Spray Paint

Hey everybody! Yesterday my family all went to help spray paint our Sprinter. Yes, the results are pretty awesome! "Sassinator" is written on both sides in BIG bubble letters. We also made stencils with all our names on them. My dad used those to put them all over the front and back of the van. I think it kind of looks like a bunch of bugs are on it. But it's something different for sure!

Now we're going back again to work on it some more. I hope it ends up being even more awesome. See ya! -Greg

Ho Ho Ho

Hey everybody! Happy holidays! Christmas time is here and the weather outside is cold and snowy. How exciting. The past week has been pretty eventful for me. Not all in good ways either! My school had finals in the beginning of this week, and those went pretty good for me. I feel good about getting those done. Now it's winter break, so there's no school for two weeks. Yay!

Over the weekend my dad and I started to prepare our motocross van to be repainted. We are thinking about doing some graffiti on the side of the van. I really hope that comes out looking awesome! Anyways, one night my dad and I worked kind of late and it had snowed quite a bit outside. We could barely get out of the driveway at Dan Cobb's house! That's where we are painting the van. Luckily we did get out of there. But it didn't get much better after that. You see, we were with my dad's work van... It's a wonder it even still works. Well that night it decided to stop working about four times when we were in the middle of the road. But thankfully we did get home.

On Christmas Eve my family and I went to a cool Christmas play thing at a big church. It's the one time of the year that I actually go to church. That was pretty cool. Our friends, the Lung family, was also there. We went to their house to hang out and have dessert later that night too. My family is pretty cool in the fact that we open presents on Christmas Eve. Yay! So that's what we did.

Now we're all on our way to spray paint our van. It's all primed and ready to be painted. (after some sanding... Darn.) I'll post some pictures of our van later! See ya! -Greg

November

Hey everybody! I haven't updated my blog in almost two months now, so that's not very good. I have just been a little bit too lazy. But a good thing (actually bad thing) is that you haven't missed much! Not much has been going on here in the Midwest in the beginning of winter. I have gone riding a few times, but not much. Wrestling has also started. That's going all right for me, but nothing spectacular.

I did turn 17 years old on November 11th, though! How exciting is that?! For that occasion I went bowling with a couple of my friends and got some money. Success. December has also started. So far it has been a pretty good month. Not too much is happening, though, so it has been pretty boring. Hopefully I have some more adventures soon. I guess this is how the off season of motocross is every year. Oh well.

I did have a pretty awesome Thanksgiving. After eating a ton of great food at the Favro's house, my family and their family all went to another families house to have dessert. There I also had a ton of dessert! Pumpkin pie is just too good.

Right now we are down to our last full week of school before finals, so I am mostly just reviewing in my classes. I'm actually writing this in one of my classes because I have nothing to do. So I guess this week is mostly pretty pointless. I could have gone to Georgia this week, but the timing is just a little off. Hopefully I will go in a couple weeks. That's pretty much all my plans other than wrestling for a while. Oh the joy.

Oh, I also found a cool website where you could find out anything you want. HowStuffWorks.com is awesome!

Well have a nice day everybody! If anything exciting happens, I'll be sure to post it. Bye! -Greg

Randomness

Hey worldwide readers! This time of year has really slowed down my motocross. Intense rain and cold weather just seem to make people less eager to go outside. So the last time I rode was actually last Wednesday. I have been using some of this time to ride bikes with my friend Jesse and others. Saturday I went on a sweet mountain bike ride with Chris Favro to a forest preserve nearby. Did I mention it was pouring rain at that time?! Yeah, it was. But that just made it funner, I think. Sketchier, too. Can't forget about that. Also, my dad decided to let me use his bike. His really expensive one! I think that bike was quite a bit better than my bike. The front brake could use some work, though.

With this time I have also thought about school a little more. Ok, not really. I think about it the exact same much all the time. But I'm thinking about positive thinking and stuff like that. Anything can be done with positive thinking. Optimism. I'm trying to be optimistic about everything, which I have actually been for years. I guess I'm just thinking about what I've been for a while now. Comprende? It's just an interesting subject.

This weekend my parents painted the living room and kitchen of our house! A cool shade of green now dominates our downstairs. I'm glad that's done with now.

Also, wrestling is going to start in about two weeks. I'm trying my hardest to be optimistic about that right now! But I think it'll be fine.

That's all I got for now. Hopefully some more interesting stuff happens soon, which it will! See ya! Have a great day! :D -Greg

Red Bud Grass Race

Hey everybody! Last weekend I raced for the first time in a couple weeks. It was the Red Bud Grass Race! The day before, on Saturday, I rode the practice day there. The track wasn't too rough all day. Ok, by the end it was pretty rough. I rode all 3 of my bikes today: 125, 250, and 450. Let's just say they're quite a bit different! But I got similar lap times with all the bikes, so maybe they weren't so different? I guess since they're all Yamahas... You know.

After that ride day we basically didn't have much to do. Kids were walking around in costumes "trick or treating" while the sun was out. Unfortunately we didn't have any candy to give them. When we had nothing left to do, I just pulled out my math stuff and did some homework! Exciting, huh?

Then it was Grass Track time! At first I thought it would be slick with the dew on the grass, but it wasn't too bad. There were so many older people there too! I can see why. The track was basically all turns and no jumps. The track got really dusty by the end, though. And I mean plumes of dust floating through the air dusty. Luckily the watered the track before my motos! And speaking of my motos, I raced 125 B and 250 B. I had to make a decision about which two classes I should race, and I chose those. I just find the 125 easier and funner to ride than the 450. Of course. It's a 125!

My first race was for 125 B. To summarize it: Good start, descent riding, 4th place finish. Not too bad but not too good either!
After that moto, I had a 250 B race to do. It was going similarly to the 125 one I just came from, but that soon changed. You see, my dad recently put on a bigger front brake disc. On that dry, dusty track it might have not been too good of an idea for me. I ended up going into a corner and grabbing too much front brake. I must have hit some bump at the same time because my front end gave out and I fell pretty hard. When I got up I couldn't get going since there was dirt somehow stuck in my front brake lever which locked up my front wheel. Not too good. My dad ended up coming over there to fix it. But I was two laps down already, so I finished 29th in that one.

My second 125 B race was a whole lot better! I got a decent start and stayed behind the leaders. They both crashed on their own, so I was right there to take the lead! I kept the lead for the rest of the race. So I won it! With 4-1 scores I got 2nd overall.

My second 250 B race also went better. Once again, I got a decent start and I finished 5th. I just tried being smooth. So I went 29-5 for 15th overall.

It was a pretty good weekend overall. Most weekends are for me. And now it's time for school for me! Have a nice day! -Greg

Birthdays and Mazes

Good day my fellow followers! The past week has been filled with some birthdays around me. My dad turned 42 on the 5th and my sister turned 14 on the 9th! I'm actually pretty surprised at how fast these events are flying by this year. It seems like just yesterday that it was still hot outside. Now all the trees are turning funky colors and leaves are falling off. I don't like this time of year too much. Actually fall isn't bad, but it reminds me that winter is just around the corner. I have a feeling I'm gonna be freezing everyday once again!

