All good things must come to an end. It’s a way of life and a rule of thumb in business. Unfortunately for me I received word last week of some unexpected changes happening here at Racer X Online. Things happened that were out of anyone’s control and I won’t be contributing weekly to the site anymore. I’ll still be around the magazine from time to time. It wasn’t anything bad and no one did anything wrong. It’s a bummer to me for sure because I truly enjoy the work I do here. With that being said, Privateer Profile has survived for over eight years before I came along and it will continue after I’m gone.
I started contributing to Racer X in April of 2014 as an intern, mainly doing the Wake-Up Call post on Monday mornings. Eventually I took over Privateer Profile and found my niche in this sport as the voice of the privateers. I quickly found out every rider has a cool story and the ones doing it out of a van have the best ones and never get noticed.
With this being Thanksgiving week I figured that I would give thanks to everyone here at Racer X and MX Sports for allowing me to be a member of the team for so long. I want to thank all of the riders who have given me the time to interview them and let us all get a glimpse into their lives. It’s been fun, and it’s cool to look back at all of the profiles I’ve done to see how much we’ve all learned along the way.
For instance, we learned that Luke Renzland likes volleyball almost as much as motocross; Michael Akaydin would make a really great detective; Tim Tremblay raced his first pro event at the age of 29; Gannon Audette really is a funny guy, you just have to break him out of his shell; Paul Coates is 22 years old and has been married four years, which is really awesome and rare; Dustin Pipes makes main events on bets with the Seven Deuce Deuce; Ryan Sipes always stayed humble; Benny Bloss didn’t really care for arenacross; and last but not least, NO ONE ever knew where they were riding next season.
I’ve learned a lot along the way and I want to thank Jason Weigandt and Chase Stallo for giving me constructive criticism every week. These guys helped me become a better interviewer and writer and have taught me the things I wasn’t taught in college. It was a lifelong dream to make it to Racer X and work with everyone. I accomplished that goal before the age of 25 and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. Stallo is a great mentor and friend. He’s had my back over the years and looked after me once his older brother left the industry. Thanks Chase for believing in my skills and for all the advice, even though I tell you that a lot already!
Contributing to Racer X Online every week was a dream come true, but just like any job in this industry it had a lot of cons. What you guys don’t see is the amount of hours we all put into our content each week. I have a full-time 9-5 job and I still contribute to Racer X, Pulpmx (which wouldn’t have happened without my connection to Racer X), and Vurb Moto. I spent an average of seven hours on my Racer X content alone each week. I’ve burned a lot of midnight oil just like everybody else in this line of work has done. It’s a thankless job. I do it simply because I love this sport and the great people involved in it. We’re all normal people who happen to like twisting the throttle.
I act like I’ll never be around anymore, but that’s actually not true. I’ll still be contributing randomly to Racer X Online, as well as the magazine. I’ll also still be contributing weekly to Pulpmx and Vurb, so you can catch me there as well. Once again thank you to the readers and for following me on Instagram and Twitter (@troybendgen). You can interact with me on social media and I’ll be back with one final Privateer Profile next week.
I’d like to give a special thanks to Jace Owen, Ben LaMay, Cole Martinez, Justin Starling, Dustin Pipes, Kyle Partridge, Alex Ray, Daniel Baker, Kyle Chisholm, Tevin Tapia, Hayden Mellross, Gared Steinke, Cody Gragg, Jesse Wentland, Gannon Audette, Jason Brooks, Vince Friese, John Short, Jake Gagne, Marshal Weltin, Darian Sanayei, Jacob Hayes, Nick Gaines, Rob Lind, Mark Weishaar, Michael Leib, Steven Mages, Brady Kiesel, Deven Raper, Zac Commans, Mark Worth, Kyle Peters, Cole Thompson, Chase Marquier, Michael Akaydin, Dillan Epstein, Lawson Bopping, Trevor Reis, Nick Schmidt, Dakota Alix, Paul Coates, Jacob Williamson, Noah McConahy, Chris Howell, Benny Bloss, Henry Miller, Luke Renzland, Ryan Breece, Austin Howell, Anthony Rodriguez, Carlen Gardner, Jeremy Smith, Heath Harrison, Tim Tremblay, Bradley Taft, Cody Williams, Jerry Robin, Ryan Sipes, Vann Martin, Josh Osby, Sean Hackley, Alex Frye, Matt Bisceglia, Tristan Charboneau, Kyle Cunningham, Davey Coombs, Jason Weigandt, Chase Stallo, Julie Kramer, and all of you moto lovers who have read my work. It’s been a fun ride and I’ll talk to all of you very soon!
