What's up at Moto-X-Foto!

2010 Loretta Lynn's Amateur National MX Championships

2010-07-20T14:52:00.020-05:00

Well I had initially wanted to have this page done before Loretta's but my wife cut the end of her finger off, so I didn't have a whole lot of extra time. Fortunately for her anyway, the ended up not having to take off any more of the finger than she already had and was able to get some tissue and skin back over the bone. It's healing quite nicely now and her Doctor said with 3-4 weeks it should be all healed up. A little shorter, but all healed up!

So this post has now officially become a Loretta's wrap up blog!

Quite a week I'd say for the Team Moto-X-Foto guys, Broc Gourley came out with a National Championship in 250C Mod., plus a lot of others had great rides as well.

For Kody, Cody & Dillan Black, it was sit and wait right up until the gate dropped for their classes. None of the three made it in to the big show and all three managed to practice on Monday. Kody was the next alternate to be called for 450A/ProSport and Cody & Dillan were both 2 spots out. Jordan Durham did get the call and barely had time to prepare, even running the good ol' electrical tape numbers. That's how quick it happened for him!

#32 Broc Gourley came into Loretta's hot off of two Championships at Ponca. Broc won the 250 C Mod class with a 2/1/1 for the overall. Congratulations Broc!

Ryan Tracy, #85 from Lawrenceville, IL. Ryan had a 14th in +25 and a 24th in 450A/ProSport.
Jessica Litherland, #91 from Newburgh, IN - Girls 12/15 28th

Cody Black, Tennyson IN - Alternate 450C
#47 Kody Hamer, Oakland City, IN - Alternate 450A/ProSport

#21 Dylan Cox, Whitesville KY - 18th in 450B Mod, 2nd in Collegeboy 17/24
#35 Kyle Durham, Owensboro KY - 450C 2nd. Kyle tied for the Championship but lost on a tie breaker!

#77 Zach Greenwell, Newburgh, IN 450C 15th
#85 Justin Brockman, Newburgh IN - 450B Stock 34th, 450B Mod 35th

Dillan Black, Tennyson IN - Alternate 250A/ProSport
# 16 Logan Mattingly, Owensboro, KY - 450B 31st, Collegeboy 17/24 23rd

#91 John Redding, Henderson, KY - 250B 23rd

Brett Gourley, #34 Boonville, IN - 65 10/11 Stock 14th, 65 Mod 7/11 17th
#41 Brandon Gourley, Boonville, IN - 85 12/14 Stock 23rd, 85 12/14 Mod 29th

Other local riders results I didn't get a chance to get pics of:

250 B StockTrevor Ezell 25th
250A Chris Akaydin 23rd, Tucker Thrower 28th
250 A/ProSport Chris Akaydin 30th, Justin Easton 35th
250B Mod Trevor Ezell 24th, Donald Alford 33rd
450A Justin Easton 31st, Jordan Durham 41st
450A/ProSport Tucker Thrower 27th
450B Stock Donald Alford 18th
College B/C 17-24 Neil Borgic 32nd
+45 Steve Ezell 23rd

In closing...
Please take time today to say a prayer for family and friends of Ashlee Sokalski. Ashlee was competing at the Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynns last week where she had a horrible crash. Tragically, she passed away from the injuries earlier this week. Godspeed #316

Gibson County Fair

2010-07-14T11:50:00.006-05:00

Team 186 with all their tongue in cheek humor hinted that there would be a mud pit for the quads to run through. Well it started quite a rumble over at the SIMX forums and as things goes, it was rumored to have alligators even! Well here is the only gator seen near the track, excluding the John Deere variety! It had a name, but I missed it, but did want to mention that no blow up "dolls" were harmed at the fair this year!

Hats off to Steve & Alex at Team 186 and the entire crew of announcers, flaggers and all who helped at sign up. these fair races are a major undertaking all taking place in the course of just a few hours. It's hard to please a few people, let alone several hundred, but you have to try and build something that will not have kids being carted off in the ambulance every 10 minutes. Team 186's goal is absolutely no ambulance runs. Two years in a row they've accomplished that, and I'm sure a lot of the r iders thinks the tracks are simple, etc... but it's a fair atmosphere and if you really need huge jumps, tables, etc... check out our local tracks for that action.

Here are a few action shots from the fair.
#963 is Cody Black, aboard the BBRC Suzuki.
#407 is Kody Hamer, riding the Team SIMX/Moto-X-Foto Kawasaki.
#94 is Matthew Bell aboard the JGR Toyota/Yamaha YZ85
#962 is Dillan Black is also riding a Team BBRC prepped Suzuki.
#726 is Derek Rankin on Rankin Racing's Kawasaki.

Last but certainly not least is the old man of the group, Jason Stills. Jason hung around and waited out all the rain, but not the mud and brought home some cash from winning the Open A Pro class this year. Jason has been involved in the local moto scene for a few years and knows what it takes to win the cash!

Again, thanks to everyone involved and hope everyone enjoyed the mud and especially the clean up after it was all over with!

New forums

2010-07-13T15:41:00.002-05:00

Oh, I forgot to mention in the last post about the upgraded forum software.

Tres' Leonard of TNT-FX Custom Graphics had been really helping a lot in getting the phpBB software going. I had tried switching a year ago or so, but never could manage to get the databases loaded right, so I gave up.

The cost of my old site was becoming a pain in the rear, so Tres' offered up his assistance and off we went! We tested it for about 3 weeks with a few of the old board regulars, made some server changes and jumped right into last week.

So far, everything is going pretty good. I'm still updating sponsor and track sponsor artwork, but I'll get there soon. It's a pretty cool deal, and some may take a little getting used to it, but in the long run it was something that needed done a long time ago.

Check it out here, and let us know what ya think!

See there, two updates in one day!

July 2010

2010-07-13T15:31:00.003-05:00

Well I have certainly not forgotten about the old blog, I've just been very busy here lately.
Kody graduated a while back, then 2 weeks later my daughter, Brittany was married. Between those two milestones, plus all the other curve balls life throws ya, the blog has been a little neglected!

We have been doing some racing though. Kody was till trying to get to Loretta's and there's an outside chance he may make it this year. He's currently on the alternate list in 450A/ProSport and we're keeping our fingers crossed. The regional wasn't his best showing, starts really hurt him, and the fact he hadn't ridden much lately didn't help either.

Right after the regional he join Elite Fitness at Princeton and has been working out 4-5 times a week with his cousin, Damon. Damon will be joining the Marines in August and has wrestled since he was knee high and is in wonderful shape. He's been pushing Kody pretty hard and he's ridden a lot here in the past 3 weeks as well.

Did get up to Princeton the other night for the annual Fair race. Team 186, aka Steve and Alex Hunter put the event on again this year. Oh, there was the usual bitching about the track, but honestly, it's the same for everyone, so just ride!

Unfortunately it came a huge storm about 4 moto's in, and everything came to a halt. Lightening lit up the skies for about an hour, but racing eventually resumed. They gave the "Pro" classes the option of getting their entry fee's back and a big majority did so, including my rider.

Here is a link to the Gibson pictures, and I'll promise to keep up a little more here!

Backwoods back in action!

2010-04-22T12:31:00.003-05:00

My rider, #407 has successfully become employed! Unfortunately, for me now, he's working a lot of weekends, so Ol' Dad's left back on the sidelines again.

Last Sunday I decided to head down to Backwoods over near Tennyson, IN for their first race of the year. They had a pretty decent turn out and the weather was perfect. I've worked with Scott, Kara and his crew for several years now and you can't find a nicer bunch to deal with at a motocross track!

Also got to see some old familiar faces. Bumped into Jason Ashley, whom I hadn't seen in a few years. A few years ago, well maybe more than a few, Jason was one of the fastest guys around, especially during his "mini" days! Met some of the gang over at Tri-State Motorcycles. It's been a while since I had been to TSM, but back in my day, that was where all the Yamaha's came from, and I'm talking yellow YZ's, not today's blue ones! Very nice bunch who had a couple new YZ's on display and even offered up some free donuts. Looking forward to working with TSM, who will on board as a site sponsor very soon!

Racing action was fast and furious. Saw some good mini riders, as well as a couple of very talented up and coming 50 riders. Talked with the Black's some.Cody ran about 4 classes I think, while Dillan is still nursing a banged up leg.

I'll try and get a few pics added to this blog soon, and hopefully my rider gets a Sunday or two off here soon and we can get back into the racing action. Until then, I'll probably be the big, burly guy walking around taking pictures!

Planning on being at LSMX this weekend...rider or not!

Dirt Scooters Rule!

2010-03-23T12:14:00.014-05:00

Man, I really love this time of year. Everybody is slowing getting back into things and the tracks are opening up, the weather is coming around, just an all around good time for motocross!

We were back down at Echo Valley on Saturday and the track was good, as usual. There were a few wet spots, but it all worked in pretty nicely. The weather was perfect for shooting pictures, a little cloudy and overcast, with some bright sunshine thrown in for good measure.

Not to be kicking a guy while he's down, but this blogs opening pictures is guy aboard, or off of the KTM. I'm not sure who he is, but usually when tip overs happen right in front of me, I tend to start clicking! No harm done, right? He was back up and gettin' it right away.

In all fairness, here is another image of the same guy, blasting around a Brad Rideout prepped corner! Awesome form and having fun!

It was also nice to see ol' Nick Waller and John Carpenter back out and riding again. John, shown here is back aboard a Yamaha YZ250F and looked pretty good considering how long he'd been off the bike. Nick was about the same way and both guys looked like they were having a blast.

#57 Zach Greenwell came out of the woods long enough to get in some track time this weekend as well. Zach was rockin' the 2-stroker and looked pretty good out there on the Suzuki RM 250.

In my camp, we've switched it up and have gone back to the 4-stroke. Kody has brought back his original #407 and is aboard a KX450F, and really enjoying the thumper. He raced the big hoss ove r at DuQuoin (DuQuoin Pics) a week or sao back, but didn't fair to well in the mud with several spills and some broken goggles. Needless to say, he was not happy with Smith, and now sports Scott goggles!

The last two pictures, I haven't a clue who they are, but they turned out really well through the lens!

Recently, I have been trying different shooting angles and basically, just trying to switch things up a little, so it's a little trial and error from time to time at moto-x-foto!

I'm planning on being over at SOIL MX this coming Sunday. Hope to see some of you there, and if you see me cruising by, say high!

Here is a link to the rest of the Echo Valley March 20th pics

2010 Season is here!

2010-03-03T15:13:00.010-06:00

Welcome to the latest blog from Moto-X-Foto. I dropped the .com late last year because I basically just got lazy & tired of trying to keep up another site. It's a lot easier to manage here with the blog and I'm also working it on Facebook, at least the photo's and selling of images.

Well the season is officially upon us! The ABC Bluegrass Series kicks off this weekend at Ballance MotoX and Lincoln Trail Motosports has an official event scheduled for Sunday.

Two local practice facilities are open this weekend as well. Echo Valley MX in Poole, KY and SOIL MX over near Albion, IL. Granted these are both officially bikes only tracks, but I'm sure our quad brethren are out putting in the laps somewhere!

This blog will kind of have a old school, flashback kind of feel to if you will! From the featured pictures, to news of a couple of events and a revitalized KY track.

First up let's go with some riders... Dylan Cox #120, as most of you know,is a super fast amateur making a name for himself on the national amateur scene. We caught up with him at Echo last weekend, and as he claimed not to haven ridden much over the winter, it was hard to tell from the fast laps he was putting in on the perfectly prepped track. Dyan and family are heading to Texas this week for the lake Whitney races and Oak Hill MX events. Good luck Dylan!

How about a return to Linton Indiana for some motocross? Well a few weeks back I got a call from Scott Eichorst about the old Bakersfield bunch doing a event near the town's Park. Some of you may remember the Bakersfield track. Kody was on 50's when we raced there last and I remember The Sipes brother's on mini's and Ben Riddle just moving to big bikes, so it's been a little while! Anyway, the Eichorst brothers are putting on an event for the towns Freedom Festival April 10th & 11th. Practice is on Saturday with the actual racing on Sunday.

Also got recent word from Dustin "Big Pimpin'" Roberts that he was going to be doing some renovation of the old Daviess County, KY course know as Oakhill MX in Philpot. Sounds like Scott Black from Backwoods will be handling sign ups, etc... and they will be in action May 22nd! It is now officially called Lions Den MX!

More back in the day comebacks to announce...#99 Jerod Neal. Good to see Jerod out and riding his immaculately prepped KX450. I first met Jerob back at the old Steeltown course at Chrisney Indiana and have been friends ever since. Jerod and his parents traveled with us back then and we had a lot of good camp outs!

Another guy good to see back is Brandon Springer. Brando was like Kody last year and took a little break from the sport but is back aboard a new KTM 450 this year. Awesome to see the Springer family back on the scene as well. Kevin and Tammy have done a lot of good work for the FCA motocross community and are a welcomed site in anyone's pits.

One other blast from way back was #850 Ryan Tracy. Ryan is another one of fast guys from the Lawrenceville Illinois area and has raced Pro for several years now. He has done some night shows in the Supercross arenas, did the Arenacross circuit and ran several out Nationals. Ryan is always a lot of fun to talk with, and if something can usually go wrong on a bike during a race, Ryan has been there. I remember him losing a seat over the triple at Casey one year, or a grip at the St. Louis Supercross...

