Pro Rider Appreciation (Your Humbling Moment)

Happens to me pretty much every time I ride Glen Helen.

Many Local Pros have top Pro speed. They just can’t do it on a SX track or for 70 minutes on a National track.

I've posted this before, but my humbling moment was around 2005. We had just received a lot of rain, and there was a roller whoops section that was too muddy to ride, so everyone just went around them. It was a long section so you were wide open next to the track. I'm on my YZ250F and an 85 comes SCREAMING past me, it was Tomac. Now I always knew I was a squid that wouldn't ever make it past local C, but to get passed by an 85 on a portion of the track that only required twisting your wrist let me know how bad I was.

Being born and raised in Southern California, it would happen on a weekly basis...sometimes multiple times a week...

I have two.

First was late fall 1990 I was at Brown City MX in Michigan. there was a big wide 180 degree corner. You kind of went uphill into the corner and it was fairly sandy. During practice I was riding awesome, and I was going into the corner and timed my sit down after the last breaking bump almost perfectly. No man in the world could have entered that corner any better. Before I had let off the brakes Brian Swink (on a Kawasaki) went past me on the outside like I had an anchor out. Before I could roll the throttle on as I cleared the apex he was already out of the corner and down the next straight. It was stunning how much faster he was than me at my best ever. R.I.P. Swinkster. 

The next was not humbling, just astonishing. I was Dig Dugging the Daytona Supercross and stationed down at the west end of the track. There were rollers going into a tight 180 berm and a double and tabletop. During practice there were a few guys quadding over such as Mookie, Kenny and I think Eli. During the actual racing the quad was out of the question. The appreciation comes when Kenny started hitting it. He was tripling on to the table. First off, he was landing withing 6 inches of the same spot at the very beginning of the table every lap getting maximum acceleration off the table. He was pulling in the clutch and locking the rear wheel not to adjust the attitude in flight but to settle the chassis when landing. Basically, when he landed the bike didn't squat or rebound at all he landed and in one motion was on the gas with a minimal amount of wheelspin. It was like the laws of physics ceased to exist, I think keeping the brake on while he rolled the throttle kept everything settled. I'm very fortunate to have been able to be trackside flagging and dig dugging right next to the best racers in the world and have seen up close and personal the skill they posses. This little jump which I was probably the only guy in the place that noticed was the singular most amazing thing I've ever seen on a dirt bike. The way he landed so softly and the violence that bike accelerated with was mind blowing.

1 time at Dade City Kenny Keylon was in first in the Money Class, he fell over, picked his bike up and roosted me in the face as I was going thru a turn right behind him.

the roost knocked my goggles off and hurt my nose and mouth so bad I had to stop.

thats the worst pain I have ever felt from being roosted to date!

I took Bubba to Glen Helen to spin some laps. He rode his FMF super mini and I had one of Albies RM250s (practice bike) to ride. I thought all good he is fast but I have a 250. 

James messed with me...i tried my best but the little shit on his SM made me eat crow. For the first time in my life I realized that I ran out or never had talent.

Ben Riddle was with us, he had his FMF 250, I said Ben, help me out here....let me ride behind you and slowly pick up speed. James was messing around behind us...Ben eventually pulled the trigger, James pulled his trigger and off they went. Me, i went back to the pits....tail between my legs.

Edit - they weren't even Pros yet.

I grew up riding in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the late 80s-early 90s. A small town with like maybe a dozen riders who raced. One guy in our group went pro and made a few SX mains. I think he had a couple top 10s in the 125 class. He was a few years older than me and on another level I knew I could never, ever match. But he was always there to coach without being harsh. It was humbling but also inspiring.

Then later in life I moved to Austin, Texas after college and picked up moto once again. Even more crazy fast pros at the track. A few would try to qualify at the Houston and Dallas SX and get murdered. And that really humbled me to see just how ridiculous SX is in terms of a true bike set up and the whole approach the factory and top privateers had. Ain't no way someone like me had any business on a SX track. It seriously crushed my childhood fantasy when I would watch SX on TV thinking I would love to do that one day. NO FREAKIN WAY. There were several supercross races I attended just to get there buck early to watch practices and qualifying for the humility of seeing those local pros get eaten up. I respected the hell out them for it, though.

ML humbles me every time I get passed by him on his 4 lap heaters. 

