MXoN

[Philip]

Just came back from Red Bud late last night.

The two Dutchmen were fast and looked like they were right at home, winning every race they entered. They only didn't win the MXoN because their third guy screwed up badly.

The French won it (again) without winning a single race, and even without Musquin.

Tomac didn't look relaxed and comfortable until after the middle of his first race on Sunday. After that he started hammering, but he still was not relaxed. In his second race he got a bad start, and you can't have that when you race guys like Herrings and Coldenhoff.

Barcia must have given it all. He kept an amazing pace ahead for Tomac for 2-3 laps, and then dropped off the pace by the end of the last race.

It was cool to see Kevin Windham. With his hairy head he appeared to have the largest helmet on the track. Him and Sipes put in really good efforts. Pastrana disappointed, as expected. He stopped to waive all the fans on his sight lap and then we didn't see him much after that. I am not sure how he managed to get points for the 38th and 39th place finishes because I didn't see him on the track in his second race at all.

A new phenomenon has taken a rise among motocross fans -- listening to 2-stoke loud noises with no bikes or any racing in sight. The noise generator of choice is a chainsaw without the blade. I have heard 2-stroke noises played on loud speakers as well.

Here is some footage from last year's MXoN. This year at Red Bud it was the same or worse. The American rednecks have caught on! They had those guys in the midst of all crowds at day, night, and during every race too.

My van had to get towed by a big tractor to get out of the mud! I got to test my new LiFePO4 batteries over the two days and nights of running the A/C, heater, and the microwave. They worked very well. Today I am recovering from all the watching and partying.

 

[snydes]

A new phenomenon has taken a rise among motocross fans -- listening to 2-stoke loud noises with no bikes or any racing in sight. The noise generator of choice is a chainsaw without the blade. I have heard 2-stroke noises played on loud speakers as well.

I was watching one of the pre-race shows and there was this one guy who got on camera with his "ya'll mother&%$@ers need 2-strokes" hat. Made me laugh.

 

[Philip]

It was amazing to see racers and fans from all over the world to come to the US to race and cheer.

Lots of groups dressed in the same costumes and waving their national flags.

We also stopped to buy a US flag, and we used a Rocky Mountain umbrella as a flag pole. I also sported US flag swimming trunks on Saturday.

It was sad to see a few teams come from so far away but not qualify. We went to talk to a lot of them to cheer them up.

The spirits ran high, and nobody even beat up the French, haha. They were standing quietly though with their flags all wrapped because their guys were not leading. They probably also didn't know they had won until after all the racing was over and the results of the last race were tallied up.

 

[teddyquinn]

Followed along online (thanks to @TCMB371 for IG live-ing qualifying!) and it looked like such a great event.

Sometimes I'll go back and watch older MXoN ('86 for instance) and it's astonishing to see how head and shoulders better our guys were than the rest at that time. Certainly mud is a great equalizer, though the intensity across the whole field this weekend was impressive to see. I've seen the excuses threads over on VitalMX, though hard to imagine anyone really keeping up with the Flying Dutchmen.

The two-stroke nostalgia phenomenon is pretty funny. Methinks Pastrana would have been slightly more competitive in the conditions on a 4T, but great that he ran the pre-mixer.

 

[Whymee]

3 things I learned from watching the MXDN:

1. Pretty embarrassing showing for the host nation.
2. Kawasaki has some damage control to attend to
3. The Euros are on it.

 

[TCMB371]

3 things i learned from MXON:

1. Conditions wise, this track was unlike any other RedBud we have seen.
2. USA obviously races less outdoors than the rest of the world. That hurts us.
3. Jeffrey Herlings is the fastest man on the planet.

I think it would be interesting if the event was changed. Have 3 race weekends; 1 on an outdoor mx track, 1 on a supercross track, 1 on a woods style track. Each country must pick their 3 best riders and those 3 riders must compete in each weekend. I think the USA would dominate something like that.

 

[Philip]

I am wondering whether the Euros were so much faster simply because they ran the Pirelli mud/sand tires, which have about 50% bigger paddles/knobs compared to the Dunlop MX12, which everyone in the US runs?

This wouldn't matter much if the track was not all deep sand/mud, but yesterday it was. And this could easily explain the difference in the lap times and in the ability to clear the Larocco's Leap.