Lastly is the picture of my rider. Nothing too ground breaking, but more of a family, or "Kody" tradition. He got a new helmet for Christmas. It seems like as long as we've been doing this, he always wrecks ans rips the visor off, puts a huge scratch, etc... on the skid lid. I warned him all the way down, to not tear this one up. No problems on the track whatsoever, he just dropped it on the ground, breaking visor. At least this one didn't involve a trip to the hospital!

Best of 2009!

2010-01-05T10:30:00.019-06:00

Every year for the past several I go through pictures and burn copies to CD for all of my riders. I try and pick 10-12 that really stand out to me for some reason or another. Usually it's just a pretty clear, sharp image that I snagged sometime this season, while others have a little background and might be a little "fuzzy"! I'm getting better, and have even began shooting more in manual mode this year. For 2009, I came up with 12 images I really liked. Of course I have two of my kid, but I take a lot more of him also!

I'll kick things off with #1, and these are not necessarily #1 thru #12, just the way the were added!

Cody Black from Tennyson IN. This was shot at the Ballance MotoX LLQ in the early Spring. It had rained a lot of the week leading up to the race and I went alone that weekend. My rider had sense enough to stay home, but I was going! Pulled in to mud everywhere, but the Moto-X-Foto van made it to the top of a hill, where I at least had a fighting chance of getting out when the ensuing rains hit. Track conditions went from bad to worse and I left Sunday early during a down pour. It was cold, wet and miserable, but those conditions didn't keep Cody from giving it all he had. They even had tornadoes on the ground just a few miles West of us and I'll never forget the mass of huddled motocrossers in the infield tunnel!

I don't remember where Cody finished that day, but to me he was #1 for even giving it a shot!

Up next is Derek Boyd from Willow Hill, IL. Team Ideal was a new addition to Team MXF this year as a site sponsor and as a Team rider. Derek ended up qualifying for the Amateur National...aka Loretta's. He finished 33rd overall in 250C Mod and 37th overall in 450C in the Nation!

In this picture taken down at Little Sturgis MX, Derek just happened to roll by where i had been taking pictures for a while and just gave me a nonchalant wave. After getting home and downloading the pics, I just thought this showed D's enthusiasm and playful character.

Congratulations on all your 2009 accomplishments!

This is of course my rider, Kody Hamer. I have thousands of pictures of Kody, but every year I find new and different images I enjoy. This was shot actually in late Fall at the FCA Event at Echo Valley MX. I have always liked using the Rideout's pine tree's as a background and this pic also includes some blue sky.

For 2009 Kody decided to switch numbers and ran #40 all year. Kind of hard for me, since he'll always be #407 to me!

These type of images was something I started doing more of this year. I like getting shots of the riders before hand and even after the races. I started doing the bike shots and have really gotten to like doing them. In this pic, it's Justin Brockman's KX450. I snapped this one at the Mid South Hare Scramble in Lynnville, IN... also know as the Big Stripper.

The graphics were done by local graphics wizard Tres' Leonard from TNT-FX Graphics. I really enjoy the contrasting colors and also the fact that there are three other site sponsor's represented on Justin's bike. Suspension Plus Inc., Sixth Pinned Development and TNT-FX Graphics have all been excellent sponsors over the years. Thanks guys and sweet bike Justin!

Here's the littlest guy on Moto-X- Foto, Ben Butler. Ben hails from Ft. Branch Indiana and races in the super competitive 7-8 51cc class. This one was taken early in the year at the Crossroads MX LLQ before the floods hit that qualifier as well. Friday practice was pretty sweet, but rains hit Saturday and then the real rains came Saturday night, forcing most of Sunday's racing to be a draw pins from a bucket for finishes!

I like to call Ben, "B-Money" and tease the little cuss quite a bit, but he is quickly becoming a force to reckon with in the "Cobra Class".

Shawn Clark, #56. Shawn has been a part of my website since practically day one is the only "official" life time member! Over the past few seasons I hadn't really gotten too many images of Shawn. He had been injured, plus was going to college and our paths never really crossed. I got a few this year and this one came from a practice day over SoIL MX near Albion, IL. I had forgotten just how smooth Shawn rides and it was a joy to see him destroy the Illinois dirt that day.

Another thing I like to accomplish when photographing riders is to get the intensity in their eyes. Shawn is always intense on the track, but is also one of the nicest and most sincere young man you'll find! Good luck in 2010 Shawn!

Got this image of Derek Rankin at Backwoods Motorsports, near Tennyson IN late this year. Like I said earlier,this year I tried getting a different side of the guys with some different styles of pics. Derek has been with the MXF family now for 2 years and has progressed very nicely to a solid B class racer. He also puts in quite a bit of time training off the bike which is a huge help.

This, if I had to really pick, is probably my favorite of the year! I really like the overall candid-ness of the shot, if that's a word, but just the different colors and shapes of the jersey with the bizarre design of the Fox helmet just make it a very interesting shot.

Here's a shot of Davis Uphoff from Mt. Carmel, IL. This was taken early in the year at Little Sturgis MX. Davis and maybe one other boy were jumping the fence line triple that day and it was a pretty cool experience, seeing these mini pilots launch this huge gap.

Davis like so many of the MXF riders really flourished this year and became one of the faster 85 riders in the area and stood a good chance of making it to Loretta's. But like so many kids, Lady Luck was not on his side at Regional's and he missed out. Davis moved to big bikes on a YZ125 late in the year and just kept progressing!

#263 is Jack Campbell. Jack, like Shawn, has pretty much been with me from the beginning and in fact, I think I'll officially make Jack the second "life time member"!

Jack, reminds me of Kevin Windham a lot. You watch him ride and think, he's not really going that fast, but in fact, he's flying! Just a lot of natural ability, heart, desire and a wonderful attitude!

This was taken, again at Sturgis in the Spring and the thing I like about it the most, is the roost flying, frozen in time, kind of like Jack's timeless style!

Another fast rider from the State of Illinois... Matthew Bell! Matthew is from the Lawrenceville area and has been a part of SIMX/MXF for several years now. Matt now races in the 85 Sr. class and just fellow Illinois racer Davis Uphoff, Matthew is one bad little dude on the minis!

This was taken at The FCA Event this Fall down at Echo Valley and exhibits Matthews awesome style. Matthew and Dad, James put a lot of time and effort in their program and have become very successful over the years. Good luck in 2010 guys!

Ol' T-Unit waving good bye to 2009!

Trent and I have been friends for several years, and I always marvel at just effortless Trent rides. I am always kidding with Trent how a lot of the younger kids have now caught up to his speed, but sometimes, he'll lay it down and put a whuppin' on the young bucks!

This shot just shows how much fun Trent has in this sport. A die hard Villopoto fan, just having fun at something he loves to do!

Last is another one of the photographers kid! This ranks as one of my all time favorites of Kody and was taken at the Crossroads LLQ . I believe it was Friday practice and I had been taking pictures up on the hill by the "hoops". Kody had stopped by to check out lines and I don't know if he even knew I was there.

Just a lot of "seriousness", determination on his face. Shortly after this, he decided to play football his Senior year in High School and we missed a lot of action this summer, but are planning on being back in 2010...hopefully as #407!!!

HO, Ho, ho blog!

2009-12-24T10:32:00.006-06:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday's!

Me, I've become a scrooge over the years and Christmas just ain't what it used to be. I'd rather get it over with, have a little snow and then warm up and be Spring-like!

Personally,I can't wait for warmer weather. We'd planned on heading South, but with all the turmoil in my life since July, I'm fresh out of vacation days. Still hope to make it down to the Monster in February, but regardless, hopefully it'll warm up locally for some good practice days maybe down at Echo.

Supercross is just around the corner, and for once I'm actually looking forward to the SX season. I guess I'm just a purist outdoor motocross kin of guy, but this years Supercross should be fairly interesting to watch. Stewart has to be considered the favorite, but Reed and Villopoto can't be too far off the pace can they. Plus you have the likes of Grant, Millsaps, Short and Windham in the mix, it should make for some really exciting racing.

The Lites classes are always interesting as well, and I haven't a clue who is racing which coast, but I'll be pulling for Ryan Sipes.The lites will be stacked as always with Weimer, Sipes, Stroupe, Pourcel, well the list goes on and on!

Also just around the corner is good buddy T-Unit's wedding! Trent & Jessica will be wed on January 2nd of 2010.Trent is pretty hard core about Supercross and I'm sure the wedding was scheduled for the 2nd and not the 10th because of Anaheim 1! T-Unitis also reportedly doing some work on the ol' 179 Pro Circuit Kawasaki, so look for an all new T-Unit in 2010.

Another wedding in 2010 will be my own "baby girl" Brittany's. She and fiancee' Matt will be married June 12th of next year. We're looking forward to that, especially the reception! Matt's a good guy...Colts fan, Hoosier fan...now if I can just get him interested in motocross!

Also, some of ya may have noticed the moto-x-foto.com website is no longer working. I just didn't see the advantages of running the domain,when I can do the same from the blog, Facebook and the forums. Three things is enough to deal with, so I just let the domain expire. Not to worry, all the galleries are still available over on the forums, under the Moto-X-Foto link, and as usually, I'll probably be updating some pages here and there as time allows. I'll still be out taking pictures and will still offer photo sponsorships to a few select racers!

Well that's about enough ramblings for now. Moto-X-Foto, SIMX, and the Hamer's all would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and safe and prosperous New Year.

ECHO BLOG, Echo Blog, echo blog...

2009-11-24T09:50:00.012-06:00

I spent both days last weekend down at The Rideout families Echo Valley MX near Poole, KY. Echo Valley has been around just about as long as we've been in motocross which is going on ten years now, and over the years they have hosted several Loretta Lynn's area qualifiers. 2009 was the first year they haven't held races and they also lost their qualifier. In big time amateur racing, moto politics play into certain decisions, and unfortunately Echo was left holding the bag this year.

I hate the fact they haven't raced this year, but it has also brought the track to life as a damn good practice facility now. Somewhere along the lines, Echo Valley have dropped having quads practice and it has created a wonderful scenario for the bike enthusiast. The soil, when groomed like it normally is, ruts up very nicely and stays super rough the entire day. Very little prep has to be done during practice days, which in turn means less maintenance, fuel costs, and machine repairs.

Granted, it sucks for the quad guys, but you you can hardly blame a guy for a smart business decision.

Of course, this is just an opinion, and I'm not attempting to start the ol' quad vs. bike debate that has become so popular every other month at the forums. Just, that as a bike family it's great for us.

Anyway Saturday was especially nice and I hadn't realized the amount of rain they received in the Henderson area. I expected another good turn out and was met with just one other rider.

Jacob Durbin came down an introduced himself and spent quite a bit of time talking with us that day. He said he'd only been into motocross about three years, but rides quite well, especially for being so tall. I had to tell Kody who Mike "Too Tall" Bell was, so it was a moto history lesson as well that day!

Just the two of them riding gave me a chance to monkey around with taking shots in manual mode. I mean monkey, too. lot's of trial and error, but eventually I got some of the best pics I've taken in a long time. Granted, I'm no Buckley or Scavo yet, but I'm learning!

The Saturday pics can be seen here.

Sunday had the normal decent crowd and the track was in much better shape. It had dried out and Kenny had disked it up and was developing ruts quite quickly. I took well over 300 pictures on Sunday and most turned out pretty good.
The Sunday pics are located here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Big Stripper Blog

2009-11-18T13:15:00.017-06:00

Nah, Ol' Hamer hasn't gone off the deep end and ventured off to some "gentleman's clubs", The Big Stripper is the LA Dirtriders round of the Mid South Hare Scrambles Series held last weekend in Lynnville Indiana.

I arrived just after Noon on Saturday with intentions of helping out my friends. As it turned out, most everyone had their machines ready to rock, but I did get to help on a grip replacement early Sunday. Most of Saturday was just spent cruising around with Butch Bradley, visiting with friends and having a few "golden yummies"! Also got to hang with my old buddy Brian Belwood, from the old days of motocross. Brian always brings a certain flair to the camp outs!

Sunday's action started early for the little guys. First off were the Junior A and Junior B classes. Brandon Gourley took off like a scalded cat and never looked back. He opened up quite a lead, but backed off some towards the end to conserve fuel.

Junior B started shortly behind the Junior A's and they were off running wild as well. Matthew Bell was among the riders in the Jr. B class, but the pictures I got of Matt were blurry as crap! Honestly, I wasn't expecting to see the Bell's and he came up on me pretty quickly and I almost missed him. Brandon won the Junior A class, Matthew finished 3rd in Junior B.

Next up were the mini classes. Brett Gourley was aboard the KTM 65 and like bigger brother Brandon, was hauling butt in the woods. All three of the Gourley boys do a lot off their training in the woods, and it's no surprise they are as fast in the woods as they are on a motocross track.

Big bikes were next, and it looked like they had several hundred riders ready to tackle the Lynnv ille trails. Cory Buttrick, #12 and Jordan Ashburn, #927 pretty much ran away from everyone else in the AA Pro classes. Buttrick was the eventual winner, with Ashburn second.

Scott Goodman has some helmet cam footage of an entire lap of the course over on youtube. In the 4th installment, you can actually see the Ashburn and Buttrick passing Scott, who by the way is an excellent woods rider, and checking out in just a few seconds. Pretty amazing footage by Scott.

