Observations from the Morden Circus.

Wow….Where do I start? I guess like any good horror story, it all started so innocently….
 
Last week in Observations from Southwick, I made a comment about Kevin Windham’s trainer Jeff Spencer being a little different. I received a letter from Jeff stating that his training is a word of mouth business and that I caused him harm by reporting this. I apologize to Jeff, and just take one look at my chiseled body and you would realize I know nothing about training.
 
How come Starbucks in Canada won’t put the lid on the coffee for you? I thought the dude didn’t like me the first time, but when it kept happening, I realized something was up. It gets a little annoying having to put the sleeve and lid on every time.
 
How come Canadians drive so slow also? We could be on a divided four lane highway and there is everybody doing 80 km/h (50 mph). C’mon people, I got places to be!
 
One more thing, the fact that you don’t have to prepay your gas is very annoying. Yes, it’s a good sign that everybody trusts one another up here, but sitting behind someone waiting for them to walk inside, pick up some Ketchup chips and then pay, before casually sauntering out to their car drove me nuts. Let’s pre-pay and keep the lines flowing my fellow Canadians!
 
Check out Jason Weigandt’s blog on the AMA series if you can. Most of you just think he is a play by play guy and therefore vanilla, but he’s actually got opinions and ideas that are really cutting edge. Not as cutting edge as Observations, but still on the cutting edge nevertheless. Here’s the link- http://www.blogandt.com/
 
Got a chance to go riding when I was home, Me and my buddies Curt and Corey were allowed to go to Manitoba’s up and coming superstar Ryan Millar’s track. It went great, except for when, on his last ride out, despite never clearing it all day, Curt decided to jump this tabletop that was about 60 feet. He cleared it easily; in fact, he jumped about 67 feet and landed on flat ground. He crumbled like my gingerbread house at x-mas. He cracked his sternum from his Leatt brace, jacked up his wrist and was suffering from blurred vision. Maybe that was God’s way of getting back at him for the things he did to me in 1991 at the Fargo AX. (in the latest issue of RXC)
 
Blair Morgan did in fact, confirm the existence of a VHS tape that shows me catching and passing him for the lead in Saskatoon min-stade in 1989. I told him I have to see this tape to share with all of you (whether you like it or not). He said I just went under him in a corner and lifted my elbow, forcing him off the track! Like I said before, I may have won that race Blair, but you have won in the race of life.
 
It was at this same race that Ross “Rollerball” Pederson won the first night and then the next night never showed up after getting beat down by the bar “staff”. His entire 1989 season was written off because of this. Just thought you all would like to know.
 
Spoke with JSR for a while about Dusty Klatt and the new US qualifying system, you can really see that Canadians want Dusty to do well, I got lots of questions about him while at the race. JSR also said that Dusty needs to be assertive about his career because looking back, he wished that he had spoken up more. Good advice from the second best Canadian rider ever.
 
I met Mitch Cooke and he seemed like a really nice guy, I congratulated him on his ride and he didn’t even punch me or anything. Thanks Mitch!
 
I bet some of you readers thought this would be a Tim Ferry-free column, but you would be wrong! My buddy Timmy reported from the Budds Creek national via text message what was going on and Alan Brown, the team manager of Moose racing/Moto XXX also kept me in the loop. Thanks guys!
 
Timmy told me that he had a good first moto and finished fourth, right behind Chad Reed and would have maybe got him if he started pushing sooner. In the 2nd moto, he fell in the first turn with Ryan Clark and Kyle Lewis and was “dead last” before finishing 8th. Andrew Short passed him in the points and he wasn’t too happy about this.
 
Red Dog said that at the end of the day, he was going back to his rental and Davey Coombs was beside him with something stuck in his windshield wiper, when DC looked at it, it was a piece of paper with “Free Matthes, Racer X Canada rules!” Not sure what this means, but thanks anonymous paper writer guy. Last time I checked, I was free however.
 
Alan reported that RC’s goggle lens fell out in the first moto and he let the Oakley guy know his displeasure when he went by the mechanics area. Man, I wouldn’t want to be that guy going back to the truck after the moto.
 
Racer X Canada’s Brett Dailey was there with two riders to look after in the “RXC factory rider for a day program”. This sucker, I mean guy picks local riders and becomes their mechanic and man-friend for a day. He was busier then a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest every time I saw him. Good luck Brett, you’re going to need it.
 
