Racing Enterprises Motorsports

FLOW

Flow, the word makes me nauseas.  At the risk of pissing off several friends I offer my humble opinion, and I freely admit it’s my observation and as always I could be wrong.  If I hear the word flow used in the context of a motocross track again I may just stick my head in a barrel of U-4.  Isn’t Flow that strange looking chick in the insurance commercial?  Isn’t flow something that a woman of a certain age gets once a month?  Isn’t flow something that water and air do?  Motocross is hard.  Motocross tracks are hard.  Motocross is a closed course motorcycle race held on natural terrain featuring hills, turns, jumps, offcambers, mud, dust, rocks, and beginner racers, that was sort of Webster’s definition.  Let me repeat the most important thing I just wrote, MOTOCROSS IS HARD.  If it was easy that namby pamby guy you work with could do it.  We have become a generation of racers that due to four stroke technology feel that we have to keep up our momentum everywhere on the track. Do you want road race courses on dirt?  Bullshit!  If you want flow go race speedway! 

Motocross is about learning to beat the track as much as it is about beating your competition.  If a racer has a bad day now, or cannot master certain elements of a track they immediately go to the track has no flow card.  How about this track is tough, it’s kicking my ass today.  Rather than it has no flow.  If we take our brakes off the bikes, smooth out every bump on the track, radius all the corners for maximum speed, make long fourth and fifth gear straights, don’t use anything remotely difficult then we could achieve the vaunted title of Best in Flow. 

I got to race the 2 stroke race this year.  I forgot how much more work it is to race a 2 stroke, you actually have to use the clutch, keep the motor in the powerband, shift at the correct time, and use your brakes correctly.  You actually have to think about the mechanics of racing, body positioning, and working with the bike. 

I will admit that I love 4 strokes.  I love my 450.  But, I also liked racing open class 2 strokes.  But, the 450’s make you lazy, actually 4 strokes make you lazy.  You can leave them in third gear and ride around most motocross courses.  You don’t have to stay in the fast line; you don’t have to pay as much attention to your riding.  Not to say they are easy, but they make you race differently than on a 2 stroke.  You don’t hear too many 4 strokes burning up the clutches coming out of the corners, first their clutches wouldn’t last very long, and the 4 stroke style is to roll through the corners hoping to carry enough momentum that you won’t have to do anything but roll the throttle on coming out of the corner.  Once again tight obstacles whether they be corners or jumps are not as smooth when racing a 4 stroke, you have to work for it, and if you aren’t perfect you feel like a whale trying to navigate a slip and slide.  And there in is the problem.  A lot of you have forgotten that MOTOCROSS IS HARD.  You are not supposed to be slicker than deer guts on a doorknob all the way around the track.  You are supposed to struggle once in a while.  Go and watch a Pro race, pick a difficult section.  And you will see that even the fast guys struggle on certain obstacles.  Of course, then they will come in and tell everyone that listens, the track has no flow.

I don’t design tracks to cater to 450 four strokes, or for 85cc 2 strokes.  I try to design motocross tracks that will challenge every racer no matter what skill level, that are fun, and safe.  You notice that I didn’t say easy.  So if I pissed you off with this rant maybe I struck a nerve or just maybe it’s that time of the month and you’re starting to flow.

Pain, it is the four letter word that all motocross racers live with on a regular basis.  After you have raced for a while you begin to chuckle under your breath when you come upon a non racer and how they deal with pain.  You see them all the time at work, at the gym, at the emergency room, my back hurts, I strained my knee, my finger hurts, I cut myself I need stitches.  In racer speak that would be I hurt my back, give me something my moto’s  on the line.  I strained my knee, loan me some duct tape so I can tape this thing up tighter.  My finger hurts, just push the bone back in it won’t hurt with my glove on.  I cut myself I need stitches, if you would hurry up I can make my second moto doc! 

Regular people don’t understand.  Your family certainly does not understand.  Your boss, and your doctor do not understand.  If it is 105 degrees outside the media is telling us to stay inside, if you go outside you will surely melt or be burned to a crisp.  A motocross racer looks at it as an opportunity to get into better shape.  Heat stroke, we don’t need no stinkin heat stroke. 

If your neighbor got a blister the size of a half dollar on his hand he would probably #1. go the doctor, #2 take a week off of work, and #3 cry.  Unless your neighbor races, then he would tape it up and go race.

If a motocross racer hurts himself seriously enough to get a cast or have surgery the first thing he is thinking is, when can I race?   The second thing is I wonder if I can cut this cast down enough to moto. 

Pain is nature’s way of telling you, you’re still alive after a crash.  It is also nature’s way of telling you during the night your scab has glued itself to the sheets.  It could also be natures way of telling you that investing in a chest protector was a great idea, but why wasn’t I wearing it while being pummeled by the roost off of your buddies 450?

