Loretta Lynn's 2009

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!

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!

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?

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!

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

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!

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!