I went Riding!

Hey Everybody!

I found myself on the truck again between the Red Bud National and The upcoming Budd's Creek National. Definitely two of the nicest tracks on the circuit.

As it would have it, My hometown in Western Maryland was on the way to Budd's Creek in southern Maryland. We stopped for a few days, parked in my best friends front yard, and set up shop.

       We did some bike work, cleaned the truck, went fishing, and had a pizza party at my Parents house..... Oh, and I went riding! This might sound like a normal occurrence to  most people that read this, or even know me. But for the exception of test riding the race bikes in the pits, I have not swung my leg over a bike with full gear on since the day after Phoenix Supercross!

Right over the hill from my friends farm, within riding distance is a practice track owned by some up and coming Grom's.... After work on Tuesday evening I suited up, fired up our "spare" bike. And followed my friend on his mule through some Corn Fields to the track... 

The day before it just so happened to rain 3 inches... there were a few mud spots and more than a few deep ruts.

I took a few laps to get accustomed to the bike, then started clicking off laps like it was my job... I felt good! I got down all the obstacles, shredded turns, kept good form ( trying to impress the Groms) I did a moto, then pulled in for some water and to BS with old friends.

I then felt ready again and went out for more fun. After a few laps, on the biggest jump on the track, a 60 foot double.... I decided to jump 70 feet and landed at the start of the biggest ruts on the track!  I 50/50 grinded it till I high sided and flew onto my Back and Head.... Luckily the soft gooey dirt stopped me!   I jumped up fast to find the bike in a rather comical position.... See attached Photo's.

I guess thats what they mean by keep the Rubber side down? I will try harder next time!

High Point National!!!

Let me Start by saying that the High Point National was the start of Motocross for me.When I was 13 My dad loaded us up in the car and drove us an hour through the hills from our home in Maryland.  Through West Virginia, finally arriving in Mt. Morris PA. (Yes, you can do all that in and hour) I had never been to a Motocross Race before, and an event like this blew my young mind! I remember Camping, before it was tamed down.... And watching these guys go so fast on their screaming two strokes. . . I remember sitting on a fence post after the finish line and watching Doug Henry, Damon Bradshaw, and Mike Larocco fly by.... And local Pro Steve Crow completely Cartwheel his bike in the 2nd Turn after the start and launched his Suzuki over the Fence and into a crowd of spectators!

After the Race my Dad asked me if I would like a bike and learn how to ride.... Um? Duh!  I Needless to say I was hooked and have never looked back.  I thought I wanted a Kawasaki KX80, probably because it was green... And that was a favorite color of mine. But my dad knew better, and a  few weeks after the National my Dad brought home a brand new  Honda CR80R With the Brightest neon Red (pinkish) plastic I had ever seen! I was stoked, even though at the time I didn't know what stoked even was. 

So, High Point always holds a special Place for me... and this year was another good one! My family and friends came to watch the race and held down the Brawndo / Redux Beverages Hospitality area. We had a good showing at High Point, with Ryan Clark almost grabbing the 1st Moto Holeshot! He was running 3rd during the opening laps behind Stewart and Mike Alessi.  He continued to run well into the Top ten until he caught his boot in a Rut and twisted back his ankle...

On to the second Moto's! I was in the infield of the Beautiful High Point Raceway, watching our lights Rider Kiniry shred into the top ten. When Clark's wrench Radioed the call that His 450 engine had a hole in the engine cases from the 1st moto. He didn't realize that it had happened till about 20 minutes before the 2nd moto. This didn't give us enough time to swap an engine, so we tried to somehow come up with an alternative fix...

After scrambling around trying to use epoxies and other fixes, it was looking very grim for a chance to start the 2nd moto.  A light bulb flickered in my head at that moment! I remembered the Whiskey tour I had attended in Kentucky the week Before, and I had purchased a bottle of 18 year old bourbon that had a cork in it! I imagined that a cork material would plug the hole in the cases or at least slow the oil leak down! I pulled the cork, drilled the cracked case out a little larger, and shaped the cork to fit the hole.... Now I had to think of how to hold the cork in place. I grabbed a small wood handled wire brush and jammed it between the engine cases and frame Rails... The handle was curved enough to hold pressure on the cork. We then filled the engine oil side up to the top and proceeded to the start line for the 2nd Moto..

We all crossed our fingers as Clark took off the line... I spotted in a corner where I could see that the cork and brush handle were still in place lap after lap. 35 minutes later, the trusty #39 rolled across the finish! We had made an entire national Moto with a cracked engine case!

Held together by a Cork... Appalachian Engineering at its finest. 

Homecoming! Oakland, Maryland

Hey Blog Readers,

I am writing this here Blog from Beautiful Garrett County MD. The little slice of Heaven where I grew up near the Moto Mecca of District 5...   It did take me a few day's to adapt to the slow paced life of my small home Town However. I was honestly stir crazy for the first few days. I am now enjoying my time doing mostly nothing. (I do work some how ever) its just I don't have internet service and hardly get cell phone reception here. Which I can honestly say is a relief somewhat!

It feels good to slow down and enjoy the "Simple life".

I Do a lot of fishing, which thats about all I did growing up, that or riding BMX and Dirt bikes.

Of course while I am in town my "Friends" want me to work on their clapped out Dirt bikes... Since I am running low on my mini vacation fundage, I accepted a engine rebuild on a buddies 2004 CRF250R.... the 1st of its kind. Most of this bikes life has been spent racing Hare scrambles in the Appalachian Hills. Which means its life Has been very rough!

After a little TLC from my skilled hands she was good to go another 4 seasons...   Maybe 2.

