So I started an AX Team, Volume 2

Updates!

We made the decision as a team to compete in the General Tire series in the midwest and Partzilla series on the East Coast.  The Kicker series only makes sense with the current travel schedule if you participate in their bike shipping program (honestly reasonable at $2500 per bike) but you still need to get riders there... and have practice bikes at home for everyone.  And ultimately there were some other factors that lead to us moving on.

Doc Smith, Luke Dickey, and Josh Carson rode round 1 of Partzilla last weekend.  All of them had rough weekends, but came away with positive things to say about the event itself and their team mates.

Individual recaps:

-Doc made both 250 main events (saturday straight from the heat), and came close in the open class.  He jammed his hand coming up barely short one lap on the triple onto a tabletop and was dealing with a sore hand.  With a sore clutch hand he ended up stalling the bike after the whoops a time or two (going from 4th gear to a flat 180 corner without the clutch isn't ideal).  A fall in the LCQ on night two in the open class kept him from an opportunity to put it in the open main.

-Luke was in qualifying position at times, but some mistakes cost him.  He's right there with Doc in speed, and he was getting good starts in qualifiers thanks in large part to his racecraft.  In the words of DirtBikeMike, he found the hole that opened up on the inside as everyone pushed wide, and in another start he just held it on around the outside.  Not a bad string of starts from outside gates.  He was in a qualifying spot in the heat in night one before he wrecked in the whoops, and again was in transfer position in the LCQ until the lingering affects of his crash in the heat caught up to him and he started racing behind himself rather than riding the pace he's capable of.  I haven't gotten details of his Saturday night, but he was a bit short there as well.

-Josh Carson is making progress, and over the course of the weekend continued to improve.  He needed to pull the trigger on a triple on to the tabletop (that admittedly was pretty tough for the guys who were doing it) and the rest of the lap would likely have higher intensity, but he missed the 250 main by one on both days.

Promoter thoughts:

That was our first experience with Bobby and the Partzilla series, and I gotta say the guys were all impressed.  I've been pleased with both Bobby's and Jay at General Tire series program and the potential for teams and riders to earn some money.  They have some different approaches, but I think they both work well.  The track was well liked, with a challenging rhythm and whoops, and a catapult that wasn't a death trap.  He also gives teams an opportunity to earn commission on merch sales, so if you want to support your favorite rider from any team go to the series page partzillaarenacross.com and order a shirt, mug, backpack, whatever and that team will earn a commission.  That's pretty neat, and hopefully riders do really well with that.  I give him credit for taking the initiative to do that.  Sure, I can make more money selling my own shirts I make for the general tire series, but I have to order them myself.  For someone who doesn't have the time and resources to dedicate to that, what Partzilla is offering is huge.  I think it's paying off for the promoter, because they probably have the deepest pro field in AX at the moment.  It looks like GT (looking at last year) still pulls a bigger amateur crowd, but each series seems to be finding it's own niche, so it's neat to see and be a part of it.

Other stuff:

As always, the bikes looked awesome.  Throttle Syndicate, Cycra, and Guts knocked it out of the park once again.  

It was our first weekend on Maxxis tires, and the reviews were positive!  At one point we tried Dunlops and Pirelli's just to have back to back comparisons, and the Maxxis did just fine compared to the other two.  We're running them at 12 psi like you would a Dunlop (we had to run 14 in Pirelli to not roll the sidewall).  They are the new MX-SI to be speciffic, it's their most recent soft/intermediate tire.

Brandon Marley and Aaron Seminoe!  Holy cow, great weekend for those two.  I've known Brandon since we both rode for DirtBikeMike back in 2011, and I've gotten fat and slow and he's winning heat races!  Aaron went from missing the main on night one to third on night two!  I don't personally know Aaron, but he's been staying with Luke down in Texas and Travis Smith from previous years is a big fan of his as well.  When he's on, he's on!  They're on their own programs, but I just wanted to give those dudes a shout out.

The guys all got along well which makes me very proud.  Luke is like a stray puppy that walks up, he's always so happy and positive it's infectious.  Doc was sharing some insight into the rhythm section and whoops with the guys as he figured those out a bit sooner and had a creative line through the whoops, and Josh came in ready to lend a hand and offer some help dialing in suspension, as he's been working at M2R suspension in Pennsylvania.  Having a team that feels like an actual group with a common goal and interest rather than just a few random guys means a lot to me.

Doc's dad, @racingfortheson put together a little vlog from the weekend, link here: https://youtu.be/D0TSIgUroJI TJ (Doc's dad) is definitely more laid back than Doc, and it makes for good entertainment.  Despite his laid back persona, he happens to be great at fixing dang near any and everything, so it's nice to know he's on the road with the guys at a few rounds.

That's all from this weekend, now I'm off to pick up Cody Groves' race bike for the rest of the Partzilla series (he missed weekend 1 due to needing to pay some bills!), and get some more testing time with the guys racing the General Tire series.  We'll have Branden Walther, Whispern Smith, and Caden Braswell racing that series!  I definitely bit off more than I can chew this year, but I'm gonna stuff my face and chew like that skinny dude who wins the hotdog eating contests.

