9/11/04 though 3/7/05 HE HOLESHOT BOTH MOTOS ON SUNDAY (3/7) Saturday during the day is my time to work on the bike. Weekdays are too crammed and the light in my garage sucks too much to work at night, so Saturday it is. By the time I got around the regular maintenance on the CR and noticed my front brakes were nil, it was too late to get any help. I bled them, and bled them and bled them some more and still nothing. I slept in Sunday morning and missed the Gang race at LACR. It was a beautiful day. Sunny with a slight cool breeze and drifting clouds. Honestly, I was feeling crappy about not making it out. "I'll get to watch the St. Louis Supercross," I thought. That helped. Played basketball with Emmet. Napped. Painted a little. Did some laundry. Today I logged onto the Gang site to check out how the race went. As the page loaded I first saw the words, "A Dark Day for the Gang..." and my heart sank. Someone got hurt. As the page loaded I saw a crisp photo of Jimbo Holman and the words, he collapsed during his 2nd moto and they couldn't save him. I don't know what to say here. Just that I guess it was Jimbo's time to go. But the timing in death is never right. He was still under 50. I worked with this man on the OTHG board last year when he stepped in to become the president after a fiasco early in the season. I can honestly say that he is one of the main reasons I've stuck with MX. Last year was a pivotal year for me and Jimbo helped make it a great experience with his always positive and gentle demeanor. He never had anything bad to say to anyone and was always around to help. And his beef jerky... the man could make some good jerky. Holman would give the shirt of his back to help someone — and I'm almost sure that somewhere along the line he probably did. I am deeply saddened that he is gone, and that I will not get to know him any better. I'm sorry that I didn't get to shake his hand yesterday and share a laugh. But I am very happy and fortunate to have know him for the little while that I did. James Holman embodied the true positive spirit of motocross (and humanity) and I thank him for spreading it around. You'll be missed, Jimbo, you really will. OTHG @ REM WENT OFF WITHOUT A HITCH... (2/28) ...but I missed it. The road to Glen Helen Raceway was washed out until late in the afternoon on Saturday. Since the riding has been scarse on the underwater tracks thus far this year, I had already made plans to meet friends out in the desert near Willow Springs Raceway. I was jonzing hard for a ride and the desert sounded fun. It was. We picked up Jared in Long Beach in the morning and met Scott and Jax Kinsey off the 14 freeway Dawn Road exit about 10am. The weather could not have been better for riding. Scott and Jax are just getting into riding off road. Scott plans on joining the OTHG to race MX this year. Jax isn't quite old enough for the vet classes at 5 — almost 6 — but the boy has skills. By the end of the day, Emmet was going for it on the edges of this huge puddle, trying to splash as big as he could. I decided to snap a couple pictures. After the 2nd shot, Em and I looked over and Jax was headed straight for the middle of this massive body of water... I guess I should've run out there after him, but when I saw Scott coming, I just started shooting. If Jax's mom, Kelly, is reading this, I apologize for not running in after him. But don't worry... he was never in any real danger. He's a trooper. And he'll be laughing about these shots well into his life. It was a good day. I was pretty stoked to get home and find out Ricky had smoked Reed in a real nail-biter back in Atlanta. I knew he would do it. He is unreal. WAAAAH (2/13) I-5MX canceled. Tractors stuck in the mud. And its looking like it may be mud at the SD SX this weekend... BAAAAH (2/11) Pam's rack sig is all over the internet. I guess that's the way she wanted it... Looks like rain for I-5MX in Gorman this weekend. Can't seem to avoid mud lately. Still no results from two weeks ago at Glen Helen. BUBBA'S BROKEN WING (2/8) There's never a lack of celebs at the LA SX races. Sometimes they hang in the Fox box and get their boobs signed by the sidelined Bubba Stewart. Yes, those are Pam Anderson's, and no, I won't tell who took the photo. (click breast for full pic) MOTO 6 (2/7) Issue 6 of the UK's Moto mag is out. It sports one of the best cover shots I've seen on an MX mag in a long time... How bad does Ricky want it? Just look at that shot again (click for enlargement). It's