Racerhead #26

In the meantime, I am off to Denver with a plane full of motocross folks based in the Pittsburgh area. Tomorrow night is the Thunder Valley National, which will be held under the lights and which marks the fifth round of the 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. The second 450 moto will air live on SPEED TV on Saturday night beginning at 11 p.m. ET (8 PT). And as always, the first motos will showm live on www.allisports.com beginning at 8 p.m. ET, including the Women’s Motocross class.

David Bailey will not be in the booth this time, replaced by another four-time AMA Motocross and Supercross champion in Jeff Emig. And as a special guest to join Fro and Jason Weigandt in the booth for the 250 motos, look for none other than Trey Canard, the now sidelined GEICO Powersports Honda rider who broke his wrist in a spectacular crash while leading the second moto of the High Point National two weeks ago.

There’s no way Canard can ride, and I really thought there was no way Mike Alessi could ride either, but the super-determined Rockstar/Makita Suzuki rider is going to go for it after all. As you know, Alessi was the points leader before High Point, having won at both Hangtown and Freestone, only to crash and shatter his kneecap into four pieces while practicing before High Point. He was operated on in Morgantown last Tuesday, then flew straight home to California to begin some intense rehab in the hopes of staying in the title chase—he’s 19 points behind the leader, his teammate Chad Reed. If he can manage the pain (and there will be pain) and keep the knee from getting clocked with a rock, well, more power to him. If it doesn’t work out, it could turn real ugly in a hurry.

While we’re talking about Suzuki riders, here’s a nod to a cool kid named Ken Roczen. He rode into the record books last Sunday as the youngest rider ever to win a Grand Prix, taking the German GP in the MX2 class at the ripe old age of 15 years, 53 days. (In Europe, you only have to be 15 to get a pro license.) Roczen, who said earlier in the year that he wants to come to America soon, will have to wait until 2012 because here in the States, the age limit is going from 16 to 17 next year, and then from 17 to 18 in 2011. And the even-younger (and said to be just as fast) Jeffrey Herlings of Holland may have to wait until 2013 to come to the AMA circuit.

Now there are some that are already complaining about this new age limit, and understandably so: James Stewart, Ron Lechien, Damon Bradshaw and Travis Pastrana were proven winners at age 16. However, the insurance liability situation in America is different than in Europe—they basically ruled that minor releases are meaningless in Florida, for instance. Also, the trend of kids dropping out of school is getting more and more frequent here, and while it’s impossible to make a high school diploma or GED a requirement to get a license, this change at least is a step in the right direction, in my opinion. The youth and amateur system here is so high-pressure and expensive that some families risk it all in order to make a go at turning their kids into future champions. Raising the age may mean having to wait a little while longer to see the next Justin Barcia or Blake Wharton race an AMA Supercross or outdoor national, but for everyone of those guys that make it big, there are dozens that don’t make it at all—and often have little to fall back on.

The new AMA Pro Racing age limit, by the way, was conceived through a consensus that something needed to be done by the factory teams, the supercross series organizer, and the outdoor promoters. Remember, some minors were in jeopardy of not being allowed to race in the two Monster Energy/AMA Supercross rounds in Florida due to the minor-consent litigation that came up last winter.

Oops, scratch that on Trey Canard: Denny Stephenson of Connexions just let me know Trey had surgery on Tuesday on that broken wrist and isn’t up for traveling just yet. Hopefully the very nice and funny kid will make it to RedBud to help out. Get well soon, TC.

With that, I will turn it over to the rest of the guys, starting with Steve Matthes, who’s over in Europe enjoying a well-earned vacation in some giant beer tent in Germany. If you missed his Observations from last Sunday’s German GP, they’re a gem. Check it out here.

This week, the series heads to Colorado, which just happens to be a night race and allows a west coast based guy like myself to fly in Saturday morning. Which is pretty sweet, I must say. I usually don’t care about going on the road, but on Monday I just got back from a eleven day trip on the road that included a stop-off at Mt. Morris to watch the national there and then off to Europe for the next week. Thanks to all those people that read my blog and sent me nice emails. I enjoyed the Teutschenthal Grand Prix immensely and to all those people that are reading this over there, it was nice to meet you or maybe catch up with you again (Wobbles, DV, Coppins and Reuben).

Last Saturday, James Stewart held his JS7 Entertainment ride day out at Milestone MX Park in Riverside, California. It was a pretty cool event, and to be honest, it made me wonder why nothing like it had been done before. Most of the top riders genuinely like and appreciate their fans, but the way race days are scheduled, they’re really worried about the upcoming race more than fans when it’s early in the afternoon or whatever. So what ends up happening is they do their 45-minute autograph session, but can’t give many people the attention they probably feel they deserve. Normally, after the race, guys who didn’t end up in the medical rig or otherwise really pissed off (which normally includes the winners) are out and about signing for as long as people want autographs. I’ve seen Stewart, Chad Reed, Ricky Carmichael (back in the day) and the rest signing after 1 a.m. before.