Rolling into Alabama

The boys got a little more seat time and knew what to work on as well. It was a little tough getting track time in Texas with all the rain for Doc and Luke, but they’re both feeling ready. 

Joining us for the rest of the season is Cody Groves. I’m excited to see where he stands up in the partzilla series (albeit with 1 day on a suzuki and on outdoors at that 😂). He’s just excited to race again.  Despite his persona he’s created he’s very detailed in his bike setup and notes. He’s very good at relaying exactly what he wants but also not letting it be the end of the world if we can’t get it. He’ll be racing a brand new 450 with the following:

-250 suspension set up by PR2 for his 450

-phoenix bars/grips

-guts seat cover, throttle syndicate graphics, Cycra plastic

-Maxxis mid soft tires 

-51 tooth rear dirt tricks sprocket

-the following maps loaded to the ecu 

That means a lot Scotty!  I may have to bring some of the guys for a little scrimmage weekend out to Jefferson if possible.  Thankfully, that Ozzy map was made in the Suzuki / GET tuner app so you can't go too silly with it... but the cams and piston Ozzy ran at that time on the other hand were a bit much lol.

This weekend seemed promising, but got brutal real quick.  Cody was so excited to be back, and everyone seemed excited to learn from him as well, and he wound up going over the bars in the rhythm section on lap 6 of qualifying.  It was a slow crash, but it resulted in a broken collarbone.  He's confident he can return quickly, and while I certainly want to see him race I don't want him to do anything risky to do so.  It's not like he's got a championship to contend for after missing the first weekend and then crashing out of the second.  We'll welcome him back as soon as he's ready though.

Luke Dickey again rode well, but came up just short of the mains in the premier class.  He's identified a couple of simple areas to improve on between now and the next round, and is mostly unscathed from the weekend... I say mostly because he did have a footpeg take a chunk of skin from him after tangling with another rider.  I won't elaborate where the skin chunk is missing, but uhhhhh, he sacked up and raced the LCQ in a bit of pain.  The class is so stacked it's bazar.  He battled with, and held off Brandon Marley to keep 4th in the lcq, but Marley won a heat race the week before.  The field is deep!  On the bright side, Luke is confident his riding is much better than last year when he was making mains in the Kicker series, he's just in a deeper field and needs to keep it on two wheels.  It was the first time I'd heard of Luke being frustrated (as I have previously mentioned he is normally constantly excited and upbeat), but he called to apologize for his attitude before anyone could even mention it to me (and nobody was bothered by it honestly).  That character means a lot to me, as I'm pretty sure Jesus himself would get angry over the course of an AX season, so thanks for the pleasant demeanor big dog.

Josh gets the gold star for most improved.  He still needs to work on not riding with his head turned around to see who's coming in timed qualifying, but he kept his head forward in the night show and rode much better.  His whoops speed is dramatically improving, and we talked a good bit throughout the day about line selection on a section that a low-risk line was worth 1-2 bike lengths.  I really appreciate that he is the most accepting of feedback.  He's eager to get back to Pennsylvania and do some more practice with Ben Nelko to get more confident with big jump sections and whoops.

Doc had a fairly uneventful weekend that he'd probably rather forget.  He qualified a little better in 14th in the 250 class (there's supercross main event guys hovering around 10th, so far it's hands down the most stacked AX series this year), but just didn't put himself in good position on the first lap to be in a qualifying spot.  You almost had to play chess on the first lap to make passes.  Riding smart and letting the race come to you worked out for Luke in a couple gate drops, and there were plenty of instances of charging from the get go both working out and causing pile ups.  It seemed like passes once the first lap crazyness settled were a little uncommon.  Something cool on the Doc front: He'll be spending a couple of months at South of the Border.  Initially he wanted to stay at Club MX, but I think he was expecting a bit more affordable pricing and ultimately they would have him on a wait list anyway as they are full.  South of the Border has a supercross track, but you're a bit more on your own as far as a riding coach and training program goes, but he also gets to stay in the motel at SotB for less than the track fees were at Club.  Funny enough, he will actually be saving money by being at South of the Border and commuting to the Partzilla races compared to staying at home in Texas, finding a supercross track to ride for $100/day, and commuting back and forth to tracks and the races.  Hopefully he has a good experience out there and can pick up some wisdom from the other riders.

