Tulare motocross rider dies in crash

Luis Hernandez, lfhernan@visaliatimesdelta.com 9:20 a.m. PDT July 29, 2014

Justin Barnett, 38, died from injuries he suffered while riding at the motocross park.

 

A Tulare motocross rider suffered fatal injuries in an apparent accident at the Tulare Cycle Park on Sunday morning.

Justin Barnett, 38, died from injuries he suffered while riding at the motocross park, located in southwest Tulare.

"It was a crash," said Dieter Temmerman, who co-owns the track. "He lost control [of the bike] on a curve. He overshot the berm."

Temmerman described Barnett as an experienced rider who had been going to the cycle park for 15 years.

In a social media posting on the park's Facebook page, it was reported Barnett "was unable to regain control of the bike upon landing from a jump. We believe a stuck throttle may have been the cause [of the accident]."

There's no definitive cause established for the crash, however, Temmerman said.

The wayward bike struck Kenneth Warner, a worker at the park, who suffered a broken leg. On social media, it was reported Warner underwent surgery and is recovering. He's still at the hospital, according to the posting.

Warner, 21, has been a park employee for about eight months, since the time Temmerman and his brother, Paul, took over as owners, Temmerman said.

Barnett was participating in a riding event organized by the "Over the Hill Gang," a group of local riders. The riding group is made up of members 30 years and older, Temmerman said. In total, there were about 60 riders at the event.

Tulare police and fire personnel responded to the crash. Motorcycle riding was called off the rest of Sunday.

Sgt. Greg Merrill said police are classifying the crash as an accident.

Police have received no reports of other recent incidents at the park, Merrill said. He referred additional questions to cycle park owners.

The fatal crash has hit the local motocross racing community hard, Temmerman said. He also offered condolences to Barnett's family.

"Our heart goes out to his friends and family," he said.

Moto Continues to Grow!

Charlotte County adventure park installs motocross track

By Kelli Stegeman. CREATED Jul 25, 2014

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. - Southwest Florida's new outdoor adventure park, Florida Tracks and Trails, is getting closer to opening day. 

The park, near the intersection of Bermont Road and State Road 31 in Punta Gorda, is in the middle of constructing one of it's main draws, the motocross tracks. 

 

Rachael Ketterman, the marketing and entertainment director for the park, took FOX 4 crews on a tour of the park 6 months ago just after breaking ground. 

 

It's a far cry from the work going on there now. The 4 motocross tracks will have miles of dirt for every level of expertise. 

 

"We're taking the rider from beginning phases of riding all the way up to the advanced or expert, pro status of riding," Ketterman said.

 

The tracks are being built by world renowned track expert Dream Traxx. The American Motorcycle Assocation sanctioned course sits on top of half-a-million cubic yards of dirt. 

 

"They are the top builders, top designers and we gave them a blank landscape and they came out and designed something of epic proportion," Ketterman said. 

 

When the park is complete it will have paintball, miles of trails, a swimming lake, camping and a 15,000 seat amphitheatre to bring in big entertainment.

 

But for now, it's all about the motocross. 

 

"People are really going to get a glimpse of something that's really massive," said Ketterman. 

 

The park is expected to open at the end of this year at a cost of $17 to $20 million. It's also expected to bring in more than 200 jobs to the area.

Local Former Marine, 53, to live dream on dirt bike

 

Qualifies for national event in sport dominated by youth

Houston County resident Steve Fredericks, 53, has qualified to compete in the American Motorcycle Association’s Amateur National Motocross Championship July 27 through Aug. 2 in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.(Photo: The leaf-chronicle/Mark Hicks)

 

CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. – In a sport where riders in their late 20s are referred to as “old men,” Steve Fredericks has defied the odds to achieve a dream.

The 53-year-old Houston County dirt-bike racer has qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 33rd Annual Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship.

“This has been a lifelong goal of mine,” he said, adding that qualifying can be very expensive and very exclusive for only the top-level riders. “But I knew if I didn’t at least try, I would never forgive myself.”

More than 20,000 riders from across America have competed in regional and area qualifying races to earn one of just 1,446 qualifying positions in the national race to be held July 27 through Aug. 2, at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.

Motocross racing is one of the more physically grueling sports around, where rider and machine are constantly pounded from landing jumps, negotiating washboard sections of the dirt course, and making tight turns with competitors just inches away.

While the majority of those on the course with Fredericks will be half his age, he spent 22 years as a U.S. Marine and six years training Marines as a contractor after he retired, enabling him physically to compete.

“If it wasn’t for that, I’d never be able to keep up with these guys,” he said.

But to complicate his training for the rigorous sport, Fredericks said he was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome when he was an endurance athlete competing in events like triathlons.

“That just makes training worse,” he said. “I can’t work out now because it makes me sick. I can only ride and practice on tracks around here to prepare for races, but I have to be careful doing that because I can get sick and not be able to race.”

At age 15, Fredericks began motocross racing in Indiana in 1974. He dreamed of being a professional racer, until the farm where he was working closed down operations. So with a wife and son, he decided to join the Marines in 1984.

Putting aside his dreams for his family, he told his wife his enlistment was for the long haul – at least 20 years. And during his time in the Marines, Fredericks did not own or ride a motorcycle.

But when he retired from the military in 2006, he was in southern California, which is a hotbed for motocross.

“I bought a bike and won the first race I entered,” he said. “But it was a beginner class, which they gave me a hard time about that, because I was so much faster than everyone else.”

Fredericks was content with racing and dirt riding with his two grown sons in So Cal until he and his wife finally found a place to settle after nine years of looking. Their search landed them on a 22-acre farm off Highway 13 in Houston County, which met such criteria as being near a major military installation and four seasons of weather without harsh winters.