Unfortunately, most of the fans bail immediately after the race, so sometimes they’re left with the impression that their favorite rider is a rockstar or doesn’t have time for them.

Stewart fixed that last Saturday, though. Since he’s sitting out the nationals, he has a bit more free time on his hands, and with the help of his team, crew and the guys at Red Bull, he got everyone in free at Milestone, then awed them with his skills on a stock YZ250 two-stroke (factory suspenders, though) in between signing autographs and taking pictures with all of the fans in attendance. The fans got free food (provided by Red Bull) and James Stewart Ride Day T-shirts, and the ultimate fan, Big Lenny, even got a signed jersey.

Class move, James.

An interesting press release came out earlier today announcing that WMA rookie Vicki Golden is taking Trey Canard’s ride on the GEICO Powersports Honda team, so that’s a very interesting move by the Factory Connection Racing squad. And in a lot of ways, it’s perfectly logical. The girls race during the actual program now, and considering the 250cc men that were available, the team will probably get a lot more exposure from Vicki than from a man, assuming the male racer wouldn’t be able to break the top 10 in the 250 class (which you nearly need to be superhuman to do).

In addition, the team’s sponsors will likely get exposure during the female Moto X portion of the X Games, as Golden is racing for them there, too. She’ll have her first race on Canard’s screamer tomorrow night in Lakewood.

Andy Bowyer just called me from Lakewood, and he says it’s raining cats and dogs right now, so how about a nighttime mud national? We may have another first! According to weather.com, it’s supposed to rain more through the night, then have a lesser chance of more rain tomorrow (although still 30 percent). It’s good that the lighting is supposed to be better this year, because it sounds like no matter what, it’s going to be quite rutted to say the list. Ruts plus lighting from the side equal shadows.

So, if it’s muddy, or if it’s rutty, it can be a very interesting race tomorrow night. It's good that at least they'll have all morning and into the afternoon to straighten things out before practice.

Thanks, Steves. Now it’s Keith Burgie’s turn. He’s down in Texas for the Red Bull X Fighters this weekend:

The Red Bull X-Fighters have rolled into Fort Worth, Texas, for the only United States stop on their five-round championship tour. The best riders from around the world are here, including Mat Rebeaud, Eigo Sato, Robbie Maddison, Thomas Pages, and of course, the powerful American duo of Nate Adams and Jeremy Stenberg. The days of FMX courses designed with three ramps and two 180-degree berms are gone, and the guys are stacked up against a technical monster with somewhere around 12 jumps, rhythm sections, dirt hits, and a quarter pipe all crammed inside an area about the size of a football field.

The course was designed to force these guys to get creative. Not every landing leads directly into a berm or another jump, and you can tell that after two long rounds of practice no one is sure exactly how they’ll piece together their 90-second run. It’s also clear that some riders are thriving on it and others are a little nervous. One tabletop jump in particular has been giving riders fits. The takeoff is very steep, the landing is a little flatter, and it looks hard to time. Jeff Kargola was the first victim of the jump, flat-landing and completely crushing his bike before falling off the back. He was shaken, but okay.

A second scary moment came when Robbie Maddison over-jumped it, landed back on the seat, and whisky-throttled off the huge multi-purpose mound that followed. The mound serves as a berm, a hip jump landing, and has a culvert pipe that the riders may enter through. Robbie went off it, cleared the culvert, somehow flat-landed, missed a bulldozer and a wooden fence, and eventually hit a metal fence that stopped him. It was sketchy, and the bulldozer and fence have been replaced by plastic barriers.

Red Bull has taken over this town and you can’t walk down the street without seeing a Red Bull Mini Cooper, posters, or a billboard. The company puts on a great show and I cannot wait to see the arena all dressed up for its big night. Check back later for blog-style updates.

Thanks, Keith.

And finally, we always hate to report these things, but it’s part of the sport—a part that needs to change: On June 9, amateur rider Kent Stephenson, 22, of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, crashed while riding at Underground MX in Kemp and broke his back, resulting in severe damage to the spinal cord, according to Jenny Coombs of Road 2 Recovery. “Kent had surgery on June 12th at Parkland Hospital in Dallas to remove bone fragments and fuse his T3, T4, T7 and T8 vertebrae. Kent is currently paralyzed from the mid-chest down and has been transferred to Craig Hospital in Colorado to begin his rehab. A guest book and donations for Ken are being accepted at Caring Bridge, a non-profit web service that connects family and friends to share information, love and support during a serious medical condition, treatment and recovery. Please send your prayers to Kent and his family HERE.

With a nod to “Mac Daddy” on the Vital message board for pointing this out, Australia has it’s own version of the Racer X Motocross Show, and it’s really good! Check out “Motocross Show Wanneroo” right HERE.

The 2009 Comp Edge MX Park Asterisk Demo Days! Asterisk will be having free knee-brace demo days at Comp Edge MX Park. Open practice starts at 8am June 27th, and Asterisk personnel will be on site from 10am-2pm. Tell a friend. For more info please call asterisk at 1-800-459-2999.