The truth about the US Open

A few people I’ve talked to aren’t too crazy about this race but I love the US OPEN at the MGM Grand. This isn’t an Arenacross like some of those people assume and who cares if it is a one off non title race that supposedly means nothing to anybody…uh huh. That must be why there were factory semis packed to the gills of the arena parking lot…all for “nothing” but a little bit of cash and bragging rights, yup.

The track this year was good but it didn’t look like anything the program and website said it would…I wonder why. Nobody ever said why when I asked about it so I assumed it had to do with the weather or possibly the noise outside the arena. Bummer I say because I was really looking forward to all the scooters flying into the arena like a flash or bomb going off. I am sure Dave Prater and the others had good reasons to revert back to the conventional inside gate setup….maybe next year.

This is always a fun race to go to, if just for the people watching alone and it never disappoints. The babes, both hired and paying spectator alike are top notch, possibly only equal to SoCals Anaheim’s SX lineup. Then again they might be the same babes but who’s counting. The poser’s are equally intriguing and I KNOW they are from So Cal mostly. They’re all here too, muscle men, tattooed men, fighting men, riding men and the always entertaining stumbling men.

The racing is usually pretty good too and with James on his new deal and Reed the champ on his new ride you just knew it was gonna be exciting. Only thing missing was my boy Alessi and I hope he’s ready and healthy for A1. After watching some of the heats on Friday I thought Reed looked smoother and the Zook looked better than James and his new Yamaha, maybe not faster but better. In the main event on Friday it all boiled down to the little holeshot chalk line right after the first turn. It looked like Dungey had it and it all looked smooth and normal, until James knifed in right under Dungey. No doubt fueled by the cash on the line for the trifecta and the lack of any $10 minimum Black Jack tables at the MGM casino that night James did what he had to do….take out the field at all costs then get ready for the 21 tables after the win. Oh well…so much for a good close race on Friday night and with Dungey down and Reed out it was a cake walk for James. But racing is racing and James saw an opening and would be an idiot if he didn’t take it. My only bitch about that whole deal was why didn’t they red flag the race, give the riders a quick 5 minutes to get gathered up or repair something and restart that sucker. Give the fans a chance to see what they came for at least. I guess I should have coached Dungey on a technique Magoo and I used to use up in Nor Cal back in the day. My Dad always told me if there is a pile up in the 1st turn and you’re in it just lay there in the middle of the track and writher in pain even if you’re not. It worked more a few times I must say and half the time you were really hurt and couldn’t stand up anyways. Anyways if Ryan had the foresight to do that it might have worked…now he knows. He hauled ass anyways and charged up near the top from dead last, not bad for not having a left hand grip which I guess he left lodged in Reeds rear brake assembly or something. That grip incident stopped Reed in his tracks about 40 feet down the track with less than a lap on his transponder and his night was over before you can say “brake grip” three times fast. Black Jack here we come.

Short rode great and was a shoe in for 2nd until his team mate Ivan “ot a team mate of yours shorty” Tedesco decided to do the last tango in Vegas I guess. By the time they were finished dancing Justin Brayton, on some sort of orange bike slammed into both of them and down they all went in a small corner, toppling in slow motion like dominos in a fishbowl. Exciting and quite comical really, until the orange bike started to attack Short with loud barks and bites. Man was Andrew pissed at that orange bike for trying to climb up his butt and leave a mark. In fairness Brayton was just trying to get going again and had no intention of his bike climbing up Shorts butt…I think. Meantime Ivan “ot a team mate of yours shorty” Tedesco took off first and got 2nd. That’s racing as they say.

I had the pleasure of watching all this from the Maloof/RSED VIP area. For some reason they weren’t really checking anybody’s VIPs stickers on Friday night and I ended up there. Kind of weird because they were the best seats in the house but only a few people were up there watching. After a while there was a guy up there checking stickers but I just hung out like I was a rockstar and they didn’t hassle me. While watching the races this big guy starts asking me questions on the bikes and races and stuff since he’s never been to one. He wasn’t with Rock star but he’s good friends with the Maloof brothers and they told him to go check it out. After he asked me a few questions about the race he introduced himself. Found out that he is the manager of boxer Chad Dawson and he said he wasn’t going to be at the race on Saturday because he will be at the Palms watching the fight. I just read today where Dawson kicked the crap out of the other guy so Mike Criscio must be very happy today…and a little richer, right on. I asked him about Kimbo Slice and he laughed his ass off. He told me that a few weeks ago he told Kimbo that he would kick his ass right there at this meeting they were at just for the fun of it. Kimbo backed down he said….big pussy he said. I was skeptical but apparently after checking google Mike Criscio is the real deal and he sounds like quite the character and he carries some serious cash with him too…lol. Here’s a snip before the fight Saturday night from a newspaper article.

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To make this fight happen, Dawson relinquished his WBC light heavyweight title in July. That's one sign of his assurance.
The other came this week when Dawson's manager, Mike Criscio, showed up in Vegas with a black bag loaded with $100,000 in cash. He offered it as a wager, saying his guy, favored by odds makers, will win.




