Backwoods MX

Had a good day down at Backwoods Sunday shooting pictures and checking out the new revised layout. When I pulled in to pay I thought I was Red Bud or another National. I have never seen Backwoods so crowded! The bottom section immediately to the right of sign in was pretty much full as was the top section where we normally park with no problems. Evidently there are a lot of folks liking the 2009 Backwoods layout!

For this season, Scott has went back to running a combined program. In years past they ran a full bike program, then ran a full quad program. Today anyway the ran practiced like normal, but ran all the bike classes, then prepped, ran quads, more prep and started over. Heard a few quad grumblers through out the day, but also heard some bike guys grumbling as well, so it all works out as usual!

#694 Lil' Richard Turner and #57 Zack Greenwell were dicing it up in early practice. Turner has really gotten faster since moving to the big bikes as well as Greenwell. Zack, too is coming off a pretty serious injury from last year and was making his first trip back to the MX track after spending the winter months running the MidSouth harescramble series.

Got to catch up with a lot of folks I hadn't seen in a while. Got to spend some time talking with Rod Harris. Rod, #103, was running in the largest class of the day, the +40 class. At the tower they showed 14 riders in that class, and that's pretty cool as far as this old guy thinks. Not really sure who won the class, but Rod, suffered some "not so good" starts, but was picking them off left and right through out the race. I'm pretty sure he was top 3 or 4, but again, that's just a guess.

Got to see my old buddy Jerod Neal back in action after a couple year layoff. Jerod faired pretty well running with all the "young bucks" in the 250B class. I beleive #57, Team MXF rider, Zach Greenwell took home top honors with a 3/1, but Jerod rode a consistent 2/2 for 2nd overall.

Also got a couple of good pre- gate drop shots of some guys. One was our own MXF racer Kurt Kissinger. Kurt was mixing it up in a couple of classes this weekend, winning the 85 Jr. class and finishingd 4th in Supermini.




While I'm here...I'll jump up on my stump. What's up with all these people, especially kids, riding and racing with no goggles. I noticed it yesterday while out on the track taking photos. People spends several hundred, thousand on the best bikes, cool gear, boots, etc... but stop at buying a $30-$40 pair of goggles. Come on people, there is not a quicker way to get blinded than riding on a track, made from dirt with no eye protection what so ever. I've seen it time and time again, especially the little fellers out with no goggles.

I was talking to Todd Jochim yesterday, who was running in the Open money class. Todd had pulled over from dirt and dust that got into his goggles and into his eyes. He's a smart kid and had his on, so you know dirt and dust happens on the mx track, so get these kiddo's some goggles!

The FCA bunch from Louisville was their as well and I popped a good pick of Marshall Barnes waiting in staging for his race. The FCA guys and gals do great work in the MX community and are always welcomed here locally.



The best shot of the day, at least for me, was the infamous "ghost rider" of the #881 Suzuki. I just happened to be in the right spot for the this shot. Not sure what really happened, but when I clicked to shoot, I saw pilot AJ Hall tumbling ahead of his trusty steed! Looks like the bike was just hanging out looking for a racer! AJ got up and finished out the day. I never got a chance to get over and find out what happened there, but it makes for an interesting shot!