So after moving to Tennessee a couple years ago, he realized his proximity to Hurricane Mills and its famous motocross race, so his quest began to qualify for the Amateur National Motocross Championship. He made the field by winning two area and two regional qualifying events.

“My first one was a disaster,” he said of his qualifying tries. “Everything went wrong; I got knocked right away. I had trouble with the bike. It was almost comedic.”

In the meantime, sponsors such as Heartland Racing, MB1, Cylinderworks, Dunlop, Acerbis, Utopia, GoPro, One Industries, DRD, Hinson, Twin Air, Gaerne, Factory Backing, Leatt, Innerzyme, Hot Cams, and PivotWorkshelp pay his way to the races.

The Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship is billed as the world's largest and most prestigious amateur motocross racing program.

The national qualifying program consists of 52 Area Qualifiers (February through May) and 12 Regional Championships (June), hosted at select motocross facilities across the country. The qualifying system culminates in the National Final (first week of August), hosted annually since 1982 at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch.

Nearly 20,000 racers attempt to qualify in 36 classes for the 1,446 available positions in what has been called "The World's Greatest Motocross Vacation."

“The Amateur Nationals at Loretta Lynn’s is the event every motocross racer in the country wants to compete in,” event director Tim Cotter said in a news release. “A win at the Amateur Nationals gives a rider instant national notoriety and can serve as a springboard to a lucrative professional motocross career.”

Fredericks isn’t looking to launch a professional motocross career at age 53, but he was realistic in his assessment of the upcoming race last week after loading his bike in his pickup for a practice session at a track in Lebanon.

“I’ll be very happy to place in the top 10,” he said. “I’ve already won just by qualifying.”

Mark Hicks, The Leaf-Chronicle

mhicks22@gannett.com

 

Stefan Everts - Part Two

My first world 250 crown was very emotional

My world 250 crown was a big emotional win. I’d moved away from Sylvain and my Dad but suffered in 1993 and 1994. So to come back and win in 1995 was proof of my hard work.

I’d been determined to change how I worked. Before I was so over-focused on winning and everything had to be right. I went to every race with high expectation. In 1994 I was a broken man after losing the title. I went away from motocross for a few months and I didn’t want to race any more.

But after a time away I realised I absolutely love it, so I came back a different man. I wasn’t expecting myself to win any more. I just did what I had to do go to the race and see what happens. Before I knew it, I was leading the championship. I was in the lead and I thought it was impossible as I knew I wasn’t trying as hard or riding as fast as the year before. It was a different approach and it worked.

I also ran into Dave Grant and during the 1995 season and that’s when my relationship with him began.

I still don’t understand Kawasaki’s move

Alec Wright really wanted to win a 500 title. He was suddenly sidelined by Kawasaki which wasn’t very nice. Even now, I don’t know why. He was disappointed then he stepped out completely in 1995.

The next disappointment was Kawasaki didn’t want to give me any bonus or a pay rise despite me winning their first world championship. I said no way. So I left and went with Dave Grant to Honda.

My mechanic made my life difficult

My Honda ride was with Colin Reed who was such a nice man! He was very sweet and his wife very nice. But my mechanic really made things difficult. He thought he was the hero, the superstar.

He made it really difficult and we had fuel problems. The bike suddenly didn’t run well any more. At one point, the Japanese had to come came back and get involved and suddenly it ran well again.

I kept believing that I could win the title. I still don’t know how I did it. At one point I was 71 points behind and I came back and won the title. But I’d had it with the team. Not with Colin, but the way things were handled with the fuel problem I’d had.

I was lucky to have Dave Grant as without him they would never have given me my points back after my fuel failed tests at the Foxhill GP and they took my 40 points away. Dave proved the system they used to control the fuel was not sealed. It was not the correct way to test, I got my points back and won the title. Without those points, I wouldn’t have been champion.

I tamed the beam-framed Honda

In 1997 Honda changed to an aluminium frame and I struggled with the bike. But once I was dialled in and knew what the bike was doing, I started winning. I won nine GPs and I won the championship four races before the end of the series. I dominated that year.

I’m a bad loser!

What made me so good was a natural feeling for the bike and the track. But also intelligence, fighting spirit, determination to win and my passion for racing has always been so big.

I was a bad loser! I had to learn how to lose. I always tried to do better, something my father taught me. Be harsh on myself, and always look at how to do better.

I also changed my style a lot. I was more controlled and I control every detail of my riding. For many years I used the same handlebars but when I went to Honda I tried a new set up. I put on higher bars, and a lower seat.

My riding style changed too. What made me ride so much on the footpegs was trials riding. There was a period of around five years when I wasn’t riding trials. Then I started trials again and there is no seat on a trials bike. So you have to stand up like when you do a lot of motocross riding in the sand. If you can’t sit down it teaches you to stand up.

I loved the 1992 Austrian GP!

I had so many great races. My first win, my first double win, for example. But I’m hugely proud of passing Yves Demaria in the last turn before the finish line to win the 1992 Austrian GP. I was in second place 60 metres before the finish, I passed him and won the race. It was a great win.

It’s very memorable as my plan had failed and I had two turns to fix it before the finish, and I still did it! It was just a single race win!

I followed him all race, knowing that at that speed, he’d get tired and slow down. But he didn’t. On the last lap, I planned he’d go outside into the whoops and I’d go inside and that’s where I’d make the pass. But he was so smart as he went inside so I couldn’t do it. My plan failed.

He struggled as he hit a rut and he lost his confidence on the whoops. There were two corners left, and I managed to get on the outside next to him, then come across him over a tight corner and I just got past him. It was one of my best wins.

Namur was my greatest defeat!

At Namur in 2004 I was second and it’s still one of my greatest rides. There had been a lot of rain and the track was one line. There was no way to pass. I crashed at the start and it seemed impossible to pass as everyone was just riding in a line like idiots!