It’s not that we are masochistic.  But, the feeling you get racing and being a racer far exceeds the pain.  Well, most of the time.  And once you feel a little better, once the knees will move enough to get you out of the chair.  Once the back stops hurting enough to get out of bed.  Once you can peel the scab off the sheet.  Once you get the cast off, the stitches out, the fuzziness goes away in your head, the little birds stop tweeting, once you can pee without blood in your urine, once the elephant gets off your chest and you can breathe, the first thing you want to do is go race. 

I certainly don’t advocate racing injured.  And I preach safety and safety gear constantly.  I also recommend that you listen to your doctor and follow his instructions.  I also recommend taking your vitamins, eating healthy, and using sun block.  For me though, screw it all.  After 2 surgeries in 3 months, and not racing but once this year I’m sick of this crap, anyone got some pain meds and duct tape I can borrow? 

Things I hate

Prius’ in the fast lane.  I drive a lot every week.  Most of my driving is on the 15 and 215 in SoCal.  Driving back and forth to Glen Helen takes me between 1 and a half and 2 hours one way.  At least 3 times each trip I encounter a Prius in the fast lane (passing lane for you uneducated) driving at 65 mph.  God bless them for saving the environment; get the hell out of my way.   I have places to go, my gas bill runs $800 or more a month.  If I get a ticket it’s between me and my insurance company, move on.

People who call REM old school.  There is nothing about REM that is old school.  The definition of motocross is a closed course motorcycle race over natural terrain.  Old school is 3 motos, lots of dust, little regard for safety, not embracing technology, and staying with one layout until it is etched into the earth 10’ deep.  We stick by the definition of motocross because we can.  We are blessed with elevation changes so we don’t have to rely solely on jump obstacles.

Texting, everytime I get stuck at a red light because the idiot in front of me is texting I want to a.  honk my horn  b. flip them the finger  c. scream  d.shoot myself  e. run into the back of them or  f. say a quiet little prayer for them to be smarter.   

Injuries, I hate more than anything when a racer is hurt.  Whether a REM racer or any other event.  While it is part and parcel for this sport, it still sucks.  And unless you are a racer you will never understand the risk versus reward aspect that keeps us all lining up every time we can.

Drivers who are not driving.   Over the years I have seen a driver on the freeway at 70mph playing the guitar.  I have witnessed so many people reading that it is not even surprising anymore.  The best one was a Progressive Insurance car driving east on the 56 at 75mph and the employee of said company was reading some kind of report as he nearly ran me off the road, which he never even noticed.  I’ve seen makeup applied, working on laptops, masturbation both male and female,  eating cereal out of a bowl, shaving, and just about everything but paying attention to the road.

People who think they are the saviors’ of the sport of motocross.  No one person is going to save motocross.  Because it does not need to be saved.  Motocross just like curling, is a niche sport.  It does not appeal to everyone and never will.  While it is very noble to think we will get Nascar type ratings it is not going to happen.  These so called leaders of the sport act like short men with a little man’s complex.  Over the years I have seen so many people come and go in this sport who were here to make their fortune.   Some did, most did not.  The problem with making your hobby your business is it becomes a business.  And unless you are a businessman you will fail.  I never had delusions of grandeur, because from the start we were only supposed to do this for 6 months.  24 years later I’m still trying just like I did when I started, to put on the best races I can.

Idiots who insist on driving the same speed as the person next to them.  I don’t understand why someone driving 60 suddenly must speed up to the speed I am traveling as I pass them.  You are driving down the highway 2, 3, or 4 lanes it doesn’t matter when you see the dreaded cluster**** ahead.  A clump of cars from left to right blocking every lane driving the same speed.  It usually takes about 10 miles to get through these idiots.  Of course if they are driving like this because there is a CHP cruiser in their midsts then they are f’ing geniuses.

Baby kissers.  A good friend of mine used this term the other day to describe a certain celebrity in our sport.  And it hit the nail on the head.  There seems to be only 2 types of individuals spoken of on the internet.  The villains, scoundrels, Satanists, and Hitler youth loving types, those are at one extreme.  Some have described the leader of European motocross like this.  And then there are the Dudley Do Rights, knights in shining armor, Saviors of the sport, a guy I’d like to have a beer with types.  These types take every opportunity to look good in the public eye, every photo op, every move to curry the favor of the masses.  Always politicians (kissing the babies).  What I’ve found out in the past week, relating to the Glen Helen National mess is that both are literally the same.  The bad guy isn’t nearly as bad as certain people have depicted, and the good guy is not nearly what his public perception is.  It's a lot like the real world.

Really first off, this is sarcasm not to be taken seriously, and it is not to be cut and pasted onto other websites.