Welcome to Manitoba!! Here was a trailer I saw at the race. As you can see, it’s an old chevy s-10 truck bed with some plywood walls. It’s all topped off with a truck cab for a roof, the owner showed some real ingenuity in building this and deserved a shout out just for this fact. What really puts this over the edge for me is the spray-painted skull and cross bones and the creature on the side. Obviously, this guy is a fan of the Alien movies. Please notice that over top of the painted jaw bone is some kind of real animal’s jawbone! Wow…if this trailer is ever in the Winnpeg Sun with a wanted picture, I won’t be surprised. Thanks to my incredibly neat postman buddy Mark Robitaille for pointing this unique item out to me.
(INSERT LISSIMORE TRAILER PIC)
 
The first MX2 moto took place in pouring rain and Blackfoot Yamaha’s Jimmy Nelson won. Kyle Beaton and some guy named Ben Evans kept him honest, even getting to within 3 sec at one point in the moto.
 
It was not to be as Nelson and Beaton got docked five positions for jumping on the yellow. I spoke with Kyle and he said that in the riders meeting, they were told that if you can see the landing, it’s ok to jump. There is no way that they should’ve been docked if what I was told by Kyle and some other witness’s was true, a truly baffling decision and it was at this point that I heard some circus music off in the distance.
 
So Ben Evans was the winner of the MX2 race. I have no clue who he was or what he looks like. He rode well and might find himself a ride for the next round after this performance. Is this him?
 
Mitch Payton’s choice for the Canadian MXDN team, Tucker Hibbert fell on the first lap and was dead, dead last. I told a friend that it sucks-in a short series there goes his championship. But somehow, incredibly, he climbed all the way up to fourth before blowing up his bike and really ruining his title hopes. It was a very impressive ride by the snowmobile god.
 
Kyle Beaton looked really good and although the conditions were bad, him and Nelson look to be the best of the field. Like I said, I don’t know anything about the winner Ben Evans, is he just a good mud rider or can he do it again?
 
Local Manitoba rider James “Cheetah” Simner rode well to get a 9th. He was steady the whole race and said he never fell once. That’s an accomplishment for sure, good job James!
 
Has anyone out there seen Kris Keefer? He looks like he should be passed out on a beach somewhere with empty Corona bottles in a Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville shirt, not getting 4th in the first MX2 moto.
 
Holeshot racing/Dennys rider Brady Sheren was probably wishing they would dome the track as he struggled to an 18th in the slop. I was thinking that the BC boys (Beaton, Sheren, Belin) might have a bit of an advantage over the other riders as they have some mud races out there. But other then Beaton, none of them really impressed me.
 
Eric Nye ended up with 2nd after the penalties were handed out. Would I have thought that before I checked the results? Nope, he looked to be way in the back to me, but maybe I should lay off the Labbatts. The circus music got stronger when I saw this…..
 
In the MX1 class, Mitch Cooke won with a dominating performance, in fact he came around me at the ¾ lap mark and he had probably 15 second lead! I’m not sure if he dropped some Batman-type smoke bombs or an oil slick behind him but it was ridiculous to have that kind of lead so early.
 
JSR had a rough moto, I didn’t see him fall but he came around first lap around 35th and worked his way up before falling again and going down a lap. Amazingly, he unlapped himself and was 5th or 6th before crashing right in front of me and losing some more spots. He ended up 7th and lost some more points to Paul Carpenter.
 
When he fell, the front end just went out from under him and he slid like he was on one of those banana slides for about 15 feet. Looked like fun.
 
The rain had stopped by this point and the mud got sticky and heavy for the guys, nobody was jumping anything and besides Cooke, no one looked very fast.
 
Seriously, Jeff Gibson got 9th and was riding around so slowly and was so exhausted that a saw a sea turtle pass him. He was running 3rd for a while and just stayed out of the carnage. Just like Eric Nye and his 2nd, I have no clue how he got 9th.
 
Tim Tremblay got 3rd! He looked pretty good early on and is a big kid who reminds me a little bit of Kevin Windham out there. His future looks bright.
 
Colton Facciotti again proved my “BC guys good in the mud theory” all wrong as he got a 21st. There were 24 guys that finished the 450 moto and if I rode the whole damm race and was one of the four that didn’t get a point, I would probably beat myself in the head with a tire iron.
 
OSTFF’s Tyler Medaglia was up front for the whole race before his bike expired on the last lap. Some guy named “Suzuki Man” on mxforum.com must have been bummed out as he predicted that Blackfoot would have more problems in the rest of the year while the OSTFF Suzuki team had everything figured out. The Blackfoot guys all finished and what’s the name of that John Lennon song? Oh yeah, Instant Karma.
 
Paul Carpenter rode smart and steady and finished 2nd and extended his points lead over JSR. Very good strategy on team Cernic’s part to make Paul pull in for some more coolant. Derek Sorensen gets the runner-up award for best mud idea.
 
