Riding with pros, your stories..

I-40 MX in E. TN. Sat. night race back when Mike Brown was in his prime riding the 125 Hondas. He was there just to get some seat time. He rode several classes and always waited until everyone rounded the first turn to start. Clean passes and finished ahead of everyone. Passed me in the whoops like I was parked. Super friendly and approachable off the track.

I know, another Palm Ave. story. Late 80's. Glover was testing the next KTM250. I tucked in behind him and tried to keep him in sight. His downhill speed was so crazy into a hard right uphill transition. I tried it once. I don't remember the turn though. I woke up in the bushes and my bike was missing plastic. Lesson learned!

I have ridden with Dungey a few times, I was a local A rider the last time I rode with him and it was at a private MX track that I had done plenty of laps on. Of course it didn't matter as he was easily pulling away everywhere expect a couple straight's where my extra 200cc made it so for a few feet on the track I wasn't getting yarded lol. The last time I raced Dungey I beat him though but he was on a supermini and I was on 125 in schoolboy, was on my ass the whole time on that damn 80. Rode with Heath Voss a few times while I was on a 80, will never forget that. It was the first time I seen what real fast speed was up close and right in front of me. A great guy that would mess around with me while I was on a 80.

Been fortunate enough to race some top guys in Supermoto over the years, Rode against McGrath when he raced his first SM in Fontana in 2003, along with Jeff Ward, Metzger,and Kevin Schwantz, and had a great bar to bar race with Scott Russell till we we tangled and went down, Raced against all of the victorious 1994 MXoN team , went bar to bar with Paul Malin, had Rob Herring as a team mate for a time, and raced Kurt Nicol when he rode in the states, and also rode in Belgium against Everts , Bolley, Jacky Martens, Schwantz and Stephane Mertens.

Highlight was probably passing Ryan Hughes at the Rio in Vegas , and trying to get a tow off of Grant Langston to clear the big Urban cross step up. Close third would be almost T-Boning Everts when he nearly crashed in front of me on a cold rear tyre in qualifying.

Went to the Top Gun Showdown at Muddy Creek in '95. Had been running 125B back in Virginia and wanted to try a bigger race. They usually started B on a stagger start with A back in D 13, so by the end of the pro leaders would usually lap me and I would try to hang on to them for a while. But at least I could see them coming and creeping up.
Well at Muddy Creek, they also ran the pros and Mike Brown was there that day. Unlike my normal races, I literally saw him a long way back and thought it would be a while before he caught me. I swear two seconds later he was passing me and two seconds after that he was gone. Just gone. Mind blown.

Years ago at De Anze (like 27 years ago) Dubach past me in practice like I was tied to a post.

I saw Brown race at Muddy Creek once. There was a table top of about 100ft on top of the hill and he would totally over jump it and flat land past it. Incredible. Raced with Mark Barnett in the 40 class once. Still crazy fast. Super nice guy to talk to.

I've rode on the same track as Mark Eastwood. The brits will know of him more. He was Everts team mate on the Radson Honda in the late 90's. He was a top 15 GP rider back in the day. Anyway I was riding at my local track which happens to be Canada Heights. The club was holding a practice meeting and it was during the summer and the track was bone hard that day & anyone who has rode that track will tell you it gets proper choppy on the uphills. Square edge bumps. So this day I was going up one of these hills at what I thought was a pretty decent pace when all of a sudden Eastwood comes past me flat out on his CR250. I've never seen someone go so fast it actually scared me. The funny thing was, I heard him telling someone that he didn't wanna push it as it was getting gnarly!

April 2006 @ Hantown mx track for a local race. every year the track gets shut down mid April to allow for prep time for the National

Yamaha of Troy, Team Sobe/Nofear (now geico honda) and Troy Adams foc Pro Circuit all showed up to get in some outdoor testing/racing. They were all out with us during practice, and i was a quick novice at the time. There were these two infield triples running along the inside of the start which then turn left uphill. The first one i seat bounce coming out of the turn over the next triple Andrew Mcfarlane, scrubs the triple past me and proceeds to rail the outside line standing up. FREAKING HAULING.
Later in more practice I take the inside line turning down hill, Adams took an even more inside line and w/o down the hill.

some of the best racing (for a local race) as we were all treated to a preview as the 250 class had many of the big names who were not racing the east coast , Guys like Walker, Jesseman, Mcfarlane, Metcalfe, Adams, Weimar, Grant, laninovich were all racing around.

Back in ~2003 after having not ridden for 7 or so years I got myself a new YZ250.. went out to the local track here in Calgary, AB, Canada - Wildrose MX Park. Was ripping around and getting the feel for it again and this kid kept blasting by me on a KX85.. found out later it was Dean Wilson! You guys know him.. he was the kid in that SX Ed video with Dianna Dahlgren!

Went over to USA in 2010 with 2 amateur guys I trained for 3 months or so do some races and training and at GB landed up riding with Barcia who was there training as well and then we landed up riding with Josh Grant and Brayton.

We also rode alot with McDade and Ryan Smith.

I've had the pleasure of being on the track at different local harescrambles with Scott Watkins, Fred Andrews, Jimmy Jarrett, Josh Weisenfels, and Paul Whibley. It's just insane how fast and smooth these guys are in the woods. I remember one race..a CRA harescramble at Cable Creek in Toronto, Ohio (BSA owners club owns the place) Jarrett blows by me like I'm going backwards, and about 100 ft further into the woods I see him getting up off the ground. I ask if he's alright and he gives me a thumbs up. 2 turns later he blasts by me again, this time in a horrible mud section carrying a crossup wheelie. I just shook my head.

Then there was the 4 hour team harescrambled at Salem M/C club's Sky view Raceway. Whibley shows up and says he wants to do the 4 hours by himself. Like a fool I ask if he can do it. 4 hours later I go up to him and ask how his race went. He ended up winning the overall, and was barely sweating. I rode with a teammate, and I'm half dead....unreal.

I been passed by Bubba Stewart at the Monster Mountain and Mark Barnett passed me on the outside at Capitol City MX. To be honest I let Bubba pass me in the right hander before the uphill triple so i could be in the air with him at the same time....I could have held him off a few laps but i didn't want to embarrass him

Charlotte N.C. 1975....Big $ race on Sunday at the World 600 MX Park behind the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The day before, a warm up race behind Hickory Motor Speedway, we pull into the track and I notice 2 DG box vans with California plates. Broc Glover. I learned he would not be on the DG bike , but a much slower friend of mine's bike. I was pretty cocky at the time and really thought I had him covered. He passed me on the first lap and by the 8th I was a good 30 sec. behind. Lonely second place. The next day at Charlotte he was on the DG bike and by the finish I was in a different Zip Code.

Last year i got to ride an Enduro and started on the same minute as Jeff Fredette. For all of you moto-only guys, he's a legend in the offroad community.

He's up in his late 40's these days i think so i was able to keep up ... for about 3minutes and man i learned a lot in those short periods. The guy is really smooth and can flow through the trails with ease. Probably why he's still out there and going as fast as he is (No major injuries).

Real laid back guy and i got to talk to him quite a bit during the day between time resets. He was getting ready for his last trip to the ISDE in Argentina so he was taking it easy.