We in the US should try better tires!

 

[snydes]

Tomac can’t start, and you can’t have bad starts and run with those guys. Barcia rode pretty good, I heard he claimed to have had a mild mechanical in his second race which might explain his fade. Plessinger I thought would have done better in those conditions. He claims to have taken taken a rock to his eye so that might have been why. Pretty disappointed though. I at least didn’t want France to win as I thought it was rotten how they treated Marv. It would seem they knew what they were doing though.

 

[WoodsWeapon]

Ive been going to the national for 20+ years and the MXdN party made it look like an amateur event in comparison. The chainsaws are a long standing tradition in Europe, so it was only natural they were gonna be out here. The insanity I seen awaiting the pitbike race cant be understood without seeing it firsthand. I watched fist fights, belly flops into mud, tits, beer bongs with whiskey, just unbelievable things.
As for the racing, Im a firm believer in our boys can only ride pristine groomed tracks, not the rough untouched surfaces which are common in MXGP. Most of our national tracks have had so much sand mixed in, then groomed identically, that theyre all very similar, and our guys cant cope with different surface.
I questioned Tomacs heart from the beginning. Sure hes our fastest guy, but it was a Monster event, and hes a Monster athlete, therefore I believe he was obligated to go, and his heart wasnt 100% into it.

 

[Fod]

Anyone know which series has more injuries per rider count, MXGP or US SX and outdoor nationals? I wonder if allowing the tracks to get beat will reduce injuries over groomed tracks. Those MXGP guys ride just as fast in the rough and raw as if it were groomed with a Q-tip!

 

[WoodsWeapon]

I dont have that answer, but it would be interesting to know.

 

[Philip]

belly flops into mud

I wish I had my cell phone camera running when that fat chick was about to do a belly flop into a long mud puddle. I didn't think she would do it, but she did it! It was a perfect belly flop, and it covered her all with a brown mud head to toes, face, hair and all. And then she wiped her eyes and cheerfully flashed everybody with her mud covered shiny mammals. It was a perfect belly flop performance.

After seeing her all dirty like that we felt embarrassed to be staring at her like that and started walking away. One of her friends came over and gave her a t-shirt and a beer. Everyone was happy.

 

[snydes]

And then she wiped her eyes and cheerfully flashed everybody with her mud covered shiny mammals.

 

[Altaracer929]

Hey Philip, How bad was the muddy track and rainy weather there? Watching the racing on MXGP-TV it looked terrible both days. Even the RacerX-TV after party shows were crazy to watch especially during the Pit Bike MXoN race. That's when I thought I saw you on RacerX-TV wearing a Alta Motors t-shirt dancing around in the mud doing a beer bong.

 

[Philip]

Hey Philip, How bad was the muddy track and rainy weather there? Watching the racing on MXGP-TV it looked terrible both days. Even the RacerX-TV after party shows were crazy to watch especially during the Pit Bike MXoN race.

Red But is usually deeply tilled and heavily watered for the Nationals. There is a lot of sand mixed into the dirt at Red Bud, so it was not unusually muddy for the racers. But the track looked extremely soft and fluffy this time, very deep but slick at the bottom, and the racers were saying that the track was nothing like it usually is.

For the fans and the pit bike racers it was a mud fest! I wore rubber boots all three days, and people were losing their boots in the mud. It rained heavily every night, but luckily not during the day.

That's when I thought I saw you on RacerX-TV wearing a Alta Motors t-shirt dancing around in the mud doing a beer bong.

Hahaha! That wasn't me. I was being quiet, trying not to get into a fight with anyone.

 

[Whymee]

I was all set to drive up & make it a 2 dayer. The weather turned me off.

I realize that there is nothing like experiencing a race first hand. I went to the 07 MXdN at Budds, & I kicked my self repeadadly for not attending Spring Creek. For some reason this did not have the luster for me. Maybe because I already witnessed the fastest man on the planet (JH) go from last to first at Crawfordsville Ironman National. Plus I did not feel like wading through mud for 2 days...

Watched the qualifiers live on the 'puter. Watched the Motos on DVR. I made the right choice!

I cannot wait to try my hand at MX again, on an electric motorcycle...