I'm just trying to enjoy the weather while it lasts now. I went riding a few times over the week. Kody Kamm's track is really rough now! They brought in a ton of wood chips and the track is just difficult to ride on. But it's good practice for me. Wyatt came riding with me a couple days as well. Uhhh, I think the track was a little too rough for a guy that rides once every couple of weeks. But it's ok. I think he still had fun. Speaking of motocross, I made a helmet cam on Jarred Kimball's track last weekend. I was ripping around on my 125. My dad's featured in the video too! Check it out!



My sister had her birthday party at our house the night before she turned 14. She had a lot of friends come over! The music was blasting and the bon fire in our front yard was burning. I think they all had fun. Here are some pictures from that night.







Another night I went to a corn maze with my friend Wyatt. His mom said that she has been going to this big maze for 30 years on and off, but has never found all the checkpoints (or whatever they're called). So Wyatt decided that we should find all of them this year! He was talking about how we would be there for 6 hours and things like that. Ha! I think he forgot to take into account my presence. The first thing we did was a cool zip-line thing. We were maybe 40 feet up attached to a metal wire. The guy just said "You can go whenever you want." What?! That was kind of scary. But it wasn't bad. It was fun to be up there!

After our little zip-line ride, we decided to get down to business and find all 24 checkpoints. I took the lead with the map and flashlight. We knocked them out one by one, not missing a beat. I thought it was funny seeing people just randomly walking through the maze hoping to find a lucky checkpoint. We didn't need luck. Within 3 hours (including the zip-line) we found them all. It was the first time any of us found all of the ones in that maze. So that was pretty cool!

Next weekend I'm gonna go to a haunted house and hopefully not get scared. So that's it for now! You stay classy, planet Earth. -Greg

Motocross des Nations and more!

Hey everybody! It's been a while since I last wrote here. I've been spending that time writing in my school notebooks lately instead. I've done quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. And by quite a bit, I mean my family put well over 4,000 miles on vehicles. That's just in two weekends!

About two and a half weeks ago my mom and I helped my dad move a bunch of stuff from Illinois to Georgia. That was for our friend Dan. Some of the stuff was so fricken heavy! Dang, I was so glad when everything was loaded up. The drive down there and back up was pretty easy for me. I just had to sit. :P We didn't spend any time in Georgia really, except for the night, because I wanted to get home to race the Club 57 Challenge.

The Club 57 Challenge was in its second year this year and I didn't want to miss it. Last year it was a lot of fun and this year wasn't much different. There's nothing like 30 minute motos! I think I was one of the only people who did two classes. I was pretty much dead after that... In the 250 class I got 6th overall. My first moto, with a few crashes, didn't put me in a good spot for an overall finish. But the 450 class went a lot better for me. 2nd overall. Oh yeah! I actually raced the first 450 race on my 250 since my 450 wouldn't start. That wasn't bad at all, though. I think I want to do it again next year for sure!

The following weekend my family once again drove a long distance. But this time it was in a totally different direction! We went to Denver, Colorado to watch the Motocross des Nations at Thunder Valley. What an awesome event and place! The track was basically on the line where the Rockie Mountains start. It was sweet driving toward there seeing the mountains. The racing was amazing to watch from atop the Parts Unlimited stand thing. We wouldn't have had tickets to get up there if it weren't for our friend Chris Favro. Team Estonia was there as well. Some mechanical issues didn't put them in too good of a position in the end. They got 15th place. I'm thinking I want to be on that team in a few years... Yeah, that would be awesome.

Downtown Denver was amazing as well. There's a street, basically a mall, where you can walk at night. Just how it was there was pretty cool. I liked going into a souvenir store and looking around. Who comes up with all those funny T-Shirts and knick-knacks anyway?! They must be making some dough.

Lately I've been riding my 125 a lot. We got it back from Dan and Shane before we moved them, and it's just wanting to be ridden. It's easier to ride than my other bikes. But in some ways it's also harder. Just managing the power is kind of hard on the 125. By managing the power, I mean keep it from bogging or revving too much. Quite a bit different! I don't remember ever looping out while just riding before, but I managed to do it on the 125 a couple weeks ago! I was just going through some straight away thinking "I feel like doing something cool." Instead of just pulling my front wheel up a little, I lost control and crashed pretty hard. Intense! But I'm still riding that bad boy. Too much fun! :D

For an English project I made a pretty funny video about Chernobyl. I'm not saying that Chernobyl was funny, but the video I made is. Check it out here!

No animals were harmed in the making of that video! Yeah, it got quite a few people in class laughing...

Until next time... Stay classy planet Earth! -Greg

Red Weekend

Hey everybody! Last weekend was quite eventful for me. Or maybe it wasn't. It depends on how you look at it. But it was very red, indeed! Originally I was supposed to suit up in my red gear and ride on Saturday. But things changed pretty easily. My dad got tickets to The Indianapolis Red Bull Moto GP! It was a whole weekend thing, so we thought about when to leave on Friday night. It ended up being an easy decision... or hard for one of us. We decided to just leave right away at night because we had to be in Indianapolis pretty early. That meant very little sleep for my dad! I always get to enjoy getting to sleep in the van. :D

But we ran into a little problem right when we left... You see, we rented a movie from a Red Box on Thursday. We forgot to return it Friday, of course. So I had an idea to return it right away on the drive. We kind of forgot about it as we drove past a local Red Box in Wauconda. Then we had another brilliant idea to return it to one in a different city on the way.
-The first one: It was in a Jewel and the doors were locked since it was past 1 am.
-The second one: It was in a Wal-Mart and the doors were also locked.
-The third one: We visited a Walgreens, but there was no Red Box at that one!
-The fourth one: Finally, we found an outside Red Box next to a Walgreens. I made sure it returned correctly! I didn't want any more funny business with that. We had a drive to do.

I'm sure my dad saw plenty of red lights on the drive down. Lucky for me, I didn't. Sometime between 8-9 am we arrived at the Red Bull Moto GP! With our tickets, we were supposed to get infield parking. That ended up not working out very well... our van was too tall for the tunnel leading in. But this inconvenience didn't harm our days very much. We just had to walk an extra half mile to get in.

When we did get in it was like a different world in there. Tons of people and something going on all the time. It's crazy how much stuff was in there. Right away we checked into where our tickets took us. That was awesome! There was a big room with seating and tables everywhere. A bar was in the middle with free drinks all weekend. There were two lounging places, along with some motorcycle video game. Not to mention the free breakfast and lunch. And, of course, you could have as much Red Bull that you could possibly want. Yes, I can imagine it being difficult for some people to leave the place. But for my dad and I there were sights to see!

