Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128080
Feature Scott Parker's St. Helen trail ride of teeth taller than tha t if I'm gon na ride it." "Huh?" "What about the suspension?" "I had so-and-so do it. It's perfectly set u p for a lSD-pounder." "Yeah, that's too soft, so get right on it. And by the way, my number is 68, so make sure you have that on the plates." "Who is this really?" We hit the road the next evening, Parker, Mafia don Don Schopieray and I making about half the trek, caravaning in a group before making the traditional dinner stop at Tony's Restaurant for a heart attack of a BLT tha t, I swear, was built with about a pound of bacon. After another hour of d riving, we hit St. He len at around 10 p.m. checking into our m ot el an d then driving over to Dave Cook 's (a ka "The Cooke r") for a n eveni ng ... and morni n g ... of p art ying aro und a huge bo nfire. Most of the racing celebrities who were sched uled to take part in our ride were already there. Easily recognizable guys like Jay Sp ringsteen, Steve Beattie and Bryan Bigelow (who probably shouldn't drink so much at once) were rubbing elbows with stars from other forms of the sport, such as Larry Pegram and Brian Swink. This little festival supposedly broke up about 3:30 a .m. Saturday morning , when Cooker reportedly looked up an d found out he was the only one around. Feeling very much like a cat had slep t in my mou th, I awoke on Saturday morning to find Parker and Schopieray getting ready to head ou t to the ORV par k. After ST. HELEN, MI, OCT. 17 ka y, I admit it. I'm lost. I have hit the sa me mud pud d le in the sa me turn fo r eit he r th e third or fourth time now - I'm not su re which. Worse than that , I can 't remember whe ther I was banking righ t or left the last tim e that I hit it. Wor se ye t, I can' t rem ember wheth er this is the third or fo u rth tim e that I have bee n lost today. And to think that it all started out so innocently... I had fina lly acce pted a long-stand ing invite by re ig n in g AMA Grand National Champion Scott Parker to meet him at his ho me in Swartz Creek, Michiga n, and then make a trek u pstate wit h him and abo ut 7S of his closes t friends to the deep woods of the St. Helen ORV Park to pa rtake in what has become the traditional "las t Na tiona l" of the AMA d irt track season: the St. Helen National trail rid e. After three years of let ting this ass ignme nt or tha t men ial home task ge t in the wa y of my joining the infam ou s las t ride of the seaso n for the Michigan Ma fia , a nd given th e fac t th at Parker was us in g the occasio n to celebrate h is retirem ent , I figured tha t th is was the right tim e to go . It ha d see me d like a good idea, especially since Park er had coma ndeered a tric k, Tom Mor gan Racing- mo to re d Yamaha YZ2S0 fro m his friend and cu rre n t AMA 40+ Ama teur National Motocross Cha m p io n Cr a ig Pickett for me to thrash. How could I go O '" '" '" o ~ E ~ z 20 wrong? Now, lost u nd er a canopy of old-g ro w th fo res t like a n un will in g ex tra in the Blair Wit ch Project, I was beginning to realize that, at some point, I had . Th is was Su n day . I had act ua lly arrived at the Parker mansion on Th ursday evening. As if in so me twisted little form of p rophecy, Pa rker forgo t that I was coming, and thus was nowhere to be found. The who le house was dark, in fact, meaning that not only did I have to wait, I had to wait outside. No matter, I thought. I'll just ru n next door to Parker's pal Kreg Bigelow's place, hook up with Kreg and wait it out. Same deal. Nobody home. I wo uld later learn that this was the one night tha t the Parker and Bigelow dans chose to go out for a late dinner. Scott, Wanda a nd the kids finallv pu lled into the driveway at close to 10 p.m., at which point Park er hit me with th e an tici pa ted, "Hey, I thought you said yo u were co ming blah, blah, blah, blah..." At any ra te, Par ker, Bigelow and I h ead ed in to Parker' s shop, w hic h h o u sed Pa rke r 's 1999 H ond a CR 2S0 with the haunting ly familia r number 11 o n its p la tes . I h ad s p ied th e sa me ma ch in e durin g a pr evious v is it, bu t so me thi ng mu st h a ve h app en ed bet w ee n now and th en . The for merly pris tin e CR loo k ed li k e it h a d been drop ped from a tw o-story building into a mu d hole. Aside from the filth, the subframe was bent, the s prockets were round ed a n d m iss in g teeth, a nd the cha in wa s s tre tc he d ti ght er th an Lu ci a no Pavarotti' s voca l chords dur ing a rendition o f Vita Sbagaliatta, o r so me thing like that. No matter, Bigelow go t on the case an d so me how turned the pump k in in to a coach befo re mid nig ht, co m p le ting a ll but one cho re; Pa rke r did the filter. Meanwhile, I was bored, so I decided to ph o n e Pickett an d harass him a little . "What gearing yo u got o n t h e re ?" I queried. "Stock." "Well, you' re goi ng to have to go a cou ple One week after ret iring from a full-time dirt track schedule, Scott Parker unwound by gathering up about 75 of his closest friends to take part In the annual " St. Helen National" trail ride in upstate Michigan. Originally founded by Jay Springsteen, the event bas ically consists of two full days of riding and partying.