the A1 main start as shot by Steve Jackson. Ryan Clark broke the top 10 at Anaheim 3! Big congrats, Ryan. No results from the OTHG yet. Headed to I-5MX this weekend. Maybe Thursday before-hand for a few laps... we'll see. OPENER (2/1) Now, if you haven't ridden for 6 weeks and there has been 500% of the normal rainfall in San Bernadino County, Glen Helen Raceway isn't where you want to have your race season start. But, that's exactly where it started last Sunday. Holy rutted oatmeal sand whoops. All that time you spent cleaning up the ride? Wasted in two straightaways. The new suspension? Well, it got a serious workout on braking bumps the size of seals at the bottom of Mt. St. Helens (and we only used half the hill). Bright '05 gear? Now Glen Helen brown. Forearms? What forearms? More like wet pretzel sticks by lap four. But I managed to survive. It's Tuesday and my arms and upper back a more sore than Sunday and Monday combined. My results? I have no idea. The Gang's new board was a bit slow with score sheets, so I still haven't a clue. Moto 1 they had me finishing 1st, but, realistically... no. I went down twice. But there were about 40 people on the track at once — 45 novice on the first gate, beginner and 38 beginner on gate two. Yikes. I only recognized two of my fellow racers on the course all day. But 1st? Not likely. Moto two was better than the first, but I still tipped it over once at the top of the hill avoiding a downed rider's melon on lap one. Brutal day. Official results soon I want to say a quick thanks to Scott Kinsey for coming out with his family and shooting photos (here's one). Scott is a soon-to-be OTHGer. Nice to meet you all, come out to I-5MX on the 13th for round #2 and we'll ride around. I love that track. Maybe I'll even do some weight training before then... Ryan Clark's back on the bike and came real close to breaking the elite top ten in the 250s in SF at his first supercross this season. Not bad, Clarkstar. Ryan recently dropped a hint that something big is in-store for Team Solitaire. Hope it's a real good thing, he deserves it. I didn't get to meet Clark up in SF for the race... my invite to the Suzuki Crossover Challenge 110 race never came. Probably a Godsend — or Pat Shutte looking out for my well-being. Hope Cab and the others survived the "easy" track. UPS (1/27) I love that brown truck. They delivered my suspension from Race Tech today. All shiney and re-built. Nice. The true test comes this Sunday at Glen Helen at the OTHG opening race. Nice of them to pick the toughest track to start with. Riding days have been scarce since mid December... The man in brown also delivered a package from Fox last week too. The new Forma Pro boots look and feel amazing. Big thumbs up for the new, sleeker designed 02 jersey and 360 pant as well. Thanks a ton, Jim. That's enough pandering to the sponsors for today. Gotta go do some pushups. All my best to Stephan Roncada. I know firsthand part of what he's going through, and know it's not easy. Hang tough, Ron Ron, there is a brighter side. CAREFUL (1/18) A few weeks back a moto friend of mine, Kim Boyle, took a spill and went into surgery having broken his hip. Be careful out there people. Boyle, we're wishing you a speedy recovery, man. He hunting for good reading material, so any suggestions are welcome. While on the subject of careful. Someone over at that notorious keyboard battlefield, MotoTalk, posted this link of ESPNs highlights from Phoenix, which includes Bubba's crash. He's lucky he didn't break more than just his arm. Get better and get back in there, James. A big thank you to my sponsors for 2005. Race Tech, Universal, Fox, Smith, DeCal Works, Stomp and Lakai. Since I started racing MX in '03 I've been sinking deeper into dept (the wife loves it) and it really helps when my friends and sponsors come through with help. I wanted to let you all know that your help is much, much appreciated. See you at the races. I also want to thank the Over The Hill Gang for letting me serve on their board last year, it was a pleasure... Thanks to Jimbo, Ryan & Cheri Grosz, John, Art, Julia & John Curran, Bruce and Bryan. And Eric Barr for his words of encouragement. Your friendships are much appreciated. One lesson learned over the year; steer clear of the few particularly cranky old MXers and/or take what they say with a grain of salt. Another; keep the rubber side down. RAIN MORE (1/8) I must give a big shout out to my friend and MX inspiration, Ryan Clark of