We visited the AGV/Dainese set up multiple times both days. It was one of many cool stores set up in there. We also visited Ducati Island. If you're wondering what that is, just imagine a Ducati factory spanning many years. There were so many red and white Ducati's in there! Ducati related stores were bountiful. It was definitely a heaven for Ducati lovers.

By the end of the first day my dad's forehead was pretty red! That is a product of not having hats or sunscreen. Great, huh? Somehow I didn't get sun burned. Yay! The day wasn't over yet, though, if that's what you were thinking. There was a big biker congregation to go to in downtown Indianapolis! My dad and I got out our bike and rumbled our way over. Ok, think about how I was talking about Ducati Island. Now multiply that by about a thousand. There was a sea of all kinds of different bikes including, yes, red ones! We walked a little bit to find somewhere cool to hand out. But that didn't take very long at all...

We found the Red Bull Energy Station! Free Red Bull, Geoff Aaron doing trials bike stuff, a flat track BMX guy, and three break dancers. That wasn't all, but that's mainly what I saw. All I can say is that Red Bull really takes care of their people! I don't understand how they can continue to pull off these unbelievable events.

The next day we continued our leisurely stay at the Moto GP. For some of the races we wanted to sit in the Turn 9 Stands. It didn't end up working in our favor. We needed red passes to get in. I didn't care very much. It was just a minor setback in our awesome weekend. The racing itself was pretty good, but I enjoyed the atmosphere there quite a bit more.

I'd like to thank Chris Favro for getting us those awesome tickets! We had a very rad time because of him!


Here's a picture of a bike that I liked a lot there. Can you say awesome?! I bet you couldn't before seeing this picture! Check that red out. ;)

As you can see, our weekend was exactly what the title of this blog says: Red. I used the word a total of 18 times in this text. I hope I didn't miscount...

That's it this week from your favorite blog writer (I hope), Greg Sassi. You stay classy, planet Earth.

Red Bud

Hey everybody! This half a week of school this week has been pretty sweet. Not too much homework and everything seems to flow great. That's already too much to write about school today! On Sunday I went to Red Bud with Cody VanBuskirk. It was the first time I had been there since my cut there a few months ago. The track was pretty much exactly how I remembered it: rough! Midway through my third session a blister I got that day popped. Ouch. I rode the rest of the session trying to not put much pressure on my left hand. I got a helmet cam of that practice, too. It should be at the bottom of this blog post if you want to watch it!

So things at Red Bud went pretty smoothly... except for Cody's chain snapping in our last session. Not too good. He didn't crash or go over the handlebars, so that was actually good!

Today I was shredding a little bit at Kody Kamm's house. I needed some practice. There were three of us riding together. The track was disked up, but it was all dry. That made it pretty hard to ride on... We then decided to just do a shorter track in the back which turned out pretty good.

To make up for my boring talk, here's a new video I posted! As the description says put on some music in the background, sit back, and relax. Enjoy! -Greg

School

Hola! This week was my first week of school. I don't know if you can really call it a week since it was only three days... Oh well! These days actually went pretty well for me. My classmates and I seem to get more respect everywhere now since we're juniors. I like it! I also like how we haven't gotten too much homework yet. Everybody always likes that! It's been fun hanging out with my friends at school, too. It's like we never left! Other than that I don't have too many stories from school so far.

On Friday morning before school I was thinking about going on a bike ride to exercise my legs and lungs a little. It seemed like a really good idea on Thursday night! When I tried waking up I couldn't! I did open my eyes, but I couldn't force myself to get up... Oh well. I think I needed that little extra rest anyways. I made up for it by going riding at dan's house in the afternoon. I thought a tornado or some huge storm was going to come through right before I went riding! It was pretty crazy! I think that just makes it funner when I'm riding alone.

Some interesting things are being taught to us in school. 7 ways to die, stupid people, A-drives, alternate meaning of the word sultry, and much more! Ahhhhh, school. Until next time! -Greg

Preparation

Hey everybody! It's been a couple weeks since I last wrote in. That's because I've been busy. Actually I haven't been busy. It's just that I have homework to do for school, which starts in about 4 days! I've been saving my summer homework for the end... ok, that's a lie. Lets just say I'm kind of good at procrastinating. :P At the moment I am done with 1 out of 2 things. I think the second thing should be easier, though.

My moto life has been very similar to the rest of the summer. I've just been riding a little less lately. I went to Dan's house a couple times. It was actually raining the first time when I was there and wet the second time. I think I like it a little better when it's wet. I think I got some pretty good practice in on the 450.

Dang, it's been a couple weeks but I haven't really done much. I did go to Six Flags one day with Matu and Shane. It was an interesting day to say the least. By the time we got there all the lines were huge! And we didn't really want to wait in line. We did find some rides with smaller lines though. 2 of them! Batman and the Iron Wolf. Batman went by really fast! I don't know if that ride was actually enjoyable, though. It was too rough for me. Matu and I felt dizzy afterwards. The Iron Wolf was a different story, though. We were almost to the top of the line when they stopped letting people on. What? After maybe 10 minutes I thought I had it figured out. Someone had thrown up on the ride and they had to clean it up. I guess I should expect that at an amusement park... I just didn't know it took so long to clean it up. That ride was pretty good once we got on!

After that day I decided that I don't really want to go to Six Flags anytime soon again. That's because 2 things are certain there: The lines are huge and the prices are unbelievable.

My mom also had her birthday party a few days ago! That was pretty cool for sure! I think we were preparing for it for at least 2 or 3 days. We made a lot of food for it. I think all together about 30 people came by for at least a little bit. So my mom's 35th birthday party was pretty cool! After that we had to eat the left over food for lunch and dinner for a couple days. So, yes, we made quite a bit of food.

That's it for now! I'm going to keep getting prepared for school. Bye! -Greg :)

Lake County Fair Mx Day 2

Hey everybody! Yesterday was the second and last day of the motocross racing at the Lake County Fair for this year. And what a day it was. We didn't actually know that we were going until the afternoon. We thought it was going to pour rain and be horrible. It ended up being quite different! It stayed pretty cloudy all day, but the rain missed us. So we ended up getting ready a little bit later than we would've liked. But we got it done!

Before we left I was trying to figure out if any of my friends wanted to come with. Marc ended up wanting to tag along! :D We were already kind of in a hurry when we left to pick him up and go to the fair. Oh man, we thought we were cutting it close! We got there at 5 pm, and that's when practice was supposed to start! But we ended up being fine. All my practices went pretty good. No crashes! It was kind of muddy in my first practice, though. I guess it might have rained there... or they just watered it that much.

