slammed Kyle". Now MXA jumps way up on the Lawrence wagon and says, "Jason acted fast. He caught Chad (on a borrowed RM250), and Chad brake-checked him, so Jason caught him back and managed to get past him. Jason hit a big mud puddle, splashing mud and water all over Chad. Jason wasn’t finished yet, though. He then took Chad out."

In case you’re scoring at home (or even if you’re alone), Lawrence caught Chad not once but TWICE on a BORROWED RM250! Can you imagine that? Some kid rides up to your pit, “Hey dude can I borrow your bike real quick? I need to go catch Chad Reed.”

AND THEN HE DOES IT!

Sounds to me like Speedy Reedy is boarderline top-ten speed if he were in the 125 class. Good thing he’s ducking the comp by racing RC, Bubba and Windham.

As for Lawrence, hey, I guess he is really fast, but what I’m getting out of this is hit attitude. This kid is exactly what the sport needs. We’ve got tons of nice guys and good people, we need someone with some attitude to shake it up. Someone who can make people laugh and inspire some other kids with ‘tudes (they’re out there) to think motocross is cool. How many Andrew Shorts can we take. And by the way, how funny would it be if Andrew Short left a pair of short shorts in the Honda rig? Kehoe would come out yelling "Hey, I just found a pair of Short's short shorts."

Sorry. Anyway we all respect Ricky Carmichael for training hard, and that's cool, but c’mon. Stories like Ron Lechien and Keith Bowen partying all night, showing up for practice at Gainesville without even sleeping, and then going out and waxing everyone in the national are legend. Now we have Jason Lawrence eating ice pops, hauling ass and getting into fights. This is a rare combination of Hannah/Lechien/Mataisevich/Bradshaw. We need him and I hope it works out.

P.S. Who wrote that MXA story, anyway? Was it Jason himself? His friend Kyle? Maybe Jason’s agent Scott Sepkovic? It was so Lawrence-biased that I’m surprised it didn’t say, “Jason was out riding on his Monster Energy Drink/Cernics/Alloy Suzuki, which was running awesome out there.”

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In other strange news, Dirt Bike Magazine and Motocross Action are reporting that Broc Hepler wants to race GNCC later this year. We'll talk about that when the rumors get a little more solid, but the big story is WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO HI-TORQUE PUBLISHING? That's two big scoops in one day! And MXA even posted the Hepler/GNCC story, which must be the first time ever that MXA has used the letters GNCC together at the same time.

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I’ve been storing up some small tidbits and takes on things so look for a new Blogandt post later today.

-blogandt

 

Bubboo

I know it sounds ridiculous. I know just about every move James Stewart has made this summer has been bad. But seriously, I think the haters might need to let up on James Stewart a little bit. I know. When you see a bunch of kids piling on someone, it’s fun to want to get in on the act, too. But let’s not be kids about this.

James Stewart wants to win and expects to win like no other rider out there save the champ himself. You may be questioning his heart, his training, his speed and his character now, but honestly, he doesn’t deserve public enemy number-one status. He’s young and inexperienced, he has pressures and pulls on him that he’s never faced before, he’s fighting a losing battle on an outgunned machine, and there’s nothing he can do about it except stand in front of the firing line every week. He can’t whip himself into Ricky Shape overnight, and Kawasaki isn’t giving him a 450. He’s doomed.

The only real mistake James has made is on the PR front. If James went to the podium at High Point and said, “You know, I said some cocky things when this season began, but I’ve learned my lesson. Ricky is the GOAT, and the 250 class is way tougher than I thought it would be. These guys are good, and I didn’t take it seriously. I’m not in good enough shape right now, but I’m going to work hard and keep trying and try to get up there and beat these guys.”

If James jumped on the Ricky is God wagon with everyone else, he’d still have some fans. But instead, word of mysterious ailments and illnesses came out of the Kawi camp. They took it as an excuse, and the public turned sour very quickly.

All we wanted was someone who can’t accept losing to RC, and that’s what we got. But unfortunately, it’s not playing out right since Carmichael is so freakin’ good that James can’t beat him. So we get the side effects: James try in vein to make things happen.

Two moments will live on forever once the smoke has cleared from the 2005 250 Nationals. First one is Ricky launching over Bubba at the finish line at High Point and making the pass. That pass was awesome, but Stewart did try to counter it. He could have been rendered powerless by Ricky like, say, McGrath after RC whipped it in his face at the Anaheim 3 parade lap in 2001.

But instead, Stewart got on the brakes, knifed to the inside, and tried desperately to get back underneath and get the lead back. But Carmichael was just too good and too experienced. He had the line and shut Bubba off in the next corner. By then Stewart was too tired to keep fighting. But hey, at least he fought as hard as he could. At least he charged until he was exhausted, and at least he still tried to make another pass after he was tired and really would have had no chance to win anyway.

Just like everyone else, he couldn’t beat RC. But he tried anyway.

Same thing at Unadilla. James is screwed at this point when it comes to beating Ricky, since at his very, very best he can only match his speed, and he has to expend a million percent more energy to do it, and he’s not in nearly as good of shape. So at some point he will get tired and get caught no matter how big a lead he has.

