Dearest Ping,
It is with grave caution that I approach this subject, as I fear that I could be stepping into a world of pain. Nevertheless, as a regular reader of your Racer X column and Ask Ping, I must say it. Mr. Pingree, I fear that you are going soft, as lately your letter responses have lacked the verbal smacks upside the head, and premier-class sass that I have learned to expect and enjoy. The alarm bells starting ringing when you gave a completely straight forward answer to a gentleman who asked you why bikes don’t have thumb throttles, and the sirens started shrieking when I saw you in SLC wearing this cute little hat with the fuzzy ball on top. What gives?
P.S. Congrats to you and your team on a great supercross season.
Aaron Hansel
Dear Aaron,
Going soft? Alright, maybe I should have torn that idiot’s face off when he mentioned thumb throttles. It is a stupid idea and I should have told him so in no uncertain terms. But occasionally I have days where I feel like wielding an olive branch rather than a machete. As for the beanie, well, it was sub-arctic temperatures in Utah that day and I would have thrown a dried up lump of road kill on my head to keep me warm if it was all I had. Judging from this grainy camera phone picture, you were standing about five feet from me snapping away during track walk. Had I known you were going to send in my picture with an insulting letter I would have attacked you like a rabid grizzly bear and shoved my fuzzy hat down your throat. Is that angry enough? Okay, have a nice day.
PING
Ping,
Just wanted to know how you felt about the series leaving Glen Helen. I know that our sport needs progression to stay afloat, especially in the economy we're in. I just wonder if at some point tradition will mean more than money. That is if money is even the issue, I don't know. Hopefully this will be a good thing for the sport. I sure will miss seeing those guys fly down those nearly vertical hills, and definitely will miss seeing the big step up, but then that was absent last year so nevermind. I guess I'm just whining.
Dear ?,
I feel fine about it. I don’t know the exact details of the negotiations so I’m not going to speculate on who was right or wrong. I’m just going to give you a pragmatic approach, you whiny little turd. There is now a GP in southern California at your beloved Glen Helen Raceway and the AMA motocross series finale at Pala Raceway. Get over the emotional turmoil of it all and go watch some racing.
PING
Dear Ping,
If your ankle looked like this at 40 years old would you hang up the motocross boots?
Brett in Denver
Dear Brett,
Of course… Until the swelling goes down. Then I would put my balls and my boots back on and go for a ride. That’s just me.
PING
Got a question for Ping? Email him at ping@racerxonline.com.