I was pretty excited for racing! I knew how well I did the day before in the heats (at least the first one) so I was thinking about doing the same thing. What do you know? I got the holeshot and finished in 3rd. Yeah! Next up was my 450 heat race. The day before I didn't get a real good start in that race. But we put on a holeshot device yesterday. Umm, again, holeshot! I ended up finishing in 4th in that one. Not bad. At that time I dropped Marc off in the stands to fend for himself and got ready for my 450 LCQ, since pretty much everyone in that class had to race it, even though everyone was going to the main anyway. And, *ahem*, holeshot! I was enjoying getting my name said at the start of every race. It made me feel good. I was in the lead for 3 out of 4 laps. 2nd place was not that bad of a place for me. :D Over the finish I threw a pretty good whip, I thought. I hope someone got a picture. :P

At that time intermission started. And along with that, the autograph signing! I thought that the pro's were only going to sign autographs. But then they said, "all riders to the autograph signing." Sweet. So I got to sit there for 10 minutes and sign stuff for people. I found out that shirts are actually pretty difficult to sign. I guess you learn that skill with experience! Then it was time for my mains.

Guess what. I got the holeshot once again in the 250 main! I was in 3rd place for most of the race and was hoping to stay there. But then I got into some lappers... I ended up not jumping the triple and the guy in 4th did. So he passed me. That sucked. So I ended up in 4th place. My 450 main went similarly. I didn't get the holeshot in the last race, though. I wheelied off the start a little bit. I still got a 2nd place start, though. But then I was 4th or 5th going into the triple. I ended up being 4th the whole race. I was pretty close to 3rd place the whole race. It was hard to pass on this track, though. I got pretty close on the second to last lap when he rolled some section. But he then almost pushed me into a hay bail! So I got 4th once again. No podium. It would have been cool to be on the podium.

Overall the Lake County Fair was a cool experience for me! Afterward I talked to some of my mom's friends who came to cheer me on. Thanks for coming Sammie and everyone else! I also checked out a trials bike and decided that I want to get one someday. It just seems like it would be a mountain bike, except with an engine. I feel like I would enjoy that. :D That was pretty much all that happened from my experience yesterday. Not a bad day!

Thanks for reading! -Greg

P.S. Check out B.C. Productions on Facebook to see some sick pictures!

Lake County Fair Mx

Hola! So far this week I have pretty much been only thinking about the Lake County Fair Mx. A nice 2 days of thinking about it. I raced the 250 and 450 Amateur classes there last night. Before we got there I was worried about how difficult the track was going to be. It ended up not being too bad at all! I knocked out pretty much every jump in my first practice. I just had to get my corner speed up then. My second 250 practice was going well up until one of the last laps. I tried jumping past someone on the back triple on their left side. I ended up not going fast enough into the jump... Yeah, I cased it and flew over the handlebars. It wasn't too fun. I'm happy that I was all right. My chain did get a little rattled, though.

At 7 p.m. the racing began! My 250 heat race went really well. I got the holeshot and got 3rd. The 2 guys in front of me were a little bit faster. My 450 heat didn't go as well. I spun in the start and was near the back. Doh! I think I got 6th or something in that one. I think my cheerleaders Elis, Lexi, and Shauna helped me out! Almost everyone then had to do the 450 LCQ race because they wanted a show. I got a not so good start and was once again near the back. I couldn't pass this guy in front of me very well, either. So I think I got 10th or something.

My mains then started getting closer and closer. I was hoping to do well in the 250's. I ended up being top 3 going into the first turn. But that didn't end very well. The 2 guys in front of me started turning while I was going straight. I almost t-boned them! Instead I lost my balance and slid out. Bad mistake. I couldn't get my bike started for a while after that. By the time I did get going, everyone had lapped me. After that I just tried riding good and passed some people, even though they were a lap ahead. So that race wasn't too good for me.

My last race of the night was the 450 main. In that one I got a pretty good start. I was 4th going into the second turn. Sweet! I stayed there pretty much the whole race. On the second to last lap Brandon Pope, passed me, though. So I got 5th. I felt pretty good about that race.

Thanks to anyone that came out to support me yesterday! I tried doing some whips over the finish for you guys. :P I don't know if I'm gonna go race there tonight. If it rains a lot, I won't go. But if it doesn't rain much then I probably will go. Should be sweet! Bye! -Greg

Remember-ade

Hey you all! I'm kind of having trouble remembering what I did this weekend- must be because of that party... just kidding! I'm going to drink some of my remember-ade now... there we go! How did I forget that? tsk tsk.

Friday I had my day cut a little short with a visit from some relatives of Matu. But no problems or anything. I went with them to their house actually! That was because I felt like eating really, really good food that night. And also partly because I went with them to the Museum of Science and Industry on Saturday. Yeah! (That's for Kerr) There were a ton of cool things to see in there. The German u-boat from World War II. The worlds fastest machines- one from the 1800's and one from the 1900's. There was quite a bit of difference in speed. A couple hundred miles per hour, not to be exact. The machine made tornado, wave machine, avalanche show: so many interactive exhibits! And what a better way to end off the day at the Museum than with a movie about the Hubble telescope in the massive, 5-story omnimax theater. Wow! (Kerr) It was awesome!

Then I had a more unknown part of my day. I took the train home from Chicago for the first time by myself. I had to do it. I had a party to get to! My train ride went really smoothly. So I'm happy about that.

And now to the par-tay. It was Jordan Jackson's graduation party. Whoo-pee! Most of the adults drank on the porch while us not so adult's played volleyball. It was pretty fun and tiring! I couldn't put my shirt on for a while afterward because it was still sweaty. Oh well. :P It was fun playing a little ping pong and watching others play games that involved a ping pong ball. We then ended off the party with some midnight volleyball games.

Today, Sunday, was a day of motocross for me. I went to a track in Wisconsin that I hadn't been to before. Kimball's track. It was a pretty technical track, I thought. At least that's what those whoops whispered in my ear... After we left we payed a visit to one of my favorite babies, Brie! And Dan, Shane, and Sylvia too of course. :D

It looks like that remember-ade sure helped me out on this one! Thanks for reading! -Greg

P.S. It looks like I'm gonna race the Lake County Fair this Tuesday and Wednesday. Sweet!

geo-what?

Hey everybody! The last couple days have been flying by pretty quickly. It's already Friday! Some pretty fun stuff has been happening this week. Wednesday morning I earned some money working out in the hot sun. It wasn't bad at all, though. I think I'm used to the heat pretty well right now. That afternoon I also went shredding at Kody Kamm's house. Ok, it was more like puttsing in the beginning. It was pretty slick on the freshly watered track with a 450. It became better later on. That was good! I felt all right, but not super good. Oh well. I think it was pretty good practice.

That same day I just happened to find 2 geocaches. Ok, I lied; I looked for them. The first one was by the Costco in Lake Zurich in a parking lot. I felt like an idiot standing pretty much in the middle of the parking lot. I was having trouble finding it... But then some guy waved me over and acted like he was telling me top secret information. He pretty much told me exactly how to get it. Thanks man! :D The second one was coming back home from dirtbiking. I convinced my dad to stop somewhere near home. It was kind of tough looking for it in the dark and mosquito infested place, but Matu spotted it! Nice!