I was so angry and I knew I needed to find a place to pass. On the steepest downhill I took a little risk to get on a line nobody else was using. I passed everyone there. Every lap I set my pass up and passed people.

I knew I had only once chance per lap to pass people and it was risky but I took it. But Brian Jorgensen was so far ahead, time was up and I finished second.

I loved beating Jeremy McGrath

Another great win was against Jeremy McGrath in the Fastcross in Italy in 1993. It was a 20-lap main event, and with two laps to go, MC was in the lead and I was second. He got tired and I past him. He’d just won the supercross title, so me beating him made 35,000 Italian fans went nuts! I didn’t know where I was any more. A late pass on JMC was unreal!

Whenever I raced the Americans, it was as if everyone in Europe wanted me to beat them. Like at the Nations in Matterley in 2006. It didn’t matter Belgium didn’t win. But I beat Stewart.

Tortelli was my biggest rival

I raced against lots of the greats. Bobby Moore, Donny Schmit, I even raced against Eric Geboers and Jean-Michel Bayle, Greg Albertyn, Mickael Pichon, Joel Smets. But the best, just that one year, was Sebastian Tortelli in 1998.

It was the best year ever. He didn’t make any mistakes. And all the other years, he always made some mistakes. I was waiting for the day when he made a mistake, but it never came. All year it was me and him first and second. I wasn’t just hoping, I knew he’d make mistakes. But he didn’t. He was the greatest.

Some say I’m the greatest ever

I don’t like to say I was the greatest. All the big champions are the greatest of their time. One day Tony Cairoli will be known as the greatest, Ricky Carmicahel was the greatest. They are all the greatest of their time. I’ll leave it up to the fans to decide. Everyone has their own favourites.

But I do know that at certain races I was invincible. Probably the best I’ve ever been was the MX of Nations at Matterley Basin in 2006. All my experience was building up to that point. My style, technique, experience:  2006 was the year I pout all the things I’d learned from my whole career together and it was magic.

I wanted to do one perfect year. RC had done it a few times and I wanted to do it. I knew how difficult it was achieve it and finally I did it on 2006.

Carmichael claims he was the best sand rider

When I beat James Stewart at the Nations, some said he was just riding for the team. But if RC had been riding, he would have ridden for his own pride. If he’d won the race, the team would still have won. He wouldn’t have lost his own pride. If RC was racing that day, it would have been a close battle.

He beat me fair and square in Zolder, but it would not have been that easy to beat me in Matterley. I never had my chance to really go against him in sand. But he always told me he was the best sand rider. The year we raced Lierop I was really bummed out I didn’t have the chance to race him there.

I dreamed of racing Supercross

I did six Supercross races in 1992 to try it. It was always my dream to go there. I planned to win the world tile in 1992 then had my spleen injury. Then my plan to move to the US got changed. In 1993 I was second again but for me it was important to be world champion before going to the USA. In 1995 I won again and then it was Dave Grant who convinced me not to go. I’ll never forget the words he said to me. “Better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.” And he was right.

Joel Robert predicted my future

I decided to focus on Europe and try to match Joel Robert and get a sixth world title. I know Joel and he became manager of the Belgian Nations team. The day I beat his record of 50 GP wins, he said I’d win 100 GPs. I said no way! You’re having a laugh old man, you’re crazy! In the end I won 101. He was right! When I beat his record and won seven titles, he promised me he’d be there when I won. And he was. We had a little champagne moment. He came to France and was there at the podium . It was so cool. He said I’d go on to win ten titles. And I said it was just another of his jokes!

I love to ride at Namur My favourite track changed trough the years. Foxhill was my favourite for a long time, then Namur. Not just because it’s a historic track and in Belgium, it’s because of the feeling you get riding along the streets. You go between the houses and into the forest. It’s totally different to any other track.

I still have all my championship bikes

Of all the bikes I raced, the best were my 1996 steel-framed Honda and 2006 Yamaha 450. When I got off the Kawasaki and on to the Honda, it felt like I’d been riding it for years. It was so good right from the first day. The 1997 bike was the alloy framed one. Jeremy McGrath didn’t like it, and neither did I. I adapted to it but McGrath went to Suzuki. The 2006 Yamaha was a bike which I had such a good feeling on. It was so good that I was scared I was wrong! All winter I knew there was something magical about that with bike. In the past I’d made the wrong decisions in testing and gone into the races with the wrong set up. With the Yamaha I had the same feeling as on my 2006 Honda but I had to wait until the racing started to see if I was right. And I was right. Every event I did, I won.  There were just three single motos that I didn’t win that year. I didn’t win motos at Zolder, Bellpuig and Ireland. But I won overall and won every other race. I still have that bike. In fact I have all 10 of my championship-winning bikes in a bunker! I never start them but just look at them.

I didn’t want to leave Yamaha

When I quit racing, it was a big surprise that I joined KTM. At the start it wasn’t my plan to change from Yamaha as I’d had such a good relationship with them. It was always different with Yamaha compared to other Japanese manufacturers. The welcome I’d get from Yamaha in Europe and Japan was great. They treated me well I was well respected by everyone there.

My plan was to continue with them but I was bummed at the proposal they had for me. It wasn’t a long-term plan, just a short term for a two or three years and I didn’t like that. I wanted to a longer-term plan.

Then someone gave me a hint: go orange. And from then, I knew KTM was it for me. It all happened quickly from then. Pit Beirer was the first guy who found out I was open for discussion with them. Many people thought there was no way I’d change from Yamaha. A week later Pit came from Austria to my house and we talked about the future. What I was thinking and what was planning for KTM were the same.

It was not just to be involved with the GP team, but more than that. My ambition was to have such a good team that everyone in GPs wanted to be under the KTM awning one day. Not just riders but also mechanics. I think I have gone a long way to achieving that.

