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Western New York Motocross Racing

WNYRacing Motocross

Motocross racing in Western New York has taken a progressive turn with the new created Western New York Racing association.  Four of the premier promoters have take four of the best tracks as well as their desire to grow the sport of motocross and combined to form WNYRacing.

The groups mission statement is:

WNYracing is a progressive group of racing enthusiasts devoted to growing the sport of Motocross in a safe environment with the utmost commitment to its partners, racers and community.

Many new programs will be unveiled this summer in order to forward their cause and make the mission statement a reality.  Motocross racing is a unique and exciting sport, and the efforts of WNYRacing are taking it to the next level in Western New York.

Check out their social netwok at WNYRacing and stay tuned for some exciting racing and new programs this year!

WNYRacing Squidoo page

Moto Mutts

Finding two things you love is good, but when you can mix two things that you love and you come out with a unique product that is even better!  That is exactly what Racer Space member Moto Mutts has done.  They took their love for dogs and motorcycle racing and combined the two into a unique line of products for dog lovers.

Moto Mutt

You can customize their billet dog tag or collar with either a racer’s number or the doggie’s name.

They are also working to support injured rider Josh Morros who was injured in the Hare and Hound race in Nevada.  They are donating more than half of the proceeds from one of their tags to Josh’s medical fund.  Way to go Moto Mutts!

 

Josh Morros WORCS #351

In addition to these dog-centric products, many other useful riding and racing products can be found on their website at http://www.motomutts.com .  You can also visit their Racer Space profile at http://www.racer-space.com/profile/motomutts

Racer Space is a social network for racers and power sports enthusiasts.

Powersports racing and Politics

Racers of all kinds have one thing in common, the ability (either through courage, ignorance, arrogance or confidence) to push fear aside and pursue that one perfect (yet elusive) lap.  To that end, they sacrifice weekend after weekend and paycheck after paycheck.  Suffering along the way the slings and arrows of road trips, medical co-pays, spousal or parental protest and scars, bruises and raspberries galore.  Find me a motocross racer with a un-broken collarbone and I will show you someone that needs to practice more!  What is our reward besides the occasional trophy and moments of glory?  We also have instant refuge…

Honda CRF450 Ice Racing

You see, no matter what else is wrong with the world, racers always have racing. 

You say that you got a border fence going up across the street, Russian tanks are in your backyard, and now they want to drill for oil in your garden?  Fire up the old Honda and begin building a motocross jump !

You say that your mortgage is three times the value of your house and property taxes are through the roof?  Get some “seat-time” on the Yamaha!

Perplexed about living in the greatest country in the world and having to choose between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin? Click off CNN and roost some berms.

Stressed about the fact that we have a 50% chance of being a heart attack away from Sarah Palin being the leader of the free world?

You are just a kick-start away from Elysium (that means heaven for all you Palin supporters).

And, after all, she was the mayor of a town of 5,000 with the help of an “administrator”, and has two whole years of experience running a state with fewer residents than Ft. Worth Texas!

So given the political nature of the latest Racer Space Motorsports Social Network Blog article, this week’s inspirational quote comes from Theodore Roosevelt (who would have made an excellent racer had their been four strokes during his time).

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done

them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who
strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does
actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the
best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that
his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt- April 1910

Racer Space is a free social network for powersports enthusiasts that offers blogs, forums, profiles and more. It features professional and Amateur s that race motocross, flat track, enduro, hare scramble, GNCC, Baja 1000 and any other discipline of powersports racing.

Helping Riders Up

RiderDown.Org

When I came across the RiderDown Foundation, I made the decision to do what I could to assist riders who need a leg-up. The foundation, formed in 2005 to assist riders injured doing what they love, has helped 95 riders and their families financially, and a great number more emotionally, since its inception. Volunteers dedicated to supporting fallen riders keep the organization running (and growing).

Mission Statement: “The RiderDown Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping responsible off road motorcyclists and ATV racers who have been injured while riding. Proceeds are used to provide assistance to the riders and their families when faced with medical expenses and related issues.”

