Getting Lapped By A Pro...

Honda park 2017, got lapped a couple of times by this old guy on a ktm, number 72

I didn't get lapped, but was out riding Mammoth in maybe 2000. It was just me on my Yz 250 and some kid riding an 80 on the track that day. Back then Mammoth would open up in June and it was free reign, pick up a hose and start watering.

In the last sweeper turn before the finish line table top, the kid comes in and stuffs me. Turns out the kid was Mike Alessi!

the title said getting lapped by a pro, not getting lapped by god.

Blake Baggett lapped me in the mud at Glen Helen in 07



then he crashed and here's a picture of me unlapping myself

He blew by me about 100 feet later going into the talladega

I get lapped by 8 year olds on 65s. Might as well be RV.

MC over a triple at LACR Day in The Dirt.

i'm still hard from that one

Last winter, in the sand at Grevenbroich. Not a race but man, did J.Herlings fly by me. It was like I was standing still; I probably was...

1978/79 ?? National Qualifier at Silver Sands , South Carolina . 101* with high humidity, many guys had to pull over before the moto's end due to heat exhaustion, and one of my buddies actually suffered from heat stroke at that race. Anyway, I got a decent start was running top 10 I figured, riding at what I thought was a good pace. A little past half way thru the moto , I entered the long sandy whoop section and thought I had that section dialed pretty good. About 4 whoops in I heard the very distinctive sound of a wide open 250 and out of the corner of my left eye , I caught a glimpse of the front end of a YZ and just that quick a skinny dude with a little bit of blonde hair flapping out of the back of his helmet blew by me AT LEAST 1 gear higher and got thru that section before I was 2/3's the way thru. And although its been 40 years and my memory is not as sharp as it once was, I remember that his feet weren't on the pegs during most of that 200 foot whoop section. That "skinny dude" of course was The Hurricane ,and it was at THAT very moment that I realized that I was not destined to make a living at this Pro Motocross deal, lol.

doug henry got me last year at open practice at Southwick. Blew by me like I was in first gear

Lots of good ones. In '03 I raced the +30 Intermediate class at a GFI race at Sunrise in Adelanto. They paired us with 250 Pro and Vet Expert; pros went first, vets went on the 2nd gate. Mike Alessi, all 98 Lbs. of him, lapped me twice on his CRF450! Twice!

Another great one was at Glen Helen, although I don't know who it was who lapped me; I raced a dual-gate race as a +30 Int on my 125. We started behind the 125 pros. Late in the race I had just caught a guy in my class as one of the 125 pros caught and lapped me (It might have been Sean Collier, now that I think about it...) Anyway, as a courtesy, we vets move over for the faster classes coming through and the guy in my class who I was about to battle heard my 125, must have assumed I was a pro coming through, and moved right over for me. Thanks!!!!

It wasn't a race, but 1992, Marysville Riverfront track, week before Hangtown, Steve Lamson goes by, then Guy Cooper, then Brian Swink. I pulled off the track, got water, hung out for a while, went back out on track and all three guys went by again. Pretty badass

Racing the Grass Track Fall race at RedBud, riding the pit bike race dressed as a UPS man (costumes are welcome) and running second to Jeff Stanton, who I think is long gone ahead of me towards the end of the race. Only he wasn't. He was behind me, about to lap me, and I didn't know until we came to a left-handed corner, and he tapped me on my left shoulder like he was inside of me. Instead, he was on the outside, wide open, passing me while reaching across with his clutch hand and tapping me on the shoulder! It was embarrassing, and also pretty damn cool.

DC
Racer X

1977/78 lapped by Magoo and Darrel Schultz at Plymouth. Moto was barely 3/4 of the way done. There were those guys, and then the rest of us.

I believe it was 1981 at Mammoth Mountain in the 125 pro main event... It was the year that Warren Reid swept all 3 classes. Mammoth is a long track and we were running 45 minute mains. I qualified 18th and finished 19th out of 40 as I recall... There were multiple factory riders, but Reid led start to finish and lapped up to 10th place. What made it worse? He was right behind me when I took the white flag to put me down a second lap.... Dude was ON IT!

Rob Herring (RM250) - Seven Hills Moto Parc, 1990

Mike Brown (CR125) - Golding Barn, 1999

Both gave a perfect illustration of how fast a bike could be ridden when someone talented was on it.

Happy memories.

2016, training in dorno, Gianluca Facchetti whipped his bike right in my face on the finish line jump (30+meters long). I tought we were going to collide god damn.

I remember one of my first times riding a big bike on a motocross track, Kyle Cunningham was lapping me in open practice at village creek in north Texas

Ivan Tedesco at 3 Palms back in 05 when we got the first RMZ 450s.

I would cut the track and try to figure out what he was doing as the place was empty.