Back home, we got graphics in for the General Tire series bikes, and Caden Braswell's race bike got suspension built.  With Caden not having Suzuki experience, he turned to local Arkansas tuner (he's going to school in Arkadelphia) RJH.  Ray got him a setup, and has really gone all in on getting this thing dialed.  Ray definitely has OCD, and frankly I think that's a good thing when you're building suspension.  I'm excited to get his feedback on the bike and start loading it up with a few more goodies (pipe, hinson clutch, piston, etc.).  So far, Caden really likes the Suzuki 450 though.  He says it corners amazing and doesn't push or knife the front end.  He compared the engine to the previous generation Kawi 450, with that high inertia crank feel and torque-y power curve.  I'm excited to see the boys race in the GT series (Whispern Smith, Branden Walther, and Caden Braswell as full time GT regulars, with guest appearances from the Partzilla crew).  I'll be able to make it to a fair amount of the GT series, so don't hesitate to say howdy to a fellow vitalian if you see a tall dude next to a bunch of Suzuki's or setting random people's holeshot devices (it's my only talent).

Just got a text from the promoter of the General Tire series of a detailed breakdown of the payout. 



There’s some pretty cool stuff going on with this series. This and Partzilla are pretty similar in the premier championship class, although this pays through 14th in the main, and top 3 in the “B-Main” consolation race. That might not amount to much, but speaking as a former broke college student racing every little bit helps. 

Another cool thing is the top rookie program. My understanding is a rider must be 21 or under and never raced a main event in the GT series. Whispern falls in that category and technically Caden Braswell does too. I suggested to the promoter to add a stipulation that nobody who’s raced Supercross is eligible for that reason. I’m curious to see who else comes out to make their pro ax debut. I know a kid from Arkansas, Hudson Leonard, is planning on doing just that to get some experience without his family taking a second mortgage out to travel the series. 

The duels are kind of a tried and true program that I think adds some value to the evening program. Kicker series did it via a fan vote to pick the riders, which had its own flaws as there was one night two kids got voted in and just goon rode for 2 laps, and then it turned into whoever the event manager picked, plus Breece who complained he wasn’t paid enough so they put him in the duel every night to earn more money a couple seasons ago. Last year kicker got it right, by running winners of heats with top 3 from the stark class. The format works when you have heavy hitters going all out in a sprint. There’s enough on the line to go for it, but not enough to do something stupid and throw away the rest of the night or championship. 

Perhaps my favorite addition is the hard charger award. In talking with the promoter, he was tired of guys not pushing to move forward in a heat race, a lot of them would just roll around after the start. So now, in each heat race the person making the most passes makes an extra $150. That’s a dang good little bump and certainly worth making a couple pass attempts. 

Our next race weekend will be a double header, with the GT guys at Claremore OK and the partzilla squad in Florida. The fact that both series have a great product to offer amateurs and pros alike definitely makes me hopeful for the future of the minor league to supercross. 

I'm not sure what's creepier about his AI photo, the mustache or the third leg on the nurse! He's in good spirits though, and as luck would have it, Partzilla postponed this weekend's race due to staffing issues with the venue.  

From my understanding, the Arena manager called them and said they could pull off this weekend, but hiring a different crew to run the arena due to the government shutdown would mean less experienced workers and a higher overhead, so they actually encouraged the promoter to reschedule for February.  No biggie, just means we get to focus on the General Tire series this weekend and Goober Groves gets another week to recover.  Josh Carson is coming down to join the boys at the GT series this weekend, and I wrapped up those bike builds over the weekend.  I'm excited to see how everyone stacks up in the GT series this weekend in Claremore.  Fingers crossed, I should be there myself as well to hang out.  I'll bring my camera and try to get some good shots of the other racers' bikes as well.  All of the AX series' have a pretty good selection of nicely built bikes on a reasonable budget.  Since they're all essentially privateer level builds, it's a good display of what an average consumer could do for the best bang for their buck.  Stay tuned, I'll do my best RupertX style pit report photos, and try to get a writeup from some of the other racers about their builds (regardless of what sponsors they may be running).

If anyone's headed to round 1 of General Tire this weekend, swing by and grab a Motosport outlet gift card, or scan our QR code in the pit area for your next Motosport order!  Motosport has been kind enough to get us an affiliate link to help us earn some funds, but I don't want to cross the line here on Vital by posting the link here.  Frankly, it would feel wrong to put that here since Vital as a whole generates way more traffic than this one thread.  I'm doing my best to not spam the forum and not asking for any partnerships on here, but rather generate interest by showing some behind the scenes stuff.

Round one of GT Arenacross

Round one and two took place in Claremore, Oklahoma this weekend and it may have been their biggest pro turnout ever (I don’t know enough of the series history to make that claim, but it’s at least up there).  There were over 50 pro entries on Friday, with some big names.  Max Shane and and Owen Covell were there, fresh off B class titles at Loretta Lynn’s, Supercross main event guys John Short and Izaiah Clark, AX specialists like Carter Gordon, Ben Nelko, and last year’s champion were all out in force.  My wife had to pick up a shift at the hospital to cover for a coworker, so I’d only be there for Friday night, then drive 4.5 hours back to get an hour of sleep and hang out with the boss (my toddler) on Saturday.

