Taddy All
Taddy Blazusiak is the greatest rider the world of EnduroCross has ever seen. A five-time AMA EnduroCross Champion—before leaving the series in 2015—and a four-time X Games Enduro X gold medalist, Blazusiak helped bring notoriety to the sport. Red Bull recently took an in-depth look at his life in a new documentary “Caty Taddy! Bez scienmy,” which according to Goggle translate means, “Taddy all! No bullshit” or something like that. The only drawback, the documentary is in Polish, so you’ll have to read subtitles.
Check it out on Red Bull.
Pick Up Kit
Privateer Ryan Smith may not have qualified for the night show in Daytona, but sure as hell won Best Pick Up Kit of the Year.
Fastest on Electric
Mischo Erban recently set the Guinness World Record for Fastest speed on an electric skateboard when he hit a blistering 59.55 mph on a modified longboard. The most impressive part—he got up after this gnarly spill.
MotoGP Rule Changes
Last week, MotoGP issued a press release announcing major rule changes to the 2016 season. Gone are the penalties for four (starting from the back of the grid) and seven points (starting from pit lane), instead replaced by a new rule: when a rider receives ten penalty points, he will be disqualified from the race. This seems to be more fallout from the Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi incident at Sepang last year. The Grand Prix Commission also made this announcement, which I thought was interesting:
A new condition has been included in the regulations which reflects obligations on teams and riders already included in the Team Participation Agreements concerning public pronouncements. The effect of the regulation is that Teams and Riders must not make statements or issue press releases that are considered to be irresponsible and hence damaging to the Championship. Of course, the new regulation does not seek to prohibit responsible expressions of legitimate disagreement with the MotoGP Management, Organisers and/or MotoGP policies.
David Emmett at MotoMatters.com has a great piece on all the changes, but I thought this statement addressing the changes above was worth sharing:
The perception that nobody is at the helm of MotoGP is reinforced by the formal addition of an existing contractual obligation into the rules. Currently, when factories and teams sign up to compete in any of the three Grand Prix classes, they sign an agreement not to criticize the series beyond reason. This contractual obligation is only loosely enforced, mostly by way of a few sharp words from Manel Arroyo, Carmelo Ezpeleta's right-hand man.
Now, the same contractual obligations are to be included in the regulations. While this isn't nearly as bad as having a "bringing the sport into disrepute" clause, it transfers the conditions of a commercial agreement into the sporting regulations, thereby handing over the enforcement of those conditions to an organization which is supposed to stand above the sport, and outside of commercial considerations. Who, after all, is to judge whether a press release or statement is "irresponsible and hence damaging to the sport"?
The issue was highlighted with hilarious clarity by TV commentator and noted wit Duncan Bishop. "Quotes of 'we will try our best, the important thing is to have fun on the bike etc' are damaging. Because they are so BORING,' Bishop wrote. "And what are the penalties for these statements? Just so I know if I'm going to get a 1 race ban and fine for a press release."
Read more here.
Pastrana Goes to A Skate Park
Serious question here—what would you give to spend a day with Travis Pastrana? First born? A toe? A pinky? Somehow, this guy continues to have the most fun any one person can have. Latest example: taking a RM125 to a freaking skate park!!! And you have to love his caption on Facebook: “Tried the skate park today on my RM125.. only made it to the 1/4 pipe before things went bad.”
Is this cheating? Who wins?
Chasing the Dream
The second episode of Monster Energy Supercross documentary series Chasing the Dream airs this Sunday on FS1 at 9:30 p.m. EST. Earlier this week, Feld Motor Sports released a trailer for the episode. You can also watch episode one if you missed it.
Times Ad Block
The New York Times is making a move to try and stop ad blocking by selecting a “relatively small” amount of readers and asking them to disable the technology. The Times released a statement to Digiday about the move: “We are opposed to ad blocking, which does not serve the long term interest of consumers. The creation of quality news content is expensive and digital advertising is one way that The New York Times and other high quality news providers fund news gathering operations.” More from the report:
For the Times, online ads in the fourth quarter of 2015 pulled in $70 million, or about a third of its total advertising revenue. The company has set an “ambitious goal” of doubling digital revenue in the next four years to $800 million, a benchmark that might not be achieved if more people use ad blockers.
Times CEO Mark Thompson has openly blasted ad blockers, saying during a discussion at a social media conference last month ad blocker technology companies “essentially are asking for extortion to allow for ads.” Yet, the paper recommended people to use ad blockers to extend their phones’ battery life.
College Bans Energy Drinks
According to a NBC News report, Middlebury College in Vermont is banning the campus sales of popular energy drinks such as Red Bull and 5-Hour Energy. The reason—and this is a hilarious—“college officials blame the drinks for contributing to "problematic behavior," such as alcohol abuse and "high-risk sexual activity." Ok, sure, that makes a ton of sense. (I hope you can sense the sarcasm.) According to Time, this does not prohibit students from consuming the drinks, which I’m sure they will continue to do.
However, the decree doesn’t prohibit students from consuming the drinks, only from buying them at campus stores and dining halls. Those who enjoy the drinks are still free to buy them at off-campus locations.
[Editor's note: We at Racer X have had a lot of energy drinks but despite our best efforts we find they rarely have any impact on our sexual activity. And that's a shame -- Weege]
That’s One Way to do it
MotoGP Talks Supercross
What do the best riders in MotoGP think of Monster Energy Supercross? Great things, apparently. On Track Off Road (which is run by Adam Wheeler, a contributor to Racer X) asked MotoGP stars what their thoughts of supercross were in the latest issue. You can read the entire piece below (starting on page 70), but here is some of what two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner said:
“It’s one of those events that you can take the wife and kids to and everyone’s able to have a good time. When you look at a MotoGP race or a World Superbike or anything like that, it’s a lot harder to get people in the door just because it’s spread over a long time. Is there anything that we can do to try and make things a bit more family friendly? Supercross is good because people can walk around the pits and things like that, and that’s all good but it just couldn’t happen here. You’d have too many people coming in and you’d never be able to move. You can barley move as it is.”