Former SIMX team motocrossers #561 Broc Sims and KTM mounted Tanner Byarly were running Heavy A and Lites A respectively. Sims always gets a good start, and the Lynnville round was no exception. Unfortunately Sims, encountered a flat early into the race and had to settle for a 10th place finish. Tanner also got an awesome start and rode hard the entire race, finishing 3rd in his class and 9th overall for the entire event.

Both Broc and Tanner are as fast on a motocross track as they are in the woods. It was good to see these guys doing well at the "Big Stripper".

Competing almost side by side in the Lites B class was Broc Gourly, #32 and #57 Zach Greenwell. These guys were charging hard right from the start and were with in eye site of each other, 'til Zach got a flat tire as well, and ended his day about the 2nd lap of the race. Broc, on the other hand continued charging all the way to the class victory and a 22nd overall finish for the event.

Justin Brockman was competing in his second hare scramble ever. He ran in the Iuka round, which I have heard nothing good about, and was looking forward to better conditions and luck in Lynnville. Well. he got the conditions, but unfortunately the "luck" thing just wasn't to be. Justin had gotten stopped at a bottleneck and a rider's bike fell into his damaging a radiator. He managed to make it back to the pits, but the Ol' Kawi conked out on him there!

Other notables... Mark Guy, forum regular won the Super Senior A class, Koltin Ellis finished 22nd in 250C, Oakland City's own, Tyler Richeson finished 24th in 250C. Clay Butts finished 17th in Junior B and Chris Gibson had a 4th place in the Open B class.

More "Big Stripper" pics can be found here

Awesome November

2009-11-09T15:55:00.007-06:00

Well at least for moto! My dad busted up his femur the other day and is going to be laid up for a while, but for motocross November has been pretty sweet so far.

Got an email from James Bell yesterday. He and Matthew traveled down to Mill Creek for the Fall Pro/Am event. James said the competition was pretty stiff with 20-25 riders in the 85 Sr. class. Kind of sad, anymore when you go to events here locally and have maybe 5 riders in any of the mini classes. Anyway Matthew finished 6/8 on the day!

Bryce Weger was in action up at Crossroads MX this weekend as well. Bryce finished 3rd overall Saturday in 85 Jr. and 4th overall on Sunday in the same class.

Ben "B-Money" Butler was also up at crossroads terrorizing the 50 classes. Ben finished 1st in 50 Open and 1st in 50 Sr. Ben is also the Track Champion in both the 50 Open and 50 Sr. classes and is also the 2009 Stateline Series Class Champion in the 50 Sr. class. Way to go Ben!
My man Jack Campbell participated down at Steve Ezell's 800 MX National Vet Race. Now Ol' Jack's far from a vet rider, but he did take home top honors in the Unlimited Class and also had a 3rd in the 15-24 Open class. No, Jack's not back on Yamaha's either! It's the quickest pic of #263 I could find!

Justin Brockman reported in with a win over at D-Tracks Winter National. Justin had scores of 1/1/3/1 in the 2-day, four moto event for the overall.

I also spent some time down at backwoods Saturday. The weather was awesome and there very several riders ripping it up. Dylan Cox was putting in several heated laps. Kody Hamer, Nick Waller, Jordan Penner and T-Unit were out trying to shake off the cob webs from a pretty slack summer schedule. Trent has been injured, Kody was footballing while Jordan and Nick enjoyed the life of a "working" man all summer. Good to see all those guys back out riding!

Hope the weather stays on our side for a little while longer!

More Backwoods pics can be found at moto-x-foto.com, or www.robin1grafix.com/nov2009_bw!

Fall Blog!

2009-10-26T18:57:00.002-05:00

Well summer has passed us by and I swear I think Ol' Man Winter is right around the corner of my house! I used to never be cold, sucks to get old!!

Racing is starting to wind down, at least the type I like...outdoors! This weekend is a big weekend up at Crossroads MX. Saturday they have a scheduled Stateline Summer Series race going on, followed by a D17 points race on Sunday. I just watched the weather and it looks like rain Tuesday, the some more Thursday and Friday, so hopefully Ray & Nadine can get in their rider appreciation festivities as well.

Another cool thing going on is the FCA Invitational Day of Riding at Echo Valley MX in Poole, KY.

This is being held from 10 am to 4 pm, with an hour break for lunch, devotional and questions & answers with some of the FCA Motocross team. I believe this is $15 for the whole day and will benefit a very good group!

Also saw this awesome news on Justin Weeks' website over the weekend...

Updates on Justin Weeks

UPDATE 10/25/09
I have very exciting news to share with everyone about Justin’s progress. It has been well anticipated over the weekend as word leaked out about his newest success, but before I describe exactly what happened I’d like to put something in perspective.

At this very moment 88,796 people have visited Justin’s website since the accident. That is an astonishing number and it continues to grow with every update. We have received donations from $5.00 to $2,000 from people and its amazing how much everyone has donated. I’d like to throw this idea out there hoping it might catch on. If everyone was to donate 1.00 every time they visited the site, we would have 88,795 dollars to give to the Weeks family. I'm sad to say that our numbers don’t come close. I would like to post the number of how much money we have raised but for the privacy of the Weeks family I would like to keep it private. I would just like to throw that perspective out there and see what happens.

This Thursday around 10:30 I was sitting in my class at school when I got a video message from Justin on my cell phone and it was a video of him moving his toes up and down. At first I was in disbelief, and thought it was a muscle spasm so I texted back asking “Are you doing that? Is that you controlling your foot?” a couple of seconds went by and then I got the text saying “ YESSSSSSSSSS Yes I did, OMG I can move my foot Maria!”

Justin was able to move his toes on the Left side up and down and he was able to have control over them. He was able to move them up when his dad told him to move them up, and down when he was told to move them down. Justin described the FEELING part of the toes as a “strong tingling sensation” so he cannot actually feel just yet, but he is able to control his toes and move them back and forth.
Then after his morning stretches (and his exciting toe movement) his family had an appointment with SCI Step an out-patient rehabilitation program for individuals with spinal cord injuries. Justin checked the place out and was talking to one of the therapists and showed off his toe movement. Within their three hour visit of talking and testing out what would be right for Justin, SCI was able to get Justin’s ankle and foot moving. Justin was able to rotate his foot in a small circular motion, and also move his whole foot up and down. Also when Justin is in his chair, he can get his whole leg swinging by practicing his foot movement. This is all on the left side, and nothing had come about his right side, all taking place on Thursday (10/22)

I arrived at Justin’s house late Thursday night and was shocked at his movement. We got ready for bed and woke up Friday morning to take his medication and to start the stretches at 9:00 sharp. Justin was able to move his foot still and his dad continued to do the same stretches he did the day before. I helped out by holding one leg, while his dad held the other and we moved Justin’s legs in a running motion to switch it up a little bit. Then his dad continued to stretch him ...This is difficult to explain without having a visual example, but I will explain to the best I can. Justin was laying flat on his back with his legs straight in front of him. His dad bent his legs, so his knees were bent and right in front of him (his feet close to his butt) then spread his legs to stretch out the groin area. The weight alone would stretch the muscle. With a knee at both of his sides, waiting a while to stretch them out his dad asked Justin to bring his knees together. (At this point they are spread apart remember) With some struggle and gripping the sides of the bed, Justin gave everything he could and ... He was able to bring his knees together in front of him. A very strong left side, and a weaker right side, but in all they came together.

Now, hopefully that was not confusing to you, to clear it up he cannot bend his knees, in this stretch they are already bent because of the position he is in. Then his legs and knees are spread apart, and he was able to bring them to a close in front of him.

Justin was only able to do this a few times before he got tired quickly, then we worked on some abdominal stretches and left it at that for him to relax. He spent the whole day out of the house, and drove around town seeing some close friends and also making a visit to MotoXtremes. That night he had his first steak since the accident, and almost fell asleep at dinner because he was so exhausted from the day. He has not been this active in over a month.

Saturday morning’s stretches came and he was able to move his left foot again, and also bring his knees to a close in front of him, but this time his right site was in sync with his left and was almost equally strong. Again on Saturday he spent the entire day out of the house, and it wore him quickly. Saturday night I was taking care of his feet and I was rubbing the right foot (the one he has not been able to move) I was just toying around with his big toe, flicking it back and forth and asking him to move it if he could, or if he had any sensation. He kept saying no, and then all of a sudden a very very, very small flick of the RIGHT big toe moved. It moved almost four times after that then that was all he was able to do.

Sunday morning he was not able to move it so I am not sure what to make of that. These improvements are ... incredible I'm speechless. It’s hard not to get ahead of myself I hope there will be more to come, everyone’s prayers and thoughts must be getting heard because Justin is almost (this Tuesday) two months since the accident and this type of recovery doesn’t happen very often.

Justin’s family has not had time to really sit down and talk about what or how much Justin will need, and is not asking for anything. Lindsey and I took it upon ourselves to raise money for Justin and his family. With this type of recovery so soon, I hope more can come but it is going to take lots of physical therapy that is going to cost a lot. It is not my position to talk about what kind of insurance the family has or what it covers all I can say or do is tell you all that Justin needs our help. The therapy is what is going to get him to walk again, and I'm just hoping and praying that things will start to come together like it did this weekend.

Justin goes into surgery Monday to remove a blood clot protector out of his body (I'm not sure what it is called) but it will take most of the day and he will be under again, hopefully not setting back his new discovery and improvements.
Justin’s ability to get around the house is somewhat limited but a machine was installed allowing him to go up the stairs and down the stairs and his transfers from the machine improve with every ride up and down. Also Justin was able to transfer from a Honda CRV to a wheelchair almost flawlessly, his arms are getting bigger each time I see him. Im not sure what to make of Justin’s new discovery and accomplishment, of course it is amazing and hard not to jump up and down, and cry with happiness but I hope more can come, and I strongly believe this would not have happen without Justin’s strong determination and all the support you have given him. The family is beside themselves, and I wish I could come up to everyone and thank them personally for all the hard work they have been doing for Justin.

We hope to have something at Mini O’s that will raise money for Justin, it will be the first national since the accident and Justin might make an appearance and go down for a couple of days considering what his therapy schedule is like and if he is able to. Thank you all for everything and being patient over the weekend to hear the news. I just really hope we can get Justin into a good therapy place where he can regain more movement and hopefully walk again. I know it will take time, but with everyone’s prayers its amazing what things can happen.

Thank you all so much for being there every step of the way, and I hope you continue to do so, I hope you all have a safe week and fun Halloween weekend.

Sounds promising!

I've been praying for Justin for several weeks, and this is probably a surprise to most of ya! I've never been a "religious" type person and was probably the biggest religion skeptic around. Recently, while my Mom was sick and dying of cancer, she asked me to start going to Church and I told her I would. I figured I'd go once and that'd be the end of it. Well I have missed 2 times since Sept. 1 and it hasn't killed me yet, or the Church hasn't fallen down either. Tanya Clark told me, "you might even like it" and I guess, I have!

Even "Mr. Doubting Thomas" here, wonders if, maybe, just my little mentions of Justin have helped the young man along.

Back in the blog of things!

2009-10-07T13:50:00.002-05:00

Where to start?

I'll be honest with ya, the last three months have been pretty hard on this old boy. On July 9th my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time in the last 10 years. On September 1st she passed away, surrounded by family and friends in a hospital bed in Evansville.

Motocross is one of the true loves of my life. I started riding mini bikes when I was about 8 or 9 years old and progressed all the way into racing motocross until the early 80's. The whole entire time, I was never told by Dad or Mom, no. "It's dangerous, you'll get hurt" were never words spoken around our house. It was usually, "don't kill your self" and "be careful", but have fun!

Dad worked for the Southern Railroad and was gone a lot of the times, but Mom was always there for us. If she knew half of the stuff we did as kids in the stripper pits riding and climbing hills, that would have probably been worse than any of her bouts with cancer! Cliff diving in our spare time and then I have to wonder where Kody gets some of his ideas like this!

I always kidded my Mom about her transformation from Mom to a Grand Ma. I never was told no, but Kody on the other hand was a different story. I wonder if the dangers are different or separate from kids to grand kids...

Cancer is a devastatingly awful disease. Most people only get one shot at it, Mom was two and one against cancer. Two and one equals a pretty determined woman to me! Support breast cancer awareness!

Anyway, things are getting kind of, sort of back to normal and we even got to go Grand Prix down at the LA Dirtrider's Eby Motoplex. Good bunch of guys who have done a lot of work out there in the Warrick County reclaimed ground. I spoke with a couple members who expressed interest trying to run an event much like next weeks Paoli, IN Mammoth east event. All natural terrain, grass course with long lap times. May never happen, but it certainly is something for the guys to think about.

Here is a link to some pics from last Sunday's LA Dirtriders event. Also spent a lot of time around the campfire Saturday night sharing drinks, food and stories with some old and new friends.

I hope to get up to Paoli, at least for the Saturday night festivities and some old school moto on Sunday. Stop by and say hi!!!!

Loretta's 2009!

2009-08-09T10:40:00.005-05:00

Well Loretta's has came and passed for another year. Team SIMX and moto-x-foto.com was well represented with some pretty good results for the week.

Best overall finish for the week goes to Whitesville, KY speed demon, Dylan Cox. Dylan ran two classes this year, Schoolboy 1 and Schoolboy 2.

