2026, Well another Hangtown in the books!

This was my fifth year working my ass off as a Security Guard for the Dirt Diggers in the team Husqvarna pits. I was looking forward to doing this again for a couple of reasons. RJ Hampshire was one of my favorite 250 riders, that’s why I picked the Husky pits five years ago; I have always liked his race mentality, never quit. I believe he’s a better 450 rider than a 250. I was also looking forward to seeing his growing family, the first year I was in the Husky pits his daughter had probably been walking for months only and she cruised around the pits all day, she never stopped. I was also looking forward to seeing Big James, Malcolm and James Stewart’s father, I’ve said before he’s fun to be around.

Unfortunately RJ’s family didn’t come, Malcolm was injured at Paula the week before so not only was he not there neither was his dad. So I started off the weekend batting zero. I in particular wanted to see Big James because as most everyone knows by now the factory Husqvarna factory racing team will go away at the end of the year. And the reason I wanted to talk with Big James was I had a couple of questions for him. Malcolm will be moving on to another team I assume and so will his dad. As I’ve said before Big James would come out and sit in the hospitality section of the Husky rig and always draw crowd, he’d take pictures sign autographs and just interact with everyone who stopped by to see him. I wanted to ask him if all the factory team rigs he’s been in all these years between his son little James and Malcolm, if he thought those teams appreciated what he himself brought to the team by just being himself and sit out there in those team hospitality sections entertaining people. I thought he was a great asset to the team, especially when the team riders never had any sort of formal team autograph signing sessions the whole five years I was there and I never asked anyone why they didn’t. Actually only a few of the teams had formal autograph sessions it seemed to be all about who was on the team. I wanted to ask him that question because who knows if and where he will be next year, I do know he will be missed.

The pits open to the public a 9:00AM and at 9:02AM on Saturday there was already a line maybe sixty fee long waiting for Hayden Deegan and I don’t know when the sessions started but I know they ended at 12:00PM when the pits were closed.

The weather this year was very nice mid eighties with a steady breeze all day kept it from feeling too hot, unlike last year that was pure hell, pun intended. The track was excellent, lots of rice hulls mixed in with some new dirt. (The new dirt came from a local new dirt maker, I think the name of the company was Walt’s, I believe their motto is “If you need new dirt, let Walt dig it up for you”) 

I did my usual, went down to the starting line with the mechanics then walked over to the mechanics area after the start. This year the mechanics area was two stories like they do in the European GP series, the view from up there is pretty darn good. It’s still amazing to see even the last place riders come by the mechanics area at the beginning, middle and end of the race with an amazing pace. These back maker riders would all be hero’s at their local tracks, no doubt.

All of the races were enjoyable this year and a few things stood out to me, the following is for those who are outdoor motocross fans. Levi Kitchen is very fast but can’t seem to put it all together; if he did he would be a consistent winner. Seth Hammaker was inconsistent like Kitchen until this last year. Why did it take Jo Shimoda so long to pass Romano, once he did he was gone. Well two rounds in and I know a couple of things Deegan has shown he is better than all the rest of the 450 riders already (Which has to burn the ass of a number of those riders) but so far he hasn’t been a match for Jet and Hunter and from my prospective they are so much smother especially Jet than Deegan is. Deegan is fun to watch he rides the 450 like a 250, he’s wild.

I appreciated Nate Thrasher (#23) in the first moto he fell and was about a quarter lap behind on the first lap but he kept digging and never gave up. I paid particular attention to what Chase Sexton was doing today, I think he fell twice today and I believe they were both the same kind of fall, he pushed the front end. I think if you went back and researched all his falls since his Honda days I bet the vast majority were when he tucked the front end, if so to me anyway it proves that it isn’t and hasn’t been all the different bikes fault, if anything it’s the way he rides the bike into corners, maybe too much pressure on the front end, I’d say there has to be a balance there. It seem to me there were times in both motos where it seemed like he was just riding, when Deegan passed him, it looked like from my perspective he didn’t even give a hint of fighting for third place, after the pass Deegan just moved on. Then at some point in the moto Sexton’s teammate who was definitely catching him, it was like someone told him hey your teammate is catching you and he picked up his pace to the point he was catching Deegan who was probably slowing a bit because he couldn’t catch Jet or Hunter. It would not have been a good thing if his team mate a sort of fill in rider passed him. Speaking of Hunter it was interesting to see him just sit behind Deegan in the first moto until he decided not to follow him anymore caught and pass him then left him. I wonder if he was just watching him to see how he rides, taking notes so to speak.

During the opening ceremonies when the horse ladies were finished with their program and were presenting our nations colors and the national anthem had just been sung I was standing under a pop up at the starting line when a couple of fighter jets went right over the start line and scared the shit out of all of us under that pop up because we couldn’t see the jets coming. It was loud, scary and super exciting.    

It was a good day, but I think this will be my last year, being in the pits but one never knows.

Doug 21J