Branden was the only rider on our team who’s raced this series before, so I looked to him to kind of keep everyone on schedule throughout the day and understand the format.  Caden didn’t realize that pro practices run back-to-back, so you go straight back to staging after your first qualifying run… As a result, he got one lap in on his second session, landing him 14th in qualifying.  Branden was in a slower group, and yellow flags never stopped waving.  He thought they’d red flag the practice, but nope.  Regardless, his lap time with him OBLITERATING every berm but either having to roll the whoops or double a rhythm section to dodge the carnage still netted him 18th in qualifying.  His speed is so impressive, when watching qualifying even Caden turned to me with wide eyes as Branden would rail the berms on the 250.  Whispern Smith was racing his first AX as a pro, and maybe 3rd one ever.  He hit the ground hard in the whoops and had a swollen wrist, banged up shoulder, and bruise on his forehead from the impact as I believe the bars smashed him in the goggle area.  He survived qualifying, albeit in 32nd, and raced his way into the night show.  Josh Carson was disappointed with himself, as he found himself on the outside looking in for the night show.  Thankfully, the promoter allows those guys to race the B main against the guys who made the night show but didn’t make the main.

In the heats, things were looking promising.  Caden got a second place start behind Max Shane despite his gate pick, and even showed him a wheel and looked to have the pass for the lead made on two laps.  He didn’t quite have that killer instinct to push him to the top of the berm to seal the deal, and instead Ben Nelko snuck around him relegating him to third.  Regardless, great first showing with 4 rides on the RMZ450.  Branden was the other highlight in the heats, and honestly he’s a constant highlight reel.  With 9th gate pick, and sandwiched by all 450’s, he exited the first turn on his practice bike RMZ250 (more on that later, totally my goof) in 3rd!  He ran the pace for the first few laps keeping Clark and Harmon in sight, until his arms pumped up.  He knows he has work to do on stamina as he’s been off the bike for 2 years, but it was great to see the speed didn’t go anywhere.  He faded back but was eager to make it happen in the LCQ.  Whispern seemed to ride showing the effects of the crash, although he did show signs of improvement in the whoops. 

The LCQ was a wild ride for Branden.  He bobbled in the first turn and exited in 4th, needing 2nd or better to get a spot in the main.  He made quick work of Thomas Ralston, alumni of this team and friend of mine, and did so in a typical AX block pass in a 180 bowl corner.  He aimed for ⅔ of the way through the bowl, and took the run away.  Is it annoying to have someone do that? Sure, but kind of par for the course.  Thomas fell down, and retaliated while a lap down, plowing Branden in the same corner.  Me and Thomas’ dad just looked at each other shaking our heads, but that’s AX.  I talked to Thomas about it after, honestly thinking it was funny and it’s not like it changed the course of history.

In the B mains, Branden was eager to show he belongs in the A main, and Josh wanted to redeem himself, while Whispern was in survival mode.  Branden came from 3rd to 2nd, passing Josh who got a great start with an outside gate for 2nd.  Josh slipped back to 5th, but was holding his own with guys like Ace Enloe who finished 10th in the series last year.  I believe Whispern finished 4th or 5th in his B main as well, as his focus was mainly gain confidence in the whoops that bit him earlier.

In the A main, Caden ran a steady 6th in the first one, and 7th in the second.  He’s frustrated, because as nice of a person as he is he HATES losing.  I can’t relate to that, as I simply do not have that dog in me, but I’m happy to help him get to the front and hopefully enjoy riding and racing.  He did say he had fun, and had a lot of ideas to tighten up our raceday program, not just for him but the whole team.  

After the race I joined Caden for Waffle House and downed enough coffee to possibly cause some cardiac issues before driving back to DFW.

On Saturday, Caden qualified 7th, Whispern took the honors of being the next guy this time in 18th, and it was Branden’s turn to hit the ground in the whoops, landing him in 21st.  Josh qualified in 37th, but the promoter decided with 47 riders to add an extra heat to accommodate everyone.  The loose program of format changes ruffled some riders’ feathers, but honestly I appreciate the effort to accommodate the guys still learning and progressing.  It’s hard to grow your talent if you’re turning them away after two 8 minute sessions on a track.

Caden got another 3rd in a heat race, while Branden wrecked BIG going for a triple out of the first rhythm, ending his night.  Whispern was a couple spots behind Branden when that happened and missed the main.  Josh got his feet wet racing the faster style of tracks in GT arenacross, and while he actually did better on night 

one in the B main, he learned a lot and is going to head back to PA and get some more practice in with Ben Nelko.

The first turn was rough for Caden, as he tried outside gates to sweep around.  It almost worked, as his jump out of the gate in one start put him a bike length ahead of everyone… but unfortunately the top guys on the inside going straight just pushed him wide.  He was upset with his 10-10 finish on Saturday, but the fire is lit for the rest of the season.

Tough Breaks:

There was some carnage throughout the weekend, John Short being a notable one.  His chain and or shock broke on Friday night, sending him over the bars in the same area Branden wrecked.  

