Super Duper New Years MX Bonanza: Saturday

Hola. Today's racing went all right for me. Not really good but not really bad either. We got to the track on time with out any problems. I also found out that we had two rounds of practice. So that meant 4 practices that morning for me, all of them like 5 laps! That's a pretty good amount of riding right there! During one of them, I scrubbed a jump too much and landed sideways. Yeah... I crashed. Usually you're supposed to bring the bike ack straight when you scrub.. Fun. There went my confidence for scrubbing for the day.

Anyway, right after practice I found out that I was in the second race. 8 laps! Suddenly all that practice didn't look so good. But what to do, right?

250 B Moto 1: I got a kind of bad start. I was toward the back somewhere I think. I only had one tear-off, so I was pretty much blind towards the end of the race. Darn. I ended up getting like 18th place. I think 27 started. Ehh.

450 B Moto 1: During this race the track was really rough. Whyyyyyy. This super roughness caused me to get some pretty intense arm pump. Like so bad that I wanted to let my hands go on the finish line triple. I was pretty happy when that was over.
12th.

2-stroke: I signed up for the 2-stroke class expecting to get some experience for Loretta's qualifiers, since that's a new class this year. But I was the only one that signed up for it! Wow. So I had a moto with the 450 A and all. So I got to ride with some of the back of the pack A riders. Oh well. 1st place! :P

And I just watched New Year No Limits. Crazy!

Last day in Florida tomorrow..

-Greg

Super Duper New Years MX Bonanza: Friday

Today was practice at Gatorback. I didn't really want to wake up in the morning again. I mean who does? After a good breakfast we were pretty much ready to go. Practice went fine for me. You know, just a normal practice day pretty much.

BREAKING NEWS: the sign-up people at Gatorback believed I was 18. Yay! :P

While I was watching other practices I saw one guy crash pretty hard. I also saw another guy with a shattered lower leg being taken away. Ouch. The track was pretty rough...

When practice was over, pretty much everything we did was to get ready for the racing tomorrow. Apart from a little bit of trials riding, of course. After we were all done, I saw some little kids riding their pit bikes around everywhere. One of them was just wide open in the pits! Crazy kids..

That's it for the day! -Greg

Super Duper New Years MX Bonanza: Thursday

Yooooo. Today's Thursday, otherwise known as ride at Southern Raceway day! We woke up groggily this morning, just wanting to sleep some more. But we had to be at the track, you know, to ride. So we hit the road with Shane "corn on the" Cobb. Got there right on time and went riding.

First up: Loretta's turn track. Sandy, tilled. Pretty much a perfect turn track. Cobb had that down pretty good. It felt good to go through those turns good. It just didn't feel as good when the turns went bad.. Oh well. The track was surprisingly deepish. I mean, it must be pretty good if you can be pinned on a 250 a bunch, right?

After a brief lecture about not being allowed to ride on the grass, we hit the hill track. This track is in the woods on the side of a big hill. That track was so cool. First you go up a big hill, turn around, do some turns going down a huge hill, turn back around, jump into the whoops, then just go. It's pretty sick.

After calling it quits for the day, I couldn't quite call it quits. I took off all the bulky gear I have and got on my trials bike! :D I went looking for steep stuff to ride up on the hill we rode on earlier. Oh boy, were there some stuff to ride up. I felt pretty accomplished after going up some of the wallish ground. There was also a lot that I didn't do. Still learning, you know? ;)

So we hurried off from the track and went to lunch at Jimano's Pizzaria. This Pizzaria is owned by Dan "father of corn on the" Cobb. Actually that's why we went there. It's a nice place in Cairo, Georgia.

Boom, after that was done/eaten, we went back to the Cobb household to transfer some dirt from our bikes to the ground. I even washed the trials bike. :). Gotta keep that baby clean!

Bri also helped me! She's 3 years old, but wants to help a lot. Yay!

All righty, have a nice day. We're living the high life, actually going to a, wait for it, HOTEL. See ya. -Greg

Super Duper New Years MX Bonanza: Wednesday

On the road again. Just like last night.  Last night actually went by pretty easily for me.  I only had to drive sometime between 2 and 3 AM and then got to go to sleep. It was pretty cold..

I woke up to the warmer weather of Alabama.  All the reddish dirt with green grass on top. Christmas colors!  There are a lot of run down houses down here, though.  Like 3/4 of the houses we passed were trailers with garbage everywhere.  Every once in a while there was some really nice house.  And all the roads are all perfect down here, so I guess the bad is almost balanced by the good.

Soon we got to Monster Mountain.  From the entrance we still had to drive quite a bit.  So the place is big!

At sign up the guy wouldn't believe I was 18!  So I hurried back to get my dad as if I were 17 again.  Darn these handsomely good looks of mine. At least I'll look like I'm 18 when I'm 28. *cough* ;)

There were 20 minute sessions followed by 20 minutes of rest on the main track.  That's a lot of riding.. But it's all good. I did like 5 sessions like that. Tiring.

After the first session I thought that Murphy's law was in full effect.  There was some clanking sound in my engine. Wooowwww.  My dad, being the professional mechanic that he is, quickly deduced that the flywheel weight we added was loose.  It's not supposed to come loose.. Luckily we got that bad boy fixed, minus a fly wheel weight.  

The only not so good thing about having such frequent riding sessions is that there isn't much time to explore the rest of the place. Luckily I found some time and checked out what Monster Mountain has to offer!  At the end I went into the woods and did some trail riding.  Now that was some good trail riding. So awesome!

So now we're on the road again. Going another 4 hours south to Cairo, GA. Let's see how it goes there!

-Greg

DMXS radio tonight!!