Yesterday (Thursday) actually had a lot of stuff for us to do. In the morning I went on a run with Matu biking next to me. It was going extraordinarily well until it started pouring on us. We stopped for a little by a beach because we saw that it was closed. What?! I called the number on the sign and asked why. They said the county closed it because it has a high bacteria count or something. I guess no more swimming for now. Continuing with the run... it started raining harder when we got closer to home. It was actually pretty fun and made me run faster. We were soaking wet by the time we got home. Woah!

It was geocaching time for a couple hours in the afternoon. Yeah! Stephanie (my neighbor) took me, Elis, and Matu geocaching with her. I got 4 more additions to my findings. It would've been 5, but we couldn't find one. We were looking all around and a little girl came up to us. She asked, "Are you geocaching?" Steph said, "yeah." The girl then informed us that it was no longer there. :P

When we got back home we decided that we should make our own geocache. I think we did a pretty good job. I just hope no animal or anything will steal it! It'll be fine, I think. Thanks for taking us geocaching Steph!

For our night activity my dad, Elis, Matu, and I went to see Inception at the movie theater. What a great movie! We missed a little bit of the beginning, but I don't think we missed too much (I hope!). It turns out the whole movie could be totally different than I thought was actually happening... or not. It really makes you think! If you are wondering whether to see this movie, go for it! Don't blame me if your brain hurts afterward, though. :D

Have a nice day! -Greg

Two fun days

So I was listening to the pulp mx show and I thought, what's a better thing to do right now than update my millions of fans on my blog! So here I am. Listening. I had two awesome days. Yesterday, Sunday, I went to Kody Kamm's house to ride. It was the first time I had been there and man, the track was sweet! It was groomed and watered, so it formed some ruts as well. There weren't very many jumps, but I think that actually made it better. I think there were like 8 total guys riding there in the beginning of the day. One of the jumps sections looked more like a bunch of singles! It was cool seeing Kody Kamm do it all the time. I didn't think I would be able to do it. But then my dad said I should and I eventually did! I thought it was pretty sketchy, but I guess it wasn't that bad. I'll be going back there on Wednesday. :D

Today was a much more do nothing type day. I went with Matu to find a geocach that was somewhat near my house, which was pretty cool. My phone wasn't working as a gps, so we just had to guess a little and look at a map online. Once we did find it, we were surprised. It was so fricken small! And to make it better there was a wasp nest right above it. Great. So there we were, looking like some lady scared of a mouse. But sticks on the ground really helped us out! After signing our names, we had the problem of putting it back. The paper was hard enough to put back in the mini container. Then I just thought some happy thoughts and slid the geocach back to its hiding spot. Man, we were pretty happy to get it back to the right spot without any stings!

After washing my bikes, Matu and I went swimming in the lake. It looked like it might rain so we wanted to swim before then. We left when it started to rain. That worked out well!

Towards the night we went to watch my mom's volleyball games. It looked like they were close games. They lost the first 2 games but won the last 1. During the last game Matu and I learned that women need emotional support a lot. That was from a lady named Brenda on my mom's team. She told us that because the other team had just gotten 10 straight points. So Matu and I cheered a little to help them out. I believe that helped them win that last one! :D

So there you go. Life lessons, dramatic treasure hunting, and extreme action. I hope your heart didn't start pumping too hard! Until next time. -Greg

Wowza

Wowza, it has already been almost a week since I've been back from Georgia. Time is flying at home. On one of the days this week I went mountain biking at kettle morraine in Wisconsin with Chris Favro, also known as Shenzi. Man, it's feeling almost as hot as Georgia was this week! It's just sapping the energy out of me. The mountain bike ride was fun. The trail was nice for sure! That same day my family went to Chris's birthday party dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There I got to practice some of my Spanish. :P. Chris turned 43, which my dad decided is a very important year for him, or something like that.

The day after that I went riding at Lukas's house. Oh man, the track was so dusty and hardpacked! But it was ok since I was the only one riding. After I finished riding I noticed my 450 had exactly 43 hours on it. I almost decided never to ride it again so the hours could stay on that number forever! But it was not to be...

We also have had a guest over for the past 3 or so days. He's a 14 year old kid named Mattias (I don't really know how to spell his name). He's visiting from Estonia. With him I went swimming twice and biking. It's been pretty fun. Today he came with me and my dad to Motoland, too. My sister and her friends were up all night, I think, last night. But they seemed to have more energy than me this morning! Freaky!

Riding at Motoland today was sooooo tiring. Every 20 minutes we had a 20 minute ride. 5 total. I feel dead right now. The track got really bumpy, but it was sweet battling a little bit with some guys.

Now we're driving somewhere to see some auto show and have dinner with the relatives of Mattias. Bye! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 12

Hey everybody! Today was the last official day of my trip to Georgia. I went there with Shane and Dan Cobb, rode for a week and a half, and then came back home with my family. It really couldn’t have gone much better. Today was just a long driving day back home. It was so humid and warm in the van! Man, it isn’t too comfortable to sit in the back because of that! But we got through it.

We left pretty early in the morning; a little before 6 am. We’ve been driving for 16 or so hours now. Ok, we took a couple pit stops too. For breakfast we went to a Waffle House in Alabama. The first day I wrote about this adventure I kind of threw Alabama under the bus by saying that they’re really slow! But the Waffle House helped redeem its state. Our food was done pretty quickly and it didn’t taste bad either. Nice! That meal held us up until dinner. For all the hours in between we slept, read books, watched movies, and just kind of sat there. Not too exciting. But the day went by pretty well for me.

For dinner we stopped by a Chinese restaurant in Rossville, Indiana. A couple months ago my dad and I went there with Cody and John VanBuskirk when we had some races near there. It tasted pretty good. But the bill was quite a surprise!

Now we are almost home. Yessss! Only 5 minutes left. And what a better way to end the trip than with my blog? I’m feeling like I’m at home already. Dan and Shane’s house was starting to feel homey before I left. But it’s not the same as my real home. I hope I get to do another trip like this again some time. It was fun! I guess I won’t be writing my blog every day now, but I’ll still keep you all updated on my happenings! Bye! –Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 11

Today was my last day of staying down here in Georgia. The 11 days so far have gone by fast! I'm surprised. Today was a race at southern raceway in memory of a kid who died there 3 years ago, Gunner Moore. There were not that many racers there. I think the most people in one race was 10 people. And that was with classes combined! All together there were 7 races and they went by fast. So fast in fact that we had like a 2 hour intermission. I did 2 classes: Mx B and Lites B. I was the only one in the first one and there were 3 of us in the second one. So right away I knew I was gonna win at least 1 class! :P. My first race went pretty well with combined classes. I basically got 3rd. But it was good! In my next race I actually had other people in my class. I holeshotted my class but was Behind sunny drake. So I felt pretty good. But it didn't go too well. In the end of the first lap I scrubbed the finish tabletop too hard and basically landed sideways. It didn't get much better from there... My feet came off and I was hanging off the side of my bike giving it more gas in hopes of somehow saving it. But I didn't. I fell to the side I was hanging off... And another guy hit my bike and flipped a couple times. Gage. He was in the camp this week too! He ended up being ok but didn't finish. So I got 2nd place because there were 3 of us total.