First off, I don’t have a dog in this fight.  Well maybe one of those oversized rat dogs that rich girls like to carry in their pocketbooks, but that is about it.  What is going on between the promoters, tracks, and the sanctioning body of the US Motocross Nationals has been brewing for a long time.  My opinion doesn’t matter much, but it is my blog.  However the following is some of my observations from helping out with the National at Glen Helen for the past 12 years.

 It is never easy to put on a race, whether a local race like REM which we try to do 42 times a year.  Just to clarify, I have promoted over 1000 days of racing.  So I know how hard it actually is.  If you think that any of the parties involved in this fiasco are in it for anything other than SMP, sex, money, and power you are living in a fantasy land.  Well, maybe not the sex but you never know.   Most of these people are good people, and they all think that they are the saviors’ of the sport.  Bottom line is you take the money and power out of it and they would all be doing something else. And if you think DC runs MX Sports check again, he is not first or second in the hierarchy.  He may be a good guy, but he is a businessman who must answer to higher ups.  Your average local race owner/ promoter who puts on races every week, who is a racer himself,  who runs races even when he loses money,  who cleans the toilets, drags the haybales, runs the tractor, carry’s a yellow flag, and helps you load your bike, has the sports back.  And I’m not talking about me.  I’m talking about the couple of hundred or so local promoters throughout our country in little places most of us never heard of that run races because they genuinely love the sport of Motocross. 

Over the years I have seen some pretty bad behavior by many of the principle players in this sport attached to putting on or running a National.  If you think, you know what it costs to put on a National then you must put one on.   Not every National has the same costs.  Many National tracks only run a couple of races a year, so they can have things like permanent fencing in place.  Most are in places where the cost of living isn’t quite as high as in SoCal.   Most are in places where the factories don’t go to test on a weekly basis.  The sanctioning fees for a National are a lot of money, I read on the internet where someone opined that it couldn’t be more than $40K.  Guess again, it’s a lot, lot, lot more.  I know the number, for their sake I won’t divulge it.  The temp fencing bill for the GHR Nat is somewhere in the vicinity of 50K.  I have no idea what it actually costs to hold a Nat, but it is way more than most of us make in 10 or 15 or probably 20 years.  The track owner not only pays for all the track expense, he also pays for things like parking, security, T1 lines for the media, hydraulic lifts for the teams, expenses for the sanctioning body, the half time entertainment, trophies, a million track staff most of which do nothing but watch the races, and so many other expenses that it would boggle the mind.  One constant whether it be a local race or a Nat is accountability.  I want to know what I am paying for, and how much it costs when I promote a race.  Same with the National promoters, they want to know how much it actually costs, and where their money is going.  I’ve been told that the sanctioning groups have been less than forthcoming with info over the years. 

 I don’t have any idea what it costs to be the sanctioning body for a Pro caliber series such as the Nats.  I know it cannot be cheap, like any business they have expenses.  And like any business they must manage expenses, and to be successful your management must be as good as or better than your non management personnel.  I have seen AMA referees speak so disparagingly of Glen Helen who was in effect paying their paycheck as to be offensive.  Criticism can be a good thing, but hatred of anything west of the Mississippi is not criticism, it is elitism.  Ever wonder why most of the Nats are in the same general area?  Just happens to be the same area where the AMA and now MX Sports is located.  I watched and listened to a former AMA Motocross Manager use profanity at a track manager.  To say I was shocked by his boorish behavior would be an understatement.  I have watched in dismay many times as a sanctioning body representative flipped out over something on the track, a banner, a fence, an obstacle, watering, flagging, a parking spot, passes for his buddies, you name it.  They almost never had a constructive suggestion, just hostility. 

When I took over the flagging responsibilities for the GHR Nat I tried for months to find a definitive guide for flagging a Nat.  I even flew up to the Washougal Nat that year to have a meeting with the AMA about it.  I was told at that 5 minute (I don’t have time for this shit meeting) that it was up to the individual promoter to take care of it.   There seemed to be no real direction from the sanctioning body about something as important as the caution flag at a National Motocross.  So I developed my own system.  And every time something is not to their liking I received the kind of treatment that you see police give the bad guys on Cops.  I won’t even go into the ambush that I got into last year the night before the National by the powers that be at MX Sport.  For three years now I have taken care of the flagging crew at the Nats, me and 75 of my friends.  It has cost me around $4000. of my own money to do it.  I have not received anything from Glen Helen for doing it other than a thank you.  It was all I expected.  I did it because racers deserve the very best protection whether they are Pros or beginners.  Not once did anyone from the sanctioning body say thank you.  The flagging crew at the Glen Helen National the past 3 years is as good or better than any National.   All I ever got from them was grief.

 Like I said I don’t have a dog in this fight.  I won’t even be at the National this year, I am having surgery on my spine instead, seems like a less painful way to spend my time.