Super Duper New Years MX Bonanza: Night 1

So here I am, in the van on the way down south once again. It's winter break, but it doesn't seem like winter at all. Sure, it's pretty cold, but there was only a hint of snow a couple weeks ago. For the past couple of winters my dad and I have gone down south to escape the snow and cold weather of Illinois for a week. This year seems weird because there's not really anything to get away from. I could just go ride somewhere in Illinois! But what's the fun in that, right?

Today we had a plan to leave right after the work day. I'm sure we were both hoping for a quick work day so we could actually get some sleep tonight. That didn't seem to work out that well, because we ended up leaving from work at the same time, if not later, than a normal day. What to do, right?

We weren't really in that much of a hurry when we got home. Sure, absolutely nothing was packed. And sure, we did have to leave soon if we wanted to be able to ride the next day (tomorrow). Ok, I change my mind. We were in a hurry. I threw in my gear, loaded up the 250 and trials bike, and got pretty much ready to go. Of course bring paranoid, my dad wanted to bring another bike with just in case the 2-stroke decides to stop working again. So boom boom boom, we slid that into the little space left in the back. After all, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It's Murphy's Law, man.

So off we were. Since my dad is the primary driver (I merely secondary), I had some time to kill. Well, I still do, but whatever. I got out "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne. I have been reading that for a week now. I felt like finishing it.. Anyway, that book is a perfect example of Murphy's Law. It seems like a bunch of events hinder his journey around the world. But somehow he overcomes everything. So moral of the story: we need that extra bike with. Duh. :P

Oh boy, we still have about 9 hours to go until we get to Monster Mountain (!!!) and the dark flatness everywhere seems to be making us tired. At least those blinking red lights of the giant wind thingies are kind of cool. Wheeeeeeee.

Oh, almost forgot, check out this semi-awesome video I made of myself riding some trials in my yard. Don't criticize me too much; I'm still learning. :D



Have a great day. This has been night 1 of the Super Duper New Years MX Bonanza. Boom.

-Greg

Now time for "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?" Yes.

250 video, November

Hey everybody!  This is a little video I put together on my iPhone.  Most of this was on Thanksgiving today.  We got the 250 2-stroke back together on Saturday after blowing it up a couple weeks ago.  All good now!

Not much has been going on lately.  It's getting colder, but I'm still getting out to ride twice a week.  I've also started running more.  You see, I used to hate running a lot.  I thought it was one of the worst things..  But now I started running for some reason, and it's actually pretty peaceful!  So I pretty much made an enemy into a friend. Yay!

See ya, enjoy the video! -Greg

2011 Club 57 Challenge

Hey everybody!  The Club 57 challenge was today!  And it couldn't have gone much better. 

I knew I was going to have a lot of riding at this race, so some extra rest from day light savings time helped me out a little.  We even got to the track early! That's a little different than usual.  So I had plenty of time to get ready for the sight lap.  Ahh, the sight lap.. Some parts of the track were so slippery, especially the grass track part.  At that point I got a little nervous for the race.

But what was there to worry about, anyway?  This was the first race I've done where we had a dead engine start.  This was good for my 250 races, but not as good for my 450 races. Ok, on to the racing part...

450 moto 1:  Didn't get bike started on first kick.  I was like in 8th place about 3 turns into the race.  Made some passes and then got into a good battle with Malachi Messenger.  I almost got by him halfway through the race, but I missed a line.. That's ok. On the last lap there was someone down, Malachi went to the inside, I went to the outside.  And I just pinned it past him.  Lucky me!  So I got 2nd in my class in that race, but 3rd with the combined classes...

250 moto 1:  Boom, holeshot!  Push push push.  30 second lead. Win! :D That's about it for that moto.

450 moto 2:  Bad start again, hectic first turn with some guys going down in front of me.  But I got by it fine and started pushing.  The guy who beat me in the first 450 moto was right in front of me, and I knew I had to pass him to get the overall win.  And guess what happened on the second to last lap: he fell over!  Boom, I got around and just kept it on two wheels for the rest of the race. 1st overall!

250 moto 2:  Ok, at this point in the day I was pretty tired.  But I had to try and win the overall.  So I started it off good with another holeshot!  About two turns into the race my fingers and my legs started cramping up.  Ouch.  But I got relaxed and kept pushing.  It was on the second or third lap when I stalled my bike, which allowed Scott Zont to get by.  He was right on me, anyway.  At that point there was absolutely no one behind me for quite some time.  So all I had to do was ride out the race to get the overall win.  Well, I kept pushing but I also didn't stress about it too much.  I had to focus on not messing up in some rutted woods sections..

So today was a successful day!  Two 1st place overalls.  So now I'm super tired from the four 30 minute motos...

Have a nice day! -Greg

Getting colder

It's starting to get colder here in Illinois.  Luckily I've had a good amount of riding lately.  A couple weeks ago I went to a GP race at Sunset Ridge.  That was a kind of weird day because we woke up super late but still had plenty of time to get to the track in time for the 450 class.  Since it was more of an old-school type of race, I put on some UFO retro gear and raced my 250 2-stroke.  I remember that in the first moto I had a good battle with some guys the first two laps and then caught up to first place.  But the leader started pulling away from me in the woods section every lap.  2nd place wasn't too bad!  The arm pump from that race was kind of bad...

The 2nd moto started off good with a good start, but went bad pretty fast.  First lap in the woods I went off the trail and, therefore, had to get off my bike, pull it back, and then get going again.  That made pretty much everyone pass me...  So I started pushing hard and slid out in the grass track part.  That race just wasn't very good for me.  I still ended up passing a bunch of people and getting 4th place or something.  3rd overall on the day wasn't that bad!  That was the first race I did since the Lake County Fair.

The following weeks it started raining a lot more and, therefore, there was a little less dirt bike riding and a little more mountain bike riding at Ray's MTB.  That place is funnnn!  It's not as fun if you face plant in the expert jumps, though.  Yep, I face planted in the expert jumps.  Kind of hurt...  Now I've recovered from those injuries, though.