At intermission there was a 3 man team race where one guy runs, one does push ups, and one races a pit bike. I did that with Shane and chris, who is a kid training there for a few weeks from Canada. Chris ran, I did push ups, and Shane raced the pit bike. We got 4th out of 5 teams. I think shane's pit bike blew up or something. But it was ok. I didn't really care. It was fun!

My second set of motos went normally. I won my first moto again. Duh. And I got 2nd in my second moto behind Gage. So I ended up getting two first place overalls! Yay!

We later went home and watched two movies. And now I'm really tired. So this was basically my last day down here. Tomorrow we start the drive home really early. Bye! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 10

Aloha! Today was a surprisingly hot and humid day. Maybe I noticed it today because I only rode for less than half a day. It felt so hot... Shane and I rode at fast trac's today. The track was really smooth and got one rut in pretty much each corner. We ended up doing 3 motos where we just rode. Man, during break time it felt like we were in an oven! But we all got through it good.

At about 1 we left the track to go back home to meet my family there. It had been a week since I saw them. It was pretty cool because we arrived at the exact same time to the house! It was sweet. An hour later we left to go to southern raceway so we could work on all the bikes. A minute before we got there it started pouring rain like crazy. Great! So my dad and I ended up doing my bikes under our broken canopy. Not the most comfortable place. But it sure was better than dan working under a tiny umbrella! The day there was supposed to be a cool memorial for a kid who died there 3 years ago. There was a slip n slide and karaoke. I didn't do that stuff because I'm a boring person of course.

We were supposed to watch 2 movies tonight but it ended up not going as planned. Dan, Elis, and I were sitting on a rocking bench and realized it was already 10 pm. So that obviously meant no movies. Darn. That's because Shane and I are gonna race at southern raceway tomorrow. I hope it's not muddy! I'll update ou about that tomorrow. Bye! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 9

Hey! Today was the last day of the Built Lusk Tough camp. It went by pretty quickly for sure. All the fast food must have made it go by fast! Today was supposed to be like a final exam. We had to put to use what we learned in moto situations. So guess what we did... Motos! We did 4 lap races where the fastest guys were in the back. I'd like to say those went well for me, but I actually ended up crashing a couple times. They weren't bad though. They mostly happened because I lost my front end in the loose dust that formed in the turns. It was also tiring. After making the mistakes and stuff I sure used some energy!

After lunch at wendy's I got in the kiddie pool to cool off a little. Now I had a plan. I wanted to keep riding the 450 in the afternoon so I could just take a fresh 250 to another track tomorrow. But oh no, I couldn't do that. You see, the 450's rear sprocket was almost totally round. I'm pretty sure the chain wouldn't have kept moving the wheel very good any more. So I took out the 250. It was good though. That's because we went on the turn track and I could be better there with the 250. It went pretty well for me there. I felt pretty good.

For the end of the camp we had a quick little picture session and some papers handed out to us. So I am on my way to becoming Lusk tough! That's because I went on an insane mountain bike ride with Ezra Lusk and some other people. We at first planned to do 3 laps of this hilly, loopy mountain bike trail. But that didn't end up happening. Instead I found myself pushing my bike up the steep hills and out of breath. And it turns out Ezra and Sunny Drake weren't that far ahead. I think they waited for me even though they said they didn't. We stopped somewhere near the end of the 2nd lap and got water poured on us by Shane Lusk and some other guys. Wow, that felt good after that crazy ride!

It was pretty cool working with Ezra and Shane Lusk during this camp and I think I got faster for sure. I don't know if everyone felt like that, but I did. Now I'll see if I can put it to use this weekend. -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 8

Hey everybody! As I'm typing this we're all watching "the crazies." what a weird movie! I thought I could use this time to get my blog done. Anyway, today was morning and afternoon riding at the camp. We rode on the night track this time. Basically the whole idea is to pin it as much as possible with smooth transitions. We also worked on soaking up jumps and possibly even scrubbing them. It was pretty fun to practice that. A little later we did some timed sections to see who could go over the two tabletops the fastest. I was second by a tenth of a second. Then we also did little races where we go over the jumps side by side. That was pretty sweet! A couple times it was pretty close in the air!

After riding was done I jumped in the mini pool for the first time all week. We've had the thing out since like Saturday and this was the first time anyone got in it all week! I guess it was there to look at up until today. It felt pretty good! On the way out of there Dan said that it was 101 degrees outside. Wow! I didn't realize it was that hot! I guess I might be getting used to it already. Oh, we went to Zaxby's today for dinner! It's still as good a place as last week for sure...

Right now the crazies is a lot like other horror movies. But it is kind of interesting. Ok... It now ended pretty weirdly. Oh well. I'm gonna go get ready for bed now. Bye! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 7

Hey! Today was the seventh day of my stay here. Wow, already! The camp is over half way over but the fun isn't stopping. We didn't really do anything until 11:30 am, though. Before that Shane and Ezra talked about training and other good stuff. I did get some info out of it. When we did get riding, we did a turn section that flowed really good in the beginning. It ended up getting rough and and a little choppy. It was still good at the end, though. It reminded me of yesterday's training, too. Later on we did some 3 man races through there which were pretty fun. The stuff they had us doing worked in the races!

After we rode we did a fun little mountain bike ride. We did 3 laps on this mile long hilly course. It had us going over some of the regular track jumps, so we could jump off each single. That was pretty cool. On the third lap Ezra Lusk, another kid, and I did a slightly different track that included a steep uphill. Ezra was the only one that made it up! I made it about 3/4 of the way up, I think. I fell over too! My clipped on shoes were too hard to get off. I was funny, though.

After the day at southern Mx we went to a place called Mr. Chick for dinner. And I bought it for everyone! It was like the second time I've bougt anything on this trip. Umm, I'm pretty sure dan has spent a lot more money than me so far... Yeah...

Tomorrow we're going to ride a lot more than we did today. Bye! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 6

After a tough day yesterday, today went a lot better. I was sore pretty much all day, but I still felt all right. In the firs half of the day we worked on a rhythm section that was supposed to simulate the 10 commandments at loretta lynn's. I ended up doing double-double-triple-triple through them. I was doing that yesterday, too. But it was kind of harder towards the end because we were getting some ruts in there. Ezra Lusk told me some things to do differently, as did Shane lusk. I think it helped me through there.

For lunch break Shane, dan, and I went to sonic. I think it was the first time I had been there! Crazy, they just bring the food to your car. I don't think any restaurant would have wanted me in with my smelly gear on anyway! That tasted pretty good.

The second half of our training day consisted of a section of some sandy turns. Now that was pretty fun! We had 2 man races through the section. Sunny Drake made us some squared up lines through the turns. That was theoretically supposed to let us make passes through there. The original old line was faster, though. Later on we did it by ourselves and I thought I did pretty awesomely at the end. We went to the edges of the track pinned to miss the bumps. The turns flowed really well, too.

