Dude, I don’t remember………Augered In
Photo: Dean Bradley
09-19-2016
Another clip worth sharing.
I went to the Cal VMX Vintage MX race at Cahuilla
Creek MX with special guest of honor Pete Maly last weekend to
hang with some old friends and hopefully meet some icons
of the sport who have preceded me in representing Corona
del Mar, Newport and Costa Mesa in Motocross. I
had heard about these guys ever since I moved to Orange
County in 1975 but had never actually met them,
Pete Maly and Robert Haag.
I could’ve listened to Pete’s stories for days
and rummaged through his memorabilia and mint MXA magazine
collection that he busted out with him on the cover from
the mid-seventies for just as long.
I instantly recognized the magazine issues
that he brought with him as
the same ones I had originally idolized him from during
that same time period.
Bench racing with him and Robert in Mark
Lohrbachs RV the night before was epic and Robert Haags last corner pass
on the outside in his last moto of the day on a vintage
Ossa that had him working on the carb, hose clamping
parts back on, spring loading his down pipe, all after
pushing his bike off the track in practice was simply
old school textbook motocross.
It was really cool to watch his dogged
determination and MacGyver like perseverance in 100
degree weather pay off, it had to make his trek from NE
even more fun than it already had to be.
Nice job Bob!
Wheres My Truck?
OK, so it was all vintage bikes but
they had a support class for Modern Bikes so I decided
to race the 40 Expert class.
Everything was going great Sunday, I was clearing
the big jump on the main track the day before and was
ready to figure out the triple step up when they closed
the tracks to prep for the next day WTF?
(I wouldn’t of really minded if they had actually
prepped them) Oh well, I was really looking forward to
getting it down the next day between motos on the Vet Track until……
I grabbed a little too much front
brake in my first moto on an unfamiliar track that was
way less prepped and watered than I am used to.
A couple of
things to note.
This is Cahuilla Creek MX
NOT Glen Helen on a Sunday as I told the bloke
with an accent that stopped to help me- that’s the kind
of guys I like to, and usually do race with; I’ll be
tracking him down to thank him for stopping his race.
He did all the right stuff and asked all the
right questions; just didn’t wait for the answers, LOL.
I realized I wasn’t at GH but I couldn’t actually
remember where I was.
I would’ve sworn I wasn’t really
knocked out. (till I saw footie of me napping)
It was a short nap, maybe 2-3 secs it seems since
I responded right away. I remember laying there just
kind of relaxing and taking a little rest.
Why didn’t I get up?
I guess now I know what they call semi-conscious
feels like, hmm I’ll make note!
I know he was holding me down a little bit but
you’d think I’d want to get up right away and do a
little more of a physical assessment – and maybe get off
the freeking track!
But no, I seemed to be comfortable and content
right where I was and seemed to know I wasn’t hurt,
other than the fact I had just hit my head and was
prostrate on a motocross track, everything was fine,
don’t mind me I’m just gonna lay here a little while.
At least I wasn’t
combative! There
doing it again?
F*&k Yeah Let’s go! umm....Where's
the starting line? WTF?
I KNOW BETTER!
Frank (my usual race promoter) at REM
has a GoPro on his hat that he turns on whenever he has
to wake someone up just so he can film them sleeping and
gurgling so when he bans them from racing for 30 days
after getting knocked out they don’t argue.
Love his work!
And really appreciate his nicely prepped tracks
after sliding around and napping in this dustbowl of
potential.
Can you believe I heard the water truck and dozer
running all night?
What were they doing?!?
Possibly that track soaks up water more than most
and they need to water the silty corners way more than
the straights…but don’t.
In all fairness to the promoter it
would have taken a radio call down to the start line to
stop me since my crash was out of sight of the starter.
The flagger who I crashed right in front of and
rode back and forth looking for somewhere to go before I
went to the line should have black flagged me as soon as
I came around trail riding and rolling all the jumps and
trying to figure out “what track is THIS?” though.
Apparently I didn’t know they were
going to restart the race until Kris Barker told me,
excuse my language upon finding out.
If I didn’t know the race was being restarted,
then where was I going?
If it was back to the truck I was going in the
complete opposite direction.
I was completely lost right in front of the
finish line flagger and crew who saw me taking a dirt
nap. WTF?
You can hear the first thing I say is “Where am I at on
the track?” then “Where IS the start line?” then during
the race “What track IS this?” -twice!.
When I go back to the line you can
hear the guy that I lined up next to before saying he
saw me get the holeshot thinking I was a liar after
telling him I haven’t raced in 2 mos. And then pulling a
holie and starting to check out but that maybe he
believed me after seeing me going "nite nite" as he says
LOL. Hey
buddy I’m right here ready to restart.
Actually the guy was really cool, talking about a
buddy of his Pat that I used to race with.
When I’m on the line for the restart and I say “I
don’t know what happed” what I meant was I don’t know
why they are restarting, I think someone crashed.
Then to myself I muter “I have no idea what
happened”....I mean it!
The real kicker is it sounds like
after the race I didn’t even know I had crashed until
Dean Bradley came up and told me.
“I crashed?”
He could’ve brought me a vintage style trophy
girl and told me I won and I would’ve been happy as
hell!
I remember everything except the second race. I do
remember the gate falling sooner than I thought and
getting a bad jump but I don’t remember the first
turn or crossing the finish line, or being lost
looking for my truck in the same pits I had been in
for the last two days, the next thing I remember is
putting my bike on the stand.
The race itself is gone, at least for now.
At first I didn’t even remember where I had
crashed but that came back with everything else
about 30 mins later.
The race must have cross circuited some
wiring in my brain, well it could’ve had something
to do with the crash.
All in all it was a really cool weekend
reconnecting with old friends, making new ones and
meeting legends of the sport.
I’m a little
dingy today but no more than usual, so it’s all
good, except I’m benched for a month.
Braaup!!
GoPro Helmet Cam Footie
Main Track The Day Before
Robert Haag and Pete Maly
Photo: Paul Fitz-G
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