Vital Buzz

Mike LaRocco. Click for a larger photo.

Sitting here in the Vital MX offices, there’s a heavy smell of smoke, and it seems like half of So. Cal. is on fire. Yeah, that might sound like a bit of an exaggeration, but the last we’d heard, there were in the order of 16 different blazes, covering a large area of Southern California.

We’re in the midst of one of our annual doses of Santa Ana winds, which are good for 2-3 days of gusty blasts…gusts anywhere from 40-70 miles per hour. Mix that in with super-dry conditions, and you get a recipe for disaster.

One fire close to Glen Helen caused the track to be closed down yesterday. But unfortunately, not before Mike LaRocco crashed, leaving him with a cast on each arm.

What really sucks is that while some of these fires were the result of accidents (downed power lines or flipped-over semis), at least one, the one closest to our offices in Irvine, was the result of arson.

Speaking of man-made disasters, did you catch the U.S. Open on CBS last weekend? While it did have a bit of…okay, a lot of an infomercial feel to it, it’s still always cool to see motocross or Supercross on network TV. Scheduling a good time across the entire country is tough, though. Some viewers reported that it was pre-empted in their area by college football.

Fortunately, the race was on Saturday instead of Sunday in So. Cal., where even the NASCAR Martinsville race was pre-empted for news coverage of the fires.

The ability for the rest of the country to see the first turn in Saturday night’s main event re-ignited the debate over who was at fault in the huge first-turn pile-up. Go online to any message board, and you’re likely to find guys backing up (or blaming) Tim Ferry and some doing the same for Chad Reed. Our vote for whose fault it was? Benjamin…Franklin, that is. With the trifecta to go for, Chad had a whole lot of reasons to be going for the holeshot, and only one chance to do it. Maybe he also thought Timmy would be as easy to move out of the way as he was on Friday night, as well.

The final round of the All-Japan National series wrapped up on Sunday at Sportsland Sugo. Team Jubilo Yamaha’s Akira Narita wrestled the number one plate away from Yoshitaka Atsuta, finishing 40 points ahead in the final tally.

Andrew Short.

The fastest rider of the day however, was Team Honda’s Andrew Short, to went 1-1, finishing ahead of Narita in both motos. Ryuichiro Takahama was third overall. Was Shorty riding a normal 450 with a carb, or a fuel-injected 450? We haven't heard for sure, one way or another.

Belgian Steve Ramon took the 25th Anniversary Weston Beach race in the UK, topping New Zealander Josh Coppins, and Brad Anderson. The main race starts over 1200 rider, and it sounds like quite the event. For more, you can check out these videos:

In off-road action a little closer to home, the WORCS series raced on Pismo Beach last weekend, and a pair of part-time MXers topped the charts, with Bobby Garrison (Yamaha) taking the win, ahead of Ricky Dietrich’s Kawasaki. Justin Soulé rounded out the podium on a KTM.

Kurt Caselli (KTM) was a DNF on the day, but still leads the Championship chase with 201 points, to Nathan Woods’ 193, and Robby Bell’s 183. They have one round left, in Taft, CA, on November 3rd and 4th.

We’ve always said that we don’t really dig this time of year, partly because of the lack of races, but partly because it seems like bad things happen, as guys try to either learn Supercross, make the transition back to SX after some time off, or to step up their game for the upcoming season. Take for example Ryan Villopoto’s crash (and collection of injuries) last week, or Austin Stroupe’s crash over the weekend that will leave him sidelined for a bit. We hate ambulance-chasing, so we try to stay out of that business…but wish both guys speedy recoveries.

Don't forget to click the following link to check out the Ride Report on the '08 Suzuki RM-Z250.

Oh yeah…keep an eye on Vital MX this week for a cool way to grab a sticker pack that will include some of our new Vital MX stickers. Don’t forget to tell a friend.

And like we’ve mentioned a couple times in the past, version 2.0 of Vital MX is coming soon. We’ve heard some of your likes and dislikes, and think you’ll find some cool new items throughout the site, including the photo galleries, which should be a much better overall experience.

Okay, here’s an end to a weird day (did I mention the mid-afternoon power outage at the office?) A rather large hawk just tried flying into the second-story office window here at Vital MX. Instead of a safe landing place, there was a loud bang that left both him and us a bit rattled. Instead of a tasty rat lunch (the to-go item that he was carrying in his talons), he ended up with a big headache, and a rather wobbly escape. Let’s be careful out there, gang.