Enjoy these pictures of my Tiny Village!

Pit Stop in Kentucky.

So this whole Month I decided to go back to the Roots of American Motocross, and travel to the races on the Semi Truck. I figured it would be a change of Pace to get out of Sun Drenched Phoenix, AZ and hit the road. Only problem is, everywhere else in the Country is Sun Drenched and Humid! I can't escape it.

We left Dallas On Monday, heading to the greatest town ever, Morgantown, WV. We made it to somewhere in Tennessee By Mid night where we would get our sleep for the Night. Upon waking and getting some breakfast we continued on, planning to be at our Destination by Night Fall.

Kentucky however, Had different plans for us. We were heading down the Bluegrass trail, minding our own business, when we started to get hungry for lunch. While we looked for a good exit to stop and eat, I started noticing these strange Brown High way Signs that Called out to my Redneck Soul...

They Read,  Free Whiskey Distillery Tours.  I was intrigued, we found the exit grabbed some subway and Headed to the 2nd oldest whiskey still in America.

Jed and I ended up at Heaven Hill , the home Of the Bourbon Heritage Museum. I have to say I found way more knowledge and information on Whiskey And bourbon than I have gained in the empty bottles of the stuff laying around my house..... Just Kidding kids. Don't drink.

I learned the difference between Moonshine, Whiskey, and Bourbon, though they all come and start off in the same place. How long it takes to age, what percentage of corn, wheat, and Rye go into the mixture. How they Barrel the Bourbon.... It really is educational stuff!

The most impressive part to me was how big their operation was. They have fields full of Huge Tin walled buildings. Each barrel is 500 lbs, each building holds 20.000 Barrels, and they have 47 of these buildings full of Bourbon! Which all adds up to over 3/4 of a million barrels!

Each day they harvest and bottle 300 barrels, as well as replace the same amount of barrels with new ones.

Very impressive.

We didn't get to Morgantown till well after Midnight...

Freestone MX National

Howdy Ya'll,

I happen to love Texas. Call me a Redneck, But I think I fit in there quite well. If you have doubts of Texas and ever Fly into the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, stop into a little slice of Heaven called Bone Daddy's.  It happens to be a BBQ style establishment, you will like it there. I can't talk about it because our Hostess was only 17.... But you will like it there!

Other than that, Texas is Green, hot, Humid, and there was a National MX event there. I had fun, most of the Riders did not... Some of them were dropping like flies the 2nd moto due to heat exhaustion or the "Dehydration" I played water Boy most of the Day... it was Brutal weather.

The High Light of my weekend was doing a little Bass Fishing Saturday evening at the track. I like to say that I started this trend last year at the National... So when I showed up at the pond this year we were followed by a slew of wanna be's..... Mitch and the Pro Circuit crew were in Hot pursuit of our Pit Cart. The Stewarts were all there except for Bubba... And a bunch of the Team Transport drivers were all Fishing.

I had Challenged our Team's star Lites rider Bobby Kiniry to a Fishing Duel, and I could tell He was intimidated when he "Forgot" to bring a Fishing pole.  I had an extra for him so it was on.

Needless to say Bob is fast on a dirt scooter... But I grew up in West by God Virginia on dirt floors so I HAD to catch fish or go Hungry! I slaughtered him and The Bass pretty Easily I must say.

SUNDAY:

Practice was good. The 1st Lites Moto was Epic for us as Bob Kiniry #45 bike Rocketed to the Front of the Pack, only to be beat by 3 Pro Circuit Riders, and we all know they run Big Bores...

(Just Kidding Mitch)  So Bob was running Top 5 for about half the Moto till a Off track Excursion dropped him A few positions. He ran as high as 3rd place for some laps But Ultimately crossed the line in 7th.

The rest of the moto's were to Hot to remember....

Journey to the Center of Texas

Hello All,

Today is Thursday before the Free Stone Mx National in Wortham, Texas. The Race Team Semi has just arrived at our Hotel in Dallas and I am proud to say that I helped get it here! So to back up a day, The truck left yesterday evening, after the Technicians finished working on the race bikes at our shop in Phoenix. I decided to take a road trip and Join our transport Driver Jed Mingo for a cross country adventure. 

 

After Jed drove through Wednesday night, we pulled into the middle of Texas outside of Abilene. Jed was spent from a night of driving, and we still had 300 miles to go to get to Dallas. We decided I should take my chances and throw caution to the wind.... I was gonna learn to drive a Semi Truck! I threw on my Cowboy Hat, took off my Flip Flops, and cruised my way into Dallas without a hitch!!  I have to admit it was pretty fun driving what seemed to be 10 ft off the road. 

But the important thing is that we made it to our hotel right on time to meet the rest of the Team and start working on Race bikes again!

Monthly Install...

The last Month with in the Team Has been a whirl wind of Change. In my 3rd Season with Team Solitaire, and Ryan Clarks 3rd season going to the Big shows in a full on Semi, we have finally landed a outside industry Title Sponsor! Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator.... All of us involved with the Team are excited of the possibilities this Company will bring to us.  

Ryan and I can honestly say we stand behind this companies products and business view's, we are also huge fan's of where the Brawndo beverage came from.... The Mike Judge dark comedy movie "Idiocracy." 

If you have not had the pleasure of viewing this Flick, please do immediately!

Then go buy Brawndo buy the Case load at a Costco near you. If our Plans go accordingly in marketing Brawndo to the masses, in 500 years time we will be taking the Time Masheen to Monday Night Rehabilitation, brought to you by Carl's Jr.... And they will pay me a lot of money to say that.... Like 80 Billion

Later All,

Jesse Black