Well, truth be told, I started it a few years ago… It was initially a BYOB (bring your own bike) program, and I helped some kids get parts and gear to go racing. Last season, fellow Vital member Dirtbikemike decided to step back from fielding his arenacross team, opening up the door to partner with Motonation Suzuki (his dealership partner).
So, I did what any smart person with a baby on the way would do… I bought two RM-Z250’s, and some engine parts from JGR and started knocking on sponsors' doors for parts help. Last season started out rough with an aftermarket ECU issue and our AX veteran Travis Smith getting hurt at round one, but Cody Groves kept us in the mix and the fans on their feet. We even picked up newcomer Thomas Ralston a few rounds in, who joined us on one of DBM’s old race bikes from the previous year.
I’ll give you the cliff notes version of the season:
-Cody wore his heart on his sleeve when he got interviewed, which to his credit, was a lot! He won a solid amount of qualifiers, and led some main event laps, just missing out on a podium at Guthrie.
-Wyatt Reimer struggled to find his top ten form from the previous season, but was invaluable helping keep bikes on the road.
-Thomas wasn’t afraid to send it. Riding the only stock motor on the team, he didn’t care as he pulled holeshots in qualifiers, launched the triples in the rhythm sections, and didn’t mind picking himself up off the ground sometimes in the whoops.
-Travis Smith lives! He’s back on the bike after a rough pelvis break at round one.
As I looked over the bikes from last season I saw I have a 250 with 11.2 hours on it, and one with 25. Hardly worn by any means, so I began prepping them and contacting sponsors for this season. Travis would again race his personal 450 (I’ll just help secure parts and gear for him), and Cody Groves wants to race a 450 this season, so I headed to Motonation of Memphis to purchase one. I kept an eye on outdoor nationals for Suzuki mounted 250 riders, and noticed Josh Carson at High Point. He missed the motos (which my gosh they’ve been stacked this year!), but looked pretty quick. I decided to reach out to him and he’s on board for AX! That left one bike remaining, and I was wondering who to find for that spot. A day at Masterpool’s His956 facility wound up leading to a chance encounter with our final rider on the roster, Doc Smith. Doc was actually suggested by DFW moto legend, Brian Storrie, when I asked if he knew of anyone. Brian knows I want to help a deserving kid with good character as much as I want them to be fast, and Doc checks those boxes.
So here’s a little rundown of each rider:
Cody Groves - Absolute wildman, and fan and announcer favorite (if you watched the broadcasts, you know lol) showed a lot of speed last season but admittedly came in out of shape. He’s much more fit already, and starts his Brandon Hartraft training program Oct. 1st. Despite his wild persona, he’s been one of the most appreciative people I’ve ever helped, and holds himself accountable for his results.
Travis Smith - AX veteran, and while I typically focus on helping up and comers, Travis is a great dude and he brings a lot of contacts from the west coast to help me pull this thing off. He introduced me to several of our sponsors last year, one of the key ones being Fasthouse. We never got to see what he can do with the 450 in AX, so I’m excited to see how he does.
Josh Carson - While my experience with him is limited so far, he’s been very grateful to have people in his corner and has a solid plan to invest in his own program to get faster. He seems like another big personality. If Cody is Ric Flair, Josh may be Jeff Spicoli.
Doc Smith - I’ve seen him around forever being an Arkansan/Texan, but never knew him. Since meeting him however, he’s probably spent an hour on the phone with me every other day discussing ways we can make things better for everyone, and reaching out to his existing sponsors. Doc is 23 but acts 45. He's very organized, communicates well, and basically very professional. Doc’s dad is a fellow Vitalian, racingfortheson
I'll try to update this thread with race weekend recaps, some in-depth look at the bike builds once a couple of sponsors are finalized for 2025 (I'm not getting paid so no reason to lie about what's in 'em), and answer any questions if anyone has any. ML, feel free to clip this if it feels spammy, I'll do my best to be transparent.
This is rad. Cody is a good dude. Dude blew by me at the hoosier gncc and overalled the AM race. One fast MFer!
This is awesome to hear this is what makes our sport great all the good people that are involved!
Heck yeah man and good luck from a fellow North Texas fan. Bought a KX 450 from Doc Smith 4 years a go and he is a nice young man. Cody Groves is for sure a character that never quit trying. Hope you can make some kind of You Tube series for all to follow along.
Awesome for you man.
Can you email me the sponsorship ranges/packages? kendall1975@gmail.com
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Thanks OP. This is content I come to Vital for.
