Please oh please, encourage a race-off between Townley, Pingree & Knighter for the #101! The only stipulation that they be true venues, hours & everything associated with the different disciplines. My money is on Knighter. He would lose to Townley in the motocross, but still do well. He would do well against Pingree on the track, could possibly beat him. He would do well in the Supermoto portion (probably beating Townley, and possibly Pingree!) BUT WE ALL KNOW HE WOULD ABSOLUTELY DESTROY THOSE GUYS IN A TRUE-OFF ROAD RACE (rocks, roots, hillclimbs, singletrack, 3 hours, mud or dust)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COME ON, MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Throw that opportunity out there. maybe it could become an annual face off?? You never know, maybe some day Carmichael would come out of retirement for a challenge. He loves those! It could become a series some day for the best all-around motorcycle rider title in the World! Maybe points awarded for the margin of victory somehow? THROW IT OUT THERE!
Dear ?,
First of all, you need to take it easy with the exclamation points. You are going to give yourself a stroke. Okay? Now, there certainly is an abundance of riders running the #101, isn’t there? I’m not sure about the story behind Ben Townley and David Knight running the digit, or even UK Grand Prix hero Tommy Searle, for that matter. I chose the number when I stopped racing motocross full-time because I didn’t want to take a top-100 number from a rider that was trying to earn one if I scored points at any races I might do. And I didn’t want to rip off a number from a guy that had actually earned it in AMA pro racing, so I took the next available number, 101. And make no mistake, I had it first. I’ve been running it since 2004. Townley and I joke with each other about whose number it is, and I thought it was all in good fun. But apparently, BT wants to throw down for it. He wants to race for it, Supermoto and motocross, with the margin of victory to decide who the real #101 is. If Knighter wants to get in on the action too, that’s fine with me. So, here it is: This fall we will do a twenty-minute Supermoto race, a forty-minute motocross moto, and, if Knighter wants, a sixty-minute off-road loop to decide the owner of the number. Obviously, there would be an adjustment for the length of the events. Okay, boys, the gauntlet is down. Who’s in?
PING
Why does Ping answer some dumb a$$ question about what to call the first ten years of a century (twenty oh one, twenty oh two, etc., or just the oh-ohs if you want to name the whole decade), and thanks the three people that threw dirty water on him in AZ (so much for the rest of the readers), yet will not answer a reasonable question like what type of seat height is possible if you lower the suspension, shave the seat, cut the sub-frame, etc. Maybe he is not wordless, but clueless? No wonder BT wants him to change his number. I am not addressing this to Ping, as I am trying to learn something useful, so I am sure I need to contact someone a little higher on the evolution continuum.
John
Hey, why don’t you pipe down a bit? I got your first email and didn’t answer it because it was a stupid question. Normally, I wouldn’t get to make fun of a guy for being short, but what kind of a sawed-off fraction of a man must you be in order to become totally consumed with shrinking a motorcycle? The stars of that Little People, Big World show are the only ones I’ve ever seen with legs shorter than mine and yet I’ve never had a problem starting my bikes. You already know what to do to shorten the bike: cut the seat, cut the sub-frame, and lower the suspension. So, what is it that you want to know? Make the changes and find out for yourself, half-pint. And you might want to see a therapist afterward, because you have the worst case of small-man syndrome I’ve ever seen.
PING
Hey Ping, I was watching a motocross race on TV and I noticed that Josh Hill's mechanic poured something into his bike while he was on the starting line. I was wondering if you could tell me what it was. I agree with those other guys, you need to get back to commentating the race. If you and Ricky did it, that might actually be worth watching with Ricky not racing anymore. Thanks for your time.
Alex H. Ephrata
Dear Alex,
Man, I can’t tell you how many letters I get asking this same question. It’s just gas, Alex. Pro motos are 40 minutes long going wide open and, depending on the track, there isn’t a lot of fuel left in the tank afterward. So most mechanics will top the tank off after the parade lap. At Southwick, some teams even run auxiliary tanks on their bikes to hold more fuel because the sand uses more of it. You can relax, pal, they aren’t cheating. Now, if you see a bottle that has a NOS sticker attached to a bike or you see a mechanic shoving a hypodermic needle into his rider’s butt cheek before the moto, please write in again and send a photo. Thanks.
PING
You have a question for David "Bronze" Pingree? Email him at letters@racerxill.com.