While recovering from those injuries I decided to go to the last Red Bud practice day of the year.  The track was really soft from the rain.  But it was also really good!  My practices were going really good, I was riding the fastest I've ever ridden there before.  It felt good!  But in the second to last practice I blew up my yz 250...  This was the same lap that I got my fastest lap.  Danggg.  And when I went out for the last practice on the 450, I crashed pretty hard coming out of a turn.  I didn't know it until I got off the track, but I had dislocated my pinkie.  Ouchie.  We got it back in place, though.  It was a pretty destructive day!

Lately there's been more rain and more riding.  The rain has given me a little extra time to do things I haven't done.  Like write this blog.  And apply to colleges.  Yes, I actually started applying to college.  Pretty crazy, I know.

For the winter months my dad and I are trying to make my 1974 CB200 awesome.  I hope it comes out good.  I'll try to keep all of you updated.

-Greg

Bike POV video

If you're bored, check this bad boy out. I was bored and felt like doing this! :D

My summer 2011 video

Watch this if you want. But as a warning, it may be pretty mind numbing. Enjoy!

2-stroke madness

Hey everybody!  It's been a while since I last wrote.  Drum roll...

By no means have my last weeks been filled with boredom.  Well, it depends on what you consider exciting, so I'll start with the more "boring" stuff.  School started.  In the middle of August.  Yes, it's pretty early.  But this means that we'll get out of school earlier.  And that means an earlier graduation! 

I know most of you probably don't care, but I'm gonna say it anyway...  I have a fully packed schedule at school.  I wanted it this way, so I get what I asked for.  Some classes are pretty easy so far.  It seems like I have a pretty balanced class list.  That being AP Chemistry (hard) vs all the rest (easy).  Well, pretty exciting, huh?

On to the more exciting info.

The first travel in a couple weeks for me was to the Indianapolis Moto GP race.  I must admit, it's kind of boring to watch the racing for me, since I don't know everything going on with their technique and stuff.  But the atmosphere there is amazing.  Thousands of people.  All these people walking around doing whatever they're doing.  There are plenty of bikes, of course.  Ducati Island is a really cool place.  Ducati bikes everywhere.  A fashion show of clothing with "Ducati" written all over them.

Then there are the vendors.  Or manufacturers. Whatever.  It's cool to see the street side of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, KTM, Honda.  It expands my vision of them from just motocross to other areas.  Me gusta.

Well, enough of that. On to some Mx.  We recently rebuilt my 125 into a 144.  It unfortunately seized earlier in the year.  Now it's all fixed!  That's the only bike I rode for two or three weeks.  Sooooo light.  The first ride on it went good for me, not so good for my friend Cody VanBuskirk who injured his shoulder pretty badly.  Slick tracks and high grass = not so good.

We've been thinking about it for a while now, about getting a 250 2-stroke.  To me this kind of bike represents having power at your finger tips (actually wrist and motor, ha) and keeping it fun.  So one morning my dad said he found one for a good deal.  Bam, after a mountain bike ride with Chris Favro, we were all over that bike.  I tried it out in the street in front of their house (imagine a 2-stroke pinned, shifting gears).  Mucho power.  So I took out the money.

I wanted to try it out right away, of course.  To Kody Kamm's track we went.  If you've ever been to this track, then you know it's not really a place to take a bunch of explosive power.  But I wanted to.  You see, if I liked it at this track, then I know I'll like it everywhere!  Rain the night before helped me out.  The track was just about perfect. And I was the only one there.  I liked the bike.

The next day (Labor day), my family and I trekked out to Red Bud.  The track was perfect.  Ruts and traction, yet not too many deep ruts.  I took the 250 2-stroke (yz) out there first.  Good.  Second time out on the bike = not so good.  It seized in the fricken rollers!  Second day riding it and it seized.  I thought these things were supposed to be cheaper...

Luckily I had two other bikes with me, too.  I felt fastest on the 125, but the 250 (4-stroke) actually pulled me around the fastest.  Of course.  The last session of the day was actually my best session out there.  Yes, with all the bumps everywhere.

Well, that's about it, people.  Gotta get up early in the morning. Later! -Greg

Lake County Fair: Wednesday

Yo everybody!  Wednesday was a good day for me. Well, at least the end part of it was.  Practice was going all right until the last one, where I had a crash with another guy.  There was this little double before the finish line. Some ruts were in the face and there was some mud in the middle. So this one guy got sideways on the landing after not jumping it.  Uh oh.  I basically t-boned him on the landing. Ouch! My knee was killing me for the rest of the night.

Luckily I didn't have anything go wrong after that.  3rd and 5th in the heat races was the best I could do.  After that I iced my knee and wrapped it so it wouldn't hurt as much.  Wouldn't you know, it worked!  I took my favorite starting spot way on the inside and got a second place start. Not bad. Two laps in the leader's bike seized or something. I was in the lead!  For the rest of the race I just tried not making any mistakes. So I won that 250 race. Yessssss!

The 450 race didn't go as good, but it wasn't bad either.  I just got an all right start and got into 4th place early. That's where I finished, too.  But I wasn't making many mistakes in that race, either.  So I was happy.

That's pretty much how my day went on Wednesday. A lot of carnage both days!

See ya. -Greg

Lake County Fair: Tuesday

Hey everybody! Tonight I raced at the Lake County Fair. All in all pretty good. It's always fun at that event. The first couple races were pretty rough for me, though. I had like 4 crashes. Booooo. But at least I got them out of the way for the mains. Speaking of mains, I got the holeshot in the 250 main and finished in 2nd. Not bad. It was cool 'cause I got to be on the podium (which consisted of the ground and our bikes). Happy happy.  450 main also went all right. Mid pack start, pushed the first lap past some people. Then I just couldn't get past #111. Oh well. 4th place is all right I guess.  I'm looking for an even better day tomorrow there! Hopefully it doesn't rain too much!

