Throughout the month of December, Racer X Online editors and contributors will be handing out one award each day for an outstanding performance or effort or product related to the global motocross industry in 2018. Each winner will receive this award, which we’re calling a Roger, just like the Academy Awards have their Oscars. It’s in honor of Roger DeCoster, a great ambassador for the sport of motocross for more than 50 years. Today’s topic is Racer X Podcast of the Year.
This one has us in a tough spot. With Racer X's own Steve Matthes (PulpMX), Jason Weigandt (Exhaust Podcast! Podcast!), and now David Pingree (The Whiskey Throttle Show) all in the podcast pack and with exceptional shows, it would be hard to give the nod to one of them (and also probably a little bit of nepotism). Same goes for the fun podcast that Brett Smith did on the OG AMA Amateur National Championship at Loretta Lynn's Ranch, which featured everyone from Ronnie Lechien and Todd DeHoop to Tim Cotter and myself. And then there is the perennial favorite DMXS Radio, pioneers of this genre, though the work Kevin Kelly and David Izer and friends do is more of the talk radio variety.
So we're going to go a slightly different route here, and recognize a show that told a crazy story about an even crazier story from back in the mid-seventies. The podcast was actually produced in 2017, but since this is our first year of giving out the Rogers, we thought we would bend the rules slightly in order to recognize and share this gem. A man named Kenny Powers (no, not the one from East Bound and Down, though Danny McBride was surely inspired by this) put a jet engine on a Lincoln Continental in order to try to the St. Lawrence River, taking off from a massive ramp in Canada and landing by parachute in the United States. If it sounds crazy, it was. Here's a look at what happened, and the story of the crazy jump:
That four-and-a-half minute clip was taken from a full-length documentary about the whole process of planning and attempting the jump by the National Film Board of Canada, and you can see that whole movie here.
But there was a totally different, even stranger back story to this stunt that is the subject of the best podcast we heard in 2018. It's part of a series called Heavyweight and it is episode #13 Kenny.
"Ken Carter was a Canadian daredevil who dreamt of performing the biggest stunt the world had ever seen," it explains on the intro page. "He wanted to jump a rocket car one mile over a river. For 5 years he prepared, only to have his dream hijacked at the very last moment by the very last person he ever expected."
Heavyweight is hosted and produced by Jonathan Goldstein.
This episode was also produced by Kalila Holt. The senior producer is Kaitlin Roberts.
We don't know any of those people, but we love the work they did on the podcast Kenny and that's why we're giving then the Roger for the 2018 Racer X Podcast of the Year!
MORE 2018 RACER X AWARDS
- Racer X Awards: Motocross Race of the Year December 31 - 4:40pm
- Racer X Awards: Rider of the Year December 30 - 6:05pm
- Racer X Awards: Best Intentions of the Year December 29 - 5:00pm
- Racer X Awards: Non-Racer Instagram of the Year December 28 - 4:25pm
- Racer X Awards: Rider Media of the Year December 27 - 4:25pm
- Racer X Awards: Podcast of the Year December 26 - 1:20pm
- Racer X Awards: Gift of the Year December 25 - 11:00am
- Racer X Awards: MXGP Race of the Year December 24 - 11:10am
- Racer X Awards: Commercial of the Year December 23 - 4:25pm
- Racer X Awards: SX/MX Ambassador of the Year December 22 - 10:30am
- Racer X Awards: Non-National Event of the Year December 21 - 3:40pm
- Racer X Awards: Press Conference of the Year December 20 - 1:30pm
- Racer X Awards: Replacement Rider of the Year December 19 - 5:00pm
- Racer X Awards: Crossover Rider of the Year December 18 - 5:00pm
- Racer X Awards: Fans of the Year December 17 - 4:15pm
- Racer X Awards: Vet Rider of the Year December 16 - 6:10pm
- Racer X Awards: Pass(es) of the Year December 15 - 11:20am
- Racer X Awards: Women’s Rider of the Year December 14 - 4:00pm
- Racer X Awards: Holeshot of the Year December 13 - 3:40pm
- Racer X Awards: Mechanic of the Year December 12 - 6:00pm
- Racer X Awards: Off-Roader of the Year December 11 - 2:30pm
- Racer X Awards: Party of the Year December 10 - 3:30pm
- Racer X Awards: Comeback Rider of the Year December 9 - 12:10pm
- Racer X Awards: Minicylist of the Year December 8 - 9:00am
- Racer X Awards: Trophy of the Year December 7 - 2:30pm
- Racer X Awards: Cover of the Year December 6 - 1:25pm
- Racer X Awards: Video of the Year December 5 - 1:00pm
- Racer X Awards: New Rule of the Year December 4 - 3:40pm
- Racer X Awards: Supercross Race of the Year December 3 - 1:45pm
- Racer X Awards: Broadcast of the Year December 2 - 12:50pm
- Racer X Awards: Team of the Year December 1 - 12:05pm