Lost in America
June 30, 2006 6:35am
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that your legs are jammed in your cramped economy class seat that you can’t get out for a while. By the time you manage to pull out, it’s time to fasten the seat belts. And the landing gear has been activitated. Don’t you feel gutted? Don’t you feel like you have missed a golden opportunity? Don’t you feel like lamenting your luck or worse still feel that there is some sort of sabotage happening in the skies to thwart your plans?
These were the exact same feelings that clouded my brain during the past weekend. It’s been a while since I kept in touch with the motocross world and with Racer X readers in particular. Not that I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t possibly be juggling various hats
after coming over here. Not with covering the Indianapolis 500, interning at The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, or while keeping one eye on the managerial economics book to learn about a Nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Too much to take and too little time to do all these.
Anyway, to cut a long story shot, I was offered a role as a marshal at the starting gate at Budds Creek and I had a chance to encapsulate my experiences to Racer X. After all, I have had several privileges in life. Having been able to watch in flesh and blood Ricky, Chad, and Doug Henry at Southwick was truly a MasterCard moment. A moment that gave me my first motocross experience. A moment that I will hold on to until I say sayonara to life. Also, I got my fill of
freestyle motocross when I jumped (pardon the pun) on the opportunity to watch the Crusty show in India and got to talk to them and cover the event. But to top it off, the Budds Creek role came calling.
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helped me to get a role as a marshal through his Budds Creek contacts that would’ve made me wear a headphone for the first time at the MX track. (Not to mention see and analyze each rider’s
throttle-control mechanics as the gate dropped.) Who has the best reflex? Who doesn’t fear to stick it out to his opponents? Who is sneaky enough to let an elbow out? And it goes on and on.... Of course, you can get the answers for all these questions by watching the race on TV, but nothing beats standing inches from the exhausts and winking your eyes for a moment as they kick the dust up to go racing.
But by now you must have fathomed that I couldn’t make it to Budds Creek. And I felt so bad to miss the show that I felt like an injured rider (read: Bubba) sitting on the couch watching the action on television.
Of course, due to an unavoidable circumstance involving my wife’s health, I had to stay put in Delaware and curse my stars. Instead I ended up watching Phil Mickelson unravel in the final two holes at Winged Foot last Sunday. For a moment, I could empathize with Phil. After all, I was about to have my moment under the sun or at the gate and Phil had it in the bag only to lose because of his stubbornness or
stupidity, depending on which side of the fence you were.
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might end up working the starting gate or even lining up on the grid. So stay tuned...