It was my idea to start REM.  The main reason, I felt I could do a better job than what was out there.  I was racing a lot back then.  For a couple of years, 3 times a week.  I remember being at one of the biggest series back then and there being a total of 4 flagmen, (including the finish flagger) on a very long and difficult Carlsbad Raceway.   I remember going to races where there would be a crash, and injured racers would be down for the entire moto without anyone coming to their aid.   I was at a race at Glen Helen once where I was involved in a first lap crash where there were 10 bikes on the ground.  I was laying on the track unable to move from the injury to my back.  I eventually crawled to the side of the track, was able to limp back to the truck, another racer brought my bike back to my truck and loaded it for me, I then drove back to San Diego to find out I had broken my back.  Not once did a flagman, race official, track worker, or EMT come to my aid.   I remember winning a big series and getting a midget can of chain lube and a pair of white Oury grips for winning a series that spanned an entire summer.  After chasing the CMC number one plate all over California for a year I was tired of going to races, tired of not getting my money’s worth, tired of short motos, no practice, poor organization, and little or no respect for the racers paying the bills.  I’m not condemning any one organization, that’s just the way it was.

The REM business plan has always been to run safe, fun, well organized races that anyone whether pro or first timer of any age could participate in.  We have never put making a profit from racers as one of our priorities.  Unfortunately you have to make money off of racers to pay the insurance, ambulance, flagmen, scoring personnel, gas, radios, entries, copiers, computers, awards, permits, corporate taxes, state taxes, business taxes, and federal taxes.  Sponsorship money has always been hard to come by, we haven’t asked very many times for our sponsors to give us cash.  But, we do ask them to provide good stuff for our series, and product giveaways.   There are times that we have cancelled races, we know that when it rains SoCal racers won’t show up.   I personally like racing in the mud.  Not too many SoCal racers do.  You may say you will show up, but when it’s nasty you stay home.   No matter how good the conditions may be, if it’s raining 50 racers will show up.  10 will never unload their bikes, 10 will ride practice and then want their money back.  Ten are magazine or industry guys who don’t pay gate fees, entry fees, or for their bikes.  5 will break down.  That ‘s 25 racers who will hang and race no matter what the conditions are.  In the almost 2 and a half decades we’ve been doing races it has never changed.  Whether it be Carlsbad, Glen Helen, 2 strokes, or 4 strokes, recession or boom times, 50 riders.  When we cancel a race it is not because we might lose money, safety is always our number one concern.  We cancelled a race a couple of years ago because of predicted 70 mph winds.  We could not land a helicopter if we had to lifeflight an injured racer out.  We cancelled a race because the temperature was not supposed to above 44 degrees. We were concerned for our flagging crew who standing out in the cold for 5 or 6 hours might have suffered frostbite.  At Glen Helen when it is rains a lot there is a chance that the sheriff will shut down the entrance road.  What would happen if we had to transport an injured racer and there was a river running across the road?  REM is not a club, I make the decisions, I make mistakes, but I take the blame.  We are not run by committee.  There is no group voting.  We have learned from our mistakes, and we have set the standard.  More of our ideas have been copied by others than I like to admit.  But, the one idea that has not changed and really pisses me off is that safety still takes backseat to profit for way too many people in this industry.  Count flagmen, count radios, is there a staffed ambulance with a paramedic, do they make proactive or reactive changes?  Racing is dangerous stuff.  It’s all good to like the guys running the races, but when they look at you, is all they see a dollar sign?

Rant 1/20/10

Is it just me or has the media completely jumped off the cliff, or is it just the internet mentality?   Or is it just the times we live in?  However,  if you look back into history hate, prejudice, stupidity, and moronic behavior have a tendency to repeat themselves in each successive generation, it is just the messenger or medium that delivers it that has changed.  

It amazes me how quickly the media or masses will turn on someone.  One day you are the people’s hero, the next vilified as the worst person since Jack the Ripper.   Need examples, Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, President Obama, Adam Lambert, Jason Lawrence and even Ricky Carmichael.   I was on the floor of the San Diego SX the year that RC was booed louder than any racer had ever been booed in my memory.   I was amazed, embarrassed, shocked, and befuddled.   Why does an athlete get booed for changing teams?  I understand that you have the right to voice your opinion, but I’m pretty sure that Honda had a really good year the year they picked up RC.  If you are so angry why buy the product?  I’d bet that most of the idiots that booed him now talk about how much they miss the GOAT.   I’ve known Adam Lamberts family for 25 years.  He is a really nice, polite, well spoken and intelligent person.  I knew he was gay a long time ago.  To watch how he was vilified for basically being gay was disheartening.   I always have hope that we are beyond the hate that seems to bog down our civilization, and I am increasingly disappointed.  A couple of years ago one of the mags did a blurb about there being a gay motocross racer on team Suzuki.  It was like watching a chumfest at a shark convention.   There was a lot of disturbing chat about the subject.  In the end, no one was outed, no one came out of the closet, but it did show a dark side to a lot of internet chatterers. 

