Texas has a mixed history with Monster Energy Supercross. Lately, Arlington has served as 250SX East opener, and this year Houston will host 250SX West, but Houston is actually slighty east of Arlington! Historically the Texas races have hosted East, West, and even combined East/West riders through the years. It all depends on the scheduling and timing of other events and other buildings; plus Texas makes a nice stop from either coast—it's only halfway across the country, at least.
Why do we bring this up? Texas is the perfect place to avoid distinct east/west distinctions, because Texas is its own animal. Its own region. It's darned near its own country. Texas is just....different. So is the Word On.... You'll see some things that look like normal here, and some things that are unlike anything you'll see anywhere else. Enjoy it or leave. Just don't mess with the Word On....
SOCIAL MEDIA OF THE WEEK
CRASH SEQUENCE
Privateer Josh Cartwright had a scary crash in his 250SX heat race Saturday in Arlington and Racer X’s own Simon Cudby scored a cool sequence shot. Cartwright said the following on Instagram: "Unfortunately, I was in qualifying position in the heat and cased a jump and went over the bars. I was a little banged up so I couldn't give it my all in the LCQ. Live and learn! I will come back stronger in Atlanta 1!"
We're pulling for Cartwright to, um, right the ship. Did you know he's a full-time college student, studying biology, while also working on a pro career? That's pretty impressive.
DMXS—BACK TO THE ROOTS
David Izer and Kevin Kelly have been hosting DMXS Radio for more than a decade. If you’ve never listened to one—what the hell is wrong with you? It’s hilarious—you need to check them out. Since 2003, the Georgia natives have also hosted the DMXS party the night before the Atlanta Supercross. I vaguely remember my first one, and I definitely remember how real the struggle was the following morning. Anyway, this week Izer wrote a cool piece on Vurb Moto about the first party back in 2003. Check it out here. I wanted to know a little more, so I sent Izer and Kelly a couple questions. (Make sure to view details on this year’s events below. Also, check out the video from 2003 below. It’s epic!)
Racer X: DMXS has been hosting the party since 2003, correct? What’s your favorite year and best memory that comes to mind?
DAVID IZER: We’ve been doing the show since MMI, but the first official barn dance was launched in MMIII and we haven’t missed one yet. We’re thinking of going Roman numerals like the Super Bowl. But, yeah, 2003.
That is a more difficult question to answer each year as the party keeps growing, but the 2008 Red Bull girls in body paint and dirt bike burnouts in the bar seems to be a recurring favorite. I had a listener email last week about his favorite party since that is where he got his girlfriend’s name tattooed on his chest. Yes, we’ve even hired tattoo artists to be on hand at the party one year to make that regrettable drunk decision easier. And yes, they’re still together!
KEVIN KELLY: My favorite year has to be—well, I have two favorite years and they were back to back and both featured epic moments with my dad of all people. So weird to be rolling in Buckhead with my dad at the club, but he actually blended in. One year Red Bull hired some ladies and decided to paint them, rather than clothe them. Then the girls were paraded about the party for photo ops. My dad came cruising by with paint on his hands and I knew exactly what had happened.
My next favorite would be the following year and the club was slammed full of people and we brought a bike in a smoked the club out doing a burnout in the middle of the dance floor followed by a live tattoo artist giving one of our long time friends a tat in the middle of the club. And finally my brother's account of a "slight" altercation through his eyes. He said he remembered seeing a ruckus beginning, he then looked again and saw his wife's breast, then his wife and her breast on the floor. And finally my dad, his wife, and his wife's breast all on the floor. I still laugh at that story! For the record, they were trying to stop the ruckus from going any further but the breast came out and all hell broke loose.
Favorite Weege moment?
IZER: That’s like asking Joe Dirt why he likes the good fireworks.“Well, huh, might as well ask why a tree is good? Why is the sunset good? Why are boobs good?” They’re all good and a favorite in their own way, Chase. The one year even his non-moment was a moment. We all know Weege is cheap and tighter than a frog’s ass, and that’s watertight. Well, Mr. Cheapo stayed in such a shady part of town to save a buck, but then he couldn’t get a taxi to pick him up because they refuse to drive to that area. So he bought a six-pack of beer and had a party of one in the sleazy dive lobby waiting on his ride all night. We’d call and just let him hear all the fun he was missing. He didn’t even get robbed because just looking at him you can pretty much tell he doesn’t have any cash.
KELLY: One of my favorite Weege stories is watching him dance like a complete fool and doing so while completely sober. The funny thing here is I was standing next to my buddy who worked undercover for Atlanta PD and he immediately said, "That guy is high and out of his mind." He was talking about Weege. Awesome.
Was bleach blonde hair still fashionable in 2003?
IZER: I own it, Chase! In fact, I’m thinking of bringing it back for Atlanta 2, the real A2. It took a while to migrate to the East from California, so we were grandfathered in under an acceptable fashion grace period. Haters gonna hate I guess.
KELLY: Bleach blonde hair was years past its prime in 2003, but that didn't stop David Izer from "frosting" his tips. If you watch the 2003 video you'll see what I'm talking about here. Wine coolers and frosted hair for days.