Branden was supposed to race a bike with a works JGR motor… I pulled a JGR customer spec motor out of the frame of that bike and installed one with a long rod and works head (I assembled the bottom end).  Something is off about the bottom end, and while nothing is broken I need to bite the bullet and send it to Dean so he can tell me what I did wrong.  I offered to put the customer spec motor back in early in the week, but Branden said he was happy to race the practice bike he’d been riding and to not worry for this weekend.  He put an over 80 hour bike up front almost every time he hit the track and had a lot of people talking about the Suzuki’s.  Thanks Branden! (I’ve already refreshed the customer spec JGR engine and it’s getting broken in this week, and the other one is headed to Baker Speed).

Cool Stories of the weekend:

I had never heard of Cain Larson, but he flew threw the pack on Friday night in main one to come from way back to almost pass for the lead at the finish line.  Who the heck is this kid?  Last year he was hovering around 10th and sometimes not making mains with half the field.  Kudos to you, Mr. Larson, for figuring something out!

I also got to meet a fellow Vitalian, Mike Burkeen, and swap some Dirt Bike Mike stories.  Mike is one of probably 20 people who came up to tell me Caden was like a second child to them.  I can’t imagine the stress of being an AMA official at Arenacross, but he handles it well.  I also bumped into Robert Reynard Sr., who I always look forward to seeing in Oklahoma.  He’s got so much knowledge and cool stories, I could listen to him talk about bikes for hours.  Speaking of bike tuners, I also ran info Rydane from Merge Racing.  It sounds like they’re preparing to put a couple of riders in SMX Next on RMZ250’s, which is cool to hear.

Aftermath from Branden’s crash in the rhythm section.

Caden’s never-ending crowd throughout the night.

Whispern and his parents are very close knit, and not in the obnoxious self-serving way we often see in the sport.  I enjoyed seeing them work together on Friday.

Second weekend of GT Arenacross:

Firstly, we had several things come up and unfortunately won’t have anyone at the Macon ground of the Partzilla series. Cody is out healing his shoulder, Luke is doing the same (although a much less severe injury), Josh got an offer to go ride GT Arenacross and get paid to do it so I told him he’d be stupid not to, and Doc decided to race some contingency races to save up some money to be able to continue to train and prepare for east coast SX. It’s the first time in four years we don’t have anyone at a round we committed to, and frankly I hate it. Really, I hate it because Bobby (promoter of the Partzilla series) has gone above and beyond rolling out the red carpet for us. There’s a reason his series is STACKED with 250 supercross talent, it’s because he listens to the riders. Rest assured, us skipping Macon wasn’t a reflection on the series at all. 

Ok, on to Lebanon notes. 

Coming in, Branden Walther has been getting a lot of gym time in (burning off the love handles from 2 years off of racing) and a little seat time. He’s also gotten several epoxy flooring jobs lately keeping him busy. 

Caden spent thanksgiving in Florida with his family, then went to his girlfriend’s college graduation in Nevada, which combined with the rain in Arkansas meant not much riding taking place. Regardless, he felt confident he’d do better this week with some experience racing in this series. 

Whispern has had some time to get his suspension better setup, as he went to round one with an outdoor setting (not expecting the whoops to be a separator). 

Friday, Caden cut it close getting there on time (he had finals this week and next) and got put in a later practice session. With some traffic, he was only able to log 14th fastest time. Whispern followed him to log a similar time in 18th, and Branden struggled with the tighter turns at this arena and came in with a 23rd. In the heat races, Caden put it straight into the main, and showed more speed while running up front where he belongs. Whispern was a victim of a pileup and would go to the LCQ, and Branden was having a hard time finding his flow in traffic in both heat and LCQ. 

In the B main, Branden figured it out and checked out. The speed difference was pretty substantial, as he put as much as 1.5 seconds a lap on second place. He just needs to get it in the A main where he belongs! Whispern’s first lap crash-up derby continued, running into another rider off the start. 

Caden rode a quiet pair of main events in 9th and 11th, needing to find some aggression. He got roughed up a bit, some of which came from his good friend, proving the point of what to expect. 

Night two got off to a better start from Caden, putting in 3rd best lap time in qualifying and winning his heat race! In a 9 lap heat, with 19 second lap times, he put a 5.5 second gap on second place. That’s rolling!  In the first main, he started fourth and ran there until getting passed on the last lap. The second main he got caught in some carnage on lap one and just never really moved forward. Right now he’s very start dependent until he starts bumping elbows and not relying on flowing through his corners. It really is a different style of racing. 

Branden was running strong in his heat, just outside of a transfer spot when he endoed off a triple. That meant last gate pick for the lcq, which doesn’t typically bode well either. Unable to make enough passes, he went to the B main again. He finally figured out starts, ripping a holeshot from the furthest inside gate (it’s essentially do or die there, you have to get a jump and cut over immediately to not launch off the finish line jump landing). He and Caden came up with the idea of running more slack in the clutch lever, so his short fingers would be able to release the clutch quicker off the start, and apparently it worked amazingly well. He went on to ride his own race and walk away from the field again, putting in the fastest time in the B main again, and a lap time that would have been top 10 range in the A main. I know he doesn’t want to be in these B mains, but he’s finishing out motos without getting tired anymore, and most importantly, he’s smiling from ear to ear afterwards, so I’m happy. 