We are currently being bombarded with the Reed-Stewart drama that has seemed to follow these two for several years.  The MX chat rooms are filled with who’s at fault, who’s a bad guy, who’s a good guy.  I am starting to think  that the internet has been taken over by a bunch of 300lb unemployed internet hackers, who have never owned a dirt bike much less race, live in their mothers basement, and whose only sexual encounter is with a cotton hand puppet named Luigi.  Did anyone ever think that maybe just like the hordes that follow WWF we are being manipulated?  That we are following this stupid dramatic storyline like a shut in follows a soap opera.  It is not enough to go to a race, or watch a race for the pure love of the sport.  We have to have a storyline, a plot, a bad guy, a hero in a white hat.  But, we are not alone, it seems like most popular sports have followed this business plan over the past few years.  And not just sports, life itself, the drama sells whether it be in your workplace or on your tv.  Personally I’m sick of it.  Drama is your home burning down, a loved one getting cancer, having your car stolen.  What a couple of overpaid prima donna’s do on Saturday night doesn’t make my house payment and it isn’t even that entertaining.  Just race.

Rant 1-10-10

Anaheim Supercross.  I read a lot of what has been said about the opening round of the 2010 Supercross season on the web so far.  I was there.  I was the fly on the wall.   I took a few photos, but those are all personal and, I won’t  share.  But, I will share some observations and some insider insight.  I’ve been to a lot of supercross races over the years.  I started shooting pictures and doing the story’s covering SX in So Cal for the San Diego Off Roader years before I started REM.  Over the years I saw a lot and reported little of the inside stuff that I saw.  Today though it seems that a lot of people put a lot of words onto the world wide web that really don’t know or don’t see what is going on.  Now keep in mind what I write is my opinion or my interpretation of what I saw.  Some names will be omitted to protect the guilty. 

James Stewart is one fast motocross racer.  If you think his race is not planned out from the start you are naïve.  He has a solid history of stalking the lead rider and pulling the trigger in the late stages of the race.  He has done it more than once, and as long as he doesn’t fall the plan is solid.  Why he does it I’m not sure.  He could easily pull a McGrath; get a holeshot, charge for the first couple of laps gap the field, and then put it into cruise mode while doing nac-nacs.  If you think his closing on Dungey was because the Suzuki rider was making mistakes, think again.   It was a calculated move that he has done many times.  It was tough to do with Carmichael because they were basically the same speed. 

Works parts are not doled out to just anyone.  While there is no doubt that JS gets every works part available, his teammate Josh Hill was using last years works forks that were  turned down to fit into the 10 works clamps.  While it was obvious by the Yamaha logos on Team JLaw’s bikes, graphics, and truck that the Lawrence team is getting some support from Yamaha there were no Yamaha works parts on either of the 450’s the team was running.  Is Larry Brooks under too much pressure?  He looks like he escaped from a Survivor episode.  He told me he hadn’t lost any weight but it appeared to me he’s lost way too much weight.  For god sakes Larry throw in a cheeseburger or two.  Villopoto led 450- A practice out for its second qualifying session.  He got about a half a lap and dropped it which apparently was the source of his injured wrist.  Up to that point he looked pretty solid.  He was definitely slower after the fall.  Stroupe looked very uncomfortable on the 450.  After watching the tv broadcast he needs to learn to hold his tongue, he just makes himself look bad.  And speaking of the tv broadcast what was with Reeds potty mouth, he knew he was on live.  Being an aussie is not a defense. Big James is almost as big a celebrity as is his son.  He sat in front of us in practice and more people wanted their pic with him than any other racer who was sitting in the same area.  I looked at the million dollar Bugatti parked near the pits.  Sorry I wasn’t impressed, I would have been way more impressed if that person had used that money to purchase one of the many struggling motocross tracks and invested the money back into the sport.  Driving that car is just an invitation for trouble.    Chad Reeds wife is definitely pregnant.  And Reed walked by me four times to and from his coach and the Kawasaki pits.  He did not look nearly as thin as he did during last year’s Nationals.  And he was armed with a banana. The Thor gear he was wearing was downright ugly.  Villopotos Thor gear looked much better.   Bring back the KTM 65 racers, the half time entertainment is brutal.  I’m sorry but unless you take out Stewart and Dungey the pack was half a lap behind.  There were a lot of 450 pros just riding around enjoying the nice weather, or at least that’s what it looked like.  I know what they are doing is very difficult and I sure could not do it.  But, come on are the first and second place rider that much ahead of everyone else.  If you think racism is limited to just a few I am sorry to disappoint you but it is alive and well with some idiots in the Supercross crowd.   If you think NIKE is going to be happy just making some special boots for a couple of its riders you’re fooling yourself.  They pay one of their athletes more than the entire US MX boot business makes in a year.   They seem to like motocross, and they can own it if they choose.  Be prepared for more NIKE products in the future.  Why did Ace whats his name play the anthem, he's a Monster guy, (you didn't think they only sponsored atheletes did you?)   Surprise, the race was not a sellout.  The boo boobs were out.  Stewart was booed but not nearly like RC was booed at the same stadium not that many years ago.  The minute Stewart passed Dungey the crowd headed for the exits.  Every time I go to a stadium it enforces my belief that they should not sell beer.  Big props to Yamaha for supporting so many teams, and continuing to support the privateer with contingency.  It seemed like there were more Yamahas entered than any other machine.  Whatever changes they made to Stewarts Yamaha after practice did not help him in the whoops, he was hanging onto it for dear life several times in the last couple of whoops.  Unless something bad happens my pick for the west is definitely Weimer.   Canard will give him a run, but Pro Circuit all the way.   How painfully uncomfortable must it have been for JLaw management with the placement of their semi directly across from the huge Monster display, that’s all I’m going to say on that one.  Too me having watched this series for a long time it’s just more of the same.  I don’t see much different than any other year as far as racers or racing go.  Yes, the economy has taken a toll.  The AMA has made it so there are fewer pro’s trying to make the program, the promoter has made it so you can’t walk thru the pits most of the day.  Couldn’t they make it so that most of the spectator action that seems to draw the biggest crowds is moved out of the pits and to a fan experience area.   I’m not against open pits, but get the foot traffic that is there for the extracurricular stuff out of the working pits.  Well, like I said these are my personal observations.  You may or may not agree with me.  My money  is on Stewart, Weimer in the west.  I don’t know about the east, by the time that rolls around I will be waiting for outdoors.