Volunteer Angela Koch told me about one instance of the foundation’s help that I could relate with. When racing the SCORE Baja 1000 in 2006, my greatest fear was getting hurt in Mexico. Health insurance often times doesn’t matter down there; you pay out of pocket if you want out of the hospital. This fear became a reality, for racer Hoyt Penland, in the 2007 race when he suffered a nasty crash and needed surgery in multiple Mexican hospitals to stabilize his badly injured leg.

The foundation assisted Hoyt by providing logistical assistance and covered the cost of his flight back to the states as well. In thanking the Foundation, Hoyt writes:

I went from lying in the dessert losing blood, trying to keep from going into shock and no one on my team being able to answer my calls from the sat. phone we had to the bike. To being put in the back of a jeep with a cooler lid strapped to my leg then taken to the highway where I am picked up by an ambulance and taken to a private hospital and wondering how I am going to pay for all that needs done. In a hospital where it wouldn’t matter if I had insurance or not, all the documentation was done on a type writer, try sliding your blue cross card in that. That’s a scary feeling, especially when they tell you that a flight to San Diego will cost $20,000 dollars not pesos. My father and the team show up the next day and we drive down to La Paz where I have another surgery. After which my father and I are trying to figure out how I’m going to get home, when the phone rings and it’s RiderDown… they want to fly me home. That is such a good feeling. Knowing that people care so much about a guy who just wiped out in the desert and hadn’t even heard of them. Your organization is a God sent. Thank ya’ll so much for everything, and everyone for your support. If anyone has any questions I doubt I’ll be out riding so feel free to ask. God bless all of you, and I will do all I can to help get the word out about RiderDown. If there is anything I can do to help just ask.

Thanks again,
Hoyt Michael Penland

The more volunteers and donations the foundation receives, the more riders like Hoyt they can help. We all fall, and that is the risk we accept when we strap on a helmet. Sometimes we jump up and dust ourselves off with only our pride the worse for wear. The volunteers of the RiderDown Foundation are working to help riders who need a little extra help up.

Please visit the RiderDown Foundation site and help by donating money, shopping at the store or volunteer to help fallen riders. Check the Racer-Space.com Blog for more info about the RiderDown Foundation, their race team and stories of riders that the foundation has helped.

The Brotherhood Of Racers

Racer’s Brotherhood

Like interests always have a way of bringing people together. When your interests are somewhat extreme, like racing the SCORE Baja 1000, that bond seems to grow even stronger. I have seen many unselfish acts while racing, and it is not uncommon to hear about brothers in (swing) arms putting themselves in harms way to help a racer in need. Whether to save someone’s life or just to salvage their race, there seems to be no limit to the altruistic nature of the brotherhood of racers.

My personal favorite story of unselfishness comes from the 2006 SCORE Baja 1000. After breaking my clutch lever in some particularly nasty whoops outside of San Felipe, I found myself riding a little outside of my comfort zone in order to make up some time. I just got into one of those zones, where it felt like I could do no wrong and I wound up passing quite a few competitors. Feeling quite ambitious, I pulled into the pits around race mile 250 where I was supposed to get lights installed on my Honda Motorcycle for the beginning of the night section. Only one problem…my lights were not there.

My mood went south really quick. I was stuck out there, and couldn’t journey off into the desert night with no lights. The quad team that was pitted next to me was working on a broken swing-arm, and their prognosis looked even worse than mine. They were diligently working on a fix, but they must have overheard my dilemma as I was talking (somewhat heatedly) to my chase team on the satellite phone. Minutes later they stopped what they were doing and inquired about my troubles. I explained to them that the chase team with my lights was out of contact and I wasn’t sure about their status.

Without a word they scrapped their race and began to remove the lights from their quad. Now these are not cheap halogens off your Gremlin we are talking about, but a full set of HID race lights that would run you upwards of $1,500. They didn’t know me from Adam, but both the quad racer and his father were in motion like a NASCAR pit crew trying to get me back into the race without giving it a second thought. To this day I don’t know who those guys were, in the chaos we never even introduced ourselves. I didn’t end up having to take their lights, as mine showed up midway through the installation and I was off, but what a great gesture of sportsmanship and brotherhood in the Baja desert.

