Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
These are the days of "ZERO" personal responsibility...Why would he let his boy race after being aware of the danger?
It looks to me like Child endangerment.
I would have packed up and went home.
Ummm yeah…the AMA sanctions races. They don’t sell insurance.
More than 7 years ago, my son got seriously hurt under circumstances that were far beyond the “norm” for our sport. He fell more than a two-story drop on the backside of a highspeed bowl turn during his last moto of the day at an AMA-sanctioned
from the original response.
There you go right there...A big black eye for the sport. You don't give Lawyers any advantage and I have 2 great friends that are Lawyers.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Free shipping: VITALMX
My bad. I guess things have changed.
From my read, I don't think he was aware.
Of course he was aware of the track layout. That berm wasn’t built immediately prior to his son’s moto.
So yea I read this as a statement justifying why he sued the track, regardless of them signing a waiver to ride and willingly suiting up to race on it. We ALL know the risks when suiting up and even before that when we have made the decision of where we are going to ride. How about these families that have lost their kids @ some of these major amateur nationals? I remember watching a kid crash and die @ mini o's because of a kicker they left on the big triple step up they used to have that many had mentioned that day needed to be fixed. Surely if anyone had the justification to sue it would be them of all people right? Yet most do not because they knew the risk before hand and how brutal this sport can be which is engrained in us from the get go. Glad RT finally man'd up to admitting they are responsible for suing and wasn't the insurance co like most of us thought but is 100% confirmed a scumbag in my book and i'll never support his biz or encourage others to support it either.
I would consider with the amount of laps RT has put on various test tracks one of the most knowledgeable judges of a tracks safety in the country if not the world. He has been a tester for so many years why didn't he see this dangerous berm and pull his son?
I'm not doubting the track was negligent in having a dangerous berm but RT was negligent in letting his son race it.
Cooksey got minor facts wrong but the gist of it was right.
Cool story from Rt but …… his decision for his son to race on the track….end of story…everything that happened after the fact was the result of his decision…..unfortunate what happened to his son.
I believe these tracks are Insured by the AMA to host these events or they couldn't afford to do them.
I think the only item here that stands out to me is the part about "not the norm." I'd suggest there are lots and lots of tracks with very dangerous opportunities and you or your guardian need to make a decision if the risk is worth it. Gatorback comes to mind for me... not just the giant cliff into the limestone pit, but they always had square edges and other sketchy parts on jumps or other areas around that track. It was part of the track and if you felt it wasn't safe, you had the opportunity to choose not to race or avoid those at the expense of speed. I've never been there but Glen Helen seems to have some high speed areas where you could hit a bump, go off the side and over a "cliff" or at least a dangerous area. This isn't flat track... there are inherent and expected risks associated and choosing to participate means you understand and accept those risks.
It was a mammoth qualifier that are AMA sanctioned and are usually pro-ams. Our other race series like swap Moto are not AMA sanctioned.
So cooksey was right.. got it.
hard to be on the Taylors side when it happened in the second moto. That means their son did one or two practices, and a first moto, and the track was safe enough for them at that time.
You can't have it both ways, either the track was too dangerous to ride, so you packed your things, or you felt the track was safe enough to keep racing.
Here is helmet cam from Oct 2015. At the 1:40 mark I’m entering the berm. At the 1:50 mark if you pause it you can get an idea of the drop on the other side of the berm. The track layout was different but the area in question was still the same.
https://youtu.be/OESntKVoX40?si=n2bNFGPQ-DzwfLl8
This. Plus, every other rider managed to navigate the section that day.
I found a video of the old Vet track layout from. 2017. It should be at 1:38 mark. I thought this was the berm in question. I don’t know for sure.
https://youtu.be/IZ4zaZhLYTQ?si=JPUQlEhc_qWKTu6Y
Pit Row
I had an experience like that @ GH back in 02 or 03 at a Loretta qualifier I think or maybe it was a GFI race, but I was trying to make a pass on the outside of the corner at the top of the first hill and ended up going just a tad too wide off the drop off and ended up like a foot off the graded section and hit a huge boulder with my back tire that sent me OTB all the way down the hill. Got absolutely wrecked with multiple injuries. The boulder actually came out of it's place and rolled down the hill across the track in front of a buddy that was behind me and almost took his front end out. It was gnar...but my Dad nor myself had ever had suing GH come across our mind. We knew the risks every time I rode or raced there and what could be a possibility if you made a major mistake like I did that day, especially when it came to the hills and different layouts they had over the years. Was my Dad's decision to let me race and my mistake that caused what happened. End of story.
This is from the moto when it happened. I'm guessing this is the video referenced in the statement.
https://youtu.be/T8PdFuNbV98?si=bv86Nw0ZFS192vc2
So you chose to allow your son to race and couldn’t face the facts that MX is dangerous. You filed the lawsuit that’s all I need to hear to never support your brand or have any respect for you as a man or father.
So the incident happened on the Main track then? Someone mentioned it was on the Vet track. 🤷🏻♂️
That the former pro was able to notice an area of concern proves that it was discernable. That Taylor didn't notice proves his own negligence. To sue a track is not cool. jmo
Welp, Dan Dunes was right.
Anybody hosting an EKS Brand bonfire?
My new 100% goggles are fire. Every time I rode LACR I saw someone getting broken and or ambulanced from the rookie white section there. Rich is a POS. No wonder Piru MX closed and same with Zach Station. Makes me wonder how many other tracks has rich had closed down? There’s nowhere to ride in SoCal anymore, thanks rich
Two threads and 15 pages without any visuals yet?? For everyone forming their opinions I think it's important to be familiar with the location of the incident.
Was this the berm where it happened? If yes, would the red line be a fair assessment of the whiskey throttle over the top of the berm? If not, please draw a line or post a screen shot of where it happened so everyone can see where/how this happened.
That's not it.
To be completely honest I don’t know one single person in real life that owns a pair of EKS.
So where in that YouTube video is the berm??
Any highly experienced racer knows the lip of that berm is no-mans land.
Post a reply to: Statement from Rich Taylor (LACR Lawsuit)