Saturday night I wasn’t so lucky to get back into the VIP area. Not sure why but there were very few people sitting up there again but this time they had a poser checking stickers. Bummer…and thinking about right now I could probably have gotten Criscio’s VIP pass since he was going to the fight…dammit . After mingling with all the heavy hitters in the VIP area that I was allowed in I headed over to the press area and sat down behind and out of the way of the press people working the race. I must say that Weigant and Holley do a great job and work their asses off at what they do. Holley is a good guy and always smiling and the Jason is a very funny guy although he does lag a bit behind Kevin Kelly’s humor of DMXS fame. They take their job seriously and bust their balls to make the Racer X web cast as good as it can be. One thing I noticed about both of them was right before the main event they’re getting pumped up just like regular fans and they’re stoked to just be watching it let alone announcing it. That’s pretty cool.



Another hard working fan I saw up there was Linda, the web babe. She has a lot of shit going on at once and seems to get it all done at once and she’s gorgeous too. The next time one of you twits whine and complain about the web cast or scoring or static or whatever it certainly isn’t caused by the lack of trying to fix and not working hard on the problems and it’s free so stfu next time. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how to run and blend all that stuff so it comes out on our end sounding like a race broadcast. My hats off to you guys and gal



The main guy up there is Denny Hartwig the PR guy. The dude is always working on something or taking care of some new issue or getting somebody that fugged up their creds to get in the place. So many people are coming at him all the time I am surprised he just doesn’t say “stfu” a hundred times a night…or maybe he does . He was busting ass up there right next to the web cast crew and you could tell and takes his job very seriously too and he’s a huge fan too. Keep it up guys. Here’s a pic of these four plus another good dude that works hard too, Kit Palmer of Cycle News. Not sure who it is but it looks like the guy to their left isn’t as quite as stoked to be there as the rest of em…lol




I always say hello to Tony B of the Suzuki team when I hit the races. He’s a great mechanic and a good friend. One of the good guys. The whole Suzuki team folks that I’ve become acquainted with are all super good dudes. Ian, the engine.EFI guy told me a lot about the EFI and how it works and what it can do. That is a badass system and makes the Bing carbs on my old Maicos seem like a water bong of some sort. They can tweek and change and monitor anything that is needed to make that scooter deliver power to the ground with precision and efficiency. Bout time scooters for the dirt had that kinda stuff. Here’s Ian wondering where the wheels are to Reeds scooter. Thanks for the EFI lesson Ian.




Doc Bodnar is another guy that is always very friendly and takes the time to talk to you, unless there’s a crash somewhere then he hauls ass. Keep up the great job Doc. Wish we had a doc on hand when I was racing…shit sometimes the closest one was an hours drive away and you never wanted to take that ambulance ride since it was too expensive. Easier and cheaper to just have a buddy drive you to the ER…lol. I don’t think anybody got hauled away or saw the Doc this weekend which is awesome.




Met a lot of new people this weekend and saw a lot of old friends too.

Nancy up in the press area



Kiki and Matthew



My dates later that night



The recently retired and un-retired wordnerd COX




It was cold but thank God she didn’t cover up everything.



Tony B and Michael B.



Tony “what strobe? Scavo 



The Man getting some pointers…hehehe



The racing on Saturday night was fantastic! Chad Reed got the holeshot no doubt due to the bobbym sticker on his shock body which gave him the extra fortitude to leave it on just a tad longer and was well on his way to victory…sorta.


James had other ideas. Although James didn’t have to pass Reed for the OA you know he wanted to ASAP. They say this race is important because it gives the winner an edge before the official SX series starts in January, a mental leg up so to speak. I say bullshit. At A1 the timed practice quals will show who’s the fastest and who has the mental edge. Here it’s just mano-a-mano for bragging rights, cash and girls…well maybe not the latter. It’s a great boost to the team too I bet.

Reed looked the smoothest and the most comfortable on the track all night and James looked the fastest. For 17 laps James slowly gained on him until he was right on his pipe. James tripled this rhythm section that only he was doing and he wasn’t even doing it every lap I don’t think but when he did he gained a fraction of a second on Reed. On this track fractions counted. Behind these guys Dungey and Short looked great too but they were well back. All the other names went nameless tonight since they weren’t around…bummer.

James finally showed Reed a wheel coming into the corner after this triple deal just to show how close he was. Smart move because I am not too sure if James could have made a clean pass and he really didn’t need to beat Reed anyways. The next lap around you knew Reed was aware of that wheel and he needed to be ready for the possible pass so he tried to cover his ass but it didn’t work. Reed flew off the track and into the media blocks and James giggled as he went by on lap 18. I thought Reed should have put his strategy to work not in the section that James might pass on but on the turn before. The 180 degree turn looked like a slot car track system with a perfect little grooved parabolic shaped berm that James was timing perfectly and then accelerating enough to clear the triple. If Reed would have just tapped his brake slightly he would have screwed up James just enough. He knew James was on his ass there too but it’s just too bad the brake-check isn’t used in racing strategy anymore for whatever reason. Reed would have won that race and the bragging rights that go along with it if he went old school on that turn.
Don’t worry bout it Reed. There’s always next year…or January 09.

Thanks to all the racers for a great race and thanks to Denny the PR guy and Bauer the Shameless guy. See you next year…I hope.