This is not an uncommon story, and unfortunately there are a great many more relating to more dire circumstances. Racers always seem to rise to the occasion for whatever reason. Thank you to those selfless quad racers, and to the many racers and organizations that support our sport and motorcycle and quad riders everywhere.

Racer Space is a social network for Powersports racers and enthusiasts. Racers and fans of motocross, dirt track, TT, desert racing and all other racing disciplines gather on Racer Space.

A Beginners Guide To Racing Their 1st SCORE Baja 1000

When I set out to race the SCORE Baja 1000 I began to do a bunch of research. I found a bunch of experts and some proclaimed experts that offered me advice on the race. I ordered maps, researched equipment, searched for lodging, hunted for a pit company, and tried to investigate every possible option and contingency. What I found was there is many different ways to be successful in Baja, but you must first determine your personal definition of success.

Let me first say that I do not consider myself to be a Baja 1000 expert. There are guys (and gals) who have spent a good part of their lives down there that know much more about racing in Baja than I will ever know. What I write is from my experience and research only and like I said before; everyone looks at racing the SCORE Baja 1000 differently. In my humble opinion, defining success is step number one.

Success for Johnny Campbell is to win the whole race by as large a margin as possible. Success for Jay Sherman in my first race was to survive my portion of the race and hand the bike off to my partner in one piece. There are probably a few levels of success in between those two extremes, and like any worthwhile goal it should evolve with experience and practice. My personal goal for the next race is to win the Sportsman class. Once you know your goal, you can set out in search of the means to achieve it.

The one thing I caution first time Baja racers about is setting their goals too high. In every day life setting an unrealistic goal will lead to (at most) disappointment. In the Baja desert setting unrealistic goals can be very dangerous. The margin for error down there is sliver-thin, so mitigating risks should be priority number one. Guys like us don’t have a helicopter flying overhead should we find ourselves in a bind. If you crash or break down and need assistance you may have a serious problem on your hands. So when I hear about riders planning their race around things like staying ahead of the Trophy Trucks; I wince. In reality there are not very many riders who are going to stay in front of those beasts. If you are one of them: congratulations. You are reading the wrong article, by the way, because you know more about this than I do.

If it is your first time down there, and you are not a Desert Pro from one of the local circuits, I would recommend a goal similar to my goal above. Safely-finish-the-race. The non-pro’s often have an attrition rate over 50%, so if you manage to finish you will place well. I was first told this by Chris Haines at the Chris Haines Motorcycle Adventure Company. Another common motto down there is:

“In order to finish first you must first finish.”

Not sure who to attribute that quote to, but I like it.

We brought our XR650 to Chris’ shop along with a box full of high performance parts that we thought we needed to strap on to it because that was what the pro bikes had. He took one look and said to us “you don’t need any of that, just go with the stock stuff it is much more reliable. And in the event something breaks, you have a much better shot at finding a spare down there.”

That advice made even more sense once I was out in the desert with chaos all around me. Would it really help me to go four miles an hour faster right now? Probably not, but I am sure glad this Honda Motorcycle is still running because I am in a dust cloud from a Trophy Truck and Robbie Gordon is behind me, in the silt, with a helicopter over my head…at night (with a broken ankle). This is not to say we didn’t need to make some modifications (Foot pegs, clutch, lights, chain), but they were all focused on reliability rather than performance.

My advice to you concerning the bike is:

- Reliability over all else
- Keep the clutch adjustment loose, real loose
- High quality endless chain. Take out the master link.
- Hondas- get the aftermarket foot peg setup with the bolt through the frame (especially XR’s)
- Go with a bigger gas tank than you think you need. Never know when you (Or someone else out there) needs some extra gas
- Zip-tie or safety wire your spokes
- Bib Mousse front wheel. They sometimes burn up in the back, but work fine in the front and will eliminate the chance of getting a front flat.
- Extra levers! Learned that one the hard way (had to ride 200 miles with my decompress lever functioning as my clutch)
- Check the chain adjustment every time you stop.
- Tool packs on the bike. Front or rear fender, but I did not like the fanny pack full of tools on my waist after a couple hundred miles.
- Use glow sticks w/ zip ties and reflective tape on the bike at night for extra visibility
- Don’t forget your stub can. You need a can on your handlebars to hold the stubs you get at the check points. We taped up a Tums container. Worked great.
- GPS Transponder. We mounted our on the back fender but I saw some mounted under the tank near the radiator.