Overall in Schoolboy 1 for Dylan was 7th overall in the Nation! Yep, Nation folks. That's quite an accomplishment for the young man from Kentucky. Dyan followed that up with a 9th overall in the Schoolboy 2 class.

Dylan is sponsored by Gateway Cycles, Pro Circuit, MTF, One Vision Motorsports, Fox Racing and Ozz Mods.

Boonville's finest, Brett Gourley finished 10th overall in the 65 7/9 class. Again, this is an amazing accomplishment for our local kids. Many of the top amateurs are from the South and ride and race year round. Team Gourley rides in the frozen spoil banks of Warrick County with studded tires to train in the winter. Tough kids! Congratulations Brett and the rest of Gourley racing!

Brett is sponsored by Team Green Kawasaki, Evansville Superbike, Fly Racing, Scott USA, Pirelli Tires, Renthal, Two2 Cool, moto-x-foto.com, MGX Unlimited, Boonville Lawn and Garden, and most importantly... Mom & Dad!

Unfortunately, Brett's older brother didn't fair as well this year. Brandon reportedly crashed pretty hard in Monday's practice and may have even been ran over. Paramedics felt he was OK to race and that he did! Brandon went out in the first moto of his 65 7/11 Mod. class and laid down a 4th overall. But, he was not feeling well, and decided to tough out another moto in his second class, 65 10/11 Stock. Brandon again was up front, but had another crash, hitting his head again and was unable to finish the race. At that time he pulled out of the competition. I'm sure he was disappointed as was the rest of the bunch. Be looking for Brandon again next year though, cause this kid rips!

Brandon is sponsored by Kawasaki Team Green, Evansville Superbike, Fly Racing, Pro Circuit, Scott USA, Pirelli tires, Rinken Mods, Renthal, Two 2 Cool, SIMX, moto-x-foto.com, MGX Unlimited, One Vision Motorsports, Acerbis, Boyesen, EVS, Hot Cams, RB Components, Ready Filter, RK Racing Chains, and Boonville Lawn & Garden and Mom and Dad!

Newcomer to Loretta's was Team SIMX rider Derek Boyd. Derek is now a Honored alumni of Loretta Lynn's. Derek's week began about the 3rd moto of this years competition and I'm sure the nerves and butterflies had to be painful!

Derek finished 33rd overall in the 250C Mod. class. That's still quite an accomplishment when you figure in you're one of the 40 best in your class in the United States! Derek also ran in the 450C Open class and finished 37th.

Derek is sponsored by Thanks Pro-Action IL Matt Borgic, Next Level MX, SIMX, DeCa Works
Travco Motorsports, Ideal Machine, Sixsixone, TAG, MSR, Sunline, Steel MX, Twin Air, Bliss Clothing, Team SIMX and Mom and Dad!

I'd also like to apologize for not getting down to the ranch this year. I think this only the 2nd year I've missed in the last 11 years. Unfortunately, between my kidney stone early in the year, my Dad's illness' and now my Mom's being in and out of the hospital pretty much about every day for the last month, I was out of vacation days!

I'd of loved to been there and even thought for a moment, I was going to "sneek" off Thursday and make it down, but work prevailed!

I would just like to say how proud I am of all these young men. The time, travel, training and expense to do this is astronomical!

It takes not only the determination of the kids, but a determined team of individuals, family and many other loved ones to make this happen.

You guys are the best of 2009! Enjoy it, you've earned every bit of it!!

Crossroads MX Blog

2009-08-03T13:42:00.016-05:00

Traveled back up to Crossroads MX over this past weekend for some much needed practice for my rider, a little camping, grilling, frosty beverages and a lot of bench racing!

Track was good Saturday through practice and around 4:00 PM it started to sprinkle. It rained pretty steady for a couple of hours and amounted to just over .3" of rain. Ray had cut the track some and it looked like Sunday's racing was going to be top notch.

Spent a good deal of time Saturday night watching movies and grilling with the T-Unit and Butler racing. Chuck Uphoff stopped by with some cool video's of Davis up at Walnut earlier this year. Ray stopped by for a beverage and we all got to talk about the upcoming changes with their schedules. Beginning at their next race the bikes will be first up on race days instead of the quads.

Yesterday's program kicked off with a grand total of 5 quads! They ran 2 quad motos, mixed classes, but still just 1 gate drop, a 20 minute break then another quad moto. The bikes started around 11:00 or so and there was quite a bit of downtime in between. I'm sure they had to pay the workers, ambulance etc... for those hours and I'd venture to say with just 5 quad entries, they started the day off in the hole financially.

I don't have the answer on bikes first/quads first, run 'em all together, etc... it's a touchy subject as to who likes ruts, flat washed out corners, etc... but I can only wonder how much longer they will support the quads if they only have 4 or 5 showing up to participate.

OK, enough of the "soapbox", let's get to some racing action! Like I mentioned before, the rain the got overnight made the track just about perfect for racing yesterday. The track rutted up nicely and was pretty rough. Not as rough as the qualifier, but still plenty rough.

Ben Butler finished off the day with a 2nd overall in 50 7/8, and took the overall in 50 Open with a 1/1. Ben has just started riding his KTM 65 and looked very good on it in Saturday's practice sessions. He is still figuring out the shifting part of the KTM, but look for him soon in the 65 Jr. class.

Also got to spend a little time with Kevin Johnson and his family. Kynon is coming back off a leg injury from a year ago and is quickly getting back up to speed. He ran his Honda CRF150 in the Open C class and did quite well. He also busted out the Kevin Johnson built Modzilla Pit Bike.

I missed the pit bike action due to changing a tire, but heard Kynon was airing the pit bike big time. Kody later rode the little beast and came back smiling ear to ear and said it was insane! Kevin has done almost all of the fabrication on the bike and has some pretty trick hand made custom parts to utilize a KTM 65 front and rear ends. If you're interested in such a project, you might want to get a hold of Kevin for assistance!

Kody raced in the 250 A class and finished 3rd overall on the day, again, missing gettin' paid by a spot! The first moto he raced the last 4 laps of the race with a flat front tire. That made for a few sqirrelly moments in some of the CRMX ruts, but Ol' Dad got the RM 250 ready to go again in moto 2. Kody did get in a lot of good practice time on Saturday and we even did a little testing of pipes and suspension settings. Kody really like the 2-stroke, but unfortunately, with football going strong now it limits the amount of seat time he is getting. We are still planning on hittting races when we can, and I'm looking forward to the Red Bud Fall Classic, if I can just persuade the coach to work with us a little!

Derek Rankin ran 250 B and finished up with a 4th overall. All of the pics I got of Derek yesterday was blurry. Derek must be getting faster if I'm having a hard time keeping him in focus! Good job Derek.

Old man T-Unit made his first trip to CRMX this weekend. Trent ran +25 and finished 2nd overall after getting an early lead.

T-Unit is pretty much a legend on the fair circuit and around Nebo KY, but just recently spread his fame into Meade County KY doing interviews and such. It's amazing how the media can sniff out the true "stars" of the sport. Ryan Sipes was in attendance and was shunned for the T-Unit, go figure!

Trent is a good sport about everything and we all give him a hard time, but for an "old guy" he still get's around pretty quick.

Lastly, I'd like to wish Davis Uphoff a quick recovery. Davis had a pretty nasty get off yesterday, but Dad, Chuck reported just some bruises and strained muscles. If you haven't seen Davis on the big bikes, it's a treat. Not sure when the last time I saw a kid make the transformation from mini's to the bigger machines so smoothly!

Loretta Lynn's 2009

2009-07-29T12:47:00.010-05:00

Thought it was time to congratulate and wish the Team SIMX and Team moto-x-foto Racing qualifiers good luck!

The long road to the Amateur National Motocross Championships usually starts the day after the current years racing ends. It is a lot of hard, grueling work training and many miles traveling through out the US, racing most every weekend.

This year, both website has a combined 4 riders heading to Hurricane Mills, TN next week.

We'll start with the smallest... Brett Gourley. Brett is making yet another trip to the famed Loretta's course. Brett is from Boonville and has been racing since about 2004. Last year he raced at Loretta's in the 50 7/8 year old class and finished 16th overall in the Nation! He was in the top 10 going into the all important third moto, but had problems in the last raced, but still managed the 16th spot.

This year, Brett has moved up in class to the 65 7/9 stock class, and will have plenty of competition to run against.

Brett is sponsored by Team Green Kawasaki, Evansville Superbike, Fly Racing, Scott USA, Pirelli Tires, Renthal, Two2 Cool, moto-x-foto.com, MGX Unlimited, Boonville Lawn and Garden, and most importantly... Mom & Dad!

Good luck Brett!

Next up is Brett's older brother, Brandon. In 2009 Brandon will be competing in the 65 10/11 Stock class and 65 7/11 Modified class. Brandon also is making a return trip to Loretta's. Brandon began his motocross career at the Boonville Fair race in when he was 7 years old.

In 2008 Brandon finished 4th overall in the 65 10/11 Stock class and also finished 25th in the 85 9/11 class.

Brandon won the 65 10/11 class at this years Spring Classic at Lake Whitney, Texas.

Brandon is sponsored by Kawasaki Team Green, Evansville Superbike, Fly Racing, Pro Circuit, Scott USA, Pirelli tires, Rinken Mods, Renthal, Two 2 Cool, SIMX, moto-x-foto.com, MGX Unlimited, One Vision Motorsports, Acerbis, Boyesen, EVS, Hot Cams, RB Components, Ready Filter, RK Racing Chains, and Boonville Lawn & Garden and Mom and Dad!

Dylan Cox is an old veteran of Loretta's. He started back on 50's and has been just about every year since. Dylan is from Whitesville, KY, but spends a lot of time training down at the Milsap's traing facility in Cairo, Georgia.

For this years event Dylan will be competing in both Schoolboy 1 and Schoolboy 2. In 2008, Dylan finished 15th overall in Schoolboy 1 and 18th in Schoolboy 2.

Dylan is sponsored by Gateway Cycles, Pro Circuit, MTF, One Vision Motorsports, Fox Racing and Ozz Mods.

Newcomer to Loretta's this year and first year Team SIMX rider Derek Boyd, will be making his first trip to the fabled soil of Loretta's. Derek will be making his debut in the the 450C class and also the 250C Mod class.

Derek is sponsored by Thanks Pro-Action IL Matt Borgic, Next Level MX, SIMX, DeCal Works
Travco Motorsports, Ideal Machine, Sixsixone, TAG, MSR, Sunline, Steel MX, Twin Air, Bliss Clothing, Team SIMX and Mom and Dad!

Good luck to these 4 young men and all of our areas participants!

Real photographers!

2009-07-27T15:46:00.003-05:00

Not a bunch to report on this week. We had planned on heading up to Crossroads Sunday but the rain scared us off. Kody had to have his Senior pictures taken on Saturday and I think he was kind of dreading that!

My wife had scheduled a time with a local photographer here in Oakland City. She thought we were supposed to be there at 12:30, our daughter though 12:00 Noon, so we left right at Noon, and was early!

We met up with Daniel Rowe of Rowe Portrait Studios at their home just outside Oakland City. Daniel's a really cool guy and asked Kody what he wanted to do today. He didn't really say much, but wanted to get the indoor "gay" stuff out of the way right off the bat!

Now, I've been at this motocross photography thing a couple years now, but I was way out of my comfort zone around all of the lighting equipment and such. I admit, I'm lighting ignorant, but it has motivated me into learning more about "real" photography!

Dan and Kody got a lot of cool indoor stuff, including shots with the bike, his football stuff and even a few with this big sis. They then went to the Wood Memorial football field and took several awesome shots of Kody on the goal post, press box and some really cool reflection shots by a couple of pools of water. It had stormed most of the morning and standing water was everywhere!

Lastly they traveled to a local stripper pit where kids have jumped from highwalls into the water for years. These spots are pretty heavily monitored by conservation officers now, and you're risking a ticket if caught swimming. Dan took a bunch of shots of Kody doing back flips, gainers and just a lot of really cool pictures.

When we left, crossing the highway, Mr. Game Warden passed us by, but didn't come back. Lucky for us!

All in all Kody had a blast, I had a wonderful time just watching Dan and his wife Adrienne set up the lighting, move here then there, etc... I even got to hold some lights!

Here is a link to their blog. They usually post a few photos of each of their sessions.

If you're interested in Senior pictures, baby portraits, family portraits, etc... give them a shout! Tell 'em Robbie from moto-xfoto.com sent ya!

Check out their website at roweportraitstudios.com

Thanks Dan & Adrienne!

Faircross Season is here!

2009-07-07T08:30:00.009-05:00

Well July is off and running! All the County Fairs are getting ready to kick off, with Gibson County starting this Thursday. My rider is planning on racing this week. Since he has gained some employment, racing has been pushed to the back burner, well more like completely off the stove!

It's been kind of a nice break. Like I mentioned in my last blog, I have played some golf, got quit a few things done here and there. I even got my old golf cart running pretty good now as well. The wife and I took off on a 28 mile adventure Sunday through the back roads of Gibson & Pike counties, nearly got snake bite, but it was kind of fun just rollin' around checking out all the scenery!

What about all the celebrity deaths? Farrah Fawcett was a rough one to take! She was huge back in my youth and remember the poster? Everyone my age remembers the poster, right?

Then Michael Jackson checks out on us as well. Never really was a MJ fan, but he had a lot of cool music. I was watching a thing on CNN about how he never really had a "normal" life. They talked how he paid a grocery store to close for an hour or so, just so he could see what it was like to shop like a normal person. Really kind of sad, to be so popular and famous and to be a prisoner to ones self.