-Greg

Crashing Sucks

Hey everybody! Right now I'm going home with my Dad from our weekend at Red Bud. It sure was an interesting weekend. Well, maybe not interesting enough for us, though! When we were watching the pros on Saturday I always wanted to fall asleep in my lawn chair. I almost did a couple times, too. There was a lot of good racing, I just felt tired 'cause we only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before!

Our friend Kody Kamm qualified for the 250 motos, so that was cool for us to watch!

After finishing watching the last women's moto, my dad and I had to somehow clean ourselves. So we just went to a local lake to "swim." Problem solved!

Sunday was eventful, yet not so eventful. I decided to just race Open B. We were just hoping to be able to get out earlier. First moto, I was. Mid-pack start, good first two laps, and then a stupid little tip over when I tried a new line which just happened to go off the track. I was running 12th, but I finished 15th because of the tip over.

After that I had a lot of time to kill before my next moto. That time consisted of riding a bike around, eating, sitting, and looking at chicks. Yes, very eventful (not).

I got pretty pumped up for the second moto. I tried an indian scream (albeit weak). Started way inside. 11th off start. Some guy tried taking me out, but I passed him back cleanly in a sweeper. I felt great for the first half lap! Then I suddenly didn't feel so good. I was really trying to charge into the turns, and I ended up getting kicked over the bars. Ouch. I think my bike hit me too. Ugh. So then I kind of cruised the rest of the two and a half laps. My front end was totally twisted at first. Luckily bikes like to straighten themselves. I was then just trying to have fun hitting the rollers good. I was trying to also not get kicked over the bars again. I felt like I was on a bull. 28th in second moto gave me 22nd overall.

After that whole fiasco, I discovered that I lost my helmet cam in that crash. I was gonna get all you guys some awesome footage, but the clip broke right off. I tried to find it, but no luck. Maybe the track crew will find it...

That's it for now. I'm now trying to recover from my shoulder, knee, and ankle hurtiness. I know, not a word. Who cares. See ya! -Greg

On The Road Again

It's 1 am and my dad and I are on the road again. Red Bud bound. We haven't been there to see the pro national in a couple years, so we really wanted to go this year. You see, now we can cheer on Kody Kamm, Scott Zont, and some other guys!

Yep, it's gonna be a good day, I think. I hope it's not too muddy for us spectators!

After that day I think we're gonna stay for the amateur race there on Sunday. Actually, we might leave for the night and go back in the morning because the camping fee is freakin ridiculous. We might pay a visit to our favorite meat store by there, too. Hooray for cheap food!

See ya. -Greg

Riding

Hey people of the world! The past few weeks have been filled with work, riding, and little free time. I went to Kamm's track a couple times in these weeks. For some reason the track is always muddy when i go there. It can't be because of all the rain we've had, though. :P

I've also been to one new place and back to Doug Gust's house. Crazy huge jumps. Fun. Yesssss. Gust's house is just a bike destroyer, though. Almost everybody there seemed to have something wrong with their bike. My chain snapped... Nonono not so good. But at least i conquered all the jumps! Since my bike broke i got to test out an '03 ktm 450. That thing still hauls the mail even though it's pretty old. It did it's job. I ruined the sprockets on it though. Sorry Ralph!

That's pretty much all that's been going on. This weekend I'm gonna go cheer on some guys at Red Bud! Should be a fun day.

-Greg

Red Bud Regional: Sunday

Hey people! Sunday didn't really go as planned for me, but it wasn't that bad of a day overall. I had 3 motos. I had battles going on in all of them. The only problem was that those battles were happening towards the back of the pack.

I may try again in two weeks at Millville. We'll see! Have a nice day! -Greg

Red Bud Regional: Saturday

Hey everybody! This weekend I'm trying to qualify to Loretta Lynn's. Most things are going pretty good except the actual qualifying part.

On Friday we had some intensely rough practice at Red Bud. It rained the night before, so the ground was pretty soft all day. My dad and I almost didn't even go to practice because of the rain, but at the last minute we went. From the soft dirt came a bunch of ruts and big bumps. Yeah, it was pretty hard to ride. I think it helped me out for Saturday, though.

Saturday got pretty much just as rough, if not worse. Oh well. Some of my races went pretty good, though. In my first collegeboy race I got 10th, which I consider to be pretty good at a regional! A good start helped in that one. At the end of the day I had another collegeboy race, but this one had both divisions combined. Start= no bueno. I finished 19th in that one on a super bumpy track. I guess that's how I would've finished anyway without it being divided.

450 B mod went all right as well. I got a good start but couldn't stay up there very well. I ended up finishing 16th. 450 B stock went differently. I actually rode a 450 in that one, but the problem is that my starts suck on the 450! I got 20th in the first race, so I had to go to the last chance qualifier. Top 4 make it. Easy, right? Not if your starts suck. 7th = no qualify for other motos. Oh well. It's tough at these regionals.

I have three more motos tomorrow! Wish me luck again! -Greg

Hot hot hot

Hey everybody!  The past couple weeks I have been really busy all the time.  I guess that's a good thing, huh? School ended for me two weeks ago.  I only had one test left in the morning and then I was free! Or was I?  Right away my dad picked me up and we went to work.  We have been working almost everyday for the past two weeks.  But we still find time to go riding.  Both weekends so far I have been going riding with some guys that live by me.  It was pretty fun to go with them.  So I actually got to go riding a couple times every week so far.  Last wednesday, a guy from seven50seven.com was out at Kamm's track taking some awesome pics.  Go check them out at his website!