Whispern’s night was plagued by bad starts again. Yes, getting caught in the carnage sucks, but the way to avoid it is partly luck, and partly to be out front. If we were racing outdoors I’d put Whispern up against anyone in the series, but he’s got to learn the race craft needed to consistently survive opening laps and make passes and not fall in line behind slower riders, and more importantly, quit starting behind the guys he’s faster than.

Some cool positives:

Team camaraderie seems great. Everyone worked together, bounced ideas off each other, and helped each other at the line. A team that feels like a team is always nice, and we had that this weekend. The boys hung out a bit together after the race as well, and I think the atmosphere is only going to continue to improve when Cody Groves joins us next month. 

Josh Carson, who left to hop on a ride that included some more financial help, qualified straight for the night show both nights (I believe 28th and 29th) and pulled a great start in the LCQ on night two to hang on to 2nd place and earn a spot in the main event! I genuinely like Josh as a person, so even though he’s on another bike I’m happy to see him have a good weekend. 

Four podium interviews! With Caden’s heat win and head to head win, and Branden’s two B main wins the boys put Suzukis in the spotlight a decent amount over the weekend. 

The improvement plan for the next round is: Get Caden more seat time and maybe practice cutting down in corners instead of his preferred smooth radius turning. I know it’s not as fast, but it helps make passes and defend. Branden’s plan is similar in that he needs more seat time, but also A) keep a 53 tooth rear handy for when the arena forces tighter turns like this weekend, and play with clutch spring pressure and plate stack to get more bite and a shorter clutch pull to help with starts. All three of the guys come from racing Austrian bikes with hydraulic clutches, so I’m wondering if replicating that “on-off” feel of one might help them feel more at home. On the other hand, Doc Smith has re-installed a judder spring to make a longer clutch pull to help with his starts. It’s all about dialing it in for the rider at the end of the day. The other half of the improvement plan is practicing tighter turns than what they have been. When the arena floor is small, the turns almost feel like something you’d encounter in a harescramble more than a moto track.

Some cell phone pics before I drop some professional quality ones (the good cell phone pics are courtesy of Crutcher):

Ok, now some professional quality photos courtesy of Angie Heinold, who handles the series photography:

My favorite part of this shot is the dirt flying off as Branden is in the corner. It sums up his riding style, he's a lot of fun to watch ride.  By comparison, no dirt flying from the other two (who outqualified him in fairness)

Whispern is heated after this weekend, with a ton of motivation to improve.  I love it, no excuses from any of the boys, just accountability and a plan of action.

See ya next time!

Some more pics, courtesy of series photographer Angie Heinold.  Full disclosure, I'm sure I'm missing a million story lines here, as I was at home watching timing and hearing stories second hand.

It was the Isaiah Clark show this weekend, as he won 3 of 4 main events and got second in the only one he lost.  Isaiah has always been super nice to me and any of the guys I've helped racing, so I enjoy seeing him do well.  I chose this pic of him because I feel it shows he wasn't following the same super-inside line as everyone else, he was going to make it happen one way or another.

 Ben Nelko pictured, using every square inch of the first turn to carry an insane amount of momentum.

Carter Gordon's opening ceremonies.  I feel like this series does a great job of meshing the amateur program with a good looking pro-production.  

Jake Preston came over from the UK to race the first 4 rounds.  He does very well in the UK arenacross series, so it was great to have another name like his to add validity to the lineup.  Shoutout to 405 Mods for helping him get a bike ready for these.  You may notice a LOT of guys in this series with 405 stickers on their suspension.  Dylan Matheny probably handles suspension tuning duties for 1/3 of the main event on any given night.

2025 450 B Loretta Lynn's champion, Max Shane #79, getting the business from Carter Gordon.  He's been mixing it up with the AX vets to get valuable experience before SMX Next, or futures, or whatever they call it these days.

Cain Larson (983) Carter Stevenson (824) and Caden on the start of the 1vs1vs1 race, where they take each heat race winner and throw them in a 3 lap sprint for an extra championship point and $200.  Caden continued his good Saturday with a win in this as well.

Holy cow I thought I’d given a few more updates, my apologies. I’ll try to go through my notes from the last few. 

Anyway, I was able to attend the first night of Mesquite round tonight, and will be there again today if anyone wants to swing by the pit area by the concessions and grab a $20 motosport outlet gift card. 

Night one in Mesquite we had Branden Walther’s rejoining the series after having a client stiff him on a garage epoxy bill causing him to miss a few. He was excited to get back to racing and clicked off some fast laps in timed qualifying, posting an 11th overall in the first session and 13th by the second session. Not bad for having to fight through the B group traffic and being one of the only 250’s. He struggled with the quad into the rhythm section, but man his corner speed is fun to watch when he has a clear track and can carry his momentum. Caden posted 7th fastest lap times and was happy with his new suspension setting from RJH suspension in Arkansas. 

