Daytona is just different. You go to the place for the first time and say, "Hey, wait, they have two seperate tracks?" until you find out the oval is so damned big that you're actually seeing the same track like a mile away from you. There's actually a lake in the infield!
Cruising around the place, you'll see a little bit of everything, all sorts of cool spots and angles and areas that dot the World Center of Racing. From the crazy, steep bankings, to the tunnels under the track, to the plaques in victory lane (and, pretty cool, there's a sign for Ricky Carmichael's fifth Daytona SX win right next to one for Dale Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500 win), you won't find any place on earth like it.
Yup, sometimes it's the details that really make something special. So, forget big race coverage from the weekend. He's some other stuff we found on the web.
Bell, Baker Crash
This is one of the scariest crashes I’ve witnessed in person. Monday at the Ricky Carmichael Amateur Supercross at Daytona International Speedway, Daniel Baker lost control of his front end leading up to a double section and cut off Chase Bell (Zach’s younger brother) in mid air, leading to a scary, scary crash. Bell was attended to by medics but walked off under his own power. Later, on the same lap, Baker’s chain broke, resulting in a DNF. MXPTV captured the footage.
Then and Now
Spotted an old photo in the Daytona press box, a good match for what we have from last weekend in Atlanta. Richard Petty is a man amongst boys.
Huge Tommy Searle Crash in Thailand
Red Bull KTM’s Tommy Searle had a huge crash at the second round of the FIM World Motocross Championship in Thailand last weekend. After a visit to the hospital in Thailand, Tommy is back home in England now. According to his Twitter, he sustained a compression fracture in his T7 and will have it checked again in England. Get well, Tommy!
Balling on a Budget
By no means am I a big baseball fan. America’s pastime is now just pastime for the majority of a younger generation. But anytime someone is willing to put together—in their mind—the ultimate road trip, I’m on board. It would be like moto folks going to Daytona, Anaheim 1, Hangtown, the MXoN, etc. in ONE MONTH. That’s pretty cool. Will Leitch, Deadspin founder, now at Sports on Earth, is going to do the “Ultimate Baseball Road Trip” again in 2015. His plans are to attend all thirty MLB stadiums in the first month of the season. The cool part? He’s laying out how to do it. From Sports on Earth:
This brings our grand total, the whole cost of this thing, to … $9,210.80. That is actually $1,600 cheaper than last year. (Assuming you don't spend $1,600 to go to Cincinnati. You could probably still do all 30 stadiums for under $10,000 and about 36 days.) You'd be a fool not to do this trip. So get out there and start buying up your flights and hotels. You won't regret it.
Read the entire thing here.
Twitch ‘n’ Ride
Red Bull recently put on the Twitch ‘n’ Ride event in Latvia (we don't believe there's any connection to "Twitch" Stenberg). Think crazy, Eastern Europeans riding moto and skiing at the same time. According to Red Bull, the course is not “traditional motocross” but more like a traditional hare scramble course in the 1950s. Latvian prodigy Pauls Jonass, who just finished second overall in MX2 at the MXGP of Thailand, even put in a few laps. It’s an absolutely insane, yet utterly brilliant concept—that kicks ass! Check out on RedBull.com.
Disco Golf Bro Launches Huge Shot
This has to be fake, right? I dabbled in disc golf in college—mainly to drink beer while “doing an activity”—and can attest it’s damn near impossible to throw a disc that far. According to our disc golf expert, Aaron Hansel—yes, he actually does play a lot—it is indeed real. “Oh yeah, that's real. My buddy was actually standing right behind him on the pier,” he told us. Anyway, check out Seppo Paju in 2012 launching a disc a long way!
POV X-Fighters
Most 99.9 percent of us will never do a backflip on a dirt bike. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles. But we can live vicariously through the guys that do, right? At the Red Bull X-Fighters 2015 season opener in Mexico, Dany Torres strapped on a helmet cam to give us common folk a glimpse at what a run in freestyle motocross feels like. You’re a bad dude, Dany!
Rookies on Social Media
The 2015 rookie class has been quite impressive thus far. Three of the four (Anderson, Seely, Baggett) young guns have a podium appearance, and Anderson is in the midst of a ten-race top-ten streak. That’s on the track. Off the track, the injured Dean Wilson is leading the social media game. The guys at HookIt have tracked social interactions across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from the first of January to March 10. During that time, Wilson racked up 685.7K interactions compared to 338.1K for Seely, 251.1K for Anderson and 78.7K for Baggett. Furthermore, Wilson gained 360.3K new followers. Check out the entire chart below.
Classic Pod
It only took thirteen emails, four phone calls, and two text messages, but Matthes finally (!) sent his Classic Podcast in on time. Kidding, it only took three phone calls. Anyway, check out a cool pod with AC222 from a few years back.
With the Grands Prix in full swing I thought that a classic podcast with bajillion-time world champion Antonio Cairoli was appropriate this week. The Red Bull KTM rider is one of the nicest guys around and truly is a prime example of someone who should have a huge ego and doesn't. Antonio takes my call from Belgium and in this pod he explains why he loves Jeremy McGrath so much and why he chooses to ride a 350 over the 450 as well. Take a listen to a world class rider that I hope we get to see over here for a race or two before he hangs it up.