I also got to ride at Doug Gust's place this past weekend.  Now that track has some big jumps!  He has a really cool set up over there.  Track around his house in the woods. A lake to ride jet skis on. Heck, even a mini airport!  Yeah, it's pretty cool over there.

Also, it has been getting very hot here in Illinois recently.  The temperature's have been in the upper 90s for the past couple days.  That feels very hot because we have only had cold weather so far this year!  But it's all good.  The Red Bud regional is coming up this weekend, too.  I'm really hoping to qualify in at least one class to Loretta Lynn's.  Wish me luck.

Have a nice day! -Greg

Ki Tracks Video

Hola!  This weekend I went to Ki Tracks for the first time in about two or three years.  The track was pretty different from the last time I was there.  It was good, though.  The track flowed well and it was a lot of fun.  It was good seeing some people who I rode with a few years ago.  Here's a helmet cam video I took there.



-Greg

Some Pics

Yo! This week was pretty normal for me once again.  On Wednesday I went riding at Kody Kamm's house again.  I got to ride with some people there.  It was going good, but both my 450 and 250 had problems.  First the 450's rear sprocket got pretty much totally round.  Then later I got a flat tire on my 250.  Dang.  At the end Vaughn Mays was doing some step up on the huge wood chip pile there.  That was pretty cool!

Today I had a good bike ride at a local park while it was drizzling a little.  I rode for 20 miles, which felt good to do.  That's pretty much it for what happened this week.  Next week will be cool because it's the last week of school for me as a junior!  I'm pretty excited for the summer.

Here's some pictures from the past couple weeks:

It was really muddy at Steel City!

Some off track jumping at Byron

125 action!

Riding at Texas about a month ago

Qualifier and crazy rain

Hey everybody!  Last weekend was the Loretta Lynn's area qualifier at Byron Motosports Park.  The track is totally different this year.  But I think the racing remained similar.  I like how it's different now, though.  Over the two days of racing I had an overall not so good performance.  But by the end of Sunday I was riding like I should have rode all along.  This bad riding caused me to qualify in just two classes.  Oh well.  There were some fast guys there for sure.  My mom and sister also came out on Sunday even though it was Mother's Day.

On Wednesday it was supposed to rain all day.  But somehow it seemed to be fine out all day.  So my dad and I decided to go to Kamm's track to ride.  On the way there it just started pouring on us!  Hail was flying at our windshield.  There was even a tornado warning siren going off through one town!  But after going sideways in rain ruts we got to the track.  I put on my gear and rode.  Cliff Kamm groomed the track and everything.  It turned out good.  It was pretty cool landing from a jump and seeing lightning hit at the same time.  It kind of felt like I was in some movie where everything's timed to make everything look awesome.  Man, I'm glad we got out of there good!

Today my dad and I did an hour and 40 minute bike ride at a local forest preserve.  It was the first time in a while that we had rode there.  This fact made it seem kind of new to me.  Ok, it didn't really seem new, but it sure was good to get out and ride!

Have a nice day! -Greg

Mud City at Steel City

Hey everybody! This weekend I was at Steel City racing in the Pennsylvania mud. I think we all had a prettt nice time.

It rained Friday night and Saturday morning quite a bit. But riding in the mud actually wasn't that bad for me. I got out front in practice so I wouldn't have to worry about all the guys roosting me. I felt good for my races after that.

We were expecting a lot more rain, so the track guys cut the races down to one moto for each class. In my 450 B stock race I got a pretty bad start and fell in the second turn in some ruts. Not good. But I caught all the way up to 7th, which was prettt good. A bunch of guys were mad at the start of that because we were only racing one moto. Oh well.

My 250 B stock race went better. I got a 2nd place start and was in the top 3 until I stalled my bike! It was so muddy that we had to stop every lap in between two barrels to get our number plates wiped off. On the first or second lap I left my bike in too high of a gear and stalled it. Dang. So I charged back up through the pack. On the last lap I got back up to the 3rd place guy. He roosted me really badly, though, so I had to take my goggles off if I wanted to be able to see. So with half a lap left I charged side by side with him. He ended up splashing me twice more and cutting a turn. So I got 4th. But it sure was fun! I was the last moto. We finished a little before noon!

After more rain and bike washing it was time to do it again on Sunday. But this time the mud stuck a lot better and it was somehow even more slick. Practice went really bad for me with crashing 3 times. My races went better, though.

In my first 450 B mod moto I got a pretty bad start but passed people and dodged crashed guys to get up to 2nd place. I was feeling good up until the last turn. I missed my line and had to take a different one. That line didn't work out too good for me because I fell over. Uh oh! I had a really big gap on 3rd, but I couldn't get my bike started fast enough. We drag raced up the last hill, but he beat me with his momentum from the turn. So 3rd it was. The second 450 moto went all right, too. I passed guys to get to 5th. Those scores were good enough to get me a 3rd overall! Yay!

Collegeboy didn't go as well. Not even close. We were 2nd gate drop but I somehow forgot about it in the first moto. So I took off thinking that the other guys jus weren't ready. Two other guys in my class did, too. I felt good riding. After the race I found out i went with the wrong start. There was then an announcement that they wanted to redo the race because of some guys missing the race an others going with the wrong start. A lot of the riders were mad, though. They didn't want to redo it. So we didn't race it again. They put me in 15th place out of 19. Dang.

The second Collegeboy race went all right. Ok start, ok riding, ok finish (6th). Just nothing great. So I got 11th overall. Not good.

I think I can now call Steel City as being Mud City after this weekend. The track got really rutted and muddy. Oh the joy. Shane Cobb had some ok rides, too, and once almost took an ambulance ride. Now it's time to go back home. Bye! -Greg

P.S. I got to see some old friends from a couple years ago, too!

Steel City! Day 1

Hey everybody! Today I rode at Steel City in the nice weather. My dad and I went with Shane Cobb. That includes their motorhome, which, by the way, is freaking huge!