Motocross. Well, I think Alessi really screwed up. Not sure how anyone else feels, but to me when you run 28th fastest in practice, that tells me it ain't working. He should have pulled out right then, healed up and been back in a few weeks. Now, I'd say he's pretty much done for 2009. Grant railed him pretty hard. Intentional? Maybe, maybe not. Looked like they came together in separate lines, but some say Mikey shouldn't have been out there to start with (me) and was having a hard time trying to stay out of the way with a bum leg, when the two lines intersected. It was kind of scary watching him hop around on his butt, trying to get out of the way though.

I've pretty much decided the 450 class is getting boring. Sure, we've had what 5 or 6 different winners, but it's just not as much fun to watch as the 250 class. The Thunder Valley race at Lakewood was as about as good a race as I've ever seen. Weimer and Barcia had a few seconds on the pack, but man it was a pack of starvin' wolves after them. Six, seven guys going at it for the entire moto. Pretty awesome. I text'd Kody about how cool it was and he needed to watch it...then I mistakenly deleted it! I always delete the 450's and keep the 250's, but screwed up! Got it scheduled again tonight though, 2 AM or something around there.

Red Bud was cool as ever! Really wish I had gone now. Watching RC ride again would be worth it for me anyway. I did watch it on the web, and yeah he had no competition, but still awesome as ever seeing him on the two stroke.
I guess in practice he over jumped the Leap and blew out the front wheel. He told someone, "you don't want to come up short on that jump"!

Well, gettin' tired of typing! Plan on taking a bunch of photos at Princeton Thursday night.
Check back Friday sometime for a new gallery!

What's up?

2009-06-23T11:12:00.009-05:00

Been a while since I've updated and unfortunately I haven't been to a track in ages it seems! My rider has gotten a job and is enjoying the life of a "real world" working person! Makes it kind of hard, especially on me.

Actually I have found time to play golf again after almost 11 years, been fishing quite a bit here lately as well, but I still miss you moto-fools!!!!

I would like to report Brett Gourley qualified for Loretta's in the 65 7/9 Stock class up at Sunset Ridge a week or so ago. Congratulations Brett!

It looks like Team MXF/SIMX will be represented down at the Ranch in August by Brett Gourley, Brandon Gourley and Dylan Cox. All three guys are veteran Loretta participants and hopefully all three will be in the Top 10 and maybe even a Championship!Derek Boyd is about as close as you can get as an Loretta alternate, and we're all crossing our fingers hoping Camp Boyd gets the call!

How about the outdoor Nationals. RV goes out, Alessi goes out and Reed picks up a win and looks to be the odds on favorite to win the whole thing. Now it seems Mikey is coming back this weekend at Lakewood.

I can not imagine the discomfort riding with a knee cap that is wired together in three pieces. They make wonderful pain meds these days, but it kind of makes you wonder to what lengths the Alessi camp will go to win the Championship!

250 racing has been pretty cool as well. Barcia took off like a scalded dog early then crashed out a few times, but still seems to be right there. Pourcel has the mystery sickness so many of them get these days and seems to do better in one moto or the other. Canard's out, so for my money, I'd take Ryan Dungey. Dungey seems pretty consistent and races smart, plus he has RC...aka "The Goat" in his corner as well.

That's it for now. I may make an appearance at Sturgis this Sunday. Kody thinks he may be off and wants to come down Saturday and ride some, then race Sunday.

Me, uhh, I have a golf scramble Saturday!

June is here!

2009-06-03T12:15:00.014-05:00

Man it just seems like this year is flying by! Doing some catching up here on the blog... I had been working crazy hours of late, then over the weekend I got what I thought was strep throat, but the Doctor disagreed and just let me suffer for two days, but I think I'm gonna make it!

First a couple of tragic notes... a couple of weekends ago the racing community lost two racers. The first that I heard of was Bobby Wilson. Bobby had crashed at 800 MX racing in the Supercross program Saturday night and later succumb to those injuries.

Later that morning I saw on Vital MX where a guy named Terry Chumbley had passed away up at Spring Creek in Millville, MN. The name sounded familiar and later I got a call from Sean Rocke explaining who Terry was. Some of you who were at Paoli may remember him. He was the bassist for the band that played that night. I thought they were great, but I'm an old head bangin' metal head from the 80's! He and his buddies had traveled from Iowa to ride and play music that night. Anyway, Sean, introduced us and we shared some cocktails that evening...OK, maybe a few more than "some", but anyway Terry was living the dream, man! Rock-N-Roll and motocross.

I personally, had never met Bobby Wilson, but from all of the condolences left on the forums it was obvious he was very respected in the racing community. Such a sad week in losing two wonderful people.

I had missed out on some results and would like to mention a few riders.

Ben "B-Money" Butler picked up a couple of wins this past weekend. He won first in both the 50 Sr class along with a win in the 65 Jr. class over at Meade Co. MX. Ben came back closer to home Sunday at Backwoods and won the 50 Sr. class there also. Good weekend for #7!

Also received word that Kurt Kissinger was racing at Meade Co. and took a pretty nice spill. Nothing broken, just some scrapes and scratches, so look for Kurt back in action soon! Get well soon, Kurt.

Also at Backwoods was Bryce Weger. Bryce pulled off the win in the 85 Jr class on Sunday.

Team SIMX 50 Quad rider Ryan Morgan reported in with a 2nd place finish over Oak Hill MX in Philpot KY. Dad reported the track was in good shape and stayed "loamy" all night. Good job Ryan!

Justin Brockman was in action down at Balance MotoX this past weekend. The ABC, Bluegrass Series was in full swing near Bowling Green KY. Justin finished 2nd in Lites B on Saturday and followed it up with a 1st in Lites B, a 2nd in Schoolboy in Sunday's action!

Now to the all important Loretta Lynn Regional Qualifiers, especially important if you have plans on competing at the Ranch in August!

First up was Millville, MN. Spring Creek Raceway was the site of this years North Central Amateur Regional. Derek Boyd made the long trip and had some pretty good finishes. Derek had a 24th in 250C Stock, but rebounded with a 7th in 250C Mod and another 7th in 450C. Not sure if they advanced 6 or 8 from that regional, but I'd believe DB ought to be looking at Tennessee travel plans here soon! Awesome job, Derek!

Over to the Youth Regional at Jacksonville, OH. More good news! Brandon Gourley must have put on a moto clinic! Brandon had a 1/1/1 in 65 10-11 Stock, a 2/1/1 in 65 7-11 Mod. and a 2/2/1 in 85 9-11 Mod. Three first place overalls for Brandon!

Younger brother Brett had problems with starts but worked his way through traffic in all three motos and managed a 22nd. Big brother Broc, too suffered problems. Broc had great lap timesall weekend, but a broken swing arm gave him a DNF in his third moto, giving him a 29th overall in the Schoolboy 1 class.

Team SIMX racer Logan Mattingly was also in the schoolboy 1 class and finished 17th overall.

Davis Uphoff suffered a set back in Friday's practice, injury his ankle again. Davis did not get to compete, but it looks like he has been cleared for action in a couple of weeks up at Walnut.

Good job guys!

Backwoods MX

2009-05-18T14:34:00.017-05:00

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!

SOIL:Sampled!

2009-05-13T09:54:00.009-05:00

Made our first trek over to SOIL on Tuesday afternoon. Josh has really been working his butt off on the new layout, and it really works! Kody said he really like the flow of the track and it's a blast to ride. The new step up, camel hump thingy along the parking area looks like a blast!

As much rain as we've had the past few weeks, the track was remarkably dry. In fact there was a little dust kicking up here and there, but I don't think anyone was complaining!

Got my first look at Shawn Clark aboard the Yamaha's and quite honestly he looks like he has never been off a bike for any time at all. In fact, the picture above reminds me so much of a photo I have of Shawn from probably 5-6 years ago from Midway Motocross in Mitchell, IN. I bet I could take the two images and overlay them onto each other and they'd be a near perfect match! Blue bike, green bike, but the flawless form is there regardless of the years and different bikes.
Shawn says he really likes the Yamaha's and I even asked about the so called "turning" problems you hear about here and there, and he said he never had a problem with them. Kerry was doing some testing so to speak on bar positioning and gearing and had the blue beasts pretty close according to the younger Clark!

Also got a good pic of Kristi Adams. Kristi was probably one of the earlier girls to race in our area and does quite well. Her Dad, Gary has been at it a long time and is always a lot of fun to hang out with and talk. Kristi, too was aboard a Yamaha Tuesday afternoon and was riding really well. I didn't get a chance to rally talk with her, so I'm not sure of here plans for the summer, if she's doing the Loretta's thing or just hanging out and having fun! Womens motocross has really taken off over the past few years, which I think is great!

A few years ago, my daughter Britt raced a few times, but back then there just weren't too many ladies giving it a go. I'll never forget at Casey one time they ran 2 or 3 girls with the 250 A class. Not a smart move to start with, but Britt went down and was used as a berm by an A rider. Well, Ol' Pimp Daddy Barr was off to break a set of Renthals off in some fellows rear pretty quick, ah the good times we had!

Kody is still sorting out the RM250. He really like the bike and is getting quicker every time out, but we keep having flats on the big dog! I'm still getting used to mixing gas! We wentdown to 800MX onSunday for some testing and had stopped to get fuel in Hendo. Anyway get to 800 and stat unloading and fueling the bike when Ol' Dad realizes, this baby needs a little extra in the gas, if you know what I mean!

Luckily, Mrs Ezell was open in the shop and we got us a can of this stuff you mix with the fuel. Kinda of weird, but it seems like I remember doing this a longtime ago! Still love the smell of pre-mix in the morning!

Several other SIMX regulars were in attendance and looking good were #188 Davis Uphoff. Davis was last seen putting in some hard laps aboard a YZ250F. Chuck and I discussed the mini days and how every one is so happy to get off the little bikes, but down the years it seems like most of the Dads, enjoyed those days the most. I know I did! Simplier times for sure, less headaches, cheaper bikes, cheaper parts, tires, well you get the idea! Time marches on I guess!

Got a good shot of Team MXF rider Derek Boyd big brother Zack at SOIL too. Kody would just about kill for that sweet Bell helmet! Zack's bouncing back from an injury a while back and is riding well. Both the Boyd boys are doing good this season. They have been putting in a lot of laps through out the Midwest this Spring in the Loretta Lynn qualifiers. Good job Boyd Racing, aka Ideal Machine Racing.

Well that's about it for now. Here is another #56 Shawn Clark pic to close with...it's been a while since I've had the oppurtunity to shoot Mr. Clark!

Oh yeah, thanks Josh for an awesome track too!

Monday forum server errors!

2009-05-11T09:19:00.001-05:00

Just got into contact with forum service and they are having server errors this morning.
Should be back up and running soon according to them!

Even more rain...

2009-05-08T12:29:00.003-05:00

Sitting here at work looking out my window and the skies are dark as ever with lightening strikes here and there, thunder... and I'm wondering if we'll ever see sunshine and dry tracks again!

Real disappointing for sure. We just got Kody an RM 250 two-stroke and he can't wait to get out and do some riding and testing. It's been almost three years since we had a smoker and I personally can't wait to start mixing gas again!

Don't get me wrong, we never had any trouble so to speak with the thumpers, well other than the infamous "clutch plate breakage" problems early on in the Suzuki's career. We'll be running the smoker this season and see how things go. Junior would like a 450, Dad would love to see Junior get a job and buy his own 450!

We ran a qualifier a few weeks back and was the only thumper in the 250A class. Since the almighty AMA has saw fit to allow running 250cc vs 250cc it will be interesting to see how things shake out. It's not a new rule change, I believe last year was the first year they allowed it, but it seemed like I noticed very few 2-strokes in the B class. I still believe with the right conditions, in the right hands, the smoker is the right choice. We'll see!

How about the big Supercross finale last week. I had the honor of watching with a bunch of punk kids at the house. Kody had prom, so he was gone, but my old motocross "buddies" of Justin Fortner, Derek Detalente and Nick Waller showed up at the house with Blaine and Malik in tow for some SX action. They poked fun at the old guy (me), for nodding off towards the end, but hell, I've usually had 2-3 hours of sleep when the gate dropped!

It was a good race, Stewart did what he had to do to take home the title. Staying out of Reed's way proved to be an adventure, and I don't think Reed was stupid enough to put a full blown T-bone on #7, but he did make an effort.

I've said many times, Supercross really ain't my cup of tea, but Reed and Stewart did make this the most enjoyable season to watch, for me anyway, in a long time.

Well, I better go. Wife says they are calling for 80+ mph straight line winds and I guess I need to get home and get the bike ready for riding this weekend. Uh, well probably scrap that.

Do they race jet ski's and watercraft anywhere here locally? Might be worth looking into!

Will it ever quit raining?

2009-05-05T11:22:00.004-05:00

Geez Louise, is it ever going to stop raining? Just about when it dries up we get another 2 or 3 days of rain.

Not a lot of action last week, but a few did venture out and find some racing. Matthew Bell and Davis Uphoff made the trip over to a track called Euro Raceway south of Nashville Illinois. Some of you may remember the old Edge track in Nashville, well this place is a little further South!