RANT 1-5

You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone.  I talked to my good friend Terry Boyd today.  As many of you now know Terry is not going to be doing the on floor announcing for Supercross in 2010.  Terry was REM’s first announcer.  He was working a morning radio show in San Diego and was racing with us at Carlsbad.  I asked him one Saturday if he would want to try his hand at announcing, he was a little hesitant, live announcing is unlike anything else.  You have to be able to talk for a long time, improvise, keep track of what is going on out on the race track, try to be entertaining and not say anything too crude.  If you come from a scripted, censored, highly produced area of entertainment it can be very difficult to jump into announcing and be good at it.  Terry was very good at it and we had a lot of fun.  He was the master of making up nicknames for every rider.  Who can forget “I  just wanna finish McGinnis” or “Sid the squid”, or “the ironman Failing”.  Anyway in some small way I helped him get his Supercross gig and he has always been grateful and plugged REM when he could.  If you listen to the so called afficianados of the internet on any of the moto chat (bullshit) forums you have about half of them celebrating.  Let me point out a few things, every word that is said at Supercross is scripted.  I’ve seen the book,  the powers that be don’t allow ad libbing.  Working the floor at any Supercross is daunting.  For one thing most stadiums have had a delay on the PA for years, so when you say something you hear it several seconds after you say it.  I was interveiwed once by Larry Huffman, the delay is so disconcerting that you literally forget where you are in the conversation if you aren’t use to it.  The noise on the floor from the bikes, the crowd, the other people on the floor, and the producers talking to you in the headsets, the sound system, etc will make you dizzy.  I’m not exagerating it will make you feel dizzy and disoriented.  To get around like Terry does from one spot to the other means you are sprinting the whole night.  It only looks like a small area from the stands, you run several miles during the night.  One of the biggest problems that no one has figured out is the bad sound systems, half the time the average person in the stand has no idea what is being said because of those systems and the bike noise.  Trying to get the riders to say something intelligent is not always easy especially with the delay, in the old days most of them had no coaching on what to say.  Today the privateers still  struggle while the super star pros are coached to say the same boring “ I want to thank” speech over and over.  Why do they do it, it’s in their contract to say it.  Supercross has become a big business.  For most of the evening sponsors drive what is said, they want to get their message across no matter how poorly that message is written.  Again that comes from the book, the announcing crew has to say it verbatim.  Old timers get all misty eyed when they talk about Larry Huffman or the announcers of old.  Guess what, Terry has announced Supercross for 23 years.  Longer than all the others combined.  He has interviewed Glover when he could still win,  Rick Johnson when he ruled, Jeff Ward when he ruled, Jeff Stanton when he ruled, Jean Michel Bayle when he ruled, Jeremy McGrath when he was the king,  Ricky Carmichael when he was the greatest of all time, and now into the Stewart era.  How many generations of racers have only known being interveiwed by Terry Boyd.  Like a lot of things in life we don’t always appreciate what we have.  Terry started out as a motocross racer first.  Not too many of the current crop can say that.  I am going to miss him at the races, I don’t like monster truck or fmx style announcing.  I’ve got a feeling that many of you will wax poetically in the future about how we miss the good old days, and Terry Boyd.