But the winner is OSTFF Suzuki for installing a Rekluse automatic clutch in Mitch Cooke’s bike! This way, in the event of a fall, the bike would never stall and Mitch could keep going. It also extends clutch life and makes life a whole lot easier. I have never seen this done before and it was a brilliant idea.
 
Look at Vancouver Island’s Howie Spencer getting his best finish ever with a 12th! I hung out with him a bit in California this winter and he is a good guy. Congrats!
 
Here is where the race turns into a full circus, I saw a 12 foot guy in stilts walk past me and I knew something was up. The top riders in the MX2 class refused to go out for their second moto stating that it was too muddy and they couldn’t make it up the hills.
 
This was shortly after the 80 support class ran and rode the track BTW.
 
The riders were just milling around the start gate and the team managers were discussing things while the fans were all sitting there wondering what was going on. I could’ve swung a 40 foot pole and not hit a CMRC official at this point.
 
A VW bug full of clowns stopped by me and about 40 clowns piled out.
 
When an official appeared, I heard a Blackfoot guy say that the track was unsafe. What exactly was unsafe about this mud track? Was there a boogy monster in the woods somewhere? This claim was ridiculous and if the BF guy had just said “Look we are pissed because you guys docked Jimmy Nelson and now I am going to take it out on you” That would have been much better.
 
The riders claimed they couldn’t make it up the hills, but when I looked over, the bearded lady was running up and down them.
 
I found it so funny that the Cernic’s team, the Blackfoot team and the OSTFF team were all saying that they were going to ruin their bikes even though they get free parts! There was all these privateer guys twenty feet away that pay for everything sitting there, ready to race.
 
 I was working as a mechanic at Mt Morris 1997 and 2000. Southwick 2003 (Saturday), Budds Creek 1999, Anaheim 1 2005 etc etc. I fully understand how much stress the mud causes the bikes, however with a lot of work and some parts; these things can be made as good as new after the race. There was no standing water to speak of after the track scraping, a bike’s worst enemy. The bikes being ruined excuse was laughable to me.
 
One rider was explaining to me that it was unsafe because he couldn’t hold on to his grips and his gloves were muddy after he fell. I pointed out that he shouldn’t have fallen and the idea is staying up on the bike. How could you complain after you crashed? This was a pro national right?
 
Here is where the CMRC deserves some criticism, they should not have ran the thrilling 80cc support class and spent that time and the intermission scraping the track, they didn’t start doing this until it was too late and the riders and teams were already mad. A few more tractors would have helped also.
 
So the decision was made to cancel the motos. Here was the scorecard after that decision-
3 or 4 teams--------------------1
CMRC, privateers, and fans-0.
 
When the CMRC let this happen, that’s when the bag was completely empty of cats. They should have just told the teams that they will re-route the parts that were “unsafe” cut the motos and calmly explain that the gate is dropping in 20 minutes, please be there.
 
I almost got hit by the bear on a tricycle, but managed to avoid him. He ran over my buddy Curt though.
 
I’m no promoter but when there are no announcements of what is going on or any bikes on the track for a good 2 hours, the fans tend to just leave. Just an FYI, CMRC.
 
I do have to say I feel bad for CMRC ref Brett Lee however; he seemed to have a handle on things but was simply overwhelmed. BTW, thanks for the passes Brett!!!
 
After they scraped the track, it wasn’t too bad. I have been a mechanic for some horrendous mud races and this was no different. It would’ve sucked, but this is motocross. I would bet my autographed Wendel Clark jersey that the AMA would NEVER have cancelled the moto.
 
So the 450 guys saw this and decided that they didn’t want to race either. The claim of the bikes being trashed was even more ridiculous. Stop for coolant! Stop for goggles! Gloves! Some oil! A sandwich! Whatever you need to do to make it to the finish. I honestly thought I was dreaming when this was happening.
 
My dream was shattered when I shook a clown’s hand and the hand came off, and then he sprayed me in the face with a fire extinguisher, honked his nose and ran away.
 
I asked the Jesus of Canada (AKA-JSR) what he thought, he said that he would do whatever the group wanted but he said this while he was the only top guy standing there with all his gear on, ready to go. I thought that this fact spoke volumes about his intentions.
 
Chuck Mesley was ridiculous in my opinion, he was ranting and raving about destroying his bike (doesn’t he have a mechanic?) and he was getting the riders to sign a petition. Again, just an FYI Chuck, when you have a petition that has peoples names just printed on it when they didn’t actually sign it doesn’t look good.
 