Matthew had a 7th in the 85 Sr. class and a 4th overall in Supermini. Davis, #188, on the other hand won both the 85Sr. class and Supermini and had a 2nd in Schoolboy.

Derek Boyd, #808, made the long trip to Michigan to Baja MX. No the the infamous Baja desert race either. Just a desert like sand track up North! Derek's Dad, Keith, said competition was pretty stiff there last weekend and they saw a lot of very fast riders. Derek finished the weekend with a 6th in 250C stock, qualifying for the Red Bud Regional, a 23rd in 250C Mod and a 7th in 450C.

Our lone reporting ATV racers this week was David Wisotzkey. David participated in the AMA ATV National held up at Sunset Ridge in Walnut Illinois. Sunset Ridge will be hosting a Loretta Lynn Regional here in a few weeks, but this past weekend it was the quad guys and gals!

David brought home a 5th overall in 4-Stroke B and a 10th overall in Open B.

Also just saw where Bourke down at LSMX is having prepped practice this weekend. Friday night is from 5-10 PM and Saturday will be from 10AM to 4 PM. Nothing Sunday, it's Mother's Day, so be nice to your Mom, especially if she's the one washing your cheesy rider gear all the time!!!

If you missed their opener a week ago, this weekend would be a great time to try out the new LSMX layout!

SOIL MX is supposed to be opened tonight as well. Haven't heard anything yea or nay, so check with the gang at SOIL before making the haul!

That's it for now gang! See ya soon...

SIMX Forum Problems

2009-04-27T14:16:00.005-05:00

Got some emails, calls about users being unable to log into the forums today. I made a few emails to my provider and found out there was a problem with my user name as simx_racing.

It seems they updated all their software recently and Internet Explorer does not like underscores in a user names for some reason?

Any way the new link to the forums is now... please feel free to pass along this information.

http://simx-racing.websitetoolbox.com/

In your favorites, links, etc... you can just edit out the underscore and replace it with a dash, or click the above link and just remake a bookmark.

I apologize for the inconvenience!

LSMX Race Report!

2009-04-27T12:18:00.005-05:00

Made it back from Sturgis, Kentucky this weekend. We had went down on Saturday to try out the newly re-vamped LSMX course. Bourke has spent the last couple of weeks reversing the flow of the track, re-shaping jumps and adding a couple of new jumps here and there. Everyone I spoke with really likes the changes. Kody said the track really flows much better in the reverse direction and all of the jumps are pretty safe. We'd have to give Ol' Bourke a thumbs up!

Kind of a sparse turn out though. Racing in this area is really kind of hit and miss it seems. I'd estimate LSMX may of had 120 riders, just my rough guess. Kody was talking with Dilan Black, who said Backwoods had over 150 riders, which is a pretty good turn out for any track in today's economy.

Kody had told me on the way down to Sturgis that Dilan had broken his wrist practicing Friday down at Thunder Valley MX for the LLQ they had this weekend. He is hoping to be out of the cast before the Millville North Central regional coming up here shortly. Here's to a quick recovery, Dilan!

Sunday's racing action at Sturgis was pretty good with several cool battles on the track. Davis Uphoff was on hand and put in some very impressive rides. Davis has really been putting in the effort and it is showing in his results as well. His cornering skills are phenomenal right and several folks were talking about the #188 kid from Illinois. Good job Davis and keep up all that training!

I believe Davis won two classes, but I'm not certain (as always!!!), but I'll have official results soon. The Boyd's and Weger's rounded out the Illini MX squad and Derek and Bryce looked awesome as usual. I talked with Bryce a little and he said he was still a little sore from his get off last week at Crossroads, but don't think it slow him down this weekend at LSMX. It didn't either, he was his usual smooth self. Derek was riding well also, when I saw him and he even took time to give me a wave while I was shooting pics!

Kurt Kissinger had a 2nd overall in the 85 Jr. class and a 5th in the Supermini class.

Kody and Jack ran in 250A and 450 A respectively, with both ending up with the overalls. Jack had to work pretty hard to overcome the super smooth Jason Stills. Jason won the first moto, but Ol' Jack brought it moto 2 for the overall. They ran both 250 and 450 together and Kody had the jump on Jack for about 3 laps. He couldn't quite catch Jason, but got close enough to suffer the roost wrath from Stiles' 450. Jack came over after moto 1, and he too looked like Jason had been shooting at the boys with a paintball gun! Kody ended up with the overall in 250A and Jack won the 450 class, despite Jason's hard fought battle.

Ben "B-Money" Butler took third overall in the 50 7/8 class. Ben made a sweet pass in moto1 to take over 2nd place. Ben made it stick and even pulled away, before getting a little buck wild through the new LSMX rollers. Ben took a good hit, but managed to get up and finish.

Trent "T-Unit" McEllhiney brought home a little cash in the +25 class. He finished 2nd over in the class and rode very well his first time out in 2009. Trent has also become know as the "Martha Stewart" of the MX world. He brought out some exquisitely formed hamburger patties for the Butler Racing grill. He also brough along a delectable potato dish (T-Units Track Taters) and surprised us all with some homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast the next day.

Team MXF quad racer David Wisoztkey was in action this weekend also, but I didn't see how he did. He took a pretty good spill on the new 80' triple Saturday, but I'm pretty sure he was racing Sunday.

Spent some time talking with Pro Quad Star; Zac Willett Saturday as well. He came down for a little practice in preparing for the upcoming Super Moto season. Zac looked as good as ever out on the motocross track and said he misses moto from time to time. I'd like to think moto is extreme conditioning for anything life throws your way and Zac, who is a pretty extreme dude, just soaks it all up. I've known Zac and his Dad, Dave for several years now and regardless of where I've seen them, they alsways take the time to stop and chat. Good people doing good things! I'll be posting updates on ZW47's season this year here at the moto-x-foto blog, so check back often! For more scoop on Willett you can check out his site at http://zacwillett.com While you're there check out some of his sweet shirt designs in the store!

That's it for now kids, but I'll add some pics and anything else, or anyone else I've forgotten later tonight!

Almost forgot...here is a link to all my LSMX pictures from this weekend!

Sturgis bound!

2009-04-24T12:20:00.002-05:00

Going to be heading down to LSMX this weekend. Sounds like Bourke has been busy re-working the track! Sturgis has always had the best dirt of any track around here in my opinion, but you know what they say about opinions?

They've always done a great job with track prep and I've always had fun camping down that way as well.

If you're heading down to Sturgis this weekend look me up, I've got a fresh supply of mfx.com stickers and be sure to check out my new TNT-FX Custom Graphics banner!

Real "Mini Dads"

2009-04-20T18:35:00.008-05:00

Friday was practice day at the Crossroads MX Loretta Lynn Qualifier. Now I've been going to these things for almost 10 years and seen a lot things. At Lowes along time ago I seen a Dad grab his boy boy by the front of the helmet and scream at him what he was doing wrong. This was of course after the kid crossed the finish line in 2nd place at a LL Regional! I've had water put in our gas, seen air filters with holes put in them, so nothing really surprises me much anymore at any thing with Loretta Lynn's attached to it other than her music!

Much to my surprise Friday I was hanging out along the fence taking some photos in one particular corner. There was break in the practice and I noticed a Dad sitting his rider down on a hay bale. My first thought was, here we go, time for this kid to get his butt chewed. Now, I'm a pretty laid back type of guy, but I have cussed a few mini Dads in my time over the above mentioned antics and thought, I hope this goes well.

Well this Dad actually had a conversation with his son. He never yelled, grabbed the kid or any of the other "mini Dad" atrocities. I watched for a few seconds and thought, this guy has it figured out. This is what racing is supposed to be!

They later walked a short distance and Dad was pointing to some corners and the boy was intently listening and asking questions. Again Dad surprised me with a stick. No not to beat some cornering technique into Junior, but to draw a diagram in the dirt! It was truly amazing!

Then here comes another Dad and young rider holding hands walking
this section of the track, again talking about the up coming table top, ruts and where they thought would be a good line. I thought what in the world is going on here in Central Illinois!

Have "mini-Dads" changed from years gone past? Are we truly a kinder, more gentler motocross community.

Well it was short lived, I stayed there a while shooting more photos, when behind me I heard some idiot screaming at his kid about what he was doing wrong, blah, blah, blah...

If anybody out there recognizes these fine gentleman, please have them contact me. I'd love to forward these great shots to them!

Crossroads LLQ

2009-04-19T18:02:00.007-05:00

Well just got back in from Crossroads MX up in Mason, IL from their qualifier. Things ran pretty smoothly for Ray & Nadine this weekend, but Mother Nature made the rules on Sunday. I was awaken at about 1 AM to some serious rain coming down. It pretty much continued to around 9AM. Right around 9, they decide they would run a 1 moto format today with 1 lap! The track was pretty bad and I didn't really hear anyone complaining about their decision either.

There were a handful of classes with 8 participants entered so they gave each group a vote to run or draw straws. One poor soul out of all those classes voted to race. It was the +35 class and he was jokingly cussed at, his fellow racers was wanting his number, several take out moves were announce publicly and I believe I even heard rumor of getting the poor guy down and dragging him around the track behind a Rhino! Of course they were all joking, I think, but out of the 5 in the class only 4 made it to the line! Hmmh?

I lost track, again of who did what in their classes, so these aren't guaranteed! Full results will be posted at MX Sports in a day or two, so you can check them out there!

Team MXF had a great weekend with several riders getting to the next level which is Spring Creek in Millville MN for the amateur side and Sunset Ridge in Walnut, IL for the youths.

I'll tackle the amateur side first. Kody Hamer saw his first action of the year in the 250 A class. Kody finished 6th overall out of the qualifying riders and 8th overall for the class. Kody was the only rider on a four stroke in his class. I remembered hearing the sweet braaap sounds of the smokers and then realized we'd brought a knife to the gunfight on the big wide open Crossroads course!

Cody and Dilan Black ran 250C stock and 250 B Stock respectively on Saturday and did have much luck if I remember right. Seems like crashes hampered the BBRacing duo on Saturday. Saw Logan Mattingly aboard a RM 250 smoker and he looked great and said he really loved the two stroke.

Derek Boyd was was in action as well. Derek had a 5th I think in 250C stock, and won the 250C Mod class in the mud! He also had a 8th in 450C.

Seems like I'm missing people, but I'll jump over to the youths for awhile. Ben "B-Money" Butler had his first ever trip to a LLQ and did quite well for his first time out. Ben and his #7 Cobra rode out the day with a 26/20 for 22nd overall out of 36 screamin' fiddy's! Spent time talking to Ben and Dad, Tony and they seemed real pleased with the experience Ben got racing with nearly a full gate and some very fast competition.

Brett Gourley was tearing it up in the 65 7/9 Stock class. I'm pretty sure he was 3rd in moto 1 and 5th in moto 2, but I know he qualified to move on. Brandon smoked the field by putting on an exhibition of his skills in the 65 10/11 stock class with a 1/1. In the 85 10/11 class he won his first moto, by a bunch, but was protested for jumping on a caution flag, which he did, but so did pretty much the entire field! Anyway, he was docked 2 spots for 3rd. In moto 2 he was taken down in the first turn, by, well, lets just say it was someone involved in the first moto out come and came from dead last to 7th with a flat rear tire. He made it in to the top 8 and will move on, but the situation could have been handled differently.

#22 Bryce Weger took a pretty big hit in his moto and was a little bruised and dirty, but he'll be back soon enough. Davis Uphoff was in action Saturday as well and needed better starts, but still rode very well in some of the most stacked classes of the weekend. Davis finished 5th overall in the 85 12/13 Mod class and 12th in Super Mini 1.

Jessica Litherland pulled off a 1/1 overall in the girls class aboard her KTM super mini.

Sunday was crazy at best with the mud big conditions. Kody was signed up in the 250A/ProSport class along with 4 other brave souls. His class was one on those that voted not to race and draw straws. Each rider chose an onion skin and the first one pulled was Kody's, thanks to Jordan Durham! So he officially was the winner. Everyone at camp was teasing him that all his early training was paying off for him! Anyway, we'll hopefully be heading to Millville here in a month or two! The Black Brothers weren't as lucky and had to ride for their Millville spots. Cody finished 6th in 250C Mod and brother Dilan put in a sweet mud ride of 2nd in 250B mod. Broc Gourley ran both the schoolboy classes on the 125 and just missed the top 8 in his first race, but finished 7th I think in the last class. Derek Rankin finished 7th overall in the 450C class this morning as well.

Brandon Gourley won the 65 Mod class, brother Brett decided to set out the mud fest in the same class.

All in all it was a great weekend. Friday practice went great and Saturday's program ran pretty well as far as I was concerned. We all had a great time Saturday night around the fire laughing at all of the stories!

I'll add some photos tonight!

Mud Blog!

2009-03-30T20:04:00.011-05:00

Man what a weekend! I did my first full "working" trip of just taking photos! I did have to work on the pit scoot a couple of times, but for the most part, just kicked it back and just shot photos!

I arrived down at Ballance MotoX just shortly after practice Friday. The rains had already set in for the most part, but it wasn't a downpour by any means. James Bell stopped me no longer than I turned in towards the pavilion. He said parking would be a problem in the SIMX transporter. The old Ford van seems to get stuck in a good "dewed" grass section if you know what I mean! Anyway, I managed to get turned around without sinking and headed back towards Bell's. Got the Ol' Gal parked, heading downhill, just in case I needed to make a dash for the road.