RANT 1-3

Did you ever ponder what a fly was thinking nanoseconds before it realized it was going to get smashed into oblivion by the swatter in your hand.   I can tell you, it’s similar to “OH CRAP!”  You know, I consider myself a somewhat intelligent person, despite the fact that I am a motocross race promoter, and that in my spare time still enjoy racing motocross.  I know not to stick my finger in a wall socket, I learned that at a very young age.  I know not to clean my air filters with gasoline next to my water heater.  I learned a long time ago not to speed thru Poway,  and to not argue with a cop.  I have thousands of hours on a quad.  In fact I have worn out 4 of them just riding around the race track on prep and race days.  On flat ground a couch is a pretty easy thing to operate.  Put that same couch on a hill, or off camber or sideways over a berm and any number of things can take place.  And as I can attest none of them are very good.  I know there are very talented quad racers out there, and I know there are plenty of recreational quad riders that love their couches, and there are a lot of people out there that use their quads for work; farmers, hunters, surveyors, people hauling their garbage cans down the hill from their mountain top estates to the road below.  Last I heard the OEM’s sell way more quads than they do race bikes.  I always watch with wonder whenever I see one of the quad pros leap their quads off the top of the hills on the National track.  I admire the bravado it takes to do that.  I can tell you from first hand experience you are all crazy.  A sandwich short of a picnic, your elevator doesn’t go to the top floor,  not the sharpest tool in the shed, you get the idea.  Despite the fact that it is the easiest and quickest way to get around  the race track I include myself in the above description.  I know better, I preach safety, at my previous job I spent more time on safety than I did on actual work.  Ask my kids, I am safety conscious to a fault, I have made them miserable on many occaisions with lectures about safety and the consequences of letting your guard down even for a moment.  I got really lucky this past Saturday.  But for about 6 inches my family would be planning a memorial service for me today.  I had one of those moments on Mt Whitney Saturday, when I realized just how close I came to extinction.  There was a rock about 50 feet from the top of Mt Whitney, while it was off line I knew that later on in the day as lines shift that it could cause a problem if someone were to hit in on the way down.  I had tried before practice to get to it, but the hill is so steep at that location that I just could not get to it.  After practice during the riders meeting I decided to try to unlodge it by running it over with the quad.  I had actually already tried it once earlier but had failed to catch it with the rear tire.  I have successfully done this dozens of times.  Catch the rock with the rear tire,  lock up the rear brakes and get it to roll down the hill, or catch it with tire and drag it far enough that we can get to it.  Let  me preface this with the fact that I have rolled a quad several times over the years.  I can remember each incident with amazing clarity.  The most interesting one was having a 350 pound quad chase me down a hill, despite knees that make orthopedic surgeons quake with fear I managed to outrace it to the bottom of hill before it could collect me.  Not too long ago I flipped this quad over on myself trying to cross the track.  I was caught underneath it for a few seconds and while there I was contemplating what a dumb ass I was.  So back to Saturday,  I started down the hill, thinking maybe this wasn’t the best way to do this. The track there is a sheet of decomposed granite polished smooth,  I rolled over the rock just like I planned.  It caught the right rear, but when I locked it up it pitched the quad to the left which is a wall, it also dropped the left front into the loose dirt kicked there by practice.  So it kicks the grizzly to the right, drops the front into the loose and begins a quick highside.  I’m thinking “shit, everyone at the riders meeting is going to see what a dumbass I am” as it throws me over the right side onto my right shoulder going downhill.   As I hit I rolled over and was just beginning the process of thinking where is the quad when I see this 350 lb behemoth rise up on it hind legs and  before I can get completely out of the way come crashing down on my left side.  Then bounce its merry way down the hill.  My first thought was “gee whiz that really smarts”.  Well something like that.  I was laying face down facing the uphill.  My headset had come off and whacked me upside my bald head.  I lay there for a second thinking how I really f’d that up, and  I was hoping that the  whole fiasco had somehow gone unnoticed by the crowd around the riders meeting.  With a great deal of discomfort I stood up, I had rolled a distance down the hill and was able to get enough footing to stand.  I reached down and put my headset on only to hear my lovely wife say “Frank……..are you alright?”  in a very slow drawn out manner that is her tone she uses  when I screw up.  I waited a few moments to reply as I was counting fingers and toes, making a mental list of my injuries, and hoping that when I turned around no one was watching.  I finally responded something like give me a minute.  I stood there for a few more seconds just thinking about how lucky I was to not be very dead.  When I turned around  I saw was what looked like everyone in the world watching me.  And then I looked at the quad.  It was a good distance from me down the hill sitting on all four wheels up against the berm at the three quarter point of the hill.  The back rack was bent down against the rear tire, and sitting there underneath the left tire laughing at me was the damned rock that started this whole sordid affair.  By this time Dirt Bike Editor Ron Lawson, 3X REM champ Dennis Boulware, and MXA’s John Minert had come to my rescue.  Needless to say I survived, why I don’t know.  I did something that even though I have done  many times was stupid.  I took a risk with my life, my families welfare, and the well being of REM.  If the quad had hit me 6 inches closer I am pretty sure it would have killed me.  Add to this the fact that I was wearing a headset and not a helmet and it screams your a really big idiot.  This was a wake up call for me.  While I am bent, battered, and bruised I will recover, but it could have been much worse.  Thanks for all the calls, emails, text messages, and well wishes, see you on the 16th. 

