Posts
5563
Joined
1/9/2016
Location
Yellow Pine, ID
US
LungButter
11/19/2018 6:46pm
11/19/2018 6:46pm
Dude just did the USA proud, 10th in Class and won the Final Moto outright in his first try at ISDE. On a 2 stroke!!
I was very skeptical of him being on the team, I thought he would be a liability. I'm damn glad to say he proved me wrong and did it with a broken pinky!
Bravo Zach, great F'n ride.
I'm a fan now and hope he can put together a long and successful off road career!
I was very skeptical of him being on the team, I thought he would be a liability. I'm damn glad to say he proved me wrong and did it with a broken pinky!
Bravo Zach, great F'n ride.
I'm a fan now and hope he can put together a long and successful off road career!
I hope Zach gets a full Husky ride next year, he seems to have more upside than Dalton Shirey who has the spot right now, especially since Big6 Grand Prix is an AMA National Championship next year.
The Shop
Zach Bell is still learning off road in general. He has yet to race a true off road event (NHHA, BITD, Score) here in the states but he put in an amazing ISDE ride.He's made an incredible transition to WORCS and Big 6 in a short amount of time winning a championship and several race wins. I think Husky would be well served to open up a second spot in the stable for Zach next to Dalton in lieu of having one or the other personally. Seems the 3 bros Husky deal for Zach is a 'back door' deal for now. Im sure Timmy Weigand is keeping a close eye on Zach.
Their 2019 team is Trevor Bollinger, Thad Duvall, Colton Haaker and Andrew Short (Andrew got the West coast WORCS spot).
I wonder if JCR will stick with just Trevor Stewart now without Bollinger or pick up another guy, either on the west or east coast.
Shirey will probably put something together with Ty Davis again if he doesn’t already have another ride lined up.
I think we’re going to see a lot of growth in off-road with shortys interest along with ZachO and hopefully Plessinger in 5 or so years. Can’t hurt to have big names racing the off-road series’!
Its a weird time for racing dirt bikes "off-road". The talent is through the roof, its more popular than ever, more "off-road" bikes are sold than pure moto bikes, and yet the level of industry and factory support just isnt there.
It seems like yesterday every manufacturer had a factory level off-road effort.
Team Green Kawasaki-Danny Hamel, Ty Davis, Larry Roeseler, Destry Abbott, Shane Esposito, Brian Brown, Lance Smail, David Pearson, Ricky Dietrich
Team Honda-Bruce Ogilvie, Scott Summers, Johnny Campbell,Kendall Norman, Robby Bell, Quinn Cody, Steve Hengeveld, Andy Grieder
Team Suzuki-Steve Hatch, Rodney Smith, Randy Hawkins, Guy Cooper
Team yamaha-Randy Hawkins, Ty Davis, Russell Pearson, Barry Hawk, Nathan Woods
Team KTM-Kurt Caselli,Mike Brown, Shane Watts, Chris Blais, Russell Pearson, David Pearson, David Kamo
I know im missing guys but the point is off road was a big, BIG deal here in the US. GNCC still is. The west coast is growing again. I can only help to think what it could be if the factories would start to pump some money into the off road scene. I realize the bean counters are ultimately in control but there was a time when the manufacturers were deeply supporting off road and it meant better bikes, better support, and better sales.
It just doesnt feel like that anymore.
Back east it's pretty much just GNCC and AMA Enduro.
All seem to be growing in amateur participation level whereas local MX seems on the decline.
Bitd has really fun races but it’s more of a secondary series/adventure type of racing. The exposure/competition isn’t really there. I won the Open Pro championship last year and nobody really cares, except for Vegas to Reno, that race still gets some coverage.
The racing turnout seems to be growing, and Honda has a bunch of new off-road models. So that's good for us!
I expect the 2019 CRF450X to be as capable in desert racing as the previous version.
And Trevor Stewart has been ripping the Grand Prix events on the CRF450RX.
Pit Row
Kawi was an off road powerhouse for a long time, great to see them coming back!
Babbitts has Strang for GNCC, not sure who else yet.
WESS has this figured out with the help of Red Bull. They have coverage that blows away any other offroad video coverage.
GNCC coverage is decent at best, it's not that awesome to just watch the guys blow by the same camera locations over and over.
NHHA is a whole different animal. I feel that the NHHA series doesnt get the recognition is deserves, neither do its racers. 80-100 mile's long of legit off road terrain, and never seen until you're racing through it. Its nothing short of amazing. Nothing else like it in the states. Its also the oldest and longest running national offroad series in the US.
Off-road racing is hard to find rides. My son has worked himself up to a top 5 finisher in EnduroCross and still don’t know if he’ll end up with a ride next season. It’s even on TV and the stadiums where full this season!
Like others said there used to be a lot more teams and they had more riders. Just right there Husky only has 4 guys. No Hare & Hound guys, no 250 pros in GNCC or Worcs, no National Enduro guys or Sprint Enduros.
I'd love to see Honda and Yamaha factories come back-now that they are both selling off road race bikes-and give KTM a run for their money. The once mightly Kawi-team green-program should come back too.
All my opinion and personal preference...and I realize its a dollars and cents thing to the manufactures...and there just isn't much R.O.I. to be found in the middle of the desert-even though that is where some of the purest heart, soul and passion of dirt bike racing can be found Sunday afternoons-so this is all maybe just a pipe dream.
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