After we were done we didn't even do any work to the bikes. Dan wanted to get home. We didn't know why at the time. But when we did get home, he surprised Shane with a new lawn mower! He had been messing around with us a lot of the car ride to the house! They're lawn was getting long anyway. Dan did half the yard and Shane did the other half. Oh the joy!

Right now we still haven't eaten dinner and are relaxing. This is a pretty early blog for me! Usually I have been doing it at 10 pm. But I just happened to have time. Tomorrow we're going to do some off the bike training at the camp, so that should be interesting! That's it for now. -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 5

Hey everybody! Today was the first actual day of the Built Lusk Tough school. I think we were all excited at the beginning. All 6 of us. That means that there's more instruction for us! This school is all about track time. We ride a lot! We had an hour long warm up. That was quite a bit, but it helped us learn the track pretty well. It's all soft and has some pretty good rhythm sections. After the warm up we had a 5 lap moto thing to see what our base lap times are. I had to go out and crash on the 3rd or 4th lap. I'm pretty sure it was in the schedule we got in the beginning. "Greg Sassi crashes - 11 am". So I had to follow that... So I took a pretty big crash when I cased a double, flew I to the face of a jump that we like to call " the wall" and got ejected off. That's pretty much all I remember from that incident. Anyway, I later went out for the last couple hours of the school. My eye was almost swollen shut, but I did pretty good. Man, the turn track is tough!

After we were done for the day I did all my bike maintenance and helped pack some stuff up. I was still pretty sore. The area around my eye and my shoulder were hurting. Actually, they're still hurting. My head also hurt a little bit. When we went to KFC for dinner we joked around with the cashier and told them Shane and I got into a fight. But just a few seconds later we told them I actually got in a fight with my bike.

Now I'm about ready to sleep. Until tomorrow. -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 4

This is day 4 of our grueling expedition. There is plenty of food... And the weather is great. Today was our day off, so we watched "shutter island" in the morning and "the road" at night. Shutter island was actually good! I didn't think it would be good, but it was actually pretty interesting. The road was kind of boring. It reminded me a lot of "I am legend." I think that's what most of our "tough" day consisted of. For lunch we went to a Mexican restaurant with some nice people who live right next to mtf. Deborah and Jake. I shared some quesadillas with Shane and listened to two jokes from Jake. After that we all went to dan and shane's new house so they could check it out. We played some basketball and had fun dunking on the lowered net. It was the first time in a year I had seen them.

Later on dan, Shane, and I went to dairy queen and ate some good ice cream. When we got back to the house dan and Shane fell asleep somehow. It was funny. They just plopped down after we watched a little Mx movie. I didn't really want to sleep, so I put on some DMXS RADIO and shot some hoops for an hour and a half. That was cool listening to the show.

Tomorrow is gonna be the actual first day of the Built Lusk Tough school, so I'm gonna get some rest for that now. Tomorrow I should have some good stories from it! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 3

Hello! This is my 43rd post on this blog. I don't know about you guys, but I think that should be a holiday! July 3rd. Hopefully I'll remember next year. Anyways, today turned out to be a pretty good day. We woke up at 9. Actually, I had my alarm for 8, but everyone woke up right away from it and said "turn it off!" So we ended up sleeping for another hour. I was surprised. I thought it was supposed to be a riding day! But I was ok with it because we actually ate breakfast. Cereal! A little later we left for the track. We ended up being a little side tracked by a store. We needed some things to make the washer and dryer work.

We ended up getting to the track at 10:40. At that time, we were ready to shred. I rode 4 times all together and put an hour of riding time in. I did a 15 lap moto on a supercrossi sand track once too. I wanted to do one earlier, but my rear brake stopped working about 6 laps in. So I just cruised a few more laps. But I did get a good one in later. I just used less rear brake. In the last half laps another guy started riding with me. He caught me and passed me, but it was fun! Today I tried riding with my index fingers instead of middle fingers, too. I just felt like I should, and there I was, using index fingers. I don't know why I wanted to try it. It just seems better. After that we watched some red bud on tv and just chilled.

That was pretty much our day. After all that, we went to a guys house to do something really quick with shane's shock. There was a guy who just wouldn't stop talking there! It was nuts! He seemed nice, but I was glad when we left. Up to this point, I thought I had a pretty healthy day food wise. So I knew we had to do something about that. Pizza hut it was for dinner! It took a long time for our food to get done, but it was really good when we got it. I'm not gonna put it over Zaxby's, but I have to admit it was close!

Well that's enough for today. We're all pretty tired. Happy 43rd post everybody! :D
-Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 2

Hey y'all! Today I got to practice my southern accent quite a bit. That's obviously because we made it to Georgia! We got here really late, like at midnight or 1 last night. I was pretty much passed out before that, though. (so I'm told). It was not comfortable to sleep in the fun mover because of how humid it was in there. The funny part is that we slept in front of dan and shane's new house! But it wasn't furnished or anything yet. Oh well.

When we woke up, we knew we had a lot to do. We had to carry in all the mattresses, a couch, and a tv. That was just the beginning of the day. I must admit, their new house is pretty nice. We are worried about rattlesnakes in the woods though! After we got some of the stuff out of the funmover, we had a problem. The battery wasn't working very well, so the electric things in it barely worked at all. So we waited there for a little bit until the battery charged back up a little.

As soon as that was ready, we started cruising to southern raceway to get some things set up there. Now I thought we just wanted to hook up the power to the fun mover there and some other shenanigans. But I never thought that we would go there to set up a kiddie pool. Yeah, that's exactly what we did. It was pretty weird. I mean why would we want a kiddie pool set up at that particular time? Anyway, we did that so it wouldn't get blown away...

After being there for an hour or so, we realized we hadn't eaten anything all day. And it was already 2 pm! I was really happy when we finally got to a place called Zaxby's. I ordered some kind of chicken sandwhich with fries. I also got a really good birthday milk shake. I felt like I was in heaven eating that! Oh man, it was great. But it didn't last forever, sadly.

In a pick up truck we left to our next destination: home depot to pick up some appliances. Like I mentioned, the cobb's new house was completely unfurnished. So we needed a refrigerator, washer, dryer, and microwave. That ended up being quite a challenge. We were looking at them at the home depot. But it turns out they don't keep any in stock. That was just wonderful. So we took a visit to our good friend, Sears.

The store was way smaller, but we were actually able to get stuff from right there! It ended up being quite a lot of money. We went out back to get everything loaded up into the truck, then. The refrigerator, washer, and dryer ended up going in perfectly, but then we had to wait for microwave for a while. It turns out the guy dropped it... Dang. So we were one appliance down. He said we could pick it up Tuesday. We then went right back to the house to unpack our new goodies. That took a little while too. It was already 6 by now, and we still hadn't bought any groceries for the new refrigerator. Sweet.