Team Solitaire in Phoenix, for coming through with some tickets to round one at Anaheim Stadium. Thanks, Ryan, and sorry you had to sit that one out, but I guess if you're going to miss any at all, it might as well have been that one. Motocross doesn't have rain outs. Leave that to baseball and golf. The weather is as much a part of MX racing as are the racers, the bikes and the tracks. And so, with Southern California under 500% more rainfall than usual, the wet weather played a huge part at round one. This was a mud fest — with riders slipping, sliding and duck walking their bikes over the whoops, discarding goggles, trying in vein to pull bikes out of the glop... mother nature had taken this much anticipated race of the titans and turned it inside out. It was any ones guess who would be left to stand on the box. Of course, the titans did stand out in practice and the heats; Bubba flew. Reed and RC, Windham, they all looked fine. But the rain never let up. By the time the 250 main hit, it was soup out there. Conditions changed on every lap. Ryan, out with a shoulder injury, turned to me in the stands just before the main started and said, "If Ricky does the triple during the main..." and just shook his head. Well, RC did the triples. No one else would. In fact, he did them at least three times. I think everyone there was in agreement that #4 was a man on fire. In the first 5 or 6 laps he looked as though he were trying to humiliate his competition, pulling farther and farther away from the mud-floundering field until his speed and the conditions finally bit him. Then bit him again. A conservative Windham got by for the win, with LaRocco trailing him by half a track and Ricky rolling in 3rd after having made a come back from 11th or so. Reed had to pull off the track at one point and have his mechanic cut his front brake cable so the wheel would move. He finished 16th. Bubba, with numerous falls managed a 5th. Calling the race exciting would be an understatement. Some of the highlights of the day for me were; > Ivan Tedesco smoking everyone in his heat. > Bubba absolutely flying in practice. > McGrath leading his heat race for a few laps — the crowd was on its feet screaming. > Josh Woods pulling a 2nd in the 125 main! > Akita Narita's podium speech. > Nathan Ramsey on the KTM. > Everything about RC's main event. > Watching the first turn from the 3rd base line — directly in front of the turn, down low. Wow. BTW, Ryan rode practice at Phoenix, round two on 1/14 and 1/15. He opted to stay out of the racing until his strength is 100%. He'll be back stronger than ever. A2, Clark? RAIN (12/5) What possesses a man to get up at 5am and load a motorcycle and gear into a pickup truck in the dark as it pours rain? The devil? No, nothing that sinister — I don't think — simply put, this is the MX Problem in a nutshell. At 4:55am the cat had already anticipated the alarm and started his migration up the bed towards my face. Why the hell do cats do this? I suppose it's their way of claiming superiority. Can't argue with that, after all, I was the one getting up to go out in the rain before sunup. That little bastard would simply take over my warm spot in the bed. Tell me... who's smarter? I called the Glen Helen hot line, just to be sure, before I got dressed, and someone actually answered the phone, catching me off guard. "Glen Helen Raceway, can I help you?" "Ah, (cough), ah, is it (cough, cough) gonna happen?" "Excuse me, sir?" "I'm sorry, how are the conditions over there? Are the tracks holding up?" They were. Damn it. I got dressed, loaded (the truck, smartass) and took off on the 91 east in the downpour. Sure enough, by the time I hit the 15 north, slivers of sun were cutting through the gray. Maybe this was going to happen after all... Ryan's anti-rain voodoo must have worked. The rain stayed away for all the motos to run, then started again. The wet scared a lot of racers away, so the turnout was light for what turned out to be the best track conditions I've raced on all year. The dirt was the kind you dream about when you dream about motocross. Loamy and grippy. Actual traction in Southern California! Yes, it was that good. Only two of us showed for the 38 beginner class, myself and Steve Mizrahi (no relation to the designer). We gated up with the younger guys and hit it. Needless to say I took a trophy home. I won't say what place (which would leave you to believe I got 2nd, in which case you'd be right, Steve passed me two laps from