His Royal Highness, Mark and I went to Red Bud
Sunday for the Pro MX. Bengt scored us some high
zoot p***** from the Bridgestone guys, thanks
Bengt and Rory!
On arrival late Saturday, Bengt was still at the track
racing amateur stuff on his cheater CR307. I took his
wife, the lovely Angela to dinner so Mark could
make goo-goo eyes at her then got them both
to sleep. Bengt showed up about then and he and
I headed to a local watering hole which we closed after
successfully begging them to make him some dinner.
Sunday morning we got to the track at the end of
practice, a bit of confusion at sign-in 'cause the mechanics
p***** wouldn't work for Mark as he's only 11 and not
allowed on track. Bengt had brought a box of chocalates
for just this eventuality and the nice AMA lady figured out
a pass for Mark that got him everywhere but hot
pits.
Rory had both his nice WR500 and really nice YZ490
ready for a "Michigan Mafia legends laps of honor".
Mike Hartwig rode the WR500, Broc Glover rode
the YZ. Broc Glover is, in general, a prick. When the
laps started, he said he'd only do one and stuck to his
word. Everybody else, including Hartwig who said
he hadn't been on a bike of any sort in 20 years, Andy
Stacy, Todd DeHoop on a totally cool KX125, and Mike
LaRocco, did two and even wicked it up a bit. LaRocco
signed my Smackover "Save the 2 Stroke" t-****rt.
Afterwards, Glover came over to discuss the YZ he'd
ridden with Rory. Mind you, these guys are on competitive
teams. Rory insisted that the bike have Bridgestone
stickers on it while Broc is the Dunlop guy. So no love
lost, the Bridgestone guys are friends of mine, and
that maybe is part of the reason the only side of Broc
I"ve seen is "prick". Then he came ovet to point out
how cool some (most) of the stuff was on Rory's bike
and let him know what bits weren't era correct. He
"actually sounded like a normal guy" according to
Rory.
Items of interest during the races
Lites moto 1 Sipes looked good, Canard looked better,
Villypotato looked like a different class. Dungey looked
weak and I heard that there was yelling and cursing
from "The Man" afterwards. Seemed to work.
MX moto 1. Alessi good start, Bubba is in a different reality
though. He is Very Interesting to watch. The uphill double
after the ski-jump, he does something that changes the
trajectory of the bike almost as much as the bubba scrub.
While in the air, the distance from his butt to the seat
suddenly decreases just before max altitude. If
you watch with something behind to calibrate, it makes
the bike/rider seemingly go lower than the other guys.
The arc of the bike isn't a hyperbola, it changes direction
a bit. Very weird as my college physics says the system
center of mass goes according to simple equations
and his body getting closer to the bike doesn't change
that. I can't explain how the scrub works either but
everybody does it now.
Lites moto 2
Villypotoid needs to move up. WIll he be SX this
winter? Maybe he can dice with Stewart. When he
whips, he actually knocks the bars against
the stop to get the thing to come back around.
Watch close, you can see the front fender shake
from it.
Dungey seemed to have taken DeCoster's harangue to
heart. Excellent dice with Canard the last half of the race.
We watched LaRocco's leap for a few laps and Dungey was
the only Lites guy jumping it. Geeze is it a long way.
Something happened last lap, I guess his bike died,
and he didn't get the finish he deserved. Davalos finished
third OA.
MX moto 2
We were at the bottom of the ski-jump where they had dug up
the dirt between Lites and MX. It was suddenly as deep as when
practice started. Not that this caused Alessi to crash but
it was a factor. He came off the jump in second behind Stewart,
the first time in a while that he wasn't first for the first few
corners
at least. Trying hard to figure out how to stay with Stewart, he
swapped a couple of times on landing in the soft stuff, got too
far over the bars, then finally went over them after a trip of 40-50
yards. This all happened within a few feet of me but he landed
on the far side of a hump where I couldn't see. You've seen
the video, it was nasty.The first few seconds I was screaming
at the flag man to protect him but there was no way, there were
just too many guys way too close to move them off Alessi.
First red flag I've seen at a proMX but it was necessary. He
sort of woke up and they carted him off.
2nd start and Stewart had a big lead by the second lap. Ferry
and the rest would have been fun to watch race but Bubba
was gone.
Mark had left to hang at the Bridgestone truck with Angela,
in the shade and with a big fan (it was pretty hot in the sun) and
ended up walking the semi-deserted pits alone during MX moto
2 restart. He scored a nearly complete set of Davalos' body work
and a signature on his T-****rt from both Dungey and Roger D.
Boy was he proud when I came back up the hill to gather him
up and get outa town.
Fun time, I might do that again.
Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.
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