Good on you for going for it. The sport would be in a much better place if more people stepped up and put their time/money into dirt bike racing.
Best of luck and keep us informed of your progress. This is why I joined Vital!
Same here - tjfontenot@nobistec.com
Had Cody crash at my place in Boise for Rd. 1. Guys got a heart of gold and a liver of steel. Definitely an asset. Thanks for giving these boys a shot!
Good luck out there. Already a fan due to the zooki machinery. Wishing for a smooth and successful season from over the pond. ✊
A youtube series is something I'm working on... although admittedly I've never done any editing. Josh Carson has a buddy coming to film with him for the 2025 season though, and if you haven't checked out Cody's personal youtube channel, it's worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/@SeegeSpeed
Unfortunately it's hard for Cody to get any content during the race day for his channel, so he's trying to cover some more of the behind the scenes stuff as well as get some footage from other sources for his vlog.
I also try to put up some decent content on the instagram page, https://www.instagram.com/motonationsuzukiarenacross/
If you see a 6'5" sasquatch on a Suzuki next time you're at a track near DFW, say hi!
You already know I’m a massive fan. Good luck brother.
Groves is a long time Maryland D7 motocross family!
Extremely stoked that here are people out there making teams like this.
Pretty awesome story. Are you a Memphis local?
Nope, I’m in DFW. I met the Motonation of Memphis crew when I was their Suzuki district rep a few years ago when I lived in Arkansas, and they quickly became the dealer I referred my friends to.
Little update, as we’re just under two months from round one. I figured I’d share a little bit of what went into the 250 motors.
Last season, I bought some cams and the customer spec pistons (the ones they sold as a kit) from JGR. Turned out the cams were the same grind as the works motors, just with different timing. We started with Vortex ECU’s mapped by one shop, but switched to GET mapped by Dean Baker when the mapping in our Vortex’s just let us down both in performance (horrendous bog) and reliability (revved to high, oem valve seats and guides couldn’t handle 14,400 rpm with those cams. I should point out the issues weren’t with the Vortex, but the mapping in them. Cody loved the bike once we got the mapping sorted out, and Doc Smith bolted that setup on his personal bike last week (but stock ecu with PC maps) and was shocked how well it ran.
But this year, we got something a little cooler… like I mentioned before, I’d been buying parts from JGR and Dean Baker is a SAINT not only for answering all my questions, but his prices are wayyy better than most local shops and 1/4 of what some shops want for mapping! And this dude has built factory engines for Kawi, KTM, YoT, and JGR, and still working for JGR on cars! So, I bought a pair of works heads with accompanying pistons and rods. My plan was to rebuild the motors from 2024 with these… and then I decided to buy a complete bottom end from them. Dean gave me the green light to share some details on these, so here goes:
-long rods are used, and NO this does not change the stroke. It creates a longer dwell at tdc and bdc, as well as reducing some load. Net effect is a bit more top end.
-pistons are custom part from JE, with gas ports, dome to match the CNC machined combustion chamber, and use OEM rings and wrist pin
- valves are 1mm oversized, both intake and exhaust. The valves actually look like they were produced by Suzuki like any other OEM part (based on number on the valve), just made to a different spec if that makes sense. They had different options for seating angles, and the seats and guides are some exotic material
-speaking of works parts that are very OEM, they had several primary gears available already mounted up to Hinson baskets. This allowed them to change gearing there, rather than at the rear wheel and moving the axle position.
-porting is CNC’ed on one head, another appears to be hand finished. Both have epoxy in key places on the intake tract.
-valve springs are works, as well as the retainers (they are drilled like fancy washers are), and Dean has an aftermarket set he likes as well. Pushing them down are DLC coated buckets.
There’s probably a million other details I’m overlooking, but that’s the gist of it.
Good luck to your team this year Lee. I know how hard it is to put a race team together and keep it together all season. After doing it for 23 years, I finally decided that I was too old for life on the road. We had a lot of fun over the years with some success. Our focus was always on the Lites class in the old Arenacross. That was a good class for entry level Pros and we tried to keep up in the AX class too. Over the years, we rode Yamaha, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki and a couple of Huskys. Robbie Smith from Oklahoma was our first event winner in the Lites class at the 2006 Albany, New York round. A little slip up by me challenging the riders caused me to lose my moustache at that race. It was worth it. The next win for the team came at Colorado Springs in 2016 with Ben Nelko from Pennsylvania winning twice that weekend. The team gained some notoriety by placing third in the LCQ seven times in two seasons. A lot of miles, a lot of good racing and made a lot of good friends along the way. In total, we sponsored over 60 riders for Arenacross, including three from England, one from Canada and one from Mexico. Thanks to all the sponsors that helped us along the way and thanks to all the riders that took that ride with us.
