Romaniacs...A Road Less Traveled

 There are some sick people in this world and some of them lay out race courses!

Red Bull Romaniacs 2016 Day 3

Watch the riders of Gold and Silver Class, climbing steep and nasty uphills.

Xtra Chasing the Dream!

Monster Energy® AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, is the premier off-road motorcycle racing circuit in the world, produced inside the world's most elite stadiums. Monster Energy® Supercross tracks are man-made inside the stadium. Some of the sport's marquee names include Ryan Dungey, Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac, Trey Canard, Jason Anderson, Chad Reed, David Millsaps and former supercross greats Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael. Regarded as the king of action sports, supercross has been described as one of the most physically demanding sports.

Picking the Pain!

Joey Savatgy shocked the MX world by taking both motos in round one of 2016, but staying on top isn't easy. Ricky Carmichael takes Joey under his wing and shows him that the way to have it easy on race day is to go through hell while training.

Red Bull Romaniacs

Millville MX Track...Behind The Scene

Motocross: Track builder knows motorcyles, bulldozers

Donny Henn, dhenn@postbulletin.com

Shane Schaefer was still a little boy when he learned not to fear the biggest earth-moving machines that a man could drive. Then he learned to drive them, before he even got a drivers' license.

"I beat down that fear at a very young age," he recalled. "My dad would put me in his lap while he was driving a bulldozer, and he'd take me down hills so steep that you didn't think it was possible."

Schaefer was still a teenager when he came to appreciate what heavy equipment is capable of doing, in the hands of someone who knows how to operate it.

Decades later, the 38-year-old Wisconsin man has carved out a unique business niche with his expertise in creating professional motocross tracks from landscapes around the world.

"There's no more satisfying feeling than to look at what was once a flat field and now is a perfectly manicured track," he said. "An office job just wouldn't give me that same feeling of accomplishment."

Schaefer, whose company Schaefer Tracks is based in Racine, Wis., is back at Spring Creek MX Park near Millville this week, where he has been the track builder for the pro races for nearly a decade.

Schaefer and two of his crew, Joey Kwak and Brent Mason, will be on bulldozers shaping the track from the early morning hours Saturday until the last race late in the afternoon. In the end, much of their hard work will be undone.

"You put all those dirt bikes on it that will blow it apart and it seems like there's no respect for what we just did," he said with a laugh. "But it's also rewarding to know that the track did it's job."

Early driver

Schaefer learned how to drive farm tractors at an early age while growing up on his family's 8,000-acre farm in southwest Wisconsin.

"I was self-taught," he explained. "When you're raised on a farm, if you don't know how to do everything, you learn it."

Schaefer's parents both also had careers with Case IH, a global leader in agricultural and farm equipment, and that exposed him to other machinery.

"I was 8 or 10 years old when I got the chance to drive some of the biggest pieces of equipment that Case builds," he recalled. "My dad would take me to the Case proving grounds in Arizona and he'd put me in the cabs of these machines, from wheel loaders to dozers, and I'd turn the key and just start operating it."

That experience was the foundation that Schaefer built his career on. After he graduated from high school in 1996, he signed on as a single operator with the pro Arenacross and he traveled to all 17 races in the series.

Schaefer freelanced as a track builder while he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a BA in business administration/marketing, and shortly after graduating he started his business in 2002.

His long list of clients are from all over the world, including private tracks for pro riders, and prestigious events such as the X Games, which his company has worked the last eight years.

Most recently, Schaefer built a private track at Spring Creek for Alex and Jeremy Martin to practice on when they are home.

"Spring Creek is the top facility in America," he said. "To be honest it is the best dirt, as a builder for shaping, or for a rider racing on it."

Former racer

Schaefer became familiar with motocross tracks as an amateur racer. He won a couple of class championships in Wisconsin and Illinois, and he toyed with the idea of turning pro.

"It didn't pay the bills, and a couple of injuries made me phase out from racing," he explained. He found that driving a 200-pound motorcycle can be more dangerous that a 10-ton bulldozer.

Schaefer still has scars and hardware from a career-ending crash in a pro challenge race in Texas in 2003. He dragged himself from the course with ghastly injuries.

"I had a double-compound fracture of both bones in my left arm, so the bones were both sticking out of my skin," he revealed. "I also broke both collarbones and bit off part of my tongue.

