Shortcomings Vol 6

Our man Moser tells us about a couple of riders that came up Just Short at Redbud

Shortcomings Vol. 6

A Short look at some Shortcomings from Red Buuuud

By Moser

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I enjoyed some family time during the break but, my boss Marthes is a real slave driver, at least the pay is good so let’s get this Short column going. Red Buuuud has a lot of hype perhaps I should believe the hype because you don’t hear many complaints about the track the crowd or the other criticisms commonly heard about each race track. LaRoccos leap claimed a few people this year, most notably Ryan Sipes who allegedly broke both foot pegs off his bike but more important than that he stood up immediately after coming up Just Short by about 4 bike lengths and threw both arms up in the air while basically hip thrusting the crowd, simply amazing. To subconsciously be thinking I need to throw the horns for the crowd right after I case the shit out of this jump is commendable on several levels. Also in case any of you were not aware Alex Martin did not racing at Red Buuuudd this information was not brought to my attention and he scored me zero points in my Dream Team Fantasy MX league, damn you Alex Martin, if you weren’t so small and cute I’d be really pissed. (editors note I’ve since listened to the Red Buuuud wrap up podcast and found his DNS was do to a blown motor, damn you Chad Sanner).

Matthes will input some caption here using some Moser terminology and sarcasm. Photo by Andrew Fredrickson

211 Tevin Tapia – Munn Racing | Ankle Savers | KTM

Well Tapia didn’t have the best weekend ever, completing only 12 laps in moto 1 and 9 laps in moto 2. So he either DNF moto 1 or he got laped 4 times. Maybe you haven’t heard of Tapia he’s a young up and coming rider from my neck of the woods, twilight country (I’m team Edward) the always wet pacific northwest. I remember when Tapia was just a kid riding around on a 50cc KTM and making tracks in the dirt for his toy motorcycles.

You probably heard about Tapia when he got a little bit of press…..for jumping the wall down in Texas at Freestone before anyone else, good thing he has those Ankle Savers on his bike. If I had to describe Tapia’s riding style I would say its textbook he’s always looking ahead with his head down eyes on the track not worrying about the other riders around him with complete concentration on his own race and only his race. Too many riders look back and or around to see who’s behind them, thinking “am I getting lapped, am I in the race line, was that a blue flag?” If you spend all your time looking around you’re not racing ahead.

Getting your sponsors good press is really important for any privateer effort and it can be a real challenge to get noticed. Tapia is doing something right because I’ve seen him on TV a couple times now and I hear his name frequently mentioned in all forms of MX press. Tapia might have held up some riders while he was getting lapped but it was an honest mistake and could happen to anyone the important thing is to do one of two things deny deny deny or learn from your mistake and not to repeat them. How’s the saying go “fool me once, fool my twice you can’t fool me again” (George W.)

I don’t know much about Tapia but it’s obvious he’s a bit of a day dreamer and in his own little world out there on the track, maybe I’ll get to the bottom of all this ignoring the blue flag and holding up the leaders stuff at Washougal but probably not.

This is a picture of Mike Brown. Photo by James Lissimore

#3 Mike Brown – KTM

A real Southern bell that Mike Brown is, I can never make out a word that he’s saying because of his accent and he talks to fast but maybe that’s just because I’m from sunny Seattle that I have a hard time understanding him. Brown was having a decent 1^st moto with two laps to go when his bike ran out of gas. Considering what happened to Metcalfe when he ran out of gas I guess Brown can consider himself lucky. Time for a rant, how is it possible that so many professional racers run out of gas it’s mind boggling to me?

I’m not a factory mechanic, an engine builder, stroke and lube expert, hell I’m not even a tire changer or spoke washer but even I know that to make a bike run you need most importantly gas, spark and air in that order. Properly lubing the piston and rods to reduce friction is obviously important as well but lets just keep it simple and get back to basics. These teams spend obscene amounts of money on every aspect of the bike but they can’t insure they have enough gas to go 30min + 2 laps, really, really?

Where is the list of priorities for the perfect race bike maybe I’m missing something but GAS should be in the top three of most important things. Countless hours, days and weeks spent testing suspension, gearing, throw rods, push rods, different rubber compounds, etc, etc, but every year we see teams run out of gas. Engineers on staff can’t seem to come up with a valid equation to ensure the bike can go the distance with simple 7^th grade algebra x+y=z. understand the bikes are ridden differently at each track and each rider but again if there isn’t a way to ensure the bike can go the distance by crunching some numbers how hard can it be to find a throttle happy kid and throw him out on a sand track, duct tape his hand wide open and set him loose until the bike runs out of gas. This is a down economy, you can’t throw a flat billed hat into a Chipolte restaurant without hitting an out of work “professional” motocross rider that would me more than willing to test ride with different tanks between his legs. I can’t think of a bigger insult to a rider than busting his ass for 30 minutes only to run out of gas and DNF, let alone in 100 degree heat. Anyone else remember when Sean Hamblin ran out of gas like 5 motos in a row or something that year he rode the KX250 2 stroke, he must hold the record for rider to run out of gas the most.

Maybe I’m naïve but I don’t see how it’s even up for debate to run a tank that is questionable in size. A rider and team have way to much invested to gamble on something that is undeniably required to finish the race. So anyways Mike Brown has been around a long time and probably knows a lot of people. The story that Watson had about Brown trying to fight him over a video game was classic and in my mind displays his drive and determination to do his very best at anything and everything. I understand what the nascar drivers are saying better than I can interpret what Brown is saying but I’m sure it’s something about his tires hooking up and the bike was tight in practice and they made some adjustments because he drives it better loose and he got a good push out of corner 3 that helped him gain some positions or something along those lines.

The first race I can remember watching Brown was when he was riding for Honda of Troy and he must have gotten hurt in the 125 West coast because he was racing the 250 for more or less the first time in SX and put in some solid results, too solid of results actually as it caused him to point out of the 125 class (if my memory serves me correctly). A real shocker that the pointing out system was really confusing and messed up a riders career I know. Leave it to Mitch Payton to resurrect yet another career (Mitch is as sure of a thing as Viagra) and Brown won the 125 national championship (I don’t remember what year and I’m to lazy to look it up I’m guessing 2002?) With Washougal only 11 days away (but who’s counting) it reminded me of one of the worst crashes I’ve witnessed. The year Brown and Hughes were battling for the championship Brown crashed on the blind uphill and the flagger not paying attention didn’t react soon enough and Hughes hit him head on 3^rd gear wide open while Brown was standing on his feet I was sure he was dead. I wonder if the crash is on YouTube, I also wonder how many collisions could be avoided if the flaggers were better.

Lets wrap this up it was cool to see Brown back on the track I personally like to see the older retired riders come back out and ride to try and keep their permanent numbers, great rides for both Brown and Dowd on the weekend.

Thanks for reading this Short recognition of the guys that had Shortcoming thisweekend, see you next week Moser

Please send any comments to jasonw@racerxill.com