The track was pretty challenging for me all day. On the second lap of practice I went for this really big step up. It seemed small, but it turned out not to be. I cased the crap out of it and did a superman. I saved it, luckily. I didn't try the jump again. The rest of the track was all good except for some deep ruts. Oh well.

We're expecting rain all day tomorrow... Uh oh. That's generally NOT what you want on race day. But it'll all be good.

Good night! -Greg

Everything's bigger in Texas: Day 6 and 7

Hey everybody! Saturday was a pretty awesome day. We decided that we were gonna go ride early in the morning a little and then go watch the Dallas supercross. But, of course, we left our hotel a little late. Oh well. We were just used to getting up later. So we hurried on over to Oak Hill and put in some quick laps! I also got helmet cams from the 450 and 125. Yay!

A quick powerwash shower later we were on our way to the stadium. Of course there was traffic, though. When we were close Norman and I hopped out and ran over to the pits. We got in free because we brought Monster cans. Isn't that just great. So we went in with empty Monster cans. I was drinking a Red Bull, though. :P The first thing we did was play the Mx vs Atv Alive demo. Pretty great!

When we went into the stadium we saw that we had seats right in the corner of where pretty much all the crashes and action would happen later on. Then we witnessed some crazy racing! Everything in the stadium was super expensive, so I starved myself for a few hours. I refuse to pay $10 for a cheeseburger! So a little past midnight we stopped and ate at Denny's. Mmmmmmm. That pretty much started our drive back to Illinois. That's all we've been doing today: driving.

The Texas trip was awesome. -Greg

Everything's bigger in Texas: Day 5

Hey! I think today is what you would call a recovery day. We did want to go riding, but things just didn't work out. First of all, some of us are a little slow at getting up in tye morning. *Cough, cough* Secondly we had to get tomorrow's Supercross tickets for a little cheaper price. So, yes, we drove to Cowboys Stadium in the middle of the day. We discovered that the traffic is really bad towards Dallas. Oh well.

We did eventually get to the track, but they were already grooming the track for tomorrow! I guess we were a tad bit late. To take up some time we walked a supercross track and played some basketball. Yeah, we were rocking some HORSE! And we couldn't end the day without going swimming again. A couple belly flops later we were all done. I doubt we're gonna get to sleep soon because we had a few red bulls. Oh well. Tomorrow will just be a little harder to get up. Bye bye! -Greg

Everything's bigger in Texas: Day 4

Today was a really tiring day. All I did were sprints, 2 or 3 laps at a time. And it worked, too! I got my fastest lap time down 7 seconds from yesterday. But as of now it's hard for me to keep that pace for long. Maybe it's from sleeping in every day this week. :P Tomorrow's our last day of riding down here. Holy moly. Hopefully tomorrow goes awesome too! -Greg

Everything's bigger in Texas: Day 3

Hola! Day 3 on this trip was another normal day. Normal if you consider riding at a perfectly groomed Oak Hill normal! Norman and I got to shred for a few hours. Niiiiice. After some chinese food and swimming I'm ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow we're riding at Oak Hill again... On the ungroomed version! Bye bye. -Greg

Everything's bigger in Texas: Day 2

Hey everybody!  Today was our second day on this trip.  We got to Oakhill a little after noon and had some good lunch.  Practice didn't start until 2.  So we had some time.  Everyone rode on the GP track today.  It was sweet!  The track was really soft and got a little rutty as well.  That means it was good!  There was some light drizzle during the day, but it wasn't anything bad.  I thought it would be warm down here, but it was actually colder than it was in Missouri!  But it's ok.  It's supposed to get warmer.

After riding we decided to find a hotel.  This ended up being a bigger problem than we thought it would be.  We finally decided on a Holiday Inn.  By the time we were at the hotel it was already 9 P.M.  Oh well.  Me and Norman were hungry, so we decided to go to the gas station nearby for some Subway.  But Subway was closed! :O  We ended up buying some sandwhiches, chips, and milk.  Not bad.

That's about all that happened here today.  Tomorrow should be another good day of riding!  -Greg

Everything's bigger in Texas: Day 1

Yo! After careful consideration of a few hours, we all decided to take a little trip down to Texas. Our plan's pretty much this: drive down, hit up a few tracks, and finish up with watching the Dallas supercross. Day 1 was a success!

Today (Monday) we drove to the middle of Missouri to a state park. Me and Norman slept well in our bed while our dad's stayed up to drive. When we arrived at the park we kind of got worried. There was a lot of water everywhere! But it was all good. The track had a little bit of water on it, but it was fine. If anything it was way hard packed. But what can you expect from a place that costs $5 to get in?

We practiced some ruts and I got to practice my whips. Fun stuff! So today's day of riding was good. As we're driving right now I looked at the weather and it's raining up there! We got out just in time. Now after some great Mexican food, we're on our way down to the big TX! We were thinking of stopping at Oklahoma tomorrow, but I guess it's supposed to rain there. Noooooo. But a few extra hours of driving tonight won't do ME AND NORMAN any harm. I don't know about our dad's, though. ;P hehehe.

So I guess I'll see how big Texas is tomorrow. Oakhill, here we come! -Greg

Wildcat Creek Area Qualifier

Hey everybody! This past weekend I went to a Loretta Lynn's area qualifier at Wildcat Creek. Some of our friends from Estonia also arrived at our house a couple days before that. Norman and his dad Mada came here to ride for a month. I got "kicked out" of my room now, but it's all good. I think I like sleeping downstairs better right now, anyway. :P

Norman Madiberg

Back to the race. On Saturday I race 250 B Stock and 450 B Stock. It was the rougher day for me. My starts sucked and I had tip overs or other problems in pretty much every moto. The track ended up getting pretty hard-packed and dusty. In 250 B Stock I went 17-12 for 16th overall. Uhh, not too good. Not even close to a qualifying position. At least 450 B Stock went better: 10-11 for 9th overall. That's only one position out of qualifying, so I'm pretty much good to go.