"They sewed my tongue back on, and I still have 27 screws in my arm, holding it all together."

Schaeffer's business takes him away from home about 300 days each year, and he has literally traveled around the world. He intends to keep the business that he loves, but he will cut down on the travel beginning next year.

Shane and wife Brittany have a 3-month-old son, Austin James, and Shane intends to be home more to show him how to ride a bike – or a bulldozer.

"I'll have him in the cab with me when he's eight or nine months," he assured. "I'll help him to do whatever he wants to do."

2016 AMA Vintage Grand Champion Crowned

2016 AMA Vintage Grand Champions Crowned

by Nic de Sena

Vintage Grand Champions

The AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days wrapped up this past weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and three riders were crowned AMA Vintage Grand Champions: Trevor Kline, Gary Roach and Todd Narduzzi.

Trevor Kline out of Hebron, Ohio, managed to cinch his position of AMA Off-Road Vintage Grand Champion for the second consecutive year in a row. Gary Roach, coming out of Belpre, Ohio, also had some good luck over the weekend and claimed the AMA Off-Road Senior Vintage Grand Champion award. The two competed in a number of events over the weekend which included hare scrambles, motocross, and trials – all of which were part of the AMA Vintage Off-Road Grand Championship.

Kline eked out a first place in the Open A vintage hare scrambles class, took a win in the 250 A motocross class and managed a third place finish in Open A motocross. He also took first in the trials competition during the Vintage Lights Expert class.

“It’s great to win this award,” Kline said. “This was not even on my agenda really. I thought we were going to have a little one, so we took it day by day and drove back and forth [from Hebron to Lexington] every day.” That’s quite a commute but seeing as Kline’s wife is 40 weeks pregnant and currently expecting a child any day, you can see why the race commute made sense.

During the Open A class race, Kline raced the 1974 Husqvarna 360 that his friend Mike Scholl gave him at the 2015 AMA Championship Banquet.

Todd Narduzzi out of Marshallville, Ohio, was named the AMA Track Racing Vintage Grand Champion; his stellar performances in road racing and the half-mile dirt track event at Ashland County Fairgrounds saw to that. Narduzzi is no stranger to the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days events, as he’s earned top honors in 2011 and 2014.

“It took me six attempts to win three awards,” Narduzzi said when accepting his trophy. “So that shows that it’s not an easy thing to do. But this sole event is what keeps me from retiring from racing. “I want to thank the AMA for keeping VMD (Vintage Motorcycle Days) here and for letting me race. Everything went really well this weekend.” Narduzzi raced in the 500 GP, the Clubman 500 and the 70/750.

Just eight months after a full knee replacement, Gary Roach claimed his AMA top honors.  “I never really thought about what it means to win this,” Roach said. “I just rode my motorcycle.” Roach seems a man of modesty, and he road in the events a few years ago. Roach was happy to participate; given that he’d just come off an injury.

Roach claimed second place in 40-plus Expert in the hare scrambles, third in 40-plus motocross, fourth in the 50-plus motocross and won the Old School Expert trials class.

The AMA Off-Road Vintage Grand Championship and AMA Off-Road Senior Vintage Grand Championship are based on cumulative points from the three vintage off-road events: Hare scrambles, trials and of course, motocross.

Moto Armory sponsored the off-road racing segments of the AMA Vintage Grand Championship, which included the motocross, hare scrambles and trials competitions. Moto Armory which maintains a stable of over 600 vintage motorcycles in East Moline, Ill., was also on hand displaying some of the hottest vintage items for all the fans.

For additional information about AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, visit American Motorcyclist > Events > AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days.

Get yourself in the mood for Red Bull Romaniacs

Red Bull Romaniacs

By Tim Sturtridge on 11 July 2016

Hold onto your handlebars because the time has come to head into the forest for the one and only Red Bull Romaniacs.

The five-day rally has been a highlight of the Hard Enduro season for over a decade, and this year things are only getting better.

It all starts tomorrow with the inner-city prologue in Sibiu, with fans getting a close-up look at the obstacle course carnage. Then it’s out into the wide-open countryside for four days of offroad madness with 650km of steep climbs through dense forest to be navigated.

Not only is the course on another level, but the line-up of riders has never been better.