America is KTM’s next big goal

We’re a strong team and have a good team atmosphere. I knew KTM always had the potential to be like that as it’s something I feel is important.  We also achieved race success from 2008 when we won our first title in MX2 with Tyla Rattray.

We also started development of the linkage bike which was one of my first big projects. The day I talked with Pit about joining KTM it was not only about the team in Europe, but also we needed a link bike to become strong in America. Even when the PDS bike was better! It was for marketing reasons.

First we had to get the GP team right, then make the bike strong and get the confidence of European riders. Then have a linkage bike and then the 350. The next step is America which is coming on well now.

I’m not closely involved with the USA but I know what’s happening as I follow every step there closely. I think the goals we set six years ago are slowly coming together. The next goal is to be the team in the USA that everyone wants to be on. The winning team.

I could still end up in the USA!

For the moment I don’t want to spend more time in USA as I’m set in Belgium with my family. I built a house two years ago and have a nice workshop with training facilities for the MX2 guys. And a nice hall of fame, all just six minutes from my front door. To leave that now would be difficult.

But my son Liam will be eight in August and I don’t know what he wants to do. He is into his racing so we don’t know what direction he will go, but he could end up in the US. That would change my situation!  We haven’t talked about it a lot as I don’t really want to think about it!

The 350 is a great bike

Maybe it’s not the bike of the future that everyone will be racing in five years. It’s just a bike for a certain market. There will always be a market for 250s and 450s. The 450 is more popular in the USA than 350. They call it the vets bike.

I don’t care what they call it. For me, it’s been as successful as we hoped for in many ways. Not only here in GPs but I’m convinced this bike will also win at Supercross. I just need to convince some more people about it.

I think we need to bring our MX2 guys up to the 350 in Supercross. Taking 450 Supercross guys and getting them to drop down to 350 doesn’t work. Ken Roczen or Marvin Musquin are natural to go up to the 350 in one or two years. We saw Ken get second in Seattle. I know many of the top guys were out, but I believe it can be a winning bike.

Ken Roczen is very special

Roczen is not just talented as a rider. The way he handles the press and the fans is good too. He has a cool image. The kids like him. And he’s the most interesting kid at the moment. He has enormous promotional worth to KTM. And he works really hard for KTM.

Regrets? I’ve had a few!

My biggest regret was the year I had with Husky which was the worst bike I ever raced. I should have stopped a year earlier with my manager Dave Grant. I shouldn’t have done the deal with Husky, that would have changed a lot.

But maybe I wouldn’t have gone on to win six more titles. That year made me realise many things. Maybe I needed it to happen to me.

Another thing I regret is maybe I should have become a father a couple of years earlier. Then my son would have see his Dad racing, Now he just has to watch me on DVD.

MX43 - Opinions may vary in the US but this an intersting look at one of the greatest riders of our sport.

Stefan Everts: Most Powerful Men in Motocross (No.1)

 

The greatest motocrosser of all time Stefan Everts now influences every track in the world, from GP and AMA heroes to the bikes ridden at local races.

TAKEN FROM ISSUE 80, JUNE 2012

BY ADAM DUCKWORTH 

Stefan Everts is not only the most successful world championship motocross racer of all time, he’s the most powerful man in motocross with influence in everything from world championship and US racing right down to the very bikes we ride.

His influence is far and wide. The son of four-times world champion Harry Everts, Belgian Stefan won 101 GPs and 10 world championships, and is the only rider to win world championships for every Japanese manufacturer. And he’s won world titles in every class.

He is the only man two win GPs in three classes on the same day when he roared to a triple win at Ernee in France in 2003. He won 15 of the 16 GPs in 2006 and beat everyone at the Motocross des Nations that year, too.

He helped Belgium win the Motocross des Nations and even scored overall victory in the 2003 International Six Days Enduro in Brazil. Not only that, but his feet-on-the-pegs style defined a new, smoother way of racing. A style that’s been copied by many but equalled by nobody yet. He’s smooth, efficient and easy on his engines and bikes. When he faced the inventor of the scrub, James Stewart, at the Nations, Everts just rode around the outside of him and left him in his wake. It was an epic moment for Stefan Everts and European riders everywhere.

That’s an unrivalled racing pedigree, and one that sees him revered the world over for his racing. And his popularity seems to be untarnished despite him retiring six years ago. When Everts organises his own charity race, for example, then world champions and half the GP paddock turn up. And when he got involved with running the Belgian GP at Lommel, he recreated the famous Hakwstone Park double jump. Everts knows and respects motocross history.

It’s his career since stopping racing that has seen his importance to motocross flourish. He has turned KTM from being a decent team into the dominant player in the GP paddock. The team everyone dreams of joining.

Under his guidance, Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings have been polished into race and championship-winning superstars.

He changed KTM’s bikes from being PDS linkless oddities into linkage-equipped machines that appeal to the whole world. And his next plan is to dominate the same in the USA where, courtesy of Ryan Dungey and his new 450, KTM has won three Supercross races this year and is suddenly a serious player.

And Everts’ brainchild of a mid-size bike, a 350, came to fruition and won the world MX1 championship first time out with another of his riders, Tony Cairoli. It’s a bike that’s never existed before that’s suddenly on tracks all over the globe from Amsterdam to Adelaide. And you know every other manufacturer has had to re-evaluate their range of bikes in its wake.

KTM not only offers bikes in every size for four-strokes – from 250 to 350 and 450 – but also if flying the flag in the continued development of the two-stroke, too. Now equipeed with Everts-spec linkage suspension.

With a unique racing pedigree, influence on GPs and US nationals and Supercross, and on the bikes on tracks everywhere, Everts is truly powerful and important.

“It’s true and I’m happy someone noticed it!” said Stefan Everts in an exclusive interview with MOTO magazine. “And all the things I’ve done have been done with pleasure.

