Hey Ping,
I read your column every week and, like most people, find it entertaining and offbeat. During your career as a moto pilot, I was one of your fans, pulling for you to best Ricky, Chad, and others…as long as it wasn’t Baton Rouge’s own Kevin Windham. But now, in the sunset of your moto career, and into your current foray as a moto journalist, it seems that you have fostered a particular bias towards…of all things…Porsche owners. Perhaps you have this idea that Porsches are only owned by forty-something balding guys that have seen their better days on a motorcycle (or just seen their better days, period) and I can give you that level of prejudice if you need it. And of course, mid-life crisis’ being what they are perceived to be, perhaps any sports car, bleached blonde, or flashy Rolex watch might intercede in place of a Porsche…but have you ever even driven one?
I spent many years riding moto from one end of the country to the other, doing the CMC Golden State series back in the day to the Florida Winter –Am (yes, showing my age) and had the privilege of riding Saddleback, Racing World (Trabuco Canyon), and other prime So Cal haunts during their prime (and mine) and many other storied race tracks of “yesteryear”. During that same period, poor as I was, I was always interested in Porsche vehicles, and I am lucky enough to have owned three over the years. My first chance to get a used one was at 16 years old, and while it wasn’t the same as riding my dirt bike, it offered a thrill to drive all its own.
Now, in my 60’s, I happen to own and maintain a classic 911 Porsche. I don’t have one because I had some “crisis” to overcome…it was simply for the love of the iconic lines, superior workmanship, and the opportunity to drive a car that makes me think that I’m a lot better driver than I actually am. Still, once in a while I trip across someone like yourself, steeped in the idea that a Porsche is only for someone that feels the needs to show someone else in society that he is somehow viable or successful (and to be sure, those guys do exist). But I never wanted or needed a Porsche to show anybody anything…but only to appreciate the finest in automotive excellence.
So next time, before you throw any Porsche owner under the bus for your own inherent bias, please go down to your local Porsche dealer and drive one. Have your Porsche salesman take you down to the coast highway to do a few miles at speed. I won’t have to convince you afterward that there is another side of the coin to owning a Porsche…that car will do that for me nicely all by itself.
Jim Shavor
Baton Rouge, LA
Jim,
I can see that I really touched a nerve here and I’m hoping it’s because you are a die-hard Porsche fan and not a middle-aged douche wrestling with his mortality by leaving his wife for a 25-year-old and buying a sports car. Honestly, I don’t have anything against Porsche, or any other German auto manufacturer. My dad actually had one when I was a kid and, as far as sports cars that I’ll never spend the money on are concerned, Porsche is my favorite. I would even suggest that the 911 Carrera is probably the sexiest damn car ever built. Despite all that, Porsche and Corvette are the two hottest sellers when it comes to guys having a complete meltdown in their forties or fifties. There are also hairstyles that you can’t pull off, watches that cost more than most folks make in a year and clothes that you could barely pull off if you were twenty years younger that are just as ridiculous.
I do own a Toyota Corolla so I kind of understand how you feel about classic cars. Any time I pass a fellow Corolla driver we share a special moment, signified by a nod of the head and a half-hearted wave the way motorcyclist do, solidifying the bond between car owners that demand outstanding fuel mileage, bland styling and pure, unadulterated mediocrity when it comes to road performance. The Corolla club isn’t for everybody.
Thanks for being a fan all those years ago and thanks for taking the time to write in. I’m sorry I used your car as an example of a cautionary tale for aging men. Wishing you and your car all the best.
PING
Dear Ping,
I've really started noticing lately how poor the animated track maps have been for the outdoors, and frankly it annoys the crap out of me. In supercross the track map is spot on a perfect representation of what the actual track looks like which is awesome. When it comes to outdoors they don't seem to be able to express elevation changes with any kind of accuracy, entire jump sections are completely left out, and the general look of the track normally looks nothing like the actual track. Also I find it funny when Langston is attempting to explain the track while the green arrow is circulating, and a lot of the time he's at a complete loss for words because of the complete inaccuracy of the rendering. Why is it I can drive through an exact replica of a major city, then drive up a mountain 6000 feet high and free fall to my death on the other side in Grand Theft Auto, but we're forced to deal with these horrible conditions every week!?
-Generally aggravated
Aggravated,
Maybe I don’t play enough video games to understand why this animated thing is cool, but I don’t get it. The last time I watched a NASCAR race they didn’t start the show off with the cast of Super Mario Kart completing a cartoon lap around a digitally created Talladega while throwing banana peels. In supercross we had to watch an animated lap with the green arrow and then, just a few minutes later in the broadcast, we had to watch a video game lap of an MX vs ATV rider going around the animated track. Really? We couldn’t use that time for an interview with a rider or maybe some on-track pit reporting from something not generated digitally? And the supercross tracks are cookie-cutter enough that they can at least conjure up a decent rendering but you just can’t make a digital version of a national motocross track. Get rid of the janky video game map of the track and give us some real interviews with riders or genuine insight into the racing itself. And if that’s too much to ask then just keep running the Lucas Oil and Toyota truck commercials because, honestly, you just can’t play those enough times.
PING
Yo Ping-a-ring-ding,
This issue has been weighing on me for a while now, but Ryan Dungey's recent injury has brought it (almost literally) to a head. It seems in the past few years an increasing number of riders have suffered broken vertebrae. Dungey, Reed (a couple times), Seeley, Pourcel, Brayton, Hahn ... and those are just the 450 riders. Not to jinx anyone, but fortunately none of these recent injuries has been career-ending or life-changing. To the contrary, most have been described as merely "chipped" or "cracked," but c'mon man, let's call it what it is: a broken neck or back!
So ... why don't all Pro motocrossers wear neck braces and chest/back protectors? More to the point, why aren't they REQUIRED to wear them? Roadracers have to wear back protectors--and both Alpinestars and Dainese offer airbag-equipped suits that effectively function as neck braces--and they're much less at risk of spinal injuries than motocrossers.
It's gotten to the point that I don't even read the weekly Injury Report because it's too depressing.
Everyone be safe out there,
Cat
Cat,
There is some compelling evidence that in a direct impact a neck brace will dissipate energy away from the spine. But crashes aren’t one dimensional and the rotation of your body, as well as the mass of the bike tumbling with the rider, makes for an infinite number of possible angles and patterns to fall. Simply put, no two crashes are the same so you can’t possibly build a neck brace that would protect from all types of crashes. Some argue that the shelf itself creates a lever in certain types of crashes and could hurt your neck more than if you weren’t wearing one. Others think that they can cause further brain injury because your head can’t roll out of the way in an impact. Personally, I’ve almost crashed while wearing one because I got kicked off a jump and it wouldn’t let me move my head back so I could push my butt over the back fender; that was when I stopped wearing one.
I’m not against them, but I don’t think you can force riders to wear something that is not objectively proven to work. Chest protectors, on the other hand, work. You can’t argue that the protective plastic keeps your vital organs safe in an impact. I think it’s even written in the Geneva Convention… look it up.
Anyway, it wouldn’t be the job of the promoters to make this mandatory; it would be up to the teams. And I would be pushing my riders to wear one any time they swing a leg over the bike. Motocross is dangerous and it seems ridiculous not to use every tool possible to stay healthy.
PING