Set up camp and spent time catching up with old friends. Talked a lot with the Cox family and found out Dylan was switching to Kawasaki's the next morning! Spent some time with team Gourley catching up on all their shenanigans! We also met up with some folks from Manitoba Canada. They had their kids down at MTF for a week and just stopped in to try to qualify.

Finally grilled up a couple of chops, had a few frosties and hit the sack, ready for Saturday action.

Well it rained more overnight and the track, basically sucked. Victory Sports did a decent job working with what they had, but it still wasn't good by any stretch. I actually took quit a few pics on Saturday, but Sunday was a wash! Mist, sleet, snow, rain, cold...

Black Brother's Racing made it down Saturday morning as well. They are always up for a good time and I really enjoyed the weekend with them, Gourley's, Cox's, Bells and Rankin Racing. Danny "The Storm Chaser" VanDunk was a riot Saturday afternoon when the storms were upon us!

It was pretty serious with funnel clouds and all around us, but we made the best of it. We decided if we all got blown away, we couldn't find any better people to be with!

Oh yeah, racing!
Well this is what Cody Black looked like after practice on Saturday. I didn't get a picture of Cody after he went off the side of the tunnel jump either, but Mom caught all the action on video. We all had a good laugh at Cody's expense, but were very thankful he wasn't injured after falling about 10' down off the side of the jump! Brother Dilan said "he landed on his face, so he was OK"!

I missed out on any pics of Derek Rankin and Justin Brockman. No excuse, I just missed them some how. It was a little hard to see, and I wasn't even using the soon to be banned tear offs! If you haven't heard about that issue, check it out at RacerX! Seriously, banning tear offs? Could be that time of the year?

Team Gourley was at it again, claiming qualifying spots in I every class the entered, I think. Bret did real well in the Ballance mud as did Brandon and Broc. The winter ice storm riding on studded tires has made all of the Gourley's "mud cats" in my opinion. They all just plain get it in the mud!

Here are a few of the "Mudcat Gourley's"

"Wildman" Matthew Bell had about as much luck as Cody Black. He didn't fall of the side of a jump but had problems with the mud. Matthew like most of the mini's struggled off of the ice slick concrete start gate. The start stretch was probably the worst part of the track and saw no work all weekend. Poor starts, traffic, downed riders just about everywhere paid it's toll on #94.

Everyone made it home in one piece, so that was good! Most got a ticket to the next level and all the others are looking forward to the next qualifier. Crossroads MX in Mason, IL will be the next close one, so everyone get prepped and ready for the big trip north!

Until next week...

Ballance bound!

2009-03-25T14:50:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm heading of to Ballance MotoX this weekend. Solo, well maybe! The wife and mutt may go, but it looks like we won't be racing. It will be a little different, but it will be good to just get out and visit with everyone. No pressure working on bikes, race order, washing bikes, etc...

I remember back several years ago and some of the Dads always talked of when the kiddo's reach 17, 18 years old and grow tired of the racing and venture out into there on thing. Well, that's me at the current situation. Mine has ventured into fishing, girls and soon to be "mushroom" hunting times. He and a couple of his buddies are convinced they can sell morel's and make it big!

I don't think it will be a permanent thing, and like my Old buddy Sean Rocke said, it's a helluva lot safer and cheaper, but dammit I miss moto!

So I told my wife I think I'm heading to my first LLQ bikeless. Well, race bike anyway. I plan to bring the ol' pit bike, but basically just me, my camera and a few other necessities.

Hope the weather holds up this weekend and all my MXF Racing pilots have a good weekend.

What else is going on? Well the ABCMX series kicked off at Daniel Boone last weekend and from what I've been told, not to good of reviews.

I think the series itself is fine but the track evidently was a horrible mess. Lot's of accidents and one serious wreck which has put Alex Brockman in the hospital needing surgery.

Sounds like they may have been overwhelmed with their first race as new track owners. It happens, but I'm sure the folks at DBMX are willing to work the kinks out, if it's not to too late! I've personally spoken to three or four who said they will not be back!

Several MXF Racers saw action at DBMX and made it home safely! Brett Gourley took the win in the 65 7/9 class. Brother Brandon Gourley had a two class wins. Broc Gourley had a 2nd in super-mini and a 4th in Schoolboy aboard his KX125 smoker.

Justin Brockman had a win in Lites Intermediate, followed by Tyler Richey in 5th place overall. Tyler also managed a 3rd in Open Intermediate.

New SIMX backed Travis Hardcastle brought home a 6th in Lites Intermediate and the overall win in Open Intermediate. Good job Travis and welcome aboard!

Well that's about all for now. look me up this weekend at Ballance. I'll be the "lost' guy stumbling around with a camera!!

Lake Whitney, LL Qualifiers and the Great Outdoors!

2009-03-16T14:56:00.000-05:00

Well Spring has sprung, well officially Friday, but the Outdoor season has begun and with great success to some of the MXF Racing Team.

First off a quick Lake Whitney report. The Gourley boys were in attendance at what sounded like a cold rainy mudfest! Several days racing were altered or canceled by the rain in what sounds like miserable conditions.

I'll start off with the smallest Gourley, Brett. Brett has moved off the 50's into the very competitive 65 class about a Team Green support KX65. Brett finished 19th overall in the 7/9 Stock class and 23rd in the 7/9 Mod class. Pretty impressive work Brett.

Bigger brother Brandon had a pretty impressive week as well! Brandon won the overall in the 65 10/11 Stock class and finished 3rd overall in the 10/11 Mod class. He also raced in the 9/11 85 Stock class but had some problems, but still finished 38th overall in that class. Congratulations on bringing that big fat #1 back to Boonville, Brandon!

Broc ran in the super competitive Super Mini 1 & Super Mini 2 classes. Come to think about, every class at a Amateur National is competitive, but Broc runs with the fastest of the fastest it seems every where he goes. He pulled out a 24th overall in Mini 1, which is fabulous, but he also had some problems in his other class.

Congrats to Team Gourley, the hardest working family in amateur motocross!

Team SIMX backed Dylan Cox was tearing it up early in the week as well, winning his heat in Schoolboy 1. He finished 11th in his 2nd moto for the 8th overall spot! Dylan also had a 15th in 250B Stock and 39th in 450B stock.

Moving a little closer to home was the Paradise MX Loretta Lynn Qualifier in Du Quoin, IL this past weekend as well.

Matthew Bell had a rough weekend with a couple of pretty hard crashes. Dad, James, says he got up and tried to finish motos Saturday and Sunday but just couldn't ride through the pain. This is saying something, cause Matthew is one tough little kid! He hopes to be healed up and back in action here in a couple of weeks for sure!

#188, Davis Uphoff got his regional tickets punched in two classes at Du Quoin. Davis finished 5th overall in 12/13 85 Stock, 6th in 12/13 85 Mod and threw in a 11th overall in Super Mini.

Justin Brockman also will be heading to Sunset Ridge in June looking for a ticket to Loretta's via the Schoolboy 2 class. Justin finished 3rd overall on Sunday with a broken finger!

The old man of the MXF bunch this weekend was Tyler Richey! Tyler may have plans for a long road trip to Millville Minnesota for the Spring Creek Regional in the 450 B Stock class with a 6th overall. Tyler also turned in a pretty solid 14th in the always fast 250B Stock class.

Awesome work men! Congratulations

Echo Valley Practice Day

2009-03-08T14:59:00.000-05:00

Wow! What a day to get back out an enjoy the outdoors! Went down to The Rideout family's Echo Valley track in Poole, KY.

I'll tell you what, those people down that way have one heckuva mess on their hands with those ice storms from a few weeks back. It looks like a tornado had been through the area. Tree limbs are down everywhere! Some folks we saw on the way down were using the good weather to clean up their yards. I spoke with Jeannie Rideout briefly and she said they just got phone service back to them earlier that week!

Got see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. They had well over a hundred riders and everyone, well most everyone was knocking the rust off after a long winter.

I'll start off with Jack Campbell. Jack recently switched over to a Pro Action KTM 450. I asked how he liked it and with a big smile said, "He loved it!" He said it runs like no other and turns just like a Suzuki. That kind of got my attention, because Kody has been on a Suzuki for a few years and always raves at how good the Zooks a turn. Jack offered up the big orange weapon for Kody to ride later on.

Jack looked extremely well on the KTM and said this was the most excited he'd been about racing in several years. So all you "A" guys be on the look out for the big orange #263.

Also sporting a Katoom this Spring is Broc Sims. Broc had been on Suzuki's for so long it took me a while to figure out who he was. I didn't get a chance to catch up with Sims, but from the sound of the rev limiter, he was putting the bike through it paces.

Some of you may remember Jerod Neal. Jerod was a SIMX team rider from a few years back and just recently got him a bike and was getting back into the flow down at Echo Saturday. Jerod's bikes always look unbelievable, and his new ride a KXF450 is the same way. Tricked out with aftermarket parts and sparkling fresh! Jerod is back in the 2009 Team SIMX fold and you can read more about him over at the soon to be updated SIMX Racing pages.

It was also so good to see my old buddy T.J. "Danger" Schafer back on a bike. Some of you may remember late last summer T.J. had a wreck leaving Posey Co. MX and was laid up for quite a while with some injuries. If I remember right, he had a good conversation with some wild turkey's waiting down an embankment for emergency service to get to him. Anyway, Danger was back in action and looking pretty good. I caught up with Danger down workin' on the back triple, and after a couple of short landings, he had it nailed down! All kidding aside, good to have ya back T.J.!

Here are a few more from Saturday!
Davis Uphoff, Jordan Penner

All of the Echo Valley pics can be seen and purchased at here.

One last thing. I also added a black and white gallery of some of my Echo valley shots. I've always been a huge fan of black & whites and hope to add even more galleries this season. I've got a few other photo "tricks" up my sleeve and hope to incorporate a few very soon. Here is a B&W image of Jason Stiles.

The Black & White Gallery is here.

Has Spring sprung?

2009-03-06T14:58:00.000-06:00

Gawd I hope so! Suppose to be in the 70's possibly tomorrow. Woo hoo! I think the Hamer squad is heading down to Echo valley in the morning so #40 can get in some long awaited lap time. Yeah, I typed #40. Seems like 407 wants a change for the 2009 season so he wants to run #40. We tried this last summer at the Mt. Carrol regional when he ran some Rodney Smith number he got from Rod Harris. Well that didn't pan out to well either with a couple of wrecks, poor starts and getting ran over on the start of his third moto, so maybe another new number is what he needs!

He'll always be #407 to me though!

Sounds like I missed a good one up at Indy last weekend. Ol' Reedy got the job done from what I saw on TV it looked like he rode a good race. James made some mistakes, but still, in Reeds case, you have to be close to capitalize when you can!

I'll admit, I'm not a huge supercross fan. For one I hate the drive to Indy or t. Louis for that matter. I guess the drive would be OK, but getting out of those damn places really sucks! I also have a problem getting a hot dog, pop corn and a beer and bustin' out a $20 and needed more to pay for it! We've discussed going to St. Louis. Only because Pastrana is rumored to be racing. He did design the track this year and it looks pretty cool, but it would be awesome to see the old 199 ripping it up again. Say what you will about TP, but he brings excitement where ever he goes.

I'll never forget our first rip to Troy, Ohio for a National. Kody and I got to the track early Sunday morning and was just walking around looking at the track. We noticed someone over by the "Widowmaker", but didn't think much about it. To our surprise it was Pastrana. He walked up to us and just started talking like you would to someone you knew. He was real cool and even asked if we had anything we wanted signed. We didn't have anything really, or even a sharpie for that matter, so he just chatted with us. Kody had his wrist broken from a football incident andI said too bad we didn't have a pen or he could sign the cast. Travis says no way, that would be bad luck! True story, TP worrying about luck!!!

Anyway, hoping to see a few familiar faces tomorrow down at Echo. Be good to see Kenny and get a chance to talk with him. Man it seems like forever since we've been anywhere near a track!

I'll have the MXF camera charged up (and hopefully a memory card), so stop by and say high!

Time to get up and get into the great outdoors!

2009-02-25T09:54:00.000-06:00

Well, winter seems to be about over! We got AMA LL qualifiers just around the corner and I, for one am ready to get out and get some photos.

Outdoor racing has started hitting the weekly schedule, although I'm not sure just how many have ran though. I do know they run down at Hidden Valley MX in Burlison, TN last week. I got a report from the Kissinger's.

Angie says it was a little cold and rainy, but Sunday turned out "not too bad"!

They ended up only running one 7 lap moto per class because some sections got worse as the morning went on. Kurt rode in the 85JR class and ended up 4th overall. In the supermini class he wasted a clutch in the mud and had to settle for a DNF!

Here is a photo she sent...

They are planning on making the return trip March 7th & 8th for the qualifier. Good luck Kurt and I hope you have a little better track conditions!

Also have been getting steady reports from Justin Brockman this winter. Justin, by far, has been my most consistent racer as far as getting me results. Thanks Justin.

The Brockman's put a lot into Justin's program and it is paying off. Pretty much every week has finished first in schoolboy and does quite well in Open B. I look for Justin to do quite well this Spring in any qualifiers they run. I'm, also glad to announce I have finally gotten their email straightened out!

I got a message from the head Daviess County Dominator, Shawn Clark the other night.

Most of you probably don't remember the Dominators!

