Posts
1605
Joined
2/25/2020
Location
Ivoryton, CT
US
Edited Date/Time
3/16/2020 7:15pm
Wether your old and retired, just getting started or in the prime of your racing career, is there a particular race or moto that stands out in the past as your best?
Maybe holey to checkers win, maybe down in the first turn and a romp through the pack? Maybe a 10th but you lit it up and felt totally dialed? For me I can think of about a dozen that really stand out. But I would have to narrow it down to 4-4 result on my 30th birthday in the 125A class at Walden Playboys back in 1999. Two smooth mistake free moto's on my B-day.
Hope you enjoy! (No more SX sucks, maybe this helps)
Maybe holey to checkers win, maybe down in the first turn and a romp through the pack? Maybe a 10th but you lit it up and felt totally dialed? For me I can think of about a dozen that really stand out. But I would have to narrow it down to 4-4 result on my 30th birthday in the 125A class at Walden Playboys back in 1999. Two smooth mistake free moto's on my B-day.
Hope you enjoy! (No more SX sucks, maybe this helps)
The Shop
I don't remember much about the rest of it except that I was on a mission to move as far up as I could. Five lap C class. Not much time. Just passed everyone I could see. Get by one and look for the next one. Familiar to anyone on this board. Little over a lap left and I clear last guy I could see. Look all around up track and can't see anyone else. Backed it down a little and finished. convinced I'd won. People were giving me high fives on way back to pits. Wasn't until I went up to the board later and saw I only got 3rd. I was pissed. Wound up 2nd OA on the day. But I think I helped Honda sell a few of the band new Elsies that day.
I've raced a lot of motos since then, but that one stands out. Learned a lot about everything in that 10-15 minutes.
Offroad, OCCRA event in western OK, 1994, really fast open course, I was on a KX-500, riding the Intermediate class. I had passed all the Pros except two. Had them beat on adjusted time and got front flat. Another one of those in the zone times. This ride was even better then the Whitney ride. This was my favorite course due to it being so fast and I was on the right bike.
My wife, kids, parents, sister and friends were there which made it even better.
Another time that stands out was a time when I woke up at 5am and went for a walk in thick fog in glamis. The fog burned off by 7 am and no one else in the camo got to see it.
One day there were only 3 of us that signed up for the slow geezer class. Two of us were really close in speed (or lack thereof), and one guy who was worlds faster than me. In the first moto the fast dude took off and won by about a half a lap, while I battled with the other slow guy who just beat me in the end so I ended up in last place. Second moto the fast dude once again left us for dead while I battled with the other slow guy, finally beating him in the end. I had no clue that the fast dude had crashed out of the race, so in the end I took first place with a 3-1, which beat a 1-dnf, and a 2-2.😀
https://www.vmxmagshop.com.au/tales-of-glory/
Pit Row
Buddy from the UK , who I raced with as a kid, who moved to the US in 2000, has been bugging me to come to the US to ride MX Rewind, for a few years but it always clashed with a Supermoto race in Germany , that we do, but last year they were a week apart.. so we pulled the pin, drove our RV to South West Germany, on the Thursday night, arrived Friday , raced a cool street race , and left at 4pm to catch the boat home.
Arrived back in the UK at 11pm, home for 2am Monday, and back to the Airport for Lunchtime to catch a flight to Newark.
Week in NYC, and arrive at Unadilla on the Thursday night.
Ride the grass track Friday on my Buddy's sweet KX500, and run 3 Moto's Saturday, with 3 to follow on Sunday,
2 moto's down on Sunday, I go to the line in the open C with a 2nd from Moto 1 , and get a bad start and get buried mid pack. Look over my shoulder going in to turn 3 to see my son pinned on his 125 ride, and we jump into the Gravity Cavity together.. I make some passes early and get to 3rd with the leader away, so chase the guy for second, and we have some bar to bar fun, and by the end of lap 2 I get him and in the process , halve the gap to the front guy who takes a long look over after the waves, but doesn't see me cos I am already in the turn, By the time we get to the end of the lap and get the white flag , I am sure I am going to catch him, and sure enough , by the time we get to the drop off where Stew landed on RC its down to 5 lengths, and I am on him at the top of the hill.. BUT this guy is pulling the Skyshot, and here I am , a 54 year old , on a borrowed bike , doing my first race of the year on dirt, having to pull the pin for the win.
He still doesn't know I am there , but as we drop down to the Skyshot , there is a lapper , in the second line, so I have to follow him and bottle it, he sails over , and I flat land the top, but he isn't on the gas down the hill, so I catch him back up , and rail round the outside, over the jump, and as we go up horsepower hill I am catching him fast, we come over the top, and as we don't do the Screw U , its a right kink , and then left to the flag.
He realises I am there and moves over to block , so I have to back off , so I switch sides, and try to square him off.. he beats me by half a wheel.
For me , this is the day I nearly won the Overall at Unadilla, for my son, its the day we went all the way to the middle of nowhere to get beaten by a guy on a beater bike wearing a 20 year old helmet with sunglasses.
fixed it.
of Britain's top riders.
Also won a couple more big events at Hutton Conyers track nr Ripon.
Top photographer the late James Moorhouse captured me in action.
28 mile round trip to find a bottle of Vodka.
Every other house has a snowmobile for sale
And my absolute favourite, sitting in the pits after dark, behind the start gate , backed up to I8, listening to the traffic go by, to suddenly hear a horse and buggy going flat out , and you cant even see the thing , its that dark.
Moto 1 was going great. I had a terrible start and got gobbled up by the 450s. Probably rounded the first turn in 35th at best and by lap 3 had worked my way up to 15th. Then I took a line that somehow went off the track and straight into a hay bale...and that was all she wrote.
Pretty sure I had heat stroke in Moto 2. The only memory I have of that race was crashing over a little bump and landing, again, on a hay bale. Even the next day, that was the only thing I could recall from the race.
Finally in the last moto, I got my shit together. Once again started somewhere in the 30s, then, took my time and made it up to 11th at the finish, with 10th just in sight. I really wanted to able to chill under those awnings at the end of the race, but at least I didn't crash.
Definitely not my best moto, but one that I'm proud of.
I have a few favorites.... Not my "best" motos as far as finishes.....but the experiences that have lasted a lifetime.
LA Coliseum "Last Superbowl of Motocross" Amateur SX in 82
San Diego Jack Murphy (Qualcomm) Amateur SX in 83....
Anaheim Amateur SX in 84
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