Japan 8 - Mullins Wins!

The AAGP is history, and Charlie Mullins is the winner. 'Ole Hot Rod completely took control of the race right from the start and checked out. Jason Raines made a mistake early and feel behind Rodney Smith, but he passed Rodney on the motocross track and headed out after Charlie. No dice. In his first race ever on a Suzuki, Mullins was unstoppable, pulling out a lead of over one minute and holding it to the end. Raines eventually came under attack from Takeshi Koikeda, the '05 All-Japan MX Champion, who had driven Jason from the air port to the track. Well, that favor was about to come back to haunt him, because they battled hard through the final laps before Takeshi pulled out the runner-up spot, with Raines third and Rodney fourth.

The biggest question is "how in the hell can they hold a cross country race in Japan? Do they have any room at all?" Well, they really do, at least in this area of the country. The woods out here are beautiful, actually and there was enough room to fit four miles of track. That's 1/3rd of a GNCC course, but it was very GNCC like in the trails.

The fans were very happy to see the American racers--in fact everyone here is so darned happy it makes me wonder if they all go home at 9 pm and slam to door to begin a chorus of cursing and crying. How can they be this up beat all the time? All weekend we've just gotten hi's and thank you's and smiles from every single person here. And not even at the track--the place is very happy. Heck, even the construction workers in Sendai looked clean and happy, and the road blocks they were setting up were aqua and had funny cartoon characters on them.

It makes for a very fun place to come visit and an even more fun place to race--I think Charlie, Rodney and Jason are very happy to have been invited to represent the GNCC Series over here.