If anyone has anything to add to this list, please do. Different bikes will have different mods they need. I will continue this in the future with strategy, equipment and logistics. In the mean time, set your goal! If you are interested in racing the SCORE Baja 1000 please join our Baja Racers Alliance group on Racer Space .

Racing the Baja 1000

The other day I get a question emailed to me, asking what it is like to race the SCORE Baja 1000.  This rider has always dreamed of racing the Baja 1000, but is hesitant because he has never been down there or witnessed the race in person.  He knew that there was no way that watching the race on television could prepare him for what it was really like.  The popularity of the documentary Dust To Glory created a lot of interest for amateur racers wanting to give Baja racing a shot, but it is definately a glorified view of what really happens down there.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the movie and have watched it many times, but I would not consider it an accurate barometer of what you will go through in order to race your first Baja 1000.

First of all the documentary followed some very experienced and well-funded race teams.  Not many of the amateur level racers are going to have the kind of pre-running, chase, and equipment resources that Mouse McCoy or Robbie Gordon had.  My first Baja 1000 I only had the opportunity to pre-run about 100 miles of my section, the other 230 miles was a complete surprise.  I wanted to pre-run my section more, but we were short on resources and time.  The reality is that not everyone can take 6 weeks off from their lives and livelihood to prepare properly.  The rest of us just have to make due!  This is one area that I would suggest new racers concentrate their efforts; pre-run your section as much as you can.  It will add speed as well as safety to your race.

Pre-running takes more resources than just time.  You can’t just hop on your bike and start riding your section.  You need people to meet you on the other end of where you are heading.  You have to plan for fuel, mechanical break-downs as well as the unexpected.  It is also not a good idea to pre-run alone for many different reasons, all having to do with your personal safety.  The course may not be perfectly laid out at this stage of the game, either, so you may have to guess at sections of the race course.  GPS is very helpful during this phase of preparations.  There are also not a lot of McDonalds and Marriott Hotels along the race course, so you better be ready to “rough” it some and operate without a lot of rest or the comforts of home.  Pre-running can be a grind, so if you can give yourself a day or two between your last pre-running trip and the start of the race in Ensenada.

Your minimum requirements for pre-running your section of the race course are:

1. Three people.  Two riders and one chase team driver to meet you at your destination.  Two people in the chase truck would be even better.
2. Three bikes or equivalent off-road machines.  It is wise to have an off-road capable machine with the chase team in case they have to get to you where a truck can’t go.
3. Extra fuel.  As much as the bikes can hold and extra cans with the chase team.
4. A plan.  Map it out and calculate the time it should take.  Be as thorough as possible.

Some helpful pre-running equipment:

-      Pre-running bikes.  You don’t want to run your race machine out here, bring extras if you have them.

-      Large fuel tanks.  IMS Clarke and Acerbis make tanks as large as 7.0 Gallons for bikes.  Get the biggest you can, and don’t use dry-break on your pre-runners.  You may just need to siphon a little out for one of your friends…

-      GPS.  Very helpful during this time.  The course may not be well marked.  If you can get a plotted course in there ahead of time, do it!  PCI Race Radios did my course.

-      Lights.  Just because you should be completing your ride during the day, don’t make the mistake of leaving off your lights.

-     Tool kit and spare parts.  Bring everything you may need to fix the bike.  Spare tubes, levers, bolts, nuts, cables and the most important parts: zip-ties and duct tape.  You will most likely have a flat tire at some point, so be prepared for that.  Use Bib Mousse foam instead of tubes in your front wheels if you can to avoid flats.  Some people use it in the rear tire, but it has been known to burn up if you are too fast!

-      Hydration supplements found at any health store and plenty of water in Camel Backs

-      Compact food like Power Bars or M.R.E.’s.

-      Communications- you need a Satellite phone and radios between bikes would be a good idea.

-      First aid kit including overnight supplies should you get stuck in the desert.  Glow-sticks and   flares for night time emergencies.

-      Some pesos

For more information about racing the SCORE Baja 1000 or to connect with other racers and fans, visit Racer Space