Pit Row
Its always great when someone finds a way to bring some extra bikes to the line and helps create opportunities for the fast guys to go compete.
I read through all this but I think the kicker came at the end , if I read correctly, you picked up a guy in his 40s called “Doc” not as a team physician but as a rider ? In AX ? May god have mercy on his soul. But yeah, just because most let themselves go they are fubar at 40, I don’t mean to disparage, good luck.
Doc Smith is not 40 years old lol.
Sorry for the confusing verbiage, Doc is 23 but acts 45. He is very organized, documents everything on his bike, and has very good relationships with every sponsor of his. Most kids his age honestly aren’t that great with reaching out to sponsors, you’d be shocked that there’s kids making motos paying for gear.
Mike, thanks for all you’ve done over the years! You’ve definitely earned the retirement. I was very grateful for the opportunity to ride for your program in college, and it laid the blueprint for this one. Good seeing you this weekend at the harescramble!
Maybe OP typed this backwards, "Doc is a 45 year old man in a 23 year old’s body." I didn't think he was 40.
Rad info!
Smart move going to Dean Baker. He did my bike along with custom GET tuning and it's almost impossible to make the thing bog. It's extremely responsive.
A few updates as we roll into the final stretch before round one:
After Cody’s year not only becoming a fan favorite in arenacross, but also being the hype man behind the red beard off road team, he got an offer to ride some Kawasaki’s thanks to Mr. Baylor. Honestly that opportunity couldn’t go to a nicer person. He called to tell me about that a few weeks ago, but we’ve stayed in touch and I’m genuinely proud to call him a friend. Unfortunately, it sounds like he’ll be missing arenacross all together as he has a tibia plateau fracture that may (fingers crossed it doesn’t) require surgery. Here’s to hoping he gets healthy in time for some indoor racing, and his first beverage (pedialyte, of course!) is on me.
That leaves me with an opportunity to fill a spot on a 450. I’ve been in talks with some guys I honestly never expected to get the time of day from, which is pretty surreal. Fingers crossed, I should hear something fairly soon and can post some really exciting news. Granted, it will be last minute heading into round one, but following that they’d have three weeks to test before the next race. That’s the drawback of the series starting so soon. I love that it gives us round one in essentially a vacuum with not much else going on and more focus, but the timing sucks for sponsorship budgets and support programs. The best way to overcome that seems to be consistency. The more you can roll over on the equipment or sponsorship side of things the better. Which brings me to my next fun update:
We put together and broke in a race bike today!
Here’s the build info, and some stuff is more to come (I’ll post pics when we get our graphics, Throttle Syndicate is doing the honors and absolutely killed it with the RM Army eras graphics).
-Full works JGR engine
-Hinson complete clutch
-Different inertia flywheel (JGR had I think 6 options, their favorite, and BarX’s favorite seem to be the second heaviest)
-Custom 1.5mm longer rod by Wiseco, as part of that “racer elite” rod series
-Custom JE Piston. The wrist pin is offset 1.5mm higher to accommodate the rod, it has lateral gas ports in the compression ring land, the valve pockets are juuuust big enough to clear the oversized valves, and the dome is different to match the CNC machined combustion chamber on the head. Fun fact: it uses OEM rings, OEM dlc coated wrist pin, and clips. It also starts life off as the same forging as the off the shelf piston. Dean Baker takes the added measures to radius and lightly smooth all the sharp edges on the bottom, as well as the valve pockets.
-Cylinder Head. Another work of art, this has the same cam grind as the customer spec JGR heads, but degreed slightly different. Below the cams are DLC coated shim buckets, steel spring retainers with holes drilled for weight reduction (think ti washers style), works valve springs, and valves that appear OEM, but are 1mm oversized on both intake and exhaust. The seats and guides are a different material as well, but don’t ask me as I have no clue. The porting is beautiful. One head I bought was finished by hand, the other appears to be CNC finished, minus the epoxy on the long side radius. I had my hands on some other ported heads from various shops a year ago, and I’ll just say the good ones who make good and reliable power follow the common formulas used by high level (a la f1) engine builders to a T, and the hacks building time bombs hog out the ports and throw big cams and the highest compression possible to compensate.
-GET ecu mapped by the man himself, Dean Baker. Seriously, his mapping is amazing. Pro Circuits is also amazing. I think these guys with access to factory equipment are just plain better than these other shops. Sorry, not sorry.