As the night show started we met some guests who Kwikset invited out who ride some moto but also race the Texas off road stuff. It was a lot of fun and one of them even jumped in to help out with changing a fork guard for Branden after his heat race. 

In the night show, Branden’s fork guard ripped off on the line for the heat but he put his head down and battled for the last transfer spot. He was edged out by AX regular Preston Taylor. Caden put in a strong second place finish in his heat behind Izaih Clark. It looked like he maybe found some speed to chip away (inches, but against Clark that’s a lot!) the first 3 laps, but then backed it down a bit when #55 Dandre Roos hit the deck HARD in the start straight. Glad Dandre got up and lived to fight another day, he and Izaih were our pit neighbors and are a lot of fun to hang around in a tense environment. 

Speaking of nice guys in the pits, shout out to my boy Wyatt Reimer. He brought us our backdrop that got left in Oklahoma and is quietly putting together another solid top 10 season aboard his 405 mods Husky. Dylan (405 owner) must do something right because about 1/3 of any GT main event is on his suspension. Wyatt went on to put in another top 10 finish in the mains. Happy to see that for him as an alumni of the team, and as a friend. Also winning nice guy award was Cain Larson and his dad. They helped me set Caden’s holeshot device on the line moments before racing him clean all night. Super happy to see the progression he’s made in the last few years. I’m a fan. 

Speaking of the mains, PHEW main one was carnage. Caden got a second place start and found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time more often than not, getting caught behind several crashes and stalling the ol’ big bird once trying to stop in the whoops to avoid a downed Carter Gordon (who it sounds like suffered a broken tib/fib). He came off the track in 9th I think. Nelko and Larson made what appeared to be clean passes on the defending champ in the first turn, and both times got put on the ground in the following corner. They didn’t look like “I’m gonna hurt this guy” slams, just more like “why would you leave the door open for that guy in the following corner?” Meanwhile, daddy Hicks put on a clinic at the front. Clark was close to him until falling in the whoops. As the evening went on, the track was getting hard packed and moisture was coming up, making it super slick. 

I didn’t catch the head to head races, my apologies, we were getting Branden ready for the second main event. He narrowly missed the transfer spot in the lcq against alessi and Brandon Sipple and was very frustrated. Following Carter Gordon’s crash, the promoter asked Branden to race the A main, so he jumped in and forewent the B main. 

The second main event was fairly calm by AX standards, I wonder if everyone just wanted to survive after that first one! Hicks checked out, Harmon held off a few runs from Nelko before they settled in, and Alessi clicked off consistent laps in the front of a 3 rider train of him, Caden, and Larson. Larson made some runs at Caden but all were very clean and courteous, and the gap over the three would expand and shrink from lap to lap based on traffic. While they were playing chess, Izaih caught them bought ran out of time to make a pass. That’s a solid testament to the depth at the front, when a guy who dominated a weekend a few weeks ago is 7th a few weeks later. 

The event itself was great as always. They put on a good show with Kenny Bartram doing a freestyle show in addition to the usual wheelie king Brian Jackson performance. We were pitted by the vendors and caught them and the casual fans (not with racers) asking us questions and remarking how cool it was and getting pics of the bikes. From a fan engagement perspective, I’d take having a pit setup next to the concessions any day of the week. Shoutout to the promoter for maintaining order as well. Without getting into too much detail, he could have easily said “well I’m not addressing the guy with an entourage who’s been drinking and shouting all day” but he reigned him in without causing altercation. That sounds like a simple task in civilized society, but hey, it’s Arenacross. 

Speaking of Kenny Bartram, I shook his hand and shared a @dirtbikemike story about him. He perked up and said Mike used to tell him “smile when you ride”. We shared stories about how DBM above all always pushes the purpose of riding is fun, and Kenny teaches that to kids he does lessons with and even his son who’s a college prospect football player. I don’t know why, but that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. 

Ok, some pics from the phone from night one. The track itself was pretty simple but looked really fun.

Wyatt Reimer and his 405 Mods scoot. They’re doing different graphics for each round with a different title sponsor each weekend, this time Fuel. They also have a giveaway bike you can sign up for. 

Ray at RJH has gone WILD with the attention to detail on Caden’s bike. Coated lowers, xtrig clamps, two sets of suspension to try, Dubya wheels, steel brake lines, and some time spent getting the clutch to release like a KTM are just the tip of the iceberg on his bike. 

There was a raffle for a pastrana 450, and as a 6’5” Suzuki fan, I may have caught myself drooling over it. 

Alessi was here, pitted with RedLine oil. He was fast all day, competitive with Hicks even. His heat race went awry with a flat tire on lap one while leading (alessi holeshot, SHOCKER). It’s cool to see him still love racing at this stage in life. 

Clark and Roos were hidden under the bleachers by our setup, and I expect them to both rebound tonight. You can’t keep good dudes down. 