“It’s never been that I want to have the attention on me. I love the sport, I have a huge passion for motocross and everything I have achieved had something to do with the sport. My love is to motocross and it will always be there.

“I have had a lot of success from the sport so I try to give many things back to it.”

  

I’m much slower than Jeffrey Herlings!

Many people think that if I put my riding gear on right now I’d finish near the top in a GP. In theory I could, because of how I ride. But I’m not fit any more. In summer I try to ride a lot but I can’t go at GP speed any more. Mentally I’m not as sharp any more, my eyes aren’t as sharp any more and my body aches after riding.

Many retired riders think they still can’t do it but I don’t. This week I went riding with some of my riders and I was three seconds slower than Jeffrey, and it was hard work to do that. And it was on a hard track. I thought to myself where the hell does he get three seconds a lap from! In the beginning when I first retired from racing, I was faster than the riders I managed. But not any more. If the track suits me, and I have a good few days riding on a 350 with Jeffrey, then I could match his speed. Last winter I didn’t ride for five months after an injury. I started riding again with the team but they had been flat out for months so I was never going to keep up with them! I don’t need to prove anything as a racer

I‘m 39 but 40 at the end of the year so I could race the Veteran world championship. But I don’t think I will. I did a one-off race a few weeks ago and was supposed to do Farleigh Castle last year but I got injured. I will do some races but not the vet world championship.

It makes no sense for me to do it. My life has changed, I’m in a different position now and I’m not a racer. It’s my job is to work with my riders and not be a rider myself.

I love to get close to the action

My first race was when I was 10 at Overpelt in Belgium and I didn’t win! My father Harry won four world championships so from a young ace, I always travelled to races. And I always wanted to be a rider. I grew up at tracks and I was interested in watching all the other riders. I’d go out on the parts of the track where nobody else was and just watch the riders. To see the difference in their styles and the lines they take. I still do it now. I like to be very close to the racing and see the track, the lines. Now it’s hard to get that close as they fence it off.

I started riding at age three!

I got a bike when I was three and half. I stayed a lot with my grandparents as my father was always travelling to races and I had to go to school, of course. It was hard to stay home and not go to the race but my parents made me go to school.

Later on I was lucky to go to the USA and South Africa but still had to do the work given to me by school. And when I started doing National races I got time off to go. My friends were always racers at the track.  I had Belgian, German or Finnish friends. Often we didn’t speak the same language but we had fun.

I always wanted to be a champion

I never just wanted to go riding. From age six and it was clear to me I wanted to be a champion and I never went back on that decision. My father was not interested in my riding, he was too busy with his own career. He always gave me a bike and then sometimes he would go riding with me. But he never really bothered about me much and never made time to come and watch me or help me. He was busy with his own racing.

When he retired, we decided I should go racing in the Belgian 125 junior class. He said let’s go together. From then on, it got serious. We took it seriously and my father came to the track with me every day. We travelled everywhere together and he didn’t miss a single race.

My father was a harsh critic

I was always a pretty good rider. My father didn’t teach me how to ride a bike properly or how to work things out or how to work hard. I found it all out myself. I always tried to improve and there was always something I could improve.

If I had a perfect day and won both races, he would still come and point out where I wasn’t so good, where I could have gone faster. I was always disappointed. Instead of him coming to me and saying congratulations on winning both races, he’d tell me all the bad things!

It was hard for me. But it got better! The last year I raced was the year he finally said almost nothing. He was always there, though. And when I asked if he’d seen something I was doing wrong, he finally said: “It’s all good!” When he gave me his blessing, I knew I was OK.

Supercross on TV taught me how to ride

As a kid I loved to watch the Supercross. At that time it was something really special as we could only see glimpses of it on TV. Now the magazines and internet is full of it and you can see every little detail.

Back then you couldn’t see a lot of Supercross, but I learned lots about riding styles and techniques from it. I loved to watch Johnny O’Mara on the factory Honda. He was my big hero. I also liked David Bailey as he was so smooth, but O’Mara had a really special style and that was really cool. He had the white JT gear, too.

The Motocross des Nations at Maggiora in Italy in 1986 was one of O’Mara’s best races when he beat world 500 champion Dave Thorpe. Thorpe says his back brake wasn’t working which could be the truth. But history was made that day. I wasn’t there as my father wasn’t racing any more, so I missed it. I knew all about it though.

Motocross was greatest in the 1980s

I idolised O’Mara, Eric Geboers and all the big champions from the 1980s. I was just a big kid running about worshipping these guys. The history of motocross is very important to me. I was lucky to be in the good times of MX, even though I was just a kid.

The 1980s were the best time for motocross. All the Japanese manfacturers were directly involved with racing – HRC, Suzuki, Yamaha, everyone. I loved all the big 500 bikes, the sound, the smoke. I still love the old bikes now as it reminds me of my father.

I rode an old 500 KTM a few weeks ago. It was great and reminded me of being seven years old again. Only this time I was riding!

I started world championships age 16

My first proper deal was support from Suzuki to race in the Belgian Junior championship at age 15. I won series so moved up to GPs age 16 in 1989 which was a really big step. You had to be 16 to do GPs back then.

Suzuki came in with a new team, run by Guiseppe Luongo. The riders were Davy Strijbos and Pedro Tragter, both Dutch riders who won world championships. They were the two big names in 125s and I was the young kid with no experience. I learned fast that year. I got on the podium at Czecholosvakia with two fourth places for third overall. It was the highlight of my year, but then I broke my scaphoid. I finished 15^th despite missing three GPs. The year after Donny Schmit came in and won the title and I got third. The last race I closed the gap on Donny and had a great fight with him. My first world title made me

In 1991 it was my year to win the world title. I went to Italy for the first GP, won the first moto but crashed. I was winning in Bulgaria then crashed out and broke my shoulder. I still won the title after a big fight with Bob Moore. That was my first world championship, only three years after I started. I was 18 and one of the youngest champions ever. At that time it was good but not any more!