So here it is. He’s tired and Ricky’s catching him. He’s going to lose the moto even after Ricky handed it to him. And this is doomed to happen all summer long, because it’s way too late to ramp up the training program to Ricky levels now, and Kawasaki isn’t bringing out the 450. So Bubba is doomed.

But he still tried. Ricky had the pass and the line. But James, man, he just can’t accept that. So instead of rolling over like everyone else, he just pinned it.

Big mistake.

What’s the biggest reason that James went so bezerko there? Because he’s mean? Cocky? Arrogant? Lost? Stupid? Dirty?

My guess is it’s because he’s 19 years old. He’s really young, and suddenly the sky is falling on him. He’s losing for the first time in his life. The fans are booing him for the first time in his life. Rumors of strife with his team and family abound. Meanwhile the sport was already leaning on him to carry the sport into the mainstream. This is a lot to handle when you’re 19. It can’t be fun. His mind can’t be clear. He’s doomed to lose and everyone knows it and likes it except his team and family who hate it and he’s probably not getting much support from them right now at a time when he really, really needs it.

What happened Sunday was a bad move, a dumb move and a move James surely wishes he could have back. But you make mistakes like that at 19.

Carmichael made some dumb moves trying to keep up when he was younger. So did Travis Pastrana. And Damon Bradshaw. And Rick Johnson. These guys are fan favorites. They pushed over their limits because they wanted to win. When they were younger, they weren’t experienced enough to control it and pile on the championships. Bradshaw and Pastrana never got there. Carmichael and Johnson did. I bet Stewart does, too.

You know what other teenager has been making stupid moves this summer? Broc Hepler. Broc will be 19 on August 1. Broc should be the dominator in the 125 class, but he’s thrown away piles of points because he was trying too hard.

His clean out of Andrew Short at Budds Creek was just as stupid as Stewart’s move at Unadilla. It wasn’t as dangerous since he didn’t land on anyone, but it was just as uncalled for and under the same motivation: he saw a chance to do something and didn’t know that it would have been better to shut off.

Luckily, Hepler gets away with this stuff at 19 because he’s in the 125 class, which has about 1/10th the profile of the Ricky/James battle. But James is getting eaten alive.

One last thing. In 2003 Ricky Carmichael finally lost an overall at Unadilla to Kevin Windham. Windham was on a 450 and Carmichael was on a 250. At the time it seemed like Windham was finally rising above the mental hurdles that kept him from beating Carmichael. But time has since indicated that it was just a battle of 450 versus 250. Look at the results at Unadilla for the last two years. One equal equipment Carmichael killed him, but even Carmichael couldn’t beat Windham when he was pitted against him on a two-stroke.

Three seasons later and the gap between 450 and 250 is even wider, thanks in part to new fuel regulations (something Kawasaki is very familiar with). Carmichael couldn’t beat Windham 250 to 450 three years ago. So how is Stewart going to beat Carmichael up against the same wall now? Windham wasn’t in better shape than Carmichael in 2003, but he was in good enough shape to get it done. Stewart isn’t in better shape than Carmichael, but we thought he’d be in good enough shape to get the job done.

Unfortunately, he’s not. But let up on the guy, er, the kid. He’ll be better for all of this somewhere down the road, and maybe by then we’ll all be cheering for him again.

-blogandt

 

Mellow Yellow

Patience is a virtue, especially when you’re a motocross racer doing battle on a rough, slippery, high-speed motocross track like Unadilla Valley Sportscenter. It has been proven over and over again that the riders who are able to keep their cool and overcome all the crazyness that usually surrounds the action and the ones that escape with wins.

This time, the riders who did that were both members of Team Makita Suzuki: Ricky Carmichael and Broc Hepler. It was Suzuki’s first 250 and 125 class overall win sweep since the Howerton/Barnett glory days over 20 years ago. For Carmichael it was AMA career win number 122, for Hepler it was win number one. But they were both very significant.

Carmichael has always had a rough time of it at Unadilla, at least by his high standards, but this year would be as rough as it gets, and much of it due to the apparent impatience of his rival, Kawasaki’s James “Bubba” Stewart.

How much worse can it get for Bubba? After all of his troubles this summer, he found another dark cloud following him late in the first 250 moto, when Carmichael made the pass on him, and then Stewart jumped and landed on Carmichael’s back, sending both riders crashing to the ground. Carmichael would get up bruised but otherwise okay, while Stewart would be unable to finish the moto or start moto two. It was a bad move, and that’s something Stewart didn’t need right now.

Moto XXX Honda’s Justin Buckelew had grabbed the holeshot in the moto, but Carmichael grabbed the early lead. But then he washed out and crashed early on the second lap. Stewart took the lead and ran with it, while Carmichael carved a swath past Chad Reed, David Vuillemin, Matt Goerke (yes) and Kevin Windham. Then he went after Stewart, and as the moto went on, the gap started to shrink. First they were running similar times, then Carmichael was running a second faster, and then two seconds. But when Carmichael got to Stewart’s rear wheel, he didn’t pounce. Instead he stayed there and waited – patiently- for an opening.

“The track was really hard packed, and it didn’t have a lot of ruts,” said Carmichael. “So there was only one line in a lot of