Back in the late 80's-early 90's maybe. (before big training compounds) Between Daytona SX / Gatorback National / Atlanta the Pro's stayed in FLA for the week. We're riding some shit hole practice track in Ocala / the track was in an abandoned sub-division near Ocala....it was free lol. Three factory Honda cube vans pull up, 3 rental cars with JMB, RJ, Stanton come a little later. Being the local Canadian expert/Pro's we figured we'd share the track ! ! Yeh, holy shit balls......NOPE. It was full on Pro vs Joe. Until u stand at the side of a bombed out track and actually feel the earth vibrate you can't appreciate how fast these guys are. We ran into them a few times that week at oddball local shitty little tracks. JMB did his thing (smooth) RJ hammered......Stanton mostly ponded the track into submission. When it was all done and the hero's jumped in their rental cars - Stanton was last to leave every time and walked the whole area picking up trash before leaving. Classy dude.       

I grew up with Austin Stroupe but a few years older. We rode together almost weekly in Lincolnton. The talent he possessed on 60s and 80s was insane. He would jump stuff on his 65 easily, and once he was on an 85, I was pretty much beat. He was an incredible talent! 

Before the MXON in Holland in 2019 I drove myself over in a beat up old van with my bike in the back in what was my first time ever leaving my home country as a 21 year old.

I'd been riding 4 years, had raced enduro before and was competent enough to stay out of the way.

My first ever ride on a sand track was at Lommel on an enduro bike, 5 days before the Nations, with the track left rough for the pros to train. At the whole track that day there were two other riders that weren't racing at the nations between the main races and support classes.

I was 2 laps into riding the most messed up track I'd ever seen, already about to collapse when Prado (making his 450 debut) blew my doors off. He was hitting the sand rollers so hard I felt the ground shake, I backed off as he went by and tucked the front on a jump face. I went back to the van and waited until almost everyone packed up to go out again.

He gave me plenty of room but it was the first time I'd ever ridden anything that I just thought nope I'm not that guy. Even in hard enduro when I have a hill or obstacle I can't do I always think yeah with enough practice and time I can get that... But not that day at Lommel, that was speed, commitment, skill and strength I know I'll never possess!

Let’s see …

1. I was on my 87 CR125 and Rex Staten knocking my beginner ass over in a corner at Canyon Raceway and laughing. 

2. Getting passed by Mercedes Gonzales like i was standing still in 1990 at canyon raceway… i was on my 1989 CR125.

3. Same day as above Jimmy Button was hammering on his prior to release to public Honda of Huston 1990 CR125… i was amazed that he hit a section of 5 small about 2 foot tall singles too far apart to double and he would up shift on every landing which at the time i was amazed at how he even could do that while riding 😂

4. on my 2000 KX250 yes at Canyon Raceway I thought I was pretty decent intermediate tickling at local pro speed and the Blose brothers would come out on their minis with their grandfather Chappy and just blow everyone away… there was a cool uphill step up/triple following the old suicide that I was hitting what I though was smoothly with a little butt whip to the left and those little bastards 😂 jumped over me on each side, all i could see was frame rails and drain plug to left and right of me as they land flat into the following corner and just railed it… i just idled back to the truck 😂😂😂

Found that more or less true.  It would be difficult for a points scoring pro to beat a local guy on his home track.  The pro tracks and race lengths are the big separator.  

Pastrana found that out when he showed up to 59th and Douglas in OKC. The locals had the track bumps memorized. 

Years ago at my ex local track they had this small step on step off type obstacle out of a crested left hander that some of us could sweep a little wider and quad. Kirk Gibbs was there riding the australian factory ktm 450 and cleared it straight up the inside. I didn’t know he was there until we are both mid air and nearly rubbing plastic. Scared the crap out of me and he just continued on his merry way ripping in what sounded like 5th gear his bike was so quiet and smooth.

'95 RC blew my doors off, lapping me before I completed lap 1 at KROC.  F'r didn't even chop the throttle... just pulled in the clutch for a second, greased the corner and was gone.    

Never had one, I rode pretty fast. 

I give it all to my friend Rich Wilson, a guy the same age I grew up with and became very close to before our paths went different ways.  Rich was a self taught guy, dad scooted and then passed before I knew him in grade school.  I was a part of a wannabe BMX group about 70-72 and as we all grew into high school I stuck to moto and connected more with Rich and we clicked.  He taught me to ride, connected me to my first bike and helped me rebuild the basket case, and got me to races.  I eventually was his mechanic (i.e., pit hench) when he took a run at a few nationals and the USGP support class in the late 70's while he was working as an auto mechanic.

I relay all that because I expect, like musicians, there are a lot of unsung really fast guys that never saw a day of high glory but made the sport better or more enjoyable for others not as talented.   Like me, cause I always have had a talent for not having much talent on a bike, but managed to have a lot of fun.

