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/128228
By Le STEVE COX n e hat's going on in motocross today that has riders leaving a racetrack looking like they just went 12 rounds with Oscar De La Hoya? After round seven of the AMA National MX Championship at Unadilla, it seemed like just about every rider who went out on the track was suffering from some rock-related ailment. Ryan Clark got his lip busted in practice by a rock, and Chris Gosselaar had a rock go through his goggles (!) and fracture the bridge of his nose and he's in the 125cc class! "I was just riding behind someone at Unadilla, and a rock came up and hit me right in the goggle lens, and I ended up splitting my face open," Gosselaar said. "I mean, we wear all this protective gear, but still the rocks get through." Just about everybody had some sort of horror story from Unadilla. "It scares me following people there," Ricky Carmichael said of the famed Unadilla circuit. "I'm afraid a rock's gonna come up and ... I mean, hell, I wanted to press deadly weapons charges against Windham last week [at Unadilla[ because that thing was shooting some rocks at me like I couldn't believe. My arms were bruised up all week." The problem with Unadilla, and tracks like it that riders have issues with, is that it's not like they're new problems - and it's not like the track operators aren't aware of it. "I don't want to sit here and bag on Unadilla, but it's been the same since I've raced it, and I think every other track's been different - at least they try to make some improvements," Carmichael continued. "I mean, I'm just talking as far as Unadilla the track goes. I like the promoter, he's cool, Mr. Ward, but the track has just been the same, and they put one uphill and one downhill, but that's it. "Chris Gosselaar, he had a rock go through his lens. I mean, heck, there's rocks at a lot of tracks, but that's a little borderline, you know? They used to say back in the day that Unadilla just left the bumps from the year before way back when. I think they need to let it just stay rough, then you won't be going so fast, and the rocks won't be so bad. If it's rougher, it slows down the pace, which creates less rock-throwing." A lot of riders seem to have potential solutions in mind, but it seems nobody's paying attention. "I like it when the promoters are making changes, but then when you have some tracks and you tell them what you want and then they don't do anything about it, then it's just like, 'Why should I even say anything?'" Carmichael said. "All of us have said so much through the years, and it's done absolutely no good, so why waste our breath saying anything?" Larry Ward asked. "All the tracks get worse as time goes on," Ward continued. "Especially the tracks \Vhere they keep plowing s W Have you ever even heard of a rock going through somebody's goggles, and then still carrying enough velocity to injure the rider once through? Neither had Chris Gosselaar until Unadilla 2003. and plowing and plowing, and every amateur race and every professional race, a little topsoil goes home on the bikes, on the trucks, and through the years they're undercut and down to the hardpan. I don't think they [Unadilla's track operators] rip it up anymore. They used to rip it, and it would mix the dirt and the rocks together. Now, it's just hardpan with all the rocks sitting on top. It's just so rocky, it's scary. Binghamton got better because they did two things: They have a rockpicker that they pick rocks with in the off-season, and they also disc it really deep and keep it heavier watered, so it's deeper, looser dirt with the rocks all mixed in they're not just sitting on top." Another issue over safety precautions at the racetrack was further exacerbated at Washougal a week after Unadilla when, on two separate occasions, flagging confusion caused crashes - and injuries - for the nation's top 125cc riders. The first was a major pileup that took place on the backside of the finish-line jump during the first 125cc practice of the day. "I guess it was like the end of practice, and I was coming through the whoops - and you always concentrate on the whoops in front of you - and at the end of the whoops, I look up, and there's one guy standing there with a yellow flag, and on the other side is the guy who's holding the checkered flag and the yellow flag in the other hand," Grant Langston said of the flagging. "And I roll over this hill and land in a pile of guys. I landed in so many guys, and then more people landed on me, and I jacked my wrist up. I mean, it's a joke. The marshalling was absolutely terrible. The guy that throws the checkered flag is an AMA-sanctioned guy, so there's no excuse for him - the other guy's a volunteer. "I can't believe the guy with the checkered flag couldn't realize it's more important to stop the riders than to hold the checkered flag. He was waving the checkered flag and then just holding the yellow flag in his other hand, behind the checkered flag. ' That wreck caused David Pingree and Shae Bentley to miss the national completely, along with a few privateers whose bikes were too damaged to continue. Then, in a bit of irony, the second flagging incident took place in the second moto as Langston struggled a ways back in the pack and his primary points rival, Mike Brown, ran second. Brown went down while cresting a jump, and when he returned to his feet, he was almost hit by Michael Byrne. He turned around and was struck by Ryan Hughes hard. Where was the flagger for all of this? Contrary to what a letter-writer cue I e said in last week's issue, all you had to do was watch the ESPN2 broadcast of the race. There was one flagger standing at the back of the jump the back - holding his flag out in front of him as if it were hanging from his belt. Nobody got to the front of the jump to motion for people to slow down until team personnel did so, atter Hughes rammed into Brown. "For me. the mistake is the flaggers'," Hughes said after the incident. "To me, it's a bunch of shit because that is twice today that the flaggers just stand there because they are too damned lazy to wave the flag. It's one thing if one guy is sitting there at the side of the track sitting on his motorcycle, it's another thing if someone is sprawled out on the ground. They are taking our lives in their hands, and if they can just stand there lollygagging around, it's a bunch of crap. If they don't want to do their job, get the hell out of there. They hurt two, almost three people today because they don't get out there in the middle of the track and say, 'Hey, there is someone down.' Use some hand signals. We don't know. We are racing! "I saw the flagger, but he just had the flag out. Okay, maybe someone is on the side of the track with a broken bike, not someone sprawled out right on the end of the jump. Byrne clipped Brownie with his handlebar. Then I came over, and I nailed him. I remember in '95 Steve Lamson broke someone's leg because of it. Every single year. In practice some fan got hurt from Bubba. Do something. The flaggers just sit there. If you don't have the right f1aggers, don't have them." Langston took the points lead because of the incident, which maybe nullified his complaints from the earlier practice incident - after all, turnabout is fair play - but no doubt it would've been better had neither incident happened. "I don't know, when I read what people write on the Internet about how motocrossers used to be tougher, and everybody's just whining about it, well, that just doesn't make sense, because everybody's talking about how many riders are injured and how weak the class is," Ryan Clark said of the safety issues that the riders are encountering almost every weekend. "But when somebody brings up a way to solve it or at least curb the injury factor, everybody just says that we're just riders, and we need to go out and ride. It's like, there's so many hypocrites in this sport, it's ridiculous." It seems wrong that the riders - the most important part of the sport (after all, nobody goes to the races to watch the promoters or the AMA officials) - have the perception that they are treated as second-class citizens by the powers that be in their own sport. But what to do? For one possible solution, check this space next week. eN