the finish as I did everything I could to keep my hands on the grips). I managed to stay on the bike this day. Success! Then, on the drive home, eating Jimbo's lemon pepper Jerky and relaxing to random mode on the iPod, I realized I'd left my gas can back there, in the rain, on the hill, near the REM track tower. Half full of race gas. Notice I said "half FULL." It was that kind of a day. Goodbye #557, I'll be racing the number 30 in the OTHG for '05. Alright, gotta go write Santa for that '05 CRF450. I BELIEVE DAMIT — I BELIEVE! THE MAINSTREAMING OF YOUNG MR. STEWART (12/3) From the LA Times today. Thanks, Tony. (click on the image for the entire — short — column) SNOW (11/23) 5am is when I get up on Sundays for the drive to local So Cal races. Last weekend was Cahuilla Creek. Love that place... I made it about 3/4 of the way there when I hit a snow storm. Yes, a snow storm. I turned around... here's what it looked like at the track that morning. RACE TECH (11/17) Picked up "C" level support from Race Tech suspension. I'm about a "C" level rider, so that'll work out perfectly... this will be the first time I've have my suspension worked on specifically for myself. Thank you Race Tech. Cahuilla Creek Gang race this Sunday. Great natural terrain track that gets pretty battered by mid-day. This is one of two more races left in the OTHG schedule. Trying to stay in the top 30 numbers for '05... the DNF at Glen Helen didn't help. Emmet asked me if he could race the Saturday morning peewee races at Racetown395 (out near Adelanto off the 395) last weekend. He got the flyer when we rolled in, read it, and asked. I said sure. What kind of can am I opening up here? The MX Problem gets handed down again... BTW, we passed the Competitive Edge MX (living legend, Marty Smith is involved with this one) on the way up and back from Racetown and it looks damn good. Lots of up and downhills. Fast. It's supposed to open before 04 winds to a close. They've got some big plans, check this piece on the park posted at MXA. 2001 (11/8) Couple weeks and no post. The old '01 CR had more problems than I anticipated after that GH bail. I thought I had it all together, then the night before a Racetown race (11/7) I find air bubbles in my front brake and a sticking throttle. Should have bought a new throttle tube with the new bars, eh? On to the shop... Elsinore Grand Prix is this upcoming weekend. Find the details at Goat Breker's site. I won't be there. Planning a play ride weekend with friends... anyone game? Get me an email. Does anyone even read this? How Presumptuous of me... GLEN HELEN; 2 JENKINS; 0 (10/25) It was 6am when I got to the track on Saturday morning. Completely dark and very cold. After unloading all the sponsor stuff and tees for the club, I headed out to walk the track, the idea being to catch the sunrise from atop Mt. St. Helen. The layout looked great and was pretty long. The track operators had done a damn good job scooping away most of the mud from the previous weeks rain. Though a few of us started to notice some troublesome looking quagmires as the sun rose. It was 7am, practice was to start in an hour. On my walk down the front of Mt. St. Helen I came to a group of nervous riders convened around the worst looking mud hole I have ever seen — it had consumed the turn directly in front of the famous uphill. “They expect us to ride through this?” one of them said. “I’m on a 125…” We watched the tractor spout smoke as it struggled to pull itself out of a nearby straightaway, the tiller it was pulling completely bogged with thick clay. Then I heard a soft rumble and my foot broke through what was apparently a thin veneer of dirt. Phhwwlopp! I was sucked into the earth up to my knee. I was stuck. The others watched in horror as I pulled and pulled and finally got my leg out covered in Glen Helen sop. Now, 30 minutes before practice, I could hear the track laughing at us — me in particular. I walked back to the truck and got suited up. The powers that be eventually decided to surpass the impossible corner all together and grade around it. This created a sort of psuedo-switchback through some deep sand directly in front of the hill. In practice I realized how insane this turn really was… numerous riders running it at once, fishtailing all the way through it, then roosting their way up the hill in low gear. I was spending more time avoiding bodies than concentrating on the turn itself. In Moto 1 I got a good start, entering the huge Talladega