I always thought “The Mez” rode with so much heart and has so much dedication after overcoming his injuries, but he didn’t want any part of the mud. I know John Nelson, his main sponsor, and I can’t help but think John would have sent his riders out there after seeing the track. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
 
Brad Coles, the owner of Label It Racing, a small team that pays for pretty much everything was all about racing, he didn’t think it was that bad and his riders were ready. Hey big teams-this guy was willing and able and he actually pays for the parts. Again, I need to stress most of the privateers were behind the gate, wanting to race and had no problems with the track.
 
I think I saw Mark Stallybrass measuring some neckties and trying to find a branch that was strong enough to support his weight.
 
This gets even better, a referee gathered everybody around and told them that his great grandfather and grandfather fought in world wars so the guys have the freedom to choose what they want to do, but the gate is dropping soon. We all needed a tissue after this.
 
I felt a pinch on my ass, turned around and it was The Lobster Boy. That little rascal!
 
For some reason the gate was raised and then dropped 10 min later signifying well……I don’t really know what it signified.
 
Johnny Montes told me that he didn’t have a spare clutch basket for his bike but when I told him I would personally get him one if he raced he almost changed his tune. Now I was sponsoring guys for parts. If you are a professional racer and driving 5000 kms across the country, please make sure you have spare parts, or just stay home.
 
So now the decision was made not to race but when Brett Lee exclaimed that they had some angry fans the teams decided to sign autographs and give out stuff to appease the fans. Hey guys, nice gesture but who are you going to sign for at this point, the gophers out in the field?
 
What was this, Deal or No Deal? The race was back on! But the CMRC only let the die-hard 6 or 7 guys that were still there race a four-lap, no points race for the purse money. Good for these guys that wanted to race and good for the CMRC for doing something. The family and friends that hadn’t left yet loved it and cheered wildly for these brave souls.
 
The winner was a local guy named Mike Harms and immediately after the race, yours truly tracked him down for an interview-
Q-Alright, Mike Harms winner of the second MX1 moto! How was it out there Mike?
A-Muddy!
Q-Do you think the other riders should have joined you out there?
A-Oh definitely, they scraped the top of the track off and it was pretty tacky really. It wasn’t too bad at all.
Q-Were you surprised when you heard the riders were protesting the conditions?
A-Yeah, for sure. I was very surprised they revolted. I wanted to ride the whole time and it wasn’t that bad. We could’ve done 30 plus 2, it wouldn’t have been fun but…
Q-Well, you won a thousand bucks for four laps! Congratulations, what are you going to spend it on?
A-Just pay some bills.
Q-Thanks Mike.
 
I tried to get a comment from Brett Lee but couldn’t get past the lion jumping through the flaming hoop. The ringmaster shooed me away from the act.
 
Brad Lockhart was one of the loudest complainers also, and I thought it was funny when, after the dash-for-cash race, his mechanic started his bike up and did a burn-out on the starting gate. Earlier I had personally heard Brad say that his bike was going to be ruined. Ummmm…what about the tire that’s shot now? Do we all need to chip in for that? Sheesh…..
 
This race was embarrassing for the riders, teams and the CMRC, I sincerely hope there was no potential sponsors there who were looking to invest in the series. I thought it was great when the few fans had shirts off and cheered on the guys who did ride. If I was a spectator on this day, there would be no way I would ever go back to watch another race. The lack of announcements was appalling.
 
Both the riders and the CMRC were at fault here if you ask me. The CMRC should’ve addressed the riders concerns earlier, and there was too much flip-flopping with them. There was absolutely nothing unsafe about the track and I guarantee you had the CMRC just stuck to their guns and held the race, they would’ve had at least 30 guys up there. The riders and teams were being babies, yes it would have sucked poop but this is motocross and the track was not that bad. I have raced in worse and have wrenched in worse or at the very least similar conditions.
 
Ok, what I also got from all of this was that there are some deep-rooted problems between the riders and the CMRC. When the guys were talking to the refs, riders kept mentioning the whoops last year in Nainamo, the lack of purse money etc etc. It was more then the completely muddy track, in my opinion. The CMRC could have done a much better job with communication and been quicker on the track prep but the real losers in this deal was the fans and the privateer riders that were willing and able to race.
 
 I couldn’t help but think of the 1995 Las Vegas SX race when the lights went out and there was a rider revolt, I wasn’t there but in talking to the people on both sides, there were other issues back then that got solved in everybody meeting away from the track and talking it out. I think that needs to be done here as well.
 
And with that, the circus packed up and traveled to Regina. Before you go, might be a good idea to check the weather or else you might not see anything.
 
Please, if I got something wrong or you want to sound off about anything I wrote in here. We will take the best ones and run a report later in the week.