-other engine odds and ends: it has a works transmission, but I’d be lying if I said I knew what that entailed. It may just be stronger shafts and gears for the whoops. JGR also had different primary gears available on the clutch baskets. They would not change gearing and risk changing the chassis length, so they changed gearing at the basket. Other goodies include ti bolts EVERYWHERE, a custom clutch arm, and probably 20 other things I’m too dumb to notice. Riding this engine has taught me something, I don’t know squat.
OK, chassis time:
-D.I.D. Rims and chain, race wheels being built this weekend with yellow rims on OEM hubs.
-Dirt Tricks sprockets. Never gave these a chance til this year, dang they’re actually the same weight! Freeing up some sprocket budget (one of theirs lasts 10x longer) allows for more resources elsewhere, always a plus.
-Galfer “works Suzuki spec” brake line. I believe it’s narrower diameter for a firmer feel at the lever. We’ve got a few different master cylinders to try out. (Current gen honda with the linkage lever, OG honda which puts the banjo safely behind the master cylinder, the old 11mm KTM masters)
-DeVol linkage with adjustable length for Josh. Doc hasn’t ridden with one yet or requested it.
-Suspension duties are handled by Fastlap in Alabama. Steve has been great to work with, and I’ve been sending him stuff since 2005. As we broke in Doc’s bike today we slowed the rebound on the shock two clicks and that was it.
-Cycra is handling the plastic duties, and they make a sweet skid plate… for the 450. But if you get a little creative it fits the 250.
-Guts racing provides seat covers, and hands down they make the grippiest material. Seriously. AC said it on his recent pulp appearance, they’ll cheese grade your booty if you’re not careful. They can also make one with the normal grippy material too.
-MotoHose! Vital’s own, Lumpy, hooked us up with some hoses last year. The beauty of his hoses and running Suzukis is I get to roll that product over to the next year haha. In all seriousness, he’s been a genuine supporter of the team, so shout out to Lumpy!
-Works Connection throttle tube and elite clutch perch. Both items are simply the smoothest operating pieces, and tough as nails.
-Phoenix bars and grips. Jason over there has been awesome to work with. They make a great product (seriously, give him a call and let him tell you the attention to detail in his grips) but my favorite thing is the bar selection is simplified. With other companies I was somehow an RC bend (despite being 6’5”) or a CR high, or a CR/KX. Now do that cross reference for 4 guys, oh and one wants taller bars for the faster tracks 🙃. Phoenix is simple, pick your height, and the sweep, go ride.
-TiLube oils and TiFuel. This was a cool one, personally. I’ve been an AX fan since I was a kid, and TiLube has been involved with so many teams over the years. Joe, the owner, has been such an asset sharing experience running higher level teams.
-Tamer holeshot devices. I love that they have two buttons and the button and groove alignment window is so wide. The last thing I want to do when setting a device with indoor suspension, is to try it again!
-DT1 filters. Filters are kind of splitting hairs, but I prefer their little neoprene seal on the rim. I cut out the screen, and also remove the overlapping plastic on the airbox. I also prefer to drill holes in the side panels rather than the air box.
-Specbolt hooked us up with some really cool “nickel works” kits. These have dished heads, bright nickel plating, and drilled washers which I’m a sucker for. I’ve been buying these since 2016 off of Amazon, so it was cool to get in touch with the owner. Give “MOTONATIONSUZUK” code a try at their website if you need a track pack (you do)
Tires are kind of the last thing up in the air. More than likely, we’ll be buying tires this year. We had several great seasons with Pirelli, and last year paid for them. While I would love to keep running them, that’s a solid chunk of the budget that could be applied towards travel if I can lock down a tire deal with a comparable tire.
Thank you for the compliment on our products !
Great Stuff. I cant wait for AX now that i've got a dog in the fight, rather a couple yellow ones. You're the man, Sasquatch. Doc Smith will surely run up front
Now this is a cool thread. Friend of mine filled in for Cody's mechanic at Spring Creek in 2023. Cody came up and sat with us and watched all the motos [he unfortunately didn't qualify] and we shot the shit all day. Really nice guy!
Best of luck to you and the team, definitely will keep an eye on this thread!
Awesome thread. I will be cheering your team on. Let’s get those Zooks on a podium.
By chance - do you sell any merch (hats or shirts)?? Would buy some in a heartbeat.
Love reading this.
Bike builds get me amped. Suzukis get me amped. Arenacross gets me amped.
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