From an early age people said I was special. To have the name Everts on my back made it different compared to other riders, with more pressure to win. At the beginning I didn’t really realise it but that changed when I got to GPs.

I’d always put pressure on myself to do well, so I didn’t know the difference between pressure from myself and expectation from others. So to me it didn’t matter and I learned to deal with it. As soon as I won that first title I was no longer just the son of Harry Everts. I was Stefan Everts, whose father is Harry. It all changed.

A year later I moved up to 250 and had a spleen injury. I was strong and leading the championship but crashed in Germany and my season was ruined. The following year I was second behind Greg Albertyn. I struggled a lot with my starts. Albee was fast and he got all the starts.

Leaving Suzuki made me grow up

In 1994 moved away from my Dad and the Geboers Suzuki team to Kawasaki. I am very thankful to Sylvain Geboers for the chance he gave me back then. I was a nobody, but he realised I was a talented rider and he gave me the opportunity to go to GPs. But I had to grow up and make my own decisions. I needed to do my own thing so I decided to leave and I went to Alec Wright at Kawasaki.

I did the deal myself – I had no manager. My father supported my move away from him. I said to Alec I wanted to ride for him but insisted he hired Jan De Groot as my main technician to develop the bike and have Harry Nolte as my mechanic. He was only too happy to agree.

But that season I had six DNFs, broke my collarbone but still only just missed out on the title to Albee. But the next season I gave Kawasaki their first world title. They’d never won before.

Part 2 Tomorrow

Too Old To Moto...Nope, Let's Go Racing!

At 88, Dave Scott is the world's oldest motocross racer

Bill Poehler, Statesman Journal 6:43 p.m. PDT July 10, 2014

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Dave Scott of Monmouth is believed to be the oldest active motorcross racer in the world.(Photo: Bill Poehler | Statesman Journal, Bill Poehler | Statesman Journal)Buy Photo

    

MONMOUTH – Dave Scott lived a full lifetime before he ever raced a motorcycle.

In his first 50 years on the planet he was Merchant Marine during World War II, a father, a photographer, a woodworker and a motorcycle salesman and enthusiast.

For the past 38 years he's been a motocross racer.

At 88 years old, Scott is believed to be the oldest active motocross racer in the world.

In a sport where someone still racing at age 29 is considered a senior citizen, Scott keeps racing and is competing in Washougal, Wash., this weekend.

"We're all behind him and he's doing what he wants to do and he knows all the risks and he's very cautious about what he commits himself to," said his brother, Richard. "Whatever happens to him, he's all right with that."

Scott was born with chain oil in his blood.

The family lore goes that Scott was nearly born in the sidecar of his father's Harley-Davidson, but his father, Harry, made it to the hospital just in time.

Scott and his brothers, Verne and Richard, grew up around motorcycles and bicycles as their father was the founder of Scott's Cycles in Salem, and they all worked in the business at some time.

Though Scott was riding motorcycles before he could drive a car, the only options for competitive racing in those days were flat tracks and hill climbs.

Dave Scott of Monmouth (59) leads the pack through a turn at the Prairie City OHV Park in Rancho Cordova.(Photo: Betsy Scott | Special to the Statesman Journal, Betsy Scott | Special to the Sta)

"The thought of going into an 180 degree corner at 80 miles per hour didn't do a thing for me," said Scott, uncle of six-time Ironman Triathlon champion also named Dave Scott. "I never got into racing."

Before Scott ever raced a motorcycle – he started about 1976 – he had a bunch of lives.

He went into the Merchant Marines at age 17, had a photo studio in New York, came back home and ran the motorcycle division of Scott's Cycles, sold pianos door to door, worked in publishing for the American Friends Service Committee in Pennsylvania before coming home and buying a woodworking shop in Monmouth in the mid-1970s.

"When I moved out here and got the woodworking shop, I bought a house on the other end of town that was just through the field from a farmer named Cliff Stone," Scott said.

"He had a little motocross track out in his back 80 and I used to sit up on my roof watching his friends have fun. Finally got up nerve enough to ask him if I could go and play. He said, 'Oh, sure.' Next thing I know he had me in the old timers and going to races."

Though Scott had a more experience riding motorcycles than any of the other competitors when he started there was still a learning curve in getting the hang of the whole racing thing.

Not long after he started racing he broke his neck in a race in McMinnville and wore a halo for six weeks.

"After I got out of the halo somebody asked me, well do you have to take physical therapy afterwards?" said Scott, who lives down the street from Western Oregon University.

"No, they just had me ride through the campus in the summertime," he says craning his neck to the left and right.

He fell in with the Old Timers' motocross associations somewhere in the 1980s, and it was a perfect fit.

In the Old Timer's races, they break the racing up by age category, and as Scott gets older they keep creating new classes.

He's racing the 80s class now.

There's not huge numbers in the category, and Scott gets to school some young 80 year olds.

"Last year at Washougal there was four of us," he said. "That's the most I've ever seen. I won."

A couple months ago at a race at California he was presented a cup by the International Old Timer's group designating him a legend.

The humble, self-effacing Scott downplays the significance of the label.

"They're nice guys," Scott said. "They're not so young that everybody's out there to T-bone you. They'll do anything for you. Nicest bunch of people I've ever met."

Starting some motorcycles can be a feat of physical strength for most riders.

The bikes are the same height, but he these days he has to get on a crate or another apparatus to get up on the bike.

"My son (Paul) gave me a Husquvarna 250 with a pushbutton starter on my 80^th birthday," said Scott, a father of four and grandfather of four. "I'd elect him for sainthood, but I don't have much pull with the Pope."

