Motorcycle Forum / General / Off-road / December 2008

Happy Birthday!  Which day is your birthday?  Mine is Saturday.

Dennis

Tim H anticipates:

Welcome to old fart hood.

Endurocross is too cool.  We did vegas a couple years
ago and columbus this year and both were awesome.

We're already waiting.

Yep

Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

Tim, Kudos on surviving to 50.  May the next 50 be as prosperous.

Have fun down there.  Have some pic's taken with the 30 second girl.

-Jeff-

Welcome to the senior class..

Rowdy Mouse Racing.. my racing color is grey ;)

ANOTHER 50-something??  Wow.  You guys sure are old.  Happy birthday
and it sounds like you're doing the weekend right!

I'm going to try to put in a boiler for my week-long T-Day
celebration.  Ugh.  Thing is the size of small suitcase, yet weighs
700 pounds - how do they do that?  My HVAC guy asked if it was made
out of some kind of alien space metal.

Happy B-Day!

JayC

Happy belated b-day Tim. I'm booked this year so I'll be sending a
representative to watch over my interests at the race. Erik and his son Jake
will be there sportin an ernge Highland Park/KTM World Staff shirt. (Erik is
the guy from whom I bought my DR350S a couple years back.)

Feels weird replying to my own post...
Without further ado, I will make the bold statement that Endurocross
is the greatest freakin' spectator sport EVER!!!
I've seen Grand Prix MX (13 years in a row at the Carslbad USGP's),
National MX (not enough by far, but a few), a dozen or so SX races
over the years, last years MXdN at Budds Creek (which was one of the
coolest events I ever attended based on atmosphere, and seeing
Villopoto's run was one for the ages), and a wide variety of local
races of many different types, but if I had to choose only one type of
event to ever watch again, EX would win hands down. The only bad thing
I can say is that no matter what you are watching at any time, you are
missing something else really cool somewhere on the track. The racing
action is non-stop. The track has some sort of significant obstacle
about every 50 feet, and errors are frequent. Races can, and do,
change completely in a blink of an eye, so you can never take it for
granted that the guy out front has it in the bag and walk away  for a
beer or something. The action for the amatuer races was a little more
wild, but even the pro races were an endless succession of falls,
stalls, unintended take outs, and balls out riding. Even with the big
rock pile, tractor tire doubles, huge logs, and water pit complete
with log crossings and loose rocks in the water, the gnarliest hazard
out there was a little area they called the Matrix (Maxxis Matrix, I
believe), which was a series od log crossings irregularly spaced just
barely over a wheelbase apart to about 1/2 a wheelbase aparts, and
connected with square timbers running parallel to the course between
the logs, but not in line with the timbers between the next pair of
logs. This section dumped the riders right into the flat rock filled u-
turn, which also caused the riders fits. The matrix section changed a
lot of race outcomes throughout the day as riders would get planted in
the logs and have to fight and muscle their bikes out one wheel and
log (or timber) at a time. Hell, everything on the track caused SOME
change in the race outcome, as people crashed on EVERYTHING, just some
stuff more than others. The amatuer stuff was very entertaining, and
there were guys there that were clearly WAY out of their element.
These races and their practice sessions were a riot, with the crowd
alternating between graons and convulsive laughter. Many riders, after
wadding and taking themselve totally out of the race, would get ehough
of an ovation from the stands that they just stopped to take a bow.
One guy threw it away in the water in his final (after working his a.s
off to get there), and knew there was no point in trying to keep
racing, so he just hammed it up for the crowd and photographers,
taking bows, splashing water onto his bike and washing it off, takng
all of the time he had before he had to move his bike out of the way
of riders coming around again.
I got to meet Brad Lackey, shook his hand, talked a little race talk,
discussed my "Forget the Whales, save the 2-stroke" shirt (he really
liked it). Chatted with Taddy Blasuziak a little during downtime while
they were taping interviews with Larry Huffman and David Bailey, very
friendly guy. Ran into Chris Blais, who I met a couple of years ago
when he came up and raced a local enduro here in Washington shortly
before he was paralyzed pre-riding Vegas to Reno.  Another great guy,
truly insprational. He's resumed racing in a Polaris UTV and is
digging it. Another guy there while I was talking with Chris asked him
if he'd considered trying Ricky James' modded bike like David Bailey
did; Chris said he had no interest because he wouldn't risk any
shoulder injuries, which makes sense to me. Like he said, it's all he
has left and it has to last him the rest of his life, and he really
likes the roll cage in the Ute. The kids ran into David Bailey in the
Orleans Casino Friday night. He stopped to talk with them, and tried
to talk his wife and smokin' hot daughter into staying down in the
casino for a while with him but they were done for the night and went
to their rooms, DB hung back with the kids, posed for a picture (HIS
suggestion, since the kids didn't want to impose on him) and was a
genuinely great guy.
Everyone I talked to, including the above mentioned MX heroes, all
expressed genuine awe and admiration for this new form of racing and
the guys doing it. The atmosphere of the whole event was incredibly
laid back and friendly, much more "off road" than "MX" in attitude
(I'm pretty sure anyone familiar with both types of racing will
understand what I mean).
I won't spoil the race results for anyone looking forward to seeing it
on TV, but I'll simply repeat my initial statement that this is the
greatest show I've ever seen. I suspect the next time we show up there
will be bikes in the truck, because Scott is totally hooked, and I
might just take a shot at the Vet class myself. We're making plans to
build a practice track in the yard. We already have most of the
material we need, and my buddy Ray, who went to Vegas with us, works
for one of the largest paving contractors in the state and is going to
check on the availability of heavy equipment tires for us so we can
build the whole thing right.
In closing, I have to say if you can get to one of these races, DO IT!
You will NOT be sorry for the time or money spent. What an amazing
show!

Tim H
Hook, line, and sinker

Excellent, Tim! Nice to know my thoughts on EnduroCross are valid,
even if I've never been to one in person. Sorry I'm responding so
late, too. I've been busy, out of it, was getting ready for the Nevada
ride, and all that other excusey stuff.

A friend of ours built an endurocross track on his property in Santa
Rosa and it's pretty neat. He works for the county and has access to
lots of dirt, boulders, tractor tires, telephone poles and heavy
equipment. He is currently working on a water feature. Eric had a good
time on it, even after he looped the 300 over the stack of telephone
poles and broke his rear fender <G>

Can't wait to see you and Scott attempt it!

Tami-