You had Clark, Rob Rollins, Aaron Harbstriet, Kenny "G-Dog" Gross, Kendal Norris, Hayden Matteson and Trey Ramsey. These guys pretty much terrorized the Washington, IN area for years with their off road/pit bike antics!

Anyway, Clark, Harb and G are heading down to Monster Mountain this weekend for some training before heading down to Florida to run The Parts Unlimited River Ranch GNCC.

Good to hear from those crazy kids!

Good luck down there in the sand, and remember if a gator gets after ya, zig-zag when you run! Them big ol' gators handle 'bout like a Hodaka Wombat and have trouble changing direction!

Also wanted to mention some new stickers I have been working on with SIMX's newest site supporter TNT-FX Graphics in Newburg, IN.

Be sure to check out their site. It's changing daily with more MX stuff be added all the time!

Here is a link to the concept for right now, of course it could always change!

http://www.robin1grafix.com/robin1stickers.jpg

Supercross 2009!

2009-01-20T14:42:00.000-06:00

Well we got three rounds of Supercross in the books and quite frankly, I'm a little surprised. I really felt Stewart would have a lead by now, and all the regular players would have fallen in tow.

Ol' Reedy looks amazing on the Suzook. Plain and simple, I think he's a contender, right now. Yeah, he just took over the points race and all, but I think he'll beat Stewart soon. To me James just doesn't look like the James of old. Maybe it's the bike, new gear, new team, blah, blah, blah, but I think Reed has just stepped up his program. Plus, he has probably the best wrench in the business and a pretty damn good riding partner in a certain #4 kid from Florida.

I was especially proud of Ol' K-Dub this past weekend. I really felt like the young pups would have ran him down quicker, but he still has plenty of fight in him.

RV has been a little bit of a disappointment. I know, he's a rookie and all, but he had a good start last week and kinda went backwards, ala Mikey Alessi!

Lites racing has been exciting as well. Dungey looks great and I believe he has the confidence to handle whatever J-Law has to throw at him. What about "no main" J-Law the other night. Had to really suck watching all those points go by from the bleacher section.

A quick note on Shawn Clark. Shawn pm'd me a week or so ago, telling me he was making his comeback to arenacross over at DuQuoin. I'd of loved to been there to see his return and it sounded like he hasn't lost much in the last 9-10 months he was off recovering from what, his third shoulder surgery in about three years.

I already had plans that Saturday, and missed a great photo opportunity I'm sure. Look for more info on Shawn in the MXF Racing section of the moto-x-foto.com website.

That's about it for now. I just hate this slow time of the year and can not wait until it gets a little warmer and we can all get back out in to the great outdoors!

2009

2009-01-02T14:27:00.000-06:00

Well the New Year has came and gone. It's pretty awesome out right now here in Southern Indiana, sunny and 50 degrees! Supercross kicks off tomorrow live on Speed, Hi-def, even. Stewart's showing off his new gear over at RacerX, and I'm sure everyone is picking their top 3 in SX andSX Lites classes. Personally I'm going with James, RV and Reed on the big bikes. Dungey, Canard and Lawrence on the Lite side of things! I have three more pictures to talk about and then I'll have to get out and get busy with the camera taking in the new 2009 shots.

I'm going to be busy getting the new Moto-X-Foto Racing website going with rider profiles and slide shows. It will take a while but I'll have thing rolling there soon!

You may or may not have noticed the Moto-X-Foto Racing Team yet. What I have done is to take the riders who kept me updated, sent results, come over and say hey every once in a while through out the 2008 year and started the MXF team. I will be devoting more time, effort and coverage to these guys in 2009. The old Team SIMX is still going as well, but these guys put that little "extra" effort into their programs, so I feel, I'll do the same for them!

Final 3 from 2008!

I took this shot at Red Bud during practice day of the Loretta Lynn Amateur Regional held there in June. I have been to red Bud several times over the past few years and have always marveled the Pro's flying through the sand rollers. We've also raced some amateur stuff there, but the "hoops" were always rolled over and not nearly as intimidating as these were at the Regional. I was kind of surprised just how huge they were. My son, Kody, had recently been going through them pretty decently at previous races, but this day was another story, and he wasn't alone!

Granted, there were a few riders wolfing them up; Barcia, Regal, Larsen and those types were almost as good as Ricky and James...almost! But for the most part, everyone struggled with them. In this pick you can tell the depth of them, and they were pretty much kept this way all three days. You can also see on the left, I believe, Kyle Regal doubling in. It was just a stark contrast of how good some riders can actually get!

#413 is Brandon Springer from Evansville. He and Kody have practically grown up together racing since back on 65's. This photo was taken over at SOIL MX near Albion Illinois. The track has been there for a couple of years now and has only been open as a practice facility. There has been talk of them holding some races soon, possibly 2009, but the track itself is an awesome place to ride. This summer they totally redid most of the track and added a couple of sections as well.

I took these photos over by a big downhill tabletop back in August. Kody, Brandon and another friend of the boys, Buck Ritchie, were hitting it pretty hard, throwing "whippertails" and such. I had a few good ones of all three guys, but this one stuck out to me for some reason.

This was taken at Loretta's on Thursday of the Championship week. #95 is Darryn Durham. Durham won the Lites A/Pro Sport title at Loretta's this year and finished 6th in MX A/Pro Sport. This pic was from the second moto when he had bike problems. At the time I believe he was running top 3 when his Suzuki conked out on him. What I admired the most was the kid pushed the bike all the way from the far back corner to the finish line to salvage points. I also forgot to mention it was close to 100 degrees that day. I can't count how many times over the years I've seen kids get mad and throw bikes down, throw gear, etc... just being whiny ass little babies about me, me, me. This kid had heart and was determined not to just lay down and be done. I enjoy seeing that in kids these days!

I think, and don't hold me to this, Durham is riding for Yamaha of Troy. I know last Fall he had some kind of deal worked out with them, but it may have fell through by now also. Either way, he's one from Loretta's I'll be following through his career.

Alright, hope everyone enjoyed my attempt at journalism! Soon, hopefully, we'll all be back in the great outdoors, you guys and girls with the dirt scooters and me with the camera!

Closing in on 2009!

2008-12-30T09:01:00.000-06:00

As 2009 gets closer, it's a sunny 52 degrees outside today in Southern Indiana. January 30th and 50's. Global warming? I doubt it, probably have a foot of snow on the ground tomorrow!

Supercross kicks off this weekend, and I'm actually looking forward to it this year. Could be Santa brought me a new 42" Sony TV for being a good boy, but I'm mostly looking forward to some good racing in the 450 class. Yea, I know Stewart's most likely going to win everything, but you never know for sure with Supercross. I think Villopoto, Reed and Windham will all get a win some time this year, but it for sure will be interesting.

...three more of my Top 12!

Matthew Bell, who I like to call "Madman"! This kid is fearless and one of the toughest kids I've ever known. I think he is made of rubber sometimes! One thing about Matthew is, he's a hard charger either in the front, or from the back of the pack.
This picture is in a big powder berm where Matthew came in hard. He hit the dry dirt and let 'er eat! His right front is dragging along kicking up a mini roost, while the rear wheel is throwing another roost, with a dust trailer. I shot this photo in plain old "sports" mode on my camera. All year long I have experimented with different settings, manual mode, etc... and just a lot of different things. This is probably my favorite of the year! Thanks, Matthew!

#4, Ricky Carmichael. Uh, wait, that only looks like the GOAT! Actually it's Kurt Kissinger racing over at Meade County MX late this summer. Mike Wheeler had invited Kody and I over to the new Meade County track several times and we finally got the chance late this year to check them out. I didn't really think we'd know anybody there, but was surprised to see the Kissinger's when we arrived. They had been there before, and said they really enjoyed the track, and we agreed, it's a pretty cool place.
This photo of Kurt is one of my three favorites of the year. I just liked the way the colors worked out, the background kind of blurred like I wanted it to, plus it's just a really sharp picture. Like I've said before, I get lucky sometimes and grab a good shot here and there!

This shot of Kody, was taken at Meade County the same day as Kurt's picture. It kind of clouded up that day rather quickly, and I thought it might even rain at times. In this shot, the skies had turned darker, and I was getting close to putting the camera away for the day. They have a pretty big triple there and it's kind of got a little bend in it. I was actually standing between the double landing and the triple landing just taking random shots when #407 hit it. There is just enough washed out color in the trees in the background to contrast his white gear. I especially was pleased with the focus in his eyes. I can't lie though, I did have to do a "little" Photshop work on this one, not much, but just a little!

Upon finishing, I just noticed these are the three photos I'm currently using on the main moto-X-foto website. I guess these are my Top 3? (Sorry Kody, I still like Matthew's pic as my Best of 2008!)

2008 is almost history!

2008-12-29T10:28:00.000-06:00

Well, hope everyone survived the Christmas holidays! Not much to report, at least, moto-related that is. I did pick up a new flash for my camera. Santa bought me a new Speedlite 430EX II unit, and hopefully I can put it to use at a indoor here soon. I did take some family shots around the house and they really turned out nice, but I'd like to see some Arenacross results too!

I'll go ahead and add three more of my Top 12 and add a little 'insight" about the shots.

I got this shot at the Labor Day Race in Petersburg, IN. I miss out on a lot, well, almost all of the quad action here locally, but was fortunate to get to see alot of the quad gang at Petersburg. Corey Heath is from Wadesville and like so many of the area's fast quad racers travels through out the US racing the Nationals. Corey is the 2008 ATVA 50cc Sr. National Champion. I enjoy shooting quads, especially the little riders! He is sponsored by Heath Racing, Elka Suspension, BlingStar Ind., Liquid Performance, OMF Performance products, Moose racing, Smith goggles, Rath Racing, SixSixOne, Wiley Mods and SIMX.

Jalon is another SIMX quad racer! He usually doesn't have much to say, but does all his talking with the thumb throttle! He definately switches gear, when he gets on the track and is an aggressive little rider once the gate drops. In this pic he was waiting in pre-staging for practice at the Labor Day race. I was talking to Jason, Jalon's Dad, when he about ran us over wanting on the track. He has a pretty determined look in his eyes, and we quickly got out of his way!

Danny Rocke #89. The Rocke(t) Racing Team (Dad, Sean) has been around for a long time, and quite frankly, you couldn't ask for better people. Danny has been to Loretta's several times, and done his share of Ponca City as well. At this race, again at Petersburg, Danny had just recently moved to the A class and had traveled down for a share of some of the Labor Day Associations huge purse! In this photo, I like how you have the fairgrounds going on in the background, with a little, well OK, a lot of dust going on in the background as well. Danny is always exciting to watch, and over the years I've gotten several good shots of Ol' #89!

Hope everyone has a safe New Years, see ya in '09!!

MXF blog-a-rooski

2008-12-23T10:33:00.000-06:00

Just getting into this blog thinga ma jig! What I plan on doing in 2009 is taking photos at whatever track I'm at and posting a few pics here in the "blog" with a little commentary about the rider, track, results, etc...

But until it thaws out I guess I'm stuck with commenting about 2008.

I recently posted my 12 best photos from 2008. I went back over several thousand pics, looking for twelve tack sharp pics, and found a few I liked. Now I admit, I'm not ready for National Geographic yet, but sometimes I do luck into a good shot here and there. What's that old adage... "even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then", well that's me! Now many of you have never heard that, I know. I used that one on my daughter's basketball team a long time ago, and they all looked at me, "like, uh, what?" So that's for the "older" folks!

For now I'll just leave a link to the Best of 2008, and add some comments about 3 or 4 photos at a time until I get them all covered in more "blogs"

Here is a direct link to all of the photos

We had gone to Ballance to get Kody a little more track time in preparation for the Youth regional. There were a lot of people there that weekend. I usually try and get shot in corners, and try to zoom in for "eye" shots. I noticed several of the A riders railing this particular corner and set up shop. Cody Miller is #161 and a very talented kid on a bike. I've watched him ride for years, and never really known him, but enjoy watching him ride. This time through, he was on the gas, on the pegs and smokin'! It's really neat to set in a corner and observe how different riders attack different sections through out the day.

This photo was taken at Echo Valley during the FCA MX Camp. Five-time GNCC Champion ('98, '99, '01, '02, '04); 1988 Brazilian Motocross National Champion, ISDE Gold Medalist, Three-time AMA National Reliability Series Champ and five-time AMA National Hare Scrambles Champion Rodney Smith was the instructor. I had never met Rodney, but had heard a lot of good things from his long time friend, Rod Harris. I was really impressed by his passion for the sport and his ability to talk with every participant on their level. In this photo I like the way #810 Duke Martin is attentively listening. Duke, surrounded by beginners and intermediates alike, raced a few years back at several AMA Nationals and still is pretty active in the area motocross scene through his work with FCA Motocross.

This is one of my son, Kody Hamer. We have been doing this together for almost ten years now. I still cherish the countless miles we have put in together chasing this "thang" called motocross! This was also taken at the FCA Camp this summer. Rodney had worked with all the kids for quit a while getting them into the habit of using the ruts. Although "we" had worked on ruts before, it seemed like having someone other than Old Dad explaining it, made it easier to do. It's funny how true that is, ask any of the moto Dads and they'll probably give you the same advice..."go tell my kid to try this, he'll listen to you!"

That's about it for this time. Please feel free to add your comments, etc... I'm not sure how this blog thing is supposed to work, but surely if we can do a four stroke top end, we can figure this out!