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I raced to a fairly high level in NZ, and got a top 15 in the NZ champs one year, with a stacked class, on a good day i would run 5-10 in a normal field at nationals, never raced overseas as I never thought it was worth the expense when i could not even beat the top guys here, I still race vets here (plus 35) occasionally, and do a bit of trail riding, and super motard
I know most the NZ motocrossers that have competed overseas well, and have enjoyed travelling to watch them races, i have even been a mechanic for Luke Burkhart at a couple of US nationals, I have been to GP's SX's, and nationals championship races in the US, Aussie, England and Belgium,
I started working for an accessory distributor when i was about 19, and worked my way up to be a sales rep, then I went to work for a dealership in parts, then I brought it with my brother and law, we owned it for 10 years and were arguably the biggest motocross/offroad shop in NZ, he brought me out in 2012 and I went to work for my father at Kawasaki NZ, that did not work out that well and now i have changed industry's to something completely different (Timber Joinery) , I miss the people in the bike industry but still get to catch up with a lot of them at races/trail rides,
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While living at Indian Dunes, though, I got to be in the show CHiPs (some of you might remember the peewee racing episode). I was the double and did all the riding in the races for the star kid. Also, I was featured in an NBC Special that aired Nationally and documented my amateur racing. That stuff was so sick. Every show like CHiPs, Dukes of Hazard, Knight Rider, A-Team, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Greatest American Hero, Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman and many more were all filmed at Indian Dunes. I grew up lucky enough to watch all them getting filmed and got to meet all my heros. Mr T used to call my pops his "Main Man". He probably said that to a lot of people, but how cool would it be to see Mr T call your dad his "Main Man".. Haha.. Also, tons of movies like Twilight Zone (Vic Morrow died at the Dunes) Escape from NY and all kinds of cool movies were filmed there.
Right before Indian Dunes closed, a custody deal forced me move in with my mom in Las Vegas. I had to quit racing for the first time since I was 3, but started again in 1986--even finished 3rd at the World Mini on 80's but unlike my pops, my mom wasn't going to put everything into racing. I was again forced to quit racing in '87. Didn't race at all for 7-8 years, heck I didn't even sit on a bike all those years. I got through high school barely, went to college in Vegas. Dropped out after a few weeks. I battled with the loss of moto mentally for quite some time, which I think led me down the wrong path in my early 20's. You guys know how it is, and to have anything that you dedicated your life to ripped from you is shitty.
Then, I moved to Seattle and started racing again in 1995. Worked my way up to a local A in the next five years or so, but beat the shit out of my body and was pushing 30 by that time. I would use John Dowd and his achievement of starting at 21 and making it as my excuse to keep trying for a while, but my body and lack of conditioning it correctly just wasn't going to get me there. I was beat the fuck up.. haha. I quit again after knee surgery in 2001, and started riding and occasionally racing for fun again in 2009. Then, I fucked my back up and had a gnarly failed surgery exacerbate that issue.
In 2010 the economy in my field finally got nailed and I lost my cushy 70-100k job. For about a year I tried to find work, but then my wife (who is a web designer, developer w/degree in integrated media) said "why don't you stop posting on VitalMX so much and try to write for someone." I hooked up with Luke Parmeter (with FELD now) and wrote for his site LP Motocross. After doing that for 3-4 months, my wife built me the website MotoXAddicts.com for a valentines gift and I've been doing that ever since. I make about as much money as the guy serving me french fries at McDonalds, but for the first time in my life I 'm doing something I love.
I was only going to write a 1/3 of that, but what the hell. That's my moto story in a nut shell.
My moto background is that I was born into the sport. My uncle is Jimmy Ellis, and my grandfather the late George Ellis (Kawasaki's first 18-wheeler driver when they adopted that for the race team). My grandmother was an AMA official for the years that my grandfather was driving for Kawasaki. So I guess you could say I have a decent insight into the sport from multiple aspects.
As for myself, I raced until I was 22 in the NESC Amateur class. Then I took time off spending years riding street bikes. I was fortunate to get out of that without injury and went back to my roots off-road, where I've been since.
Shane
I eat nails and shit anvils
Not even close to being married
Own a house, some bikes, and a few RX7's
I like my chicks like I like my cheese.....Fat free American singles
i guess having a childhood like that could make adulthood be a real letdown so to speak.
Glad you are doing well and i will check your site out
Growing up where I did, there only a few people who rode moto at all, but one of them happened to be the 199 of everyones hero, Travis Pastrana. So small town USA kicked in and we met when we were kids, think he was just getting on to 125's, about 20 years ago! We hung out, rode BMX a lot at his house because he had a bobcat and some land to pretty much build anything we wanted as far as BMX is concerned. As the years passed we would always do things for fun just hanging out. Even before the Nitro days I would have a video camera and film stuff we did. So years go by and he mentions to me he's going to make a video and just film anything I can. Needless to say, Nitro Circus was born. Im not a star of the video series by any means, but I have been around since the beginning and will also mention that its really hard to put all the good stuff in one video. I lived at his house for a few years, worked and traveled with him in 2006 before his short lived attempt at the SX series. I remember watching him wreck in the whoops and the first thought that went through my head was "damn, gotta find another job".
Outside of being what I guess you would call a "man-friend" or as DC would call it, and F.O.T., I worked at a motorcycle shop for 6 years in all areas (parts, sales, and service). Was also a rep for an apparel manufacturer for about 6 months before moving on to what I do today (plumbing and tile contractor).
And for all the Michigan Mafia folks, I am married to Katie Auten (now Haynes). You may know her or her younger brother TJ. Sorry to bore everyone with the long story, but it could've been longer!!!!
Raced the innaugral LL's with a dislocated shoulder on a Kawasaki that had a billboard for a rear fender.
Got into the aerospace biz at 20 & started running carbon bits on my bikes starting in '86.
I ended up getting into composites and make some carbon goodies for a few industry co's these days.
Nowadays I get to ride and race about as much as I want...business with benefits, I guess.
Racing over 50 is nice; but, riding with my buddies in Baja is even better.
I've proven, factually and without reservation, that Bibs rule and Tubes SUCK!
I throw a complete ration of shit at the 2 Stroke Taliban & then go ride my KX500 or my RC250R ('78.5 FIM).
My absolute favorite thing in Moto is working with a rider or team that someone-else has over-looked...& making that rider believe in himself...again.
Apparently I come across as an arrogant prick.
Cool!
Pit Row
I try to race once a month at the SRA at Glen Helen and if funds and time permit, a couple/few practice days a month. Starving artist in training here working dead end jobs so budget is tight. Hence the Toyota truck with 412k miles!
My brother, Tim, is my hero and a Baja whiz. He's ridden the Baja 1,000 something like 22 times and was class
champ down there a couple times.
The starving-artist-in-training part.... well, at 51 that's probably solidified but one of my things is photography. I've shot some stuff for Dirt Rider and Racer X over the years. I tend to go heavy on the artsy side so things run only now and then but I love it. I work as a photo assistant when I can for some fashion guys and that's a blast and I try to apply what I learn to my other projects which include a LOT of material for the Special Olympics (been working on that for about 10 years), a project on blind surfers, and some fashion-y, model stuff......
Dirt Rider
Dirt Rider. (Shot with a medium format panoramic camera. Super fucking hard to shoot action with.)
Been playing around with a tilt/shift lens forever. Really love it. And for some reason I would
always get a good shot of Kyle Lewis.
Opener for J-Law's story in Racer X
What could have been Bro............
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