RANT 12/25/09

Another year bites the dust. It’s that time when we are prone to looking back at the year that is rapidly expiring. 2009 wasn’t a bad year. It wasn’t a particulary stand out year. REM definately had a strange ending, schedule wise in 09. It seemed like we hardly raced in the fall. In fact we only had 9 races in the past 4 months not our usual every Saturday thing. While it was good to have some time off it always gives me way too much time to think, and that is not always a good thing. Overall I was pretty happy with the track layouts this year. The Glen Helen staff, especially John has been really good to work with and except for the fact that they just have so many events at GH we were able to do most of what we wanted to with the track. I’m never satisfied though. I know there is a lot we can still do to make the track better and to have more options.

Many years ago I was racing with another club at Carlsbad. I had fallen on the first lap and was making my way through the pack. As I came to the top of the uphill I saw a rider down on the inside of the turn at the very top of the hill. I was on the outside riding the wall, I squared the corner to go down the inside of the downhill and as I did, out of the corner of my eye I noticed the rider was having a hard time getting up from his slide out. I momentarily looked to the right and just about fell off my bike, his entire leg was facing the wrong way. He did not seem to be in the kind of panic mode I know I would be in if my leg were facing backwards. As I rode down the hill I yelled at the nearest flagman and pointed up the hill. I fully expected to find medics, lifeflight, every first aid expert in attendance, and all future medical students to be congregated at the top of the hill my next lap around. Much to my surprise there was no one there as approached the crash scene on my next lap. As I made my way around the track I was further perplexed as I lapped the formerly downed rider before crossing the finish line. As I lapped him I noticed that his leg seemed to be perfectly okay, he wasn’t in distress and certainly wasn’t pulling off the track. Now I am beginning to think that maybe I hit my head when I crashed earlier in the moto and was hallucinating. I finished the race went back to my truck, and did the usual post moto things you do. After sufficiently cooling off I went looking for said mystery broken leg. He wasn’t hard to find, he was the racer with the prostetic leg. He raced with a boot on his prostetic leg, and unless you knew there was no way of telling. Even when he walked he looked like just another vet motocrosser with a bad, ankle-knee-hip-back, just like the rest of us. Once I knew that, I noticed in the next moto that he never took that foot off the peg. He still managed to race, and race rather well. I was duly impressed, racing a dirt bike is difficult enough with all your limbs working perfectly. That was my first experience with a racer who competed at my level while missing a limb. My second experience was at a REM race at Carlsbad sometime in the early 90′s. We had a gentleman sign up one Saturday, actually several Saturday’s over several months he raced with us. The distinguishing feature he raced with was a prostetic left arm. I remember that he was a pretty grizzled looking racer. He was probably in his early forties. But, he looked like he could have been riding with the H A’s for years. His prostetic arm had a cobby looking hook on the end of it, and he had fashioned some type of reciever for it on the end of his handlebars. So he is racing around with his prostetic arm hooked into his handlebars, on one of the most brutal unforgiving tracks ever made. He is wearing a open face helmet, and smoking a cigarette. I swear I never saw him riding either practice or a moto without a cigarette between his lips. At least the start of the moto, by the end he had smoked it. Anybody else and I would have said don’t do that. But this guy was just too cool for school. I have no idea what ever happened to him, I never saw him again after he raced with us 4 or 5 times, but he was memorable. Since then I have seen several racers competing with various attachments or missing parts. I always admire them for racing, for putting their issue behind them and leading an extra-ordinary life. At the last REM race of 09 we had a young pro from Canada race with us. He was the first racer to sign up that day, he was one of the first racers into practice that day. It wasn’t until several laps in that I noticed he was racing without the benefit of a right hand. I watched him all day, as he passed many riders, raced 4 motos, picked his bike up after getting knocked down at the start of one of his motos, and raced just like everyone else. I know a lot more about him now, I looked at his web page. He was born without a right hand, and he is a motocross racer. He is the racer on the Yamaha in the first picture of the REM story on Motocross Action’s web site. His name is Devon Rochon, and watching him race was one of my favorite moments of 09. Happy Holidays to all of you, be safe.