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Also, Brayton is from my home town and happy to see him on a Honda. Thanks for being a part of the sport!
There's nothing "natural" about riding a motorcycle, so athletes hone skills that are conducive to accomplishing that task. However, riders must have a certain level of dexterity and balance to succeed at the highest level, so there is a "natural" component to racing. But again, the collective talent pool in MX is very, very shallow, so we seldom see athletes of the highest caliber on the starting gate. Yes, Tomac and Dungey are outstanding physical specimens, but we have also seen guys you wouldn't pick for a game of dodgeball dominate as well (back to RC). In motorsports, the throttle is the great equalizer, and can overcome physical disadvantages. But that same throttle does not twist itself, so there is a mental element to racing that can overshadow pure physical talent.
Well, crap. I just defeated my own argument, as willpower and tenacity are "natural" athletic talents. Dammit.
Mike Alessi was my favorite rider growing up so I've been following your team since you guys were running black plastics on Suzuki's and called them MCR 450's.
Best of luck this season. You and Tony run a top notch program. There is going to be a lot of red bikes in the top 10 this year!
The Shop
For what it's worth, I agree with Mike. Different kind of atheletes. Michael Vick would get destroyed in any extreme sport, just the same as Villopoto would get destroyed in a stick and ball sport.
I told Mike three years ago that he would have a ride at MCR as long as he wanted. Of course how much money he would make would be based on how competitive he was. So Mike not racing SX this year was his decision.
It will definitely be different not having him at the races because is such a personality in so many ways but everything has its time.
In terms of the so called controversy over the years, I guess when you hit the podium in your third pro race as a 130 pound 16 year old in the 450 class combined with racing both series non stop for like 13 years straight equaling a zillion races and many great performances that all of us fans loved to watch, combined with FIVE vice championships, there’s bound to be some BS associated with it.
Mike has poured his heart and soul into racing. His tenure has been longer and his career record is better than many of the top riders he has raced against. So my opinion is that SX/MX pro racing has benefited greatly from Mike and his family in terms of their popularity, abilities, publicity and more. Just the name Allessi stirs emotion for people, good or bad. I’m concerned that things may become even more stale and vanilla with our sport then it already is when their not there. I mean seriously, who is Matthes gonna focus on and pick on if Mike, Tony, Genova and MCR is not at his disdposal?
"I’m assuming that your ideas must involve a three piece cover of some kind"
Little different than that, thought about that but the more I looked into it, it wouldn't work.
This idea will make sense when you get my email.
Regards
Bill
After reading 3 pages I think sport is way better with you guys around.
Stewarts and Reed.. you doing something right when those guys want to have talk.
Good luck and remember to call Mookie if spot opens
From the outside looking in it always seems to Me the Sport in General really loves to take an "Outsider" like you and use him up and spit him out.
After spending tons of your own money did you ever stop and think WTF am I doing ? it must be hard to balance trying to be what you want as a Team and fitting into a "cool guy" culture.
What else do you like to do besides spend tons of money on dirt bikes?
PS, I have always admired how you treat and care for your riders. Your treatment of McAdoo was very classy.
Looking like MotoConcepts Honda is going to have some of the best looking bikes in the pits again this year
One quick question from me. I've just always been curious... From a team owner standpoint, would you rather have one of your guys make it into the night show straight through a heat/semi but at the tail end of the qualifying group or in an LCQ win? I know the rider ideally would want to make it straight into the main from his first heat but I'd like to think someone in your position might enjoy the extra TV time, even if it is a LCQ?
Is there a monetary incentive in any of the qualifying races (heats/semis/LCQs) or is it solely on the main event finish? Holeshot bonuses? You don't need to give out specifics of your contract or anything like that, but maybe some things you've heard other teams or maybe even something you do offer.
Thanks for taking the time to read through and answer our dumb questions! Best of luck.
How would you describe your experience in Canada? A part from the whole Friese/Benoit fiasco in Quebec how was it?
Would you be open to coming back up to compete in the series?
Thanks.
Pit Row
The reality is there is no way for any team to make money in its current form. The motorcycle manufacturers have their teams that they are willing to spend money on to promote and generate sales. Teams like mine are spending more than they take in and that just doesn’t work forever, so guys that have plenty of money to continue simply say the heck with this I’m out. I’m just a little dumber than some. One area I differ from other owners like Carey Hart is I actually have a company that makes money and uses racing as an expense and a benefit to the bottom line.
And yes I often times ask myself WTF am I doing spending this kind of money? One thing I’m not trying to do is spend my way into the cool guy club, cuz quite honestly I think that many of them should call me for some ideas on how to do things.
I very much have a life outside of racing that includes charity, travel, and R&R at one of my homes.
Of course the riders and the management want to go straight from the heat to the main because of better gate selection and reduced energy used. However, if we have two guys in the same heat race and it’s looking like both of them aren’t going to transfer and they are going to the semi, we will direct them via pit board to drop back a spot or move forward a spot so that they aren’t ending up in the same semi. The reasoning is, we don’t want our guys competing against each other if we can help it. We also like as much tv time as we can get, hence why we look for good starters and we put a lot of focus on starts, cuz let’s face it not getting a good start and being seventh place in the main won’t get you that much tv time. Of course in my opinion that is one of problems with our sport.
Yes we incentivise our guys to win heats, semis, LCQ and of course mains. We pay up to $1000 for holeshots and each race during the night is eligible for holeshot bonus. I also will randomly radio down and double the holeshot bonus and put bonus dollars to the mechanic of $500. We also will have random race day bonuses for our beating a specific team or rider, but I won’t share those details.
I’m not sure if other teams do much of this but I believe in it and it is very common in stick and ball sports such as QBs getting paid on stats.
Kind of a bummer for us that Mike didn’t win it that year. No disrespect to Colton as I think he’s a great racer and nice kid, but Mike was just faster that year as evidenced by the amount of laps led combined with moto wins. If your ember Mike ran out of gas leading by a mile with a quarter of a lap to go. In another weird one, his grip came off leading and he had to ride for twenty minutes gripping a raw metal bar. There were other mishaps that cost him some points that weren’t his fault but o wheel that’s racing.
And yes we would absolutely come back up as the people were great, excluding the boulder hucking dummies in Quebec and Benoit’s brother coming out of the trees and T boning Vince while he leading Kevan. No hard feelings but that shit isn’t cool for anybody.
With the CMRC being close to being sold to the Jetwerx group there's really no telling where things in Canada will go moving forward but they do have have quite a few things I like about their plans. Keep an eye on things as they might interest you. I think they are releasing the details in the next couple of weeks. One of the downside is I believe they want do go down to an 8 round series which in my opinion is a little short for a series. 10 rounds is OK but ideally it would be great for them to go to a 12 round series.
As for Mike it sure looks like he really enjoyed his time as he's been coming back ever since.
Good luck to you and your team this upcoming SX season.
Thanks for doing this, If you could take over for Feld for a year what would you change and why? Same thing taking over for DC?
See you at A1.
Post a reply to: Vital MX Forum QNA: Mike Genova