The current bike is yellow, like most of his motorcycles over the decades.

"I always thought I was chicken," he said. "Mostly had yellow motorcycles to match the streak up my back. You get lucky and you persevere and you win some."

He and wife, Margarita, load up the trusty RV and make their ways up and down the West Coast for races.

Scott races about four times a year and can see himself racing for years to come.

"I'm hoping they'll do a 90 class, but don't hold out too much hope for that," Scott said.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or follow at twitter.com/bpoehler

Fly 2015

Davey Coombs Interview: The 50 Most Powerful People in Motocross (No.2)

 

 

He runs the U.S. Nationals, the world’s biggest amateur races and the highest profile magazine. Davey Coombs is the American motocross royalty

TAKEN FROM ISSUE 80, JUNE 2012

BY ADAM DUCKWORTH

America is the most important motocross nation in world. It’s the biggest market for off-road bikes, is home to the Supercross series and has the toughest national motocross championship on the planet. The amateur racing is huge, the media exposure is wide and their motocross magazines are bigger.

Apart from mega-money circus that is Supercross, the man in charge of National motocross, the biggest amateur races and the most important magazine is none other than MOTO’s US correspondent, Davey Coombs.

He’s revolutionized the fortunes of the U.S. Nationals by moving them to Saturdays and using his media know-how to secure proper TV and internet coverage. If you’re a pro rider, big team or have any aspirations of a career in top-level US motocross, then Davey Coombs holds the keys to your future success.

If you’re an amateur rider who dreams of racing on the best tracks, with the biggest number of the fiercest competitors, then Davey’s your man, too.

And everyone from a spectator to industry insider to top pro knows the power and influence that Racer X magazine has globally. Plus, of course, it’s monstrous Twitter and Facebook followings. Coombs is the svengali of that too.

Where DC is different from certain other insular Americans is that he has respect ad knowledge of the world motocross scene, too.  He visits GPs and gives respect to the men who race world championships, as well as having a deep respect for the history and heritage of the sport in Europe.

We caught up with the true powerbroker of American motocross on the eve of the first U.S. National of 2012. The National where James Stewart made his comeback. These are Davey’s thoughts on his life, the future of motocross and more.

Davey Coombs: I really didn’t have a plan to get me here today

I was just lucky enough to grow up in a family where my parents loved motorcycling, so it’s in my blood. My dad discovered motocross too late to be a pro, but he was a hard worker who liked to think big, and he decided that organising dirt bike races was better than his previous jobs, which included coal-mining, musician, farming, selling vacuum cleaners, painting houses and teaching school.

His name was Dave Coombs and he and my mom Rita built a few big races from scratch, including Loretta Lynn’s, the Blackwater 100, the GNCC Off-Road Series, and outdoor nationals like High Point at Mt. Morris and Steel City, both in Pennsylvania.

Throughout my whole childhood, I worked alongside them, as well as my brother Tim and sister Carrie doing whatever it took: picking up, rocks, caution-flagging, cleaning up the garbage, pounding in stakes, selling programs, hanging banners…  That was the price to get to race as a kid in a family in West Virginia.

Davey Coombs: I wanted to be a racer

Like a lot of people I now work with in the motocross industry, I really just wanted to be a racer. I gave it hell, won some big minicycle and amateur races, but the writing was soon on the wall, and in real big letters. It said: “COLLEGE.” I really thought that since I wasn’t fast enough to make it as a pro, I would become a history teacher or maybe a lawyer.

I studied literature and history throughout school, but I paid my tuition by writing for magazines like Dirt Rider, Cycle News, Dirt Bike and even Dirt Bike Rider in England—the old “Radio America” columns were my first overseas work! By that point I was shooting photos too, having learned from the very best in the business back then, Fran Kuhn of Inside Motocross fame.

Davey Coombs: Racer X started as a little motorcycle newspaper

While in college I stared a newspaper called The Racing Paper. It was different from all of the big California magazines in that we tried to have a lot fun with it, writing about our road trips, parties, girls and other misadventures in motocross. People liked it, I guess, and pretty soon it was nationwide.

I changed the name to Racer X Illustrated and turned it into a magazine. I even got a gig being a commentator for Supercross and Motocross on ESPN, so I figured, Okay, this is what I will do with the rest of my life….

But then my dad died. It was August 3, 1998, and the magazine was exactly three issues old. I was at the Washougal National on the other side of the country when he lost his battle with leukemia. He had gotten the outdoor nationals turned around—they were in danger of being swallowed up by Supercross—and built Loretta Lynn’s into the biggest amateur motocross race in the world, and then he was gone, just like that.

My mom, who was his business partner throughout their entire lives—was devastated, and my brother and sister and I all had to pitch in and help out with the family promotions business.

Davey Coombs: The American motocross business changed a lot

There was extreme growth through the eighties and nineties, and then some real decline. Then the AMA decided to get out of the business of racing, putting the outdoor nationals out for bid. The series was in danger of falling apart in 2007. Riders like Jeremy McGrath, Mike LaRocco, Chad Reed and even Kevin Windham were going “supercross-only”, with James Stewart about to join them. So my sister and I came up with a plan to take over the commercial rights for the series that my parents and other promoters had been working on since 1972.

We had to put together a package and a program with our company MX Sports that would keep the series from being taken over by Youthstream or some other outside entity that might outbid us and then dissolve the series into something else. In the end Daytona Motorsports Group bought it, and then did the deal with us to take over motocross.

Davey Coombs: I had some pretty good ideas for moving motocross forward

Fortunately, we had been paying attention all our lives as we worked at the races. We figured out the secret to getting it on live TV, which was simple: move the races to Saturday, rather than the traditional “On Any Sunday,” because the American sports landscape is filled with big Sunday events like the NFL, NASCAR, golf, and baseball.