We ended up spending $300 at walmart. Yeah, I was surprised too! We also picked up a movie to watch. When we got back home for the third time, I was ready to eat my second meal of the day at 9 pm. Surprisingly, dan and Shane barely ate anything. I, myself, gave my arteries a cleansing with a beautifully made wrap. Then I topped it off with chocolate milk. Oh yeah, I also had some sandwiches with a chocolate spread on them. That's the way to do it.

Now we're all laying down on mattresses in dan's room because it's way too hot upstairs. They're sleeping and I'm about ready to do the same. Thanks for reading my blog everyone! I wanna make them all good like the one before this. Well, I tried. Check back tomorrow! -Greg

Built Lusk Tough: Day 1

Hey guys! Or should I say hey y'all? The second one sounds more appropriate for my location. That's because I'm going down south to Georgia for a week to do a motocross school by the Lusk family. Pretty sweet, huh? My friends dan and Shane cobb offered to take me down and everything. My dad couldn't come with, though, because he has work. I think I can handle most of the bike work and stuff.

This morning we began driving at 5 am from the Cobb house. That was our goal and we actually started two minutes early! We stopped around 3 times so far. The first time was for them to check out a new fun mover. It was pretty cool. The other times were for food. I can feel my arteries clogging right now! Every meal was fast food. From the times it took to get the food, I can tell which states are fast and which states are slow. Indiana's flying fast! I ordered some food from Mcdonalds, and the food was in my hands about two seconds after I stepped away from the cash register! Alabama's about as slow as a turtle. I ordered something with Shane at a Wendy's and it took at least 10 minutes to get everything. I was surprised. Oh well.

Currently we are still driving. We might make it to our destination around midnight, or we'll stop a little earlier. I don't really care. All I know is that it is freaking hot and humid in the middle of the fun mover! I don't know how I'm gonna sleep, but it'll be fine. So day 1 was nothing eventful, but it has to be done. Check back later for more updates! -Greg

P.S. We've been driving for about 18 hours now. Oh yeah.

Minnesota

Hey everybody! This weekend I went to Minnesota to do a race at Spring Creek Mx Park. The last time I was there it was super rough. So I was kind of surprised when I rode there this weekend. It was still rough, but not that bad. I was hoping that it wouldn't rain there, but it ended up raining both nights before the riding days. That made it pretty muddy! But it dried up pretty well both times. Sunday morning, before the races, I thought it was actually pretty fun to ride in that mud! That was before I got myself all dirty from crashing, though. :P

All my races went pretty similarly. I was top 3 in the first turn in every start. So my starts were pretty good. :D But then I would get passed or I would fall. In the first race I fell on the first lap out of 1st place. When I got up I was in 10th. By the end of the race I almost caught up to 3rd place, but then fell again. So I got 5th. The next race I got passed early on quite a bit and finished in 6th. In my third race I finished 5th again. Nothing good. My last race was going pretty good for 3 laps. I was in 6th right behind a guy, but then I fell in a turn when I accidently went into a deep spot in a berm. I got up and finished 12th. :( So I got 4th overall in Open B and 9th overall in 250 B.

Now I'm back home and not really doing anything. But I do have something coming up. In a couple days I'm going to go to Georgia for a week or two to ride. I have a feeling it'll be really hot! But it should be cool.

I'll write about that later on when I'm there! Bye! -Greg

Baja Video

Baja Regional from lukas cobian on Vimeo.

Here's a sweet video made by Lukas Cobian. It has footage of some local guys racing the Baja Regional. Enjoy!

As for my adventures, this weekend I went riding at a track called Mount Carroll. The track was sweet and fun. I did a 30 minute moto once and did a couple laps at a time the rest of the time. I had two pretty funny crashes, too. :P

Happy late Father's Day to all the dads out there! We didn't do that many things for Father's Day. But that's ok. I got to see Toy Story 3, so that made everything good. :D If you get a chance, you definitely need to see that movie! It's great!

Also, I have been helping my dad paint a shop for Tom Zont Racing. That's been pretty fun, surprisingly.

That's all that has been going on with me lately. See ya! -Greg

Baja Regional

I'm just sitting in my room right now wondering about my weekend... If any of you follow the amateur circuit in the US, then you know Loretta Lynn's is one of the most prestigious races to do. Just qualifying for it is hard. Heck, even qualifying to the regional is difficult! Well I tried to get to Loretta Lynn's this past weekend and this is what happened...

We left late Thursday night after preparing and packing everything up for the weekend. It usually isn't a good idea to start a 6 hour drive at 10:30 at night, but my dad and I decided to do it anyway. My dad seemed like he was going to fall asleep at any moment and was doing really weird things to stay awake. We wanted to get to a rest area to sleep, but none seemed to come up anywhere! That was pretty scary. Once we did get to a rest area, we didn't even sleep. My dad decided to keep sleeping! But it was all ok in the morning when we arrived at the track.

Friday was just a day of practice, but a lot of it! I signed up for two classes so I got in 6 practice sessions. I found out two things that day: the track was going to be really rough that weekend and I was going to have a hard time. Great!

The next day, Saturday, was the day that racing started. My three classes were all split into two divisions. That meant that I had to get top 16 in each of those to qualify for the 2nd and 3rd motos. I got 15th in the first 450 B Mod moto, so I made it to the next ones. But I didn't get top 16 in my 250 B Stock and Mod classes. Uh oh! But it ended up going fine. My 250 B Mod last chance qualifier actually went really well. I got the holeshot and led for 2 out of 3 laps! I ended up getting passed and battling, which resulted in me getting 2nd. But that was still awesome!

My second last chance qualifier was 250 B Stock. I kind of wheelied off the start, so I didn't get the holeshot, but I was still up there. I think I got 3rd in that race. I forgot to mention, both lcq's only had 8 and 7 racers in them, so everyone qualified! A lot of us didn't really see a reason to race that, but we did anyway.

That night we went to a hotel that some of our friends were staying at to pay a visit to the pool and hot tub. That was good for sure. My dad and I just slept in our van in the parking lot. :P

The next morning our van had a dead battery, but we still got it started thanks to good old jumper cables! Whew! And then we were off for our last day at the Baja Acres Mid-East Regional. That was the coldest of the days we were there. I think it was in the mid-70's. It was cloudy all day, but we were pretty sure it wasn't going to rain. There was a chance of rain for all weekend. But barely any came!

That day, Sunday, my motos all went pretty similarly. I would have to start near the outside in every race, and then I would have to battle near the back of the pack. In one of my 250 classes I actually got taken out and ran over on the last lap. I'm pretty sure both of those things were accidents... at least the running me over part was!

The challenging track gave me a 22nd overall in 450 B Mod, 22nd overall in 250 B Mod, and 25th overall in 250 B Stock. Not that bad considering each class had as many as 60 guys in it in the beginning!

So I didn't qualify for Loretta Lynn's, but I think I got some good experience racing with all those super fast guys. That's why Loretta Lynn's is so big...

I guess there's always next year! :D