Same thing with Vernon McKiddie and Jeff Dement, same year Maestro Suzuki's at Splendora during the week. I was a top 10 +30 B class guy and there was no comparison.

I think their brain can process faster than mine as the bikes were similar. 128MB RAM VS. 8MB.

My buddy in the 70's was a local pro who made it to a few top races, where I wrenched for him. My first race was one of the Marathons that Sand Hill used to run back then; basically a two hour moto on a longer track, maybe 3-4 miles, all classes at once, akin to hare scrambles but incorporating the MX track. Pretty fun events and you got your money's worth.

Rich passed me as we started the second lap. Well, actually, he passed me at the dead engine start at the beginning of the race and lapped me at the start of the second lap. Waved as he went by.

We were messing around once, me on my Maico 400 and him on a CZ 125 - possible the slowest heaviest 125 ever made -- and he just toyed with me. It was a lot of fun, but pretty humbling.

Fontana 2003..March i think. STTARS series, rode Open Pro, i was the only guy in the race i hadnt heard of.. Thinking about it, this was the last time McGrath rode the KTM , because when i came back for the AMA race a few weeks after he was on the TLD team riding a Honda.

I made the main straight out of the heats, got a decent start and ran around 10th, got taken out when Jimmy Lewis tucked the front in the dirt and wiped out me and Scott Russell, Got back on, and rode it out , Frank Hoppen got this shot, and a few others, Wardy tried to punt it down the inside , but MC turned it in and they almost went down . last lap , last decent place to have a go. I got i birds eye view .

October in Mettet ,Belgium, i get to ride in a US V Europe race , on my AMA license , get crashed out by a wayward bike, get up in a daze , and get lapped twice in the 20 lap main , Everts won.

i lapped the pros

MC and TP199 at a Carlsbad gran prix, Told my wife “Chances are very good I’m going to get lapped more than once by McGrath and Pastrana, try to get a picture when they’re right behind me”. They did their part and blew by me multiple times, but no hero pics of me in front One lap McGrath made me almost jump out of my skin, didn’t hear him coming until he was by me and spraying me with dirt clods. I was stoked for weeks, “oh these welts ?” “ Yeah they’re from McGrath...”

Spring of 94 at a make shift sand "track" by I75 in Tampa Florida. I was 24 and thinking I was in pretty good shape and riding well.There was only me and a plus shaped guy on a YZ250 who went by me like 4 or 5 times it seemed. Afterward he saw my knee pads were wrecked and gave me a spare set of his. He said I was riding well and introduced himself as JoJo Keller. I got this Paul Buckley print on the wall to remind me of that day.

Chad Reed and Paul Broomfeild (RIP) at a stadium motocross. I moved over and Broomfield still yelled at me to "GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY!" even though I was pretty much off the track hahaha.

Got lapped by Torsten Hallman at the Wilseyville Enduro in Northern California in 1965/66 twice. I'm old, I don't remember exactly but he went by me on his Husqvarna, feet on the pegs way off the main line, making it look easy. I was paddle footing my way up a really slimy uphill. Next lap I tried his line and it worked.
It had rained for three days and all day during the race. Seized the Hodaka three times in two laps, (4.5 mi. Laps), because of the mud. The race was five laps had to call it quits after 2. Torsten was "the man" in my day. I had no illusions that I was hot s***, I but I wasn't bad locally. Torsten showed me what being professional was all about.

In the money class at Dade City, Kenny Keylon fell, as he was picking his bike up to go I was coming around the corner pretty laid over, when he took off he roosted me so hard in the face I couldn’t see and my mouth was killing me!

I made it to Loretta's in the 7-11 80 Junior class in '93. In practice they combined us with the big kids, 12-15 80 Senior. I was riding my own pace all by my lonesome just getting to know the track when I got slammed into from behind by a guy trying to cram his bike into the only rut further inside than I was. I didn't go down but we both stopped and I look over my shoulder wide-eyed and mad. I see a midget on a KX80 and a big #1 on it who can barely keep the bike upright. He just screams "MOVE!", so whatever, I did. That was my one run-in with RC. Wild too because I didn't suck, I got 4th that year behind the other kid in the pic Johnny Marley. But RC even back then was head and shoulders (figuratively of course) faster than all of us.

Mike Brown lapped me at a Glen Helen practice day back in 2004 and I was super pissed that a Pro Rider would have the nerve to ride so fast on an open Thursday practice day. What are these guys thinking around us less experienced riders going so dang fast.

I wish I had my blankie that day to make everything ok.

Christian Craig a couple of years ago at MC In IL on a practice day . I'm an old slow vet and he blew by me like I was parked.

Josh Grant went FLYING by me at the Havasu Big6 last year. He made that track look so smooth. Then about 3 minutes later....McGrath went flying by. Was amazed at smooth those two dudes look..and so damn fast. Was one of the coolest moments for sure.