turn one in about 4th. The troublesome "S" turn happened to be coming up quick as turn number two. I watched a couple riders go down in front of me, one right after another, in a seemingly synchronized fashion. I got around them and struggled to the base of the hill, then nailed it. The bike was running great, getting traction and wheelying up the incline. It felt fantastic, I was running in 3rd. This is when I started my mantra, "Don't go down, don't go down." On the downhill I grabbed for my front brakes and nothing came. I slide the rear into the nice berm built up on the inside of the left-hander and nail it clean. Still feeling good. Someone else in front of me goes down. I guess it was lap four when my arms started giving out and I couldn’t hold my elbows up (I can almost hear Gary Baily yelling at me, though I’ve never met the man). That’s a real problem when you need to be riding back on the bike to keep momentum. I found out first hand when I failed to make it through a mud pit just before a jump and turn that headed into the front straight. Blawp. Splat. Wet and cold I managed to get up quick and kept it from stalling. The announcer must be saying, “Awww, Jenkins goes down! If he could manage to stay upright he might actually do well some day!” Couple riders passed me. Then over the hump before the first straight I hit a false neutral (how the fuck does that happen to me only at Glen Helen?). I have to jump off the bike and run along side it over the jump. I make it over then stall it. Then bump start it. DAMN. Two more people pass me. On the apex of the mountain I get passed by a guy I normally put to shame. My elbows droop more and my concentration wanes… “How is this happening? How can I not keep a steady pace? Damn I’m hungry. Stand up! What the fuck am I doing out here?” One the white flag lap a rut coming into a hard braking right hander, reaches out and grabs my front wheel sending me over the bars and off the track. Just for laughs, the track decides to grab my throttle and pin it as the bike lies on its side. I run over, pull in the clutch and jump on… had to chase down a couple more riders who’d just passed me. Only now I had bent bars to deal with. No breaks today. One of the slowest riders on the track passes me two turns from the finish. No tools, no new bars and no brake pads, I load up the bike and head to the shop, hoping to get back before Moto 2. Chaparelle Honda is close, I’ll try them. OF COURSE NOT. The 15 freeway is under construction and it takes me an hour to get anywhere near the shop which is about 15 minutes from the track. I decide to DNS Moto 2 and drive to my home shop, Long Beach Motorsports. My hope was to salvage the weekend on Sunday. One cocky youngster later, and $200 worth of parts in my hands, I’m finally headed home. By 8pm I realize there is no way I can fix my front brakes and I pack the whole idea of racing into the garage with my bike and muddy gear. A 12th and 3 Did Not Starts… Glen Helen; 2. Me? 0. I’ll get you, you bastard. Some day. PREPS (10/22) Oil, filter, stickers. Air pressure. Wash. Note to self; STAND UP. Ready. McGoo, if you're reading this, don't get a trail bike. Once you've gone MX you can never go back. Remember talking me out of a "girlfriend's bike" a few years back? Put a light on a CRF if you have to. Then call me, I'm ready for some pressureless free riding. EVERYONE RACES ON THE SAME TRACK (10/21) The rain has shut Glen Helen down today and tomorrow. No practice before the national. Guess I'll have to actually do work. Damn. Here's an illustration I did for Travis Preston's column in TWMX mag a few months ago. That's Bubba skanking (in Circle Jerks fashion) on Travis for dissing his dances after all those supercross wins earlier this year. Speaking of SX, the Bar to Bar DVD for the 2004 season is out. But I'm hard pressed to be as intersted in supercross as I am the outdoors. Here's a great quote from Kawasaki's Bruce Stjermstrum from the first Great Outdoors (2002 season), "Supercross racing is more of a ballet, where this is more like a fist fight at the nationals." On the money. MUD AT GLEN HELEN? (10/20) It could remain pretty wet for the OTHG National this weekend (see details below). San Bernadino County was under a heavy rain advisory all yesterday. Should be pretty interesting. A big thanks to Jim Anfuso at Fox, Big E at Answer Racing, Drew at Universal MX and Jason from DVS for helping with product for the national. Much appreciated. My bike's still