Last turn pass by me

Saturday was a long day. Someone got hurt in the first practice, so delays actually pushed the first motos two or three hours back. We got out of the track at about 7:30. We were all pretty hungry by then. So by 9 P.M. we went to a Chinese buffet. Now that was some good Chinese food. It was late when we got back to the hotel, but Norman and I wanted to go swimming. It was nice to swim and go into the sauna a little. Oh yeah.

Norman Madiberg

On the way to the track the next morning I checked the weather forecast. There was a 70% chance of rain! I was pretty surprised by it. Just the day before it had said 20%. Does weather reports are always jumping all around. But the day went almost totally rain free. I felt JUST ONE rain drop fall on me during the day. Just one! Numero uno. 1. Yeah, that was some great 70% chance. So the track was equally dusty as the day before.

Cody VanBuskirk convinced me to try racing the Collegeboy class. That ended up being a pretty good decision. In the first moto I got a 5th place, right behind 3rd and 4th place. But my second moto was a lot better. I got the holeshot on my 250 and led for a couple laps! I did get passed by one guy, though. Then I just started making mistakes. So I finished 2nd in that moto. That gave me a 3rd overall in Collegeboy. Success!

Me

450 B Modified went differently. I went 9-8 for a 9th overall. In the second moto I actually passed the guy who beat me in the second Collegeboy moto. I got him on the last lap. I didn't realize it until after the race, though. Sweet.

That's about how my weekend went. Monday I had some intense trampoline jumping with Norman as a workout. I think the trampoline's gonna fall apart one of these days for sure. Two of the legs are already pretty much broken off...

Well, have a nice day! -Greg

My dad and Mada

Sand Again

Hey everybody! I went riding at Fred Bud again today. It was different from the other two times I've been there; it wasn't really wet. This time I also rode the full length track. Pretty good! The other part of the track is a little more hardpacked with smaller bumps. But there's a lot of bumps! Today Vaughn Mays and Jake Boss were riding there too. It was fun riding with Jake this one moto. I was just right behind him for a couple laps and actually had a couple close calls! But I ended up just losing my front end in this powdery berm. Oh well.

For my last ride I tried to go for as long as I could. That ended up being 35 minutes on the rough sand track. I did have some problems though. Right on the first lap I stalled my bike. Dang. A couple laps later I stuffed it too hard into a sand berm... That's not really a good idea if you don't want to crash! Also, there was this long uphill sand straight away which got a rut in it from us just keeping it pinned up it. One lap I kind of got sideways and just out of control. My legs flew off to one side of the bike and I was just dragged like that until I layed it over. Whew! Luckily I didn't really hurt anything. Gnarly.

It was good practice today and I think I'm ready for the Lorreta Lynn's area qualifier next weekend. My dad put the 250 together again and it's looking awesome. I can't wait to ride it next weekend! Have a nice day! -Greg

AGV Dainese riding

Man, this weekend was pretty good. Saturday night was another awesome Daytona supercross race on TV and Sunday was a day all full of riding. I thought it was supposed to be 40 degrees outside all day, but when we got there, it was only slightly above freezing! It ended up being fine, thankfully. It actually snowed there the day before, so the track had some snow on it at first, but it was all good. I rode several times and felt better at the end than at the beginning.

The day before my dad and I stopped by the Dainese D-Store in Chicago. With the help of them we finally got the best protection! I bought the N-Frame back protector and a chest protector as well. Check them out! Dainese D-Store Chicago They were really helpful for us! Thanks!

My dad took a bunch of pictures, too, of me riding on Sunday. I put a lot of them on my facebook (Pics). But here are a few of the pics. Yeah, the sand track is as good as it looks.

Later! -Greg

Whooo sand!

Hey everybody! Today was the first day since the beginning of January that I rode on an outdoor track. My dad and I heard about this track south of Chicago a couple weeks ago. After a little bit of calling we found out that we could go. At first we had no idea how to get there. We drove around quite a bit down there. Luckily we saw Matt Hammond's dad and just followed him there! When we got there I saw quite a bit of people riding. Sweet. The track is all sand with natural rollers everywhere. The first lap around I was going side to side a lot. I was thinking, "uh oh!" Yeah, pretty tough.

I could do a few laps at a time before I got this huge arm pump. I was sometimes worried about my hands coming off the bars in the straights! Luckily I got more used to it in a couple times out. Gnarly track! After a little bit it started POURING rain. But I was pretty happy; the track was pretty much the same before the rain! Ahh, you gotta love sand. I think if I go there to ride often, I'll become a different rider. The guy who owns it is really nice,too. Whew, I'm pretty tired now!

I think this year should go good. Especially if I go riding to that sand track often. Well, have a nice day! -Greg :)

Ray's Helmet Cam

Here's a sweet video I made with my helmet cam and some computer magic. I got footage of the pump track, XC course, and expert jumps. Some of my family members and friends are in it too! You'll just have to watch the video to find out exactly who. Also, I guess there's some copyright issue with one of the songs I used, so I'm suggesting you just put some music on in the background while I try to get this thing figured out! Enjoy. -Greg

Indoor Fun

Hey everybody! Since it's so cold and snowy here, I have been doing quite a bit of indoor riding on my bikes. A couple weeks ago my dad and I decided to go check out Racine Indoor Mx. It must not have been a popular day to ride since almost no one was there! Oh well. I got a lot of riding in and had some fun. The following week I went again one day. That day seemed to be a lot more popular because people were actually there. I then actually got to race some people with lap times. Oh, the second time I rode my 125 (newly a 144). That bike rips around Racine! Anyway, my best time was a 1:02.9.