Team camaraderie is great amongst Branden and Caden, and it’s fun to see. Also enjoyed having my dad (AKA Caden’s “roomie”) at the races and he got to be a part of someone at the front of the pack’s day (I can’t say I ever accomplished that lol).

Cain is ENTIRELY too nice haha.  He played cat and mouse in the last main with Caden for almost all 14 laps, and finally gently nudged him in the last turn for 5th.  He apologized to Caden, and Caden said next time if you don't push me out of the way sooner I'm going to be mad! 

Night two in Mesquite was great for us, as Kwikset brought out a dozen or so guests and had a catered suite, the boys rode well, and we were able to give out 180 shirts to happy fans and somewhere just shy of 1000 motosport outlet gift cards. Special thank you to Kwikset for inviting some families out to experience the races, and giving us the opportunity for so many families to leave with a cool souvenir. We may have even given a few shirts out to fellow pros at the event. If a DFW company is interested in taking some clients out, the Mesquite round is great. The weekend event sponsorship package (for the series, not my team btw) gets you the usual exposure around the arena, but also a nice suite with an excellent view of all the action to be able to see the whole track and hold a conversation without shouting. Here’s a view of the whoops from the suite, check out the blue groove!

Onto the racing news, the day started fairly uneventful. Caden noticed while lubing his chain the rear disc was bent, possibly what caused his stalling in Friday’s main. A quick swap to his spare wheel and all was well. The boys went into the night show 9th and 11th in times. Caden doesn’t stress qualifying, and Branden was putting that time in from group B and on one of the few 250’s in the field (ie: he wasn’t pulling the big rhythm after casing it Friday). 

In the heats, Caden started and finished behind Alessi. Mike has a bit more “point and shoot” style in the arena that makes it tough to capitalize even if Caden does make up time with his momentum. Branden was riding a solid 4th (last transfer spot) inching away from 5th when he pulled a big gap when 5th didn’t do the big rhythm one lap (that was the thing keeping 5th close as Branden was significantly faster elsewhere). Just as I started to breathe easy, Branden did a 180 before the whoops from getting on the gas so hard and lost the position. No biggie, he’d cruise through the lcq to put it in the a main in his hometown AX. 

In the first main Caden got caught in some bumper cars on lap one, bringing him around in 12th on lap one with Branden two spots back after starting on the second row. They picked off a few riders getting to 11th and 9th with Branden being able to latch on to Caden before a tip over for Branden. He spun out again entering the whoops, and another rider ran over the front end as he was sliding down, chopping off the fender. Traction seemed to be the main issue for every one, as it made passing very tricky even if you made up time. Hicks was the man on the move, going from 6th to 1st. 

In the second main Caden ripped an awesome start, rounding the first turn in second behind Alessi once again. While he was trying to figure out where to make a move, Hicks made the pass on him and Harmon got by as well. Izaih Clark got by around the halfway point and it looked like things had settled, with Caden and Cain Larson having a few moments of showing a wheel, but keeping it squeaky clean. In the last corner, Cain made another attempt after Caden lost a little drive from a lapper and their lines came together pushing Caden off the track. With no way to re-enter he rode alongside the track up the finish line as Ben Nelko tried to capitalize and pass as well. Honestly, I thought they’d give Nelko the pass since Caden was unable to go between the finish line arches, but they credited him with the spot since the transponder still caught it. Branden plugged away from his second row start to go from 15th to 12th. 

Cain came over to Caden to apologize, and Caden said something along the lines of “why?!? I’m sorry I held you up, next time you better move me out of the way sooner!”  It’s a fun group racing the series, and makes it easy to root for guys on other teams. 

Over the course of the weekend we broke a few parts finally, but thankfully it was just minor stuff. A fork guard, front fender, and a rear brake disc are pretty minor considering we haven’t really had parts fail yet on race day (we did have a sprocket bolt take out a hub pre-season, and a chain slider wear out on Caden’s 450). 

We did try a few setting changes on Caden’s bike. Namely sag to compliment the new fork setting, and 14/52 gearing to free up the chassis. Stock is 13/50, so it’s actually a ratio with more top speed (ratio would equal a 13/48.2. A drastic swing in power delivery from the 13/52 we started with, but his starts are as good as ever if not better, and the added leverage the gearing gives the wheel over the engine during engine braking makes the bike feel more “two stroke like” on off throttle situations. We have mapping options to get some snap back, as well as a high compression piston, but he’s declined them. 

Some random phone photos from Saturday:

The SPF Yamaha crew may have the most factory looking pit setup and gear (we like fasthouse because we know we aren’t factory, we’re fun), so for those guys to swing by and grab some shirts was nice. They went with a red and white setup on their Yamahas for the second half of the season. 

The man behind 405 mods, Dylan Matheny

Ray at RJH Suspension dialing in Caden’s sag using a sweet slacker tool, with his mini-me there to help. Speaking of Ray’s suspension, peep the blue tubes! Drooooool

That's all I got for now, I'll drop a few real professional photos here in the next day or two once Angie updates the drop box.

Thanks everyone!