Multiple champions Graham Jarvis and Jonny Walker will have the likes of Alfredo Gómez and Wade Young snapping at their rear wheels in what promises to be the most open edition of the race ever.

Watch our preview of the race above to get in the mood for the action coming your way this week.

Glen Helen...The World's Fastest Start?

Which series has the faster start – AMA or MXGP?

By Aaron Hansel & Joseph Caron Dawe on 12 July 2016

Racing is about going fast, and that’s especially true off the start. The faster you go, the less chance you have of getting tangled up in the mix at turn one.

Start slow and you’ll find yourself buried in the pack as the leaders sprint away. Here are two of the absolute fastest, gnarliest starts in the AMA and MXGP.

The AMA: Glen Helen

The gate drops at Glen Helen © Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool 

Most of us wouldn’t want to have anything to do with rocketing off the line in a professional motocross race. The speeds are incredibly high as riders fly toward the first turn, bumping elbows and muscling for rank, with 40 riders vying for the same spot. And the longer the start stretch, the worse it gets. Maybe that’s why the start at Glen Helen Raceway can be so intimidating.

The sheer length of the start at Glen Helen, in San Bernardino, California, is amazing, and rivalled only by the start at Spring Creek Motocross, in Millville, Minnesota. The difference, however, is the first turn. Riders have to slow considerably to make it at Spring Creek, but the first turn at Glen Helen, nicknamed Talladega Turn, is the steepest and widest start of the AMA Circuit.

That means riders who come flying in at over roughly 113kph barely have time to slow down, and thanks to the deep loam, they pretty much hold the throttle wide open the whole way.

© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool

Another intimidating factor is the first turn, which is a right-hander. On a motorcycle the rear brake is on the right and is actuated by foot, the same foot motocross racers like to hang off the bike for stability in right-hand turns. This means that in Talladega Turn, one of the fastest, gnarliest first turns of the AMA, riders must choose between access to the rear brake or stability and balance. Never both.

MXGP: St Jean d’Angely or Loket

Loket unleashed! © Husqvarna Motorcycles 

The French track is merciless as the riders pin it across the start straight and fly hard into turn one. Often, there’s carnage, just like in MXGP this year and the man who makes the holeshot has, as they say in Spain, cojones.

Loket is wide, long and banks uphill into a sharp left-hander, so as the riders fan out and try to pick a variety of lines into the bottleneck which they approach at fearsome speed, there are inevitable consequences at the first-turn crunch.

Truth be told, neither really has quite the same level as Glen Helen, which European and American riders and journalists roundly agree has a start that no other track can match up to.

California Wants To Steal Your Money Again!

The End Of The Trail for California’s OHV Program?

by Bill McGibbon | posted in: Breaking News, Cross Country, Enduro, News, Right to Ride  

 

The California OHV Motor Vehicle Recreation Division Is In Peril

California’s Department of Parks and Recreation is going through a Transformation Process that is proposing eliminating of the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division.

As it now operates under the OHV Motor Vehicle Recreation Division, Californian OHV Parks are the only self-sustaining parks in the state, while all other state parks lose money.  Elimination of the OHVMVRD will result in your Green Sticker fees going into a general fund and the loss or mis-use of the OHV Grant Program.  What does this mean to you? ….Simple, less money, YOUR MONEY, to maintain the California OHV parks and OHV trails on public land, but instead, redirected to whatever the Department of Parks and Recreation see fit.

California’s elected leadership has a long history of misusing our OHV funds.  Loans, Transfers and outright Takes have left the OHV Community weary and the program woefully underfunded.  Think it’s bad now?  With the proposed action, OHV funds for OHV use will just “be gone”.

Don’t let Bureaucrats Destroy the Nation’s Finest OHV Program!  Everyone NEEDS to TAKE ACTION NOW with only a few minutes of your time and let them know this is just not acceptable!

A cliché, yes. but so true…United We Stand – Divided We Fall.

Please follow the link and take 2 minutes to send a letter to California Department of Parks and Recreation to keep the OHV division. They are pushing to eliminate the OHV division and put the funds (Green/Red Stickers) fees into a 'general fund' which they can use for whatever they want to.
It only takes a couple of minutes to show your support of keeping the OHV Division! Please Share!!!

http://ama-d36.org/the-end-of-the-trail-for-californias-oh…