The day after that my mom got home from Florida and we all decided to go ride bikes at Ray's Mountain Bike Park in Milwaukee. It was the grand opening weekend and we thought it would be sweet. And it was! There were a lot of people there for the grand opening. Some pros were there, too. It felt good to ride in there. They sure make fun stuff! When it was almost time to leave I got the opportunity to stay with the Favro's at their hotel and ride again the next day. So I stayed.

I rented a bike the next day and tried starting to master more sections. Lots of fun for sure.

This week of school has been good. That's because we've barely had any! Tuesday night a huge blizzard rolled through the midwest and we got a lot of snow. From that we got two days of school off. It was pretty bad shoveling the couple feet of snow. Oh man, there was a lot of it. Thank god for our neighbor Andy helping us out with his snow blower!

We didn't want to waste our second snow day on nothing, so guess what we did. We went to Ray's again! This time my sister's friend Jackie came with. Also, there was almost no one at the indoor mountain bike park. The whole park was ours for the shredding. By the end of the day we were all really tired again. I mastered more of the expert jumps and starting doing some cool doubles through the pump track. I felt pretty good. I also got some helmet cam video in there. Hopefully I'll have that up soon.

That's basically all I've done over the past two weeks. It's actually quite a bit. I'm glad we have these indoor tracks around here when it's so cold and snowy outside! Later! -Greg

Sears Centre Arenacross

Hey everybody! This weekend was filled with motocross for me, just like it should be! Thursday night I just kind of decided that I should try out Arenacross. It was a total last minute thing. So I left school a little early and quickly helped load up the bikes. When we got there we had to park quite a bit away from the track. So we got to ride the bikes into the stadium.

The pits were something as well. There was barely room to get through. We put my bikes almost all the way on the other side of the stadium. But that's not that far considering how small a hockey arena really is. Practice started pretty quickly and I had two quick sessions. The track was really basic, but the finish line was really intimidating for me. So intimidating that I didn't do it at all! A little later we had two quick heat races as well to determine our gate positions for the mains. My 250 B heat went pretty well! I got a second place start from the outside and stayed in second the whole 4 laps. I was happy with that. My 450 B heat didn't go as well, though. I got a bad start and was pretty much last halfway through the first lap. Not too good! I didn't get by too many people in the 4 laps either.

It turned out that we had quite a bit of time left then until the mains. So I just went into the stands and watched the pro practices with my mom and dad. It was funny how the pros started jumping the finish within the first few laps and I didn't do it at all. Oh snap! Those guys are pretty fearless!

My 250 B main could have gone better for sure, but it's part of the experience. My start was good with being in second going into the first turn, but it all went downhill from there. I got passed by several people before the second turn. On the third lap when I came out of the whoops I jammed on the rear brake hoping to just make a quick turn and pass the guy in front of me. Uhh, it didn't work out so good. My rear wheel just slid out really fast and I ended up backwards on the track. So much for that pass... Then I had trouble getting back into a rhythm as well. I ended up 10th in that race. Deep breaths. Just part of the experience.

My 450 B main went quite a bit better. I had to start from the second row because of my crappy heat. But because of that I got to start behind the good starters on the inside! So I just stuck right behind them in the first turn and came out in the top 5 on the first lap. Yay! I stayed in 5th throughout the whole race. I did almost get passed by Malachi Messenger on the second to last lap, but I held him off. I was happy with that race. I got a sweet plastic plaque thingy for getting fifth place. :P

Arenacross was a cool experience for sure. The adrenaline rush of the short races were cool. Later watching the pro races were fun too. The mud bog at the end was pretty lame though, I have to admit. Well it depends on who you ask. There were some kids gathering huge mud balls in the stands... I bet they thought the mud bog was awesome!

Photo by Chelsea Sanders

I decided not to race again the next day. I heard that someone broke their neck that night. Not good!

Instead I wrestled in the morning and won both of my matches. Then I slept for a few hours in the afternoon so I could get some energy to stay up to watch the supercross. I thought it was awesome watching that. So awesome that I watched it again in the morning.

Ice riding was the name of the game on Sunday. After packing our stuff my dad and I left to a lake with our friends Ralph and Evan. It was on Lily Lake, I think. There I rode with Brad Jerominski, Cody VanBuskirk, and a few other people. My first session out there I rode for over 40 minutes! The "road" course was awesome. I just got a flow and was trying to not lose too much time to Brad! That was a lot of fun. Later I also rode the oval. I did have one small crash at the end of the day, though. I was just going into a corner just like I always did, but there were some bumps that had developed on the ice now. My front end just washed out and I hit my elbow on the ground pretty good. Luckily my RXR jacket protected me! So ice riding was awesome for sure.

That's it for now. Have an awesome day! -Greg :D

Lakes Are Sweet

Here we go, my first post of 2011! That means that Supercross has started, which is just amazing. I've been waiting a while now, reading the latest tweets, watching videos, just getting excited for Anaheim 1. Last night was that night! And it didn't disappoint. We had a Supercross party at our house with the Lung family. It's always cool to watch this together with other people. At 1 A.M. it all ended and I was pretty happy. So guess what I did? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The next (this) morning my dad and I decided to go ice riding. Yeah! The only problem was we didn't have studded tires on yet. But guess what... it wasn't a problem at all! My dad used a new tool that we got from Estonia to easily install the tires on. Well, I thought it looked easy. We then went to a lake where Vaughn Mays was. It was the first time I have gone riding on a lake, so it was a new experience. There was a group of guys with old bikes there riding an oval, which was pretty cool. Vaughn and I rode a turn track on the ice as well. The way the bike handles is definitely a bit different on ice than on dirt. I tried Vaughn's bike once as well and it was good. After a few hours we left happy.

Yes, this was a good weekend. Have a nice day! -Greg