I had an early radial 400 Maico at one point, and Rich would take his girlfriends CZ 125, perhaps the slowest full-size motocross bike ever made, and he would just toy with me sticking wheels in.  I had a lot of fun pretending we were racing; he could have been gone in a heartbeat.  But it also made my novice class racing more enjoyable on race day.  And at no point did I ever feel he jammed anyone about being a better rider than they were.

The one that sealed it for me that there was a bridge too far was a trail ride together at Carnegie, which has some incredibly long steep hills, some of which have little to no run out at the bottom.  And it was greasy this day when we were on a shelf about 15 feet wide crossing the side of the hill when it intersected a hillclimb up from the valley floor.  The shelf was up about 30 foot drop from the valley floor.  The climb was an up route that you came down from a different way given the steepness and terminal point on the downhill side.  But Rich just hooked a left and blasted up the hill from the shelf, pivoted at the top in one motion, and dropped right next to us from a hundred yards steep downhill stopped on a dime like a trials rider. I'd have either plowed everyone or shot off the shelf.  Clear as day now I remember thinking "I don't have that."

Years back I signed up for the schoolboy class on my 125 at Sunset Ridge in Walnut, IL. In this typical five lap local district race, myself and most of the field was lapped by Chase Sexton on his 85. I knew I wasn't fast at all, but dam getting lapped so quick was VERY humbling 

Everyone of us that has raced has been in the WFO zone only to be flamed by somebody faster.  That "come to Jesus" realization that we are not the best.  

If you decide to keep riding after that realization...it just becomes being the best "we" can be.  

I guess if you're Tomac or Lawrence or Deegan...you might not understand.

Rode the same track as darcy lange before a Canadian national,  he was definitely a gear higher in the whoops.

Only time I’ve been on a track with Pro’s was the Carlsbad Christmas Gran Prix’s. One year Travis and McGrath both raced it. I got passed more than once by both of them.  The first time was MC, I didn’t hear him coming and he went by so fast it actually made me jump and go “FUCK !!”  Holy shit !   My wife went that year. I saw TP and MC in the pits and knew they be coming by at some point so I told her to try and get a picture with either of them behind me for fun. The pic never happened, and even though I knew they’d  go by me at some point,  when it happened I had no idea how much faster they’d be. It literally startled me 😂.  
 On a side note they were both cool as shit in the pits. I really miss that place 

Pretty much this. I've spent quite a few week days in May just watching the pros and doing most of my riding in the mid afternoon after they're done.

I got lapped by Damon Bradshaw at a regional qualifier for Loretta Lynn's. His closing rate was so fast, I didn't even know he was back there. I was in the racing line and he went around me like I wasn't even in his way. 

It was that day that I knew I would never make a living racing a dirt bike. 

Lined  up in the expert class at 59th and Douglas in OKC many moons ago......Reynard did things on the track that I didn't even think of.....and I was no slouch back then ...so effortless and so fast.....humbling....No one else was using most of his lines, they only worked if you were going mach 2...He could catch you, pass you cleanly, and leave your sight before you could even realize who it was . 

1972, Grandma beat the ever loving shit out of me for stealing pumpkin pie off my cousin Freddy's  plate on Thanksgiving. Very humbling.

Do you remember what year that was? I’d like to watch that race and see if it’s possible to catch a little bit of that magic on the broadcast.

For me, my most humbling moment was the first time I saw Dylan Wright ride my local track on a practice day. The way he would attack every jump face and then chop the throttle at the top and drop the bike sideways to stay a good two feet lower then anybody I had ever seem was mind-blowing. It litteraly felt like he was flattening the jump faces. Plus he would stay on the track for so long, never making a mistake and making the whole thing look effortless from beginning to the end. I kind of got the meaning of poetry in motion that day and understood what it really meant to be fast on a dirt bike.

On the other hand . . . in early January 1977, right after Brad Lackey went to factory Honda, there was a local race at Hollister where Brad showed up on a factory open class Honda.  500 pro ran right after 250 novice class, and Brad was lined up behind me at my spot on the gate (rubber band, actually).

I can honestly say I roosted a world champ!  

Late 90’s early 2000’s a local shop in Simi Valley (TRE) sponsored a Japanese kid with the last name Toda, I think. We would watch him ride at the old Lemon Grove track, and when he went out we’d all pull of the track to watch him ride. Going into A1 we all thought he was going to be a front runner and were so stoked to “know that guy.”  He did not even qualify for the night show.