We also joined forces with an action sports company that specialised in sponsorship, marketing and television: Alli Sports, which is part of the NBC television network.

Davey Coombs: We made US Nationals exciting again

We started tweaking the schedule, improving the tracks, helping the athletes market themselves better. We got some very good people to work alongside of us, and they are still here. We worked to improve pretty much everything about the series—the TV package, the free online viewing, the facilities, the look and feel of the racetracks, everything. Pretty soon the top riders started coming back, beginning with Chad Reed. And the top riders from the rest of the world started to really become excited about racing in America again, and now even James Stewart is back.

The work is not even close to finished, but it’s been pretty damn cool to get to do not only what I wanted to do—publish a magazine—but also do what my dad did, which is to organize big motocross races.

Davey Coombs: The motocross industry is a tight-knit family

But you have to pull your own weight because there are too many people that would love to have your job. It doesn’t pay nearly as well as most real jobs, but it’s such a great group of people that it becomes the fabric of our lives. It’s good work if you can find it, but it’s hard work.

You shake the same hands going down that you shook on the way up, never forget that.

Davey Coombs: Supercross is the driving force in the U.S. market place

We will always do our best to follow in their wake, help keep the grassroots of the sport healthy through amateur racing, and work with the motorcycle industry and especially the factories to give them a proper place to show off their products.

Davey Coombs: Families that race motocross make great sacrifices

It’s not an inexpensive sport by any means—and we should never forget that. There are other members of those families who don’t race but come along anyway, and we should do our best to make them feel comfortable, feel important and know that we appreciate their presence as much as we can. That’s what helps make Loretta Lynn’s such a great motocross vacation, and we should think that way more about our professional races too.

Our sport’s dirty secret is the lack of education in many kids as they try to become a pro. Schooling is so much more important in the whole big scheme of things, and the fact that so many people forget the “school” part of the home-school equation is something we need to fix.

Davey Coombs: Motocross can still grow

Motocross will never be as big as some people want it to be, but it can also be much bigger than it is right now. We just need to make sure that we don’t sell our souls and lose our deep passion for the sport on the way to trying to expand these horizons.

Davey Coombs: My dad was the hero

I get way too much credit for the work of a lot of good people, whether it’s Racer X Illustrated, Racer X Online, MX Sports or all of the other stuff we do. Everyone at the company, plus my mom, my sister and my brother work just as hard, but for much less credit, maybe because I am lucky enough to be named after my dad, Dave Coombs. He did the real work; we’re just trying to keep it going.

Davey Coombs: RC made my life easy!

Being a race reporter was a hell of a lot easier when Ricky Carmichael was racing, because we pretty much knew exactly who was going to win, and we looked smarter for it! Now, it’s more interesting, and more puzzling.

I still like to write about motocross more than anything (except raising my own little family with my wife Shannon, and my kids Vance and Sloane). In fact, I am writing this on the eve of the Hangtown National, the series opener. I have a lot of other things to do right now but I learned early on that you never let your editor down—he can be a real bastard!

Read more at http://moto.mpora.com

Taichi Honda: The 50 Most Powerful People In Motocross (No. 4)

Taichi Honda

 

Honda’s motocross head for racing and production bikes

TAKEN FROM ISSUE 80, JUNE 2012

BY ADAM DUCKWORTH

Mister Honda really does live up to his name. As far as motocross goes at the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer, he is just about as important as it gets.

Taichi Honda is the man in charge of the world’s biggest-selling motocross bikes, Honda’s CRFs. And he’s head of Honda’s GP racing effort, AMA Supercross and motocross programmes and the Japanese test, development and racing programmes.

He’s a former Japanese motocross championship rider and has helped develop every Honda crosser from the first beam-framed CR two-stroke right through to the current CRF450 and 250s. And also the new factory bikes.

He was promoted from a test rider of both production and HRC factory motocross sbikes, then as a development engineer and is now is a director of the company. He has been the main driving force behind the new breed of fuel-injected CRFs. He also heads up Honda’s global factory racing division, HRC. All by age 36. And no, he isn’t related to the founder of the company. Honda is just a reasonably common surname in Japan.

“My job is to head up Honda’s research and development side for the CRF450 for both production bikes and factory race bikes. And I am project leader for both the 250 and 450 production bikes,” he says.

“I work for both HGA – which is Honda’s R&D department – and HRC which is just about racing and factory bikes.

“R&D make and create the production bike, HRC race it and develop it, then give feedback to HGA for future production bikes. I work across both.”

Taichi Honda, who still owns an old CR250 two-stroke, is a regular at GPs and AMA races and is the man who has revitalised Honda’s involvement at a high level. He’s put increased importance on GPs as the place where one-off factory bikes can be raced and develop, as opposed to AMA racing where all bikes must be production based. It’s a real shot in the arm for the world championship.

But crucially, where Taichi Honda leads, many other manufacturers follow. So Taichi’s views on the future of motocross bikes will directly influence every manufacturer.

“Mass centralisation, weight, power and handling is our target. I think customers want lower weight and especially the placement of weight, towards the centre of the bike,” he says.

“And then it’s power. Not the amount of power as we have lots of that. But controlling the power. I think electronic control systems will be important.

It’s important we make it easier for customers to tune their bike’s power. Now they have to use a laptop, which is OK for some people. But we have to make it easier for everyone.

“I know there is no future for two-strokes at Honda. Our policy is 100% four-stroke. It’s a green issue, for emissions. Honda strongly believe this in everything it makes, from motorcycles to garden strimmers.

“I know there is a two-stroke resurgence and they have many good points. In fact, I own a 2005 and 2007 CR250 two-strokes and ride them a lot. They’re completely stock with no HRC parts on them. I don’t race any more, just ride for fun with my son. But overall, 450 four-strokes are far better than two-strokes now.”

Reprint from www.moto.mpora.com

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