Raining

Beautiful weather out here in SoCal. It's 57 degrees outside according to the super-accurate thermometer in the Steve Cox house. We're done working do now we're headed to the track, anyway. It's too nice to miss. It should be a little better tomorrow and Sunday but not much, but I hope it is, because with those hills, it would be really ugly in the mud. Probably about as bad as my bowling last night. Seriously I was amped up to "give something back" to some fans who would never forget the day they met the world famous internet announcer. I knew they would go home and tell all of their friends "he's such a cool guy and he's awesome at bowling."

Instead, I had two people on the team who own an insurance company, and they're trying to break into the sport. They hope to sell some big policies to some riders. They didn't even know the name of the track where we're holding the race at on Sunday (Glen Helen) and they weren't even planning on going to the race. They've never heard of Racer X and they have definitely never heard of me. I mean, can you believe someone has never heard of me? No wonder they're not into the sport.

MotoBowl

Welcome to sunny California. It's 68 degrees and raining here at Anaheim. DC and I are ready to hit MotoBowl to get our swerve on. Check out www.wmxf.org for info, should be really fun and if you're anywhere near Anaheim tonight, come on down and I'll teach you a thing or two.

More Than a Mouthfull

So when Ryan Villopoto was coming through the ranks a few years ago we were all dissapointed because he wouldn't talk any trash. People wanted him to play the hero to the Alessis, but he never really went off on them. The old Millsaps/Alessi wars were a pretty big deal, but Team Villo played it closer to the vest. There was one break in the action at Budd's Creek in 2006, when Ryan took Alessi out in the second moto and then said "After all he and his dad put us through..." It was good. But basically, if you wanted a good quote, RV was the last guy you went looking for. Trust me, I went through enough press conferences with this kid.

Of course, you do have to remember that he is a kid. No sport thrusts 17-year-olds to the microphone like this one, and I knew that somewhere inside Ryan wasn't as nice, humble, shy and quiet as he seemed. You would see it when he was having casual conversation or hanging in the pits. He had a lot more personality than he let on...just like Ricky Carmichael at the same age.

Yeah, there was a time when RC was one of the worst interviews in the sport, too, and it had a bad impact on his rep with the fans. Eventually he figured it out (lots of practice) and became God-like in the eyes of the fans.

Well, Villopoto is starting to come out of his shell. Check out his interview with Ping here. Wasn't Carmichael known for being pretty cocky, too?

The Next Generation of Goon Riding

Times have changed. Goon riding in the 1990s consisted of one-handers and cross-ups and revving the your engine to the moon. Today we received some top-secret footage from Simon Cudby that takes it to the next level. In the footage, Sean Hamblin is seen goon riding at Grant Langston's house. His Gooning consists of over-done scrubs over each jump. The Bubba Scrub, which first came to international prominence at Budds Creek in 2003, has now become fodder for Goons. You'll see the footage once Wes Williams posts AMA Motocross Class preview on the Racer X Motocross Show on Motocross.com

That's how I plug stuff.

The Point

I have to give credit to my boss today. The AMA/Toyota Motocross Championship kicks off this weekend, which means we're ramping up the Racer X Motocross Show on Motocross.com again. The band is back together, and we plan on running bigger hair, destroying more hotel rooms, shutting down more bars and pulling in more ladies than ever! That's the rockstar life!

So ace video mastermind Wes Williams made the trip up to Morgantown from his Atlanta home base. Wes is the reason the Motocross Show looks so good. He's the same kid who puts together MX SportsCenter every year on www.mxsports.com and he's an amazing talent. Anyway, he's here so we can shoot pre-season preview shows which you will see this week. DC told us to meet him at High Point this morning at 9 a.m. to shoot the stuff.

We got there at 8:45 and lo and behold DC and Tim Cotter were already out there, working through the infield and spreading hay to get some grass to grow in a new spot. By the amount of hay on the ground, I could tell they had been at it for a while. A few minutes after we arrived, a bunch of track workers came down the hill and DC gave them marching orders, deciding who would cut grass, who would pound stakes, who would paint, who would run the weed wacker. Then DC shot the show with us for a bit and went right back down to the infield to continue his work. I also noticed Cotter himself out there running the mower (which he attached to one of our Can-Am quads from the GNCCs) covering a whole field himself.

Timmy Coombs is down at the moment and we have an ATV National this weekend at High Point on the old Memorial Weekend date. It says a lot that DC and Cotter themselves not only are taking the mantle and making sure this race goes smoothly, but that they're also out there at the track doing it.

In fact, DC was at the track all weekend putting in the work, except he did take a break to come by my house last night. We held a big graduation party for Alisa (grad school done) and it was an awesome time, the office gang and the WVU Art Department meshed and merged with unpredictable results. Then DC showed up toting Shannon and the kids. I know he's the busiest man on earth at the moment, so I give him a lot of credit for taking time out for us.

As I've said before, it's good to work on the winning team.

Why why why

Okay, we can all bench race and theorize, and usually we can come up with a logical reason for anything that happens in this sport. You may not even agree with the reason someone gives, but at least they give you something. Why did Chad Reed win this year's Monster Energy Supercross Title? Maybe he's talented. Or tough. Or works hard. Or he's lucky. Whatever. At least there are reasons.

But of all the mind-blowing stumpers out there, can anyone match the never-ending tale of Broc Hepler getting hurt? Why why why does this keep happening? Just last week everyone seemed pumped on the Hep getting a chance to rebuild his career with a bump to the 450 class. Now he's right back where he started.

If you're counting at home, Hepler blew his 2005 supercross season out when he broke his arm two weeks after winning his first race, his 2006 supercross and motocross season out when he broke his foot testing, blew his 2007 season with a major concussion suffered when testing, and blew his 2008 supercross season with a broken thumb. Now he has a broken arm. The last dude I remember getting hurt like this was Branden Jesseman back in his prime, but even Brando has some strange illnesses mixed in there. Broc is all crash-induced, but when you watch him ride he just doesn't look like a guy who is on the verge of crashing. I just don't get it, and I'm bummed for the guy. He works hard as has the tools. He should have guaranteed success just from that alone. Instead, he keeps getting hurt for some unknown reason.

Help Joe Bonello

Joe Bonello is one of the typical motocross photographers. And that means he is anything but typical. The guy is hilarious and unique and loves the sport as much as he loves wearing shorts (and the guy always, always wears shorts).

Anyway, Joe has some recent neck surgery go bad on him, and now he's in need of help. Click over to my buddy Stefan LeGrande's blog http://lebig.blogs.motoverte.fr/ so you can read more on Joe, and click on the PayPal link LeBig has created to help the guy out. The donations are working, so join in and help a good guy out!

- weege