sitting in the Girl warehouse covered in Starwest dirt. The gear (after being unwillingly forced to roll around in the muddy first turn) is still next to the washer. Gotta get on it. AH, THE FRIEND WITH A CAMERA (10/19) Here's a few shots of of my son, Emmet, ripping up the large parking lot at I-5MX. My sometime riding partner, Jared Eberhardt (yeah, the Jared from the "Blower" snowboard book), shot the pics. He also shot this holeshot from moto one on that day (That was on 8/29 and yes, I eventually faded into the pack, holding firmly to my spot in moto obscurity. It's still my favorite track, though.) Thanks for the prints, Jared. There is a series of films on DVD that I would recommend to people who don't know moto. The Great Outdoors. And the truth is, hardcore racers like it too. They're that good. Here's a trailer for #3, the documentation of the '04 series, due in about a month. GLEN HELEN VET NATIONAL The club national is coming up in a week or so. OTHG SOUTHERN CHAPTER NATIONAL GLEN HELEN RACEWAY, OCT 23 and 24 If you make it up there for this, come by and say hello. #557 near the announcers tower. Here's a look at the tee I designed for it. Old school MX flavor. CROSSOVER? I guess I realized it as we all sat on our bikes in the middle of the very long Glen Helen starting straightaway for the pre-Crossover Challenge breakdown. Former pro skater, Salman Agah ran up to Tyler Evans and they did the full bro-down handshake. Steve Caballero was greeted with at least a dozen fist-potatoes. Almost everyone looked relaxed and in their element, though all of these guys are known for their other endeavors — snowboarding, skating, skiing, surfing, etc. That's when it hit me, about 2 minutes before we launched onto the track for a practice session —all of these guys are, or were, professional athletes. They have physical abilities and a shared love of MX that brought them to this point in life; the AMA National weekend on the freshly prepped Glen Helen Raceway, getting the lowdown on the track by the designer himself, the venerable motocross journalist, Jody Weisel. "Now, on the second uphill, you'll notice a rock face about 3/4s of he way up. Be aware of and it and be ready…" Oh crap. "The track's real fast. After you exit the Budd's Creek section you'll hit the soft and deep straight. It's not rutted and packed yet, so watch yourselves… some of you will be floaters and some sinkers…" Oh crap. Am I a sinker? I would be finding out shortly. I looked up at the steep, infamous, Taladega first turn, and then up to the right behind it to the great Mount St. Helens with its flag at half-mast in commemoration of 9/11. After that were TWO MORE insane uphills. What in God's name was I doing on this track with these guys? I sit behind a computer all day. The strongest part of my body is the hand with which I draw. • • • It all started earlier this year at the Hangtown opener. My son and I watched the racing all day and were leaving the parking lot stoked on all the great riding we'd seen, when we ran into Caballero on his way out, his bike in the back of his truck. He had ridden the Crossover that day. Now, I know Steve — sort of. I mean, I know of his history in skateboarding. I, like every other pro skater wannabe, grew up watching the Powell Peralta films and reading Thrasher and Transworld. But I figured out early on that my skills on a board were those of a mere mortal and I would not be getting a job like Cab's. So, I stuck with art and writing that's what paved my way into the skate industry, and eventually meeting and getting to know the legend himself. Over time, we both found out we had another great passion in common. Motocross. "Good job in the Crossover, Steve, it was great seeing all you guys out thee." That's all I had to say and Steve immediately extended me an invitation to join him at the next event, "I'll talk to Pat and ask him if it's cool." I got a chill right there. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was already sure I had gotten in way over my abilities. