Pro Rider Appreciation (Your Humbling Moment)

He rides out at Oak Hill. He was ripping a 500 a few months back. Guy still hauls the mail.

Great thread!  I'll never forget the time that I was running up to a tabletop at the Bastrop night track and I was going the speed you have to go to perfectly clear it.  Well, here comes Andrew Short on the outside of me, fully pinned straight into the face of the table, scrubs so hard without even letting off the gas and was gone in a flash before I even hit the jump.

I bumped in to Jeremy McGrath at Petsmart in Encinitas a few weeks ago. I’d say our trolley speed down the aisles was about even but he was doing it one handed while on the ‘phone AND putting dog treats in his trolley .

I had to keep both hands on the thing so I didn’t get squirrely and take out the leash display. And I stopped when loading my cart . 

I left petsmart that day very humbled. But my dog doesn’t care so f*ck it . 

I practiced with Rollerball a bunch of times. (Ross Pederson, Canadian GOAT) every moto was basically until the tank ran out.....no big deal - right - but on a tiny little SX track where the bike didn't exactly get on the main jet this can make for a loooooog day. He'd then run home.  

Not a motocross track moment, but ripping a bomb run when I was 18 as fast as my 250 would go and, Kurt Caselli passed by like I was standing still and grabbed 6th in the process. 
 

obviously I grew in the desert so my humbling moment is a little different. But our hero’s are guys like Caselli, Udall, Bell, Hamel, Norman, Rameriz, Kamo. Etc. 

There is not a chance in hell that I would not block pass him with a shopping cart. I would just tell him that I had to do it so that I could now honestly tell my buddies that I block passed the King. That would be the funniest thing ever. 

Humbled to even ride the qualifiers at two close nationals for a few years.   My first try went great, midpack start and rode the fastest qualifier of my life at Redbud.  Wasn't close to making it, but knew this was my best ride at age 24.   Later while watching the national, some local supporters of me asked if I was sick that day.   They have no clue how fast big time top 40 guys go.

Pro woods boys have another level of speed…

James Marshall, Ryan Grantom, Justin Smith...Those guys always just did stuff that blew my mind...

TBH, the +40 Class at the Best of Texas Series was incredible. All the entries were pros from the 2000's era, and it was so cool to see them just sending it with belly's.

 So..........  what ?  It's the bike not the rider ?   You might want to switch back to shitty weed  lol

No but a guy with talent/ethics on a stock motorcycle can’t do too much, I have whitenessed it firsthand…

I think actually as of recently there has been a lot of dudes in that exact boat…

one’s a pro golfer now. One just got a ride with triumph…

Oddly enough, it wasn't until 2021 after the Pala national that I went to Glen Helen for the first time. Anyone that has been to GH and ridden their first time it's always the same "How did I forget to ride my dirt bike?". 

I've raced with and ridden with Jerry Robin a handful of times and we've had some fun exchanges on the track. He's been a California based rider for quite some time and while it was my first time to GH it was his thousandth. Jerry passed me after the big downhill and at the time it went 90 left into a couple rollers. I was so timid about the soil and the way he passed me made me realize I was not about to be a fast guy at GH..ever. Hartranft also smoked me before the finish section. I stopped trying to go fast and just enjoyed the novelty of the track and left kinda scratching my head.

Back in the 90s I belonged to the same PA Mx club as Steve Herman, 2 digit guy back then (36 maybe?). He would just toy with people at the track and practice passing and jumping. Super cool guy though. 
About 5 yrs ago, was on the same club practice track as Andrew DeLong, GNCC pro and older brother of current GNCC #1 Craig.  He would pass me about every 3rd lap. Could always tell it was him coming just by the sound of the bike. I was on the same practice track as Coty Shock. He was just toying around though at the time and wasn’t flying. It was cool to see his technique close up. 

I hear ya. Im from Canada. Ive ridden GH 3 times. I feel like a complete beginner on that track. I dont know why exactly.  

I was a mere spectator for this story but it was cool to see nonetheless.  A few years back the wife and I went to Highpoint to watch the pro national.  We partied and camped the night before and then got up early to watch practice.  I believe it was the first year they put that big quad on the track, so that's were we went to stand because I wanted to see the guys hit that thing.  The track was pretty muddy first thing in the morning and the B group went out first and that jump was claiming a lot of guys so by the end of the B practice there was a bunch of people gathered by that jump. Next out was the A guys and Cole Seely was the first guy on the track and first lap he came around and hit that thing and threw a big ass whip over it and everyone went nuts...  The levels to this shit haha.  

Check out the 1992 Dallas Supercross and watch Texas hero, Dennis Hawthorne, get 2nd (last quali position) in the LCQ and lapped in the main event where he finished 18th. 

That was eye opening to say the least!

https://youtu.be/ZxGp7MHI0eg?si=Tz1-9fQ4att9RmAt&t=926

I can totally relate.   I rode GH for the second time ever two days ago.  It's just a different level of a track than anything else I've ever ridden.   Demands complete concentration and focus everywhere on the track.  

Years ago, the company I worked for sponsored Tony Amaradio. (National Pro at the time.) As a byproduct, I got to ride with him a few times, including at his home SX track once. It had a gigantic double I could handle and some whoops I could not, so I went around them. We had a little race going where I would skip the whoops every lap and he had to ride them. I was pretty competitive by getting that massive advantage; I'd yard out a huge lead at that spot on the track and then he'd reel me back in over the course of a lap. 
On one lap, he decided he wanted to pass, so he showed me a wheel in the "pro" manner. Now, I was a 125 Intermediate in SoCal, and I was racing some really fast, aggressive guys, but I have never been staring down the barrel of a full takeout move like that. I thought I was going to lose my leg! Strangely enough, He pivoted the bike underneath, never touched me, and roosted away. (While I collected my thoughts and checked my underwear.) That day I gained a new appreciation for how hard SX really is, compared to how it looks on TV.