DMXS has had to move the party again to accommodate the crowds, but they will be hosting two parties at the Cosmolava club in Midtown this year—one before Atlanta 1, and one after Atlanta 2. It’s closer to the Dome and most hotels for your convenience, too. Check out the flyer for details.
FLYING, BRO
Every kid EVEYONE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FLY. Whether 5 or 50, the “what if” of being able to fly has always intrigued us all. Thanks, Superman. Brandon Mikesell and GoPro bring us one step closer. Check out Brandon gliding through the mountains of Switzerland in his wingsuit—flying!!!!!!!!!
INTERESTING PIECE OF THE WEEK
The Olympics are kind of a mess. It’s complicated, but if you’re interested, check this out. Anyway, according to the NY Times, there are problems arising with Beijing’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Games. The 2022 bid is between China and Kazakhstan with the announcement coming in July. From the Times:
Since Beijing formally submitted its candidacy last month, Chinese officials have raced to dust off their 2008 playbook. Mostly, that means telling the commission what they think it wants to hear. “We want our ecological environment as clean as possible, and we shall create a social and cultural environment for pure friendship,” the Beijing Olympic Games Bid Committee website says.
Eager to comply with the I.O.C.’s goal of producing a more economical event, Chinese officials have announced plans to reuse some of the 2008 Olympic venues, which they say will keep costs down to $3.9 billion, a steal compared with the $40 billion spent on the Summer Games seven years ago. Planners have already started building a high-speed rail link to Zhangjiakou, a city near where the Olympic Village would be built, that will reduce travel time from central Beijing to 50 minutes from three and a half hours by car.
But cleaning up the environment has proved far more challenging than building stadiums. According to China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, nearly 90 percent the country’s 74 major cities, including Beijing, failed to meet air quality standards last year. While the government took extreme measures to clear skies during the 2008 Olympics, shutting down factories and limiting the number of cars on the roads, the smog problem has only grown worse.
Read the entire piece here.
SOCIAL STATS
Hookit—a company that "supports and connects athletes, brands and sports through the 'Internet,' aka your computer, phone, apps and sites you use everyday—has released their January Social Media Report. For the second straight month, Ken Roczen was #1, generating over 2 million interactions from fans on social media. Furthermore, Roczen’s fan base grew by 9.3 percent, bringing his total to 887,000 fans.
Adam Cianciarulo may be out for Monster Energy Supercross, but he’s still generating a lot of interest on social media. He was once again the top 250 class athlete, generating 671,000 fan interactions. His fan base also grew by 30K fans. Similarly, James Stewart continues to sit near the top of the pile despite not racing this year. Check out the top ten athletes for the month of January.
Hookit has also provided us with the most popular riders from the Dallas Supercross last weekend. Keep in mind, these are only riders that competed last weekend. (Note: These are interactions based on four days—two days before and two days after—Thursday-Monday).
RALLY SNOWBANK
Driving in the snow sucks. If you live on the East Coast, well, the past week or two has really sucked, as the entire region has seen a ton of snow. You’re not alone, though. Check out this video from Rally Sweden—it will make you feel a little better. Jalopnik has more.
DRIVING TRAFFIC
This may only interest me, so skip over if you like. The goal when using social media for most publications (like Racer X) is to not just inform—but to drive traffic back to your site. Web traffic pays the bills, folks. Social media, at least not yet any way, does not. Twitter recently released a new feature called View Tweet Activity. Simply: it’s a way to track how many users your tweet reached, how many times people clicked on link, shared it, etc. Derek Thompson at The Atlantic has an interesting piece on how Twitter really doesn’t drive traffic to your site. From Thompson:
A tweet with 10,000 interactions is an exception, and I was interested in the rule. So I went to Twitter's user analytics page to download the data on my 100 most popular tweets of the last year. If I could prove to my bosses (and to myself) that Twitter could, even occasionally, deliver meaningful audiences, it might validate my infatuation. Alas, my most popular tweets averaged a click-through rate of about 1.7 percent, still quite near the rate of conversions on flash-media East Asian display ads. Without revealing numbers that will get me in trouble with my bosses, I concluded that my prodigious use of Twitter in the last 30 days has cumulatively driven less traffic to TheAtlantic.com than one of my below-average stories.
Is the social web just a matrix of empty shares, of hollow generosity? As Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile once said (on Twitter), there is "effectively no correlation between social shares and people actually reading." People read without sharing, but just as often, perhaps, they share without reading.
This is basically common knowledge in media organizations—Facebook drives way more people to your site—but it’s interesting nonetheless. Check it out here.
TO MARS AND BEYOND?
Wanna go to Mars? Heck yeah I do, bro. You now have the chance—maybe. According to Vox, “The Dutch organization Mars One has a far-fetched plan to send people on a one-way trip to Mars — with the initial 2024 mission partly paid for by creating a reality show about the journey.” This all seems a bit ridiculous to me, but they do have a video telling you about the idea—which counts for something, I guess.
Read more about it on Vox.com.
Have something cool to share? Hit me up at chase@racerxonline.com or on Twitter.