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Once we got on our way, my son, Emmet, spoke up, "Wow, dad! You're going to ride in the Crossover Challenge with Cab! COOL!" That sealed the deal. How could I back out now? How could I pass on riding a national-prepped track? It's every MX rider's dream. A couple back and forth emails with Cab and organizer, Pat Schutte, and I was in. Simple, right? I'd start "training" now and I'd be ready for Glen Helen, no problem. It was months away and after all, and I've ridden there — hell, I've even raced there. Well, sure it was with my vet club in the 38+ beginner class, but…I did lead a moto for a couple laps (before almost puking in my helmet and having to ask my buddy to pry my office hands off the bars, but that's another story). There is no better teacher than first hand experience. Schutte gave us the wave and we took off from our positions on the start straight. I felt great right off. My endangered '01 CR250 was hooking up real good as I rounded Taledega in 5th. That turn is one of the best sensations I've ever had on a dirt bike. Wow. Everything was going great, I told myself. Next we blasted our way up Mount St. Helens which was bent into two sections this year. Very fun… not bad at all, I was actually handling it! Then, at the top I realized I must have been going much slower than most folks, as an exuberant racer blasted into my rear end. I managed to stay up and I looked back to find a Suzuki lodged in my rear wheel. "Sorry, man!" the rider yelled above the roar. Glen Helen shrapnel pelted us as it took forever to get his bars out of my wheel. That's when I looked down. Oh my. I had a quick flashback from Jody's speech, "The speed you're going at the top of the hill? That's only half as fast as you'll be going by the time you reach the bottom." At that point, if I could have crossed my fingers, I would have. But I made it. Then a couple nice turns, a tabletop, and, The Rock was rapidly approaching. Nothing to do now but pin it. Two downshifts later I hit The Rock and it almost bounced me to the top where I stalled it about 3 feet from the flat turn. PUUUSH…I looked back just in time to see another rider loop out on The Rock and tumble backward. Below him, another rider just sat on the tabletop. What was he waiting for? Was he going to turn around? How can I get off this track? The flagger finally helped me get up the last foot or so. I took a quick survey of the track as I tried to kick my bike over. I was hoping I could get going fast enough to avoid Evans, Ping, Rich Taylor and some other fast dudes who had taken off before us to film a few laps for that SX movie. I looked down (why did I do that again?) into another cliff face, this one straight down into a left hander. I still couldn't turn over the CR, so I jumped on and bumped started it. That worked, but I was braking so hard I stalled it again. This was turning into real work. Ahead was a big step-up table that I recognized. Super fun jump. I breathed a sigh of relief and let out a 'Whu-whoo!' before entering the new whoop section in the Budd's Creek area, followed by a right handed drop-off into a steep and quick tabletop. Pretty fun, but, oh damnit… the straight ("some of you will be floaters and some sinkers…") I didn't want to sink in this crap and have to push my way out so I twisted the throttle and started slithering back and forth like a snake. I remembered someone calling this section the "Floundering Freeway" and all I kept thinking was, 'how do those guys do it!?' All this meant I certainly wasn't concentrating on the jump when I hit it. And, surprise, it turned out to be a double. I cased it so hard my heels left divots and my helmet violently kissed the bar pad shoving my glasses into my brow and ringing my bell pretty good. But I stayed up. I thought of was the dude on the sideline shaking his head wondering why I was out on the track instead of him. Truth is, I wondered the same thing. I would have gladly turned over my bike at this point, my vision blurred, my glasses broken, brow bleeding… but I forged ahead to at least finish the lap, then got lost in the pits on the way to my truck. I was bleeding in my goggles and confused, but I found it, sat down and just breathed a deep few breaths. One lap. That's all I got in on this day. On a track like nothing else I had ever ridden. NOTHING. Pure burliness and balls. This had been a Crossover all right. It was my crossover from elation and confidence, to total humility and respect for ALL those who ride these tracks flat out. When Pat handed me a trophy for participating, I wanted to give it back, when my son spoke up, "But, dad, you go to ride on the same track Ricky races on!" He was right. When would I ever get a chance like that again? Next season, right Cab? Maybe next time maybe I'll get in a full practice session. —Jenkins 9/11/04 All words/images ©2004 Bend Press and Andy Jenkins All Rights Reserved