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/128332
It's that time of year again when new products start appearing. At Mammoth, Fox and Shift were debuting some of their new gear. Jeremy McGrath wore Thor's 2005 gear all weekend. Ever since Las Vegas, when James Stewart wore the retro Damon Bradshaw gear, everyone has been wondering when, or if, the gear will be available to the public. Well, at Mammoth Sean Bailey - son of David Bailey - sported some of the gear, and word on the street is that it will soon be available to everyone for a limited time. As the longest-running race in the country - for 37 yeaI'; - the Mammoth Motocross is a must for many racers and their families, but since the permit the track has been running under expired, this could be the last year of the race . But there is still hope that it might come back. During the last week, the U.S. Forest Service released an Environmental Impact study about the track, opening the doors to discussion for the future of the land that the track is on . The study can be found online at www.fs.fed.uslr5/inyo/projects/ motoxEAhtml. The popularity of this event is so huge that the Mammoth promoters were inundated with entries the morning after the entries were officially being accepted. When all was said and done, they had to tum away over I000 entries and 30 vendors that wanted to attend. For a motocross race Mammoth tends to draw quite a few off-road racers. Ty Davis, Nathan Woods, Kurt Caselli and Kellon Walch were among some of them who showed up. There were also a few up-and-coming off-road stars racing in the Intermediate classes. WORCS racers Ricky Dietrich and Just in Soule competed in the 125 and 250cc classes and turned in some respectable finishes. Speak ing of Kurt Caselli, in recognition of his off-road roots he wore a fanny pack in the 250cc Pro class main event. Showing his true talent, Jeremy McGrath created an amazing line in his I25cc Pro-class semi on Saturday. He was using a boulder on the course - that was dug up from bikes - and using it to jump over acceleration bumps that had formed over the course of the day. Recently there have been rumors floating around about Jeremy McGrath possibly racing a Supercross or two in 2005. "Eve ryone 's talking a lot about everything right now: ' McGrath said. " My name is kind of in the hat , but it's not true. It is just rumors." As for McGrath's Honda, it looked to be quite trick. The suspension appeared to be works, and the bike also had the factory sub -frame and wheels. As far as the engine, the exhaust system was definitely a one-off unit . The White Brothers exhaust system had a head-pipe on it that was drastically lower than any aftermarket one. There were rumors about Jeff Ward perhaps coming out of retirement to race the Nationals, but it isn't going to happen. "I was going to , but I broke my wrist: ' Ward said. "So that kind of stopped my training. I'm still not in good enough shape right now. If I knew I could do two 30minute motos, I would. I don't want to go out there and take someone's spot on the line because I'm automatically seeded. I don 't want to go out there and just ride around if I'm not in good enough shape." With a break in the AMA Nationals this week, there were a few National regulars that showed up; one of them was Timmy Wiegand. He has recently severed his ties with the MotoXXX team that he rode for during the Supercross season . Since he needed support for the Nationals, former pro racer Mike Healy graciously loaned Weigand his CRF250 for the Nationals. And We igand was able to scrape together enough support to finish out the series. "I just have a lot of awesome people helping me out," Weigand said. "W ithout them I wouldn't have been able to do it. It's so late in the season that getting any industry sponsorship is difficult." r-------------------------------------- ~===~~ o Na me _ Add "-'SS _ Ct ty Z ip, Sta te _ Pho ne _ Order Da te o o o _ Send to:~ Inc. P.O . Box 5084. Costa M es a , CA 92628-5084 Toll Free Subscription Hotline (800) 831-2220 24-h o u r FAX O rd e r Line (7 14) 75 1·6685 • E-ma il: Su bscr ibctscyclenews.co m o o o YESI Sta rt m y s ubscrtpt ton im mediately to Cy cle Ne ws. 1 )·ea r ISO issues fm $45 .00. (ca n be bil led 2 monthl y pa yments] Evt'ry wl-c for two yt.'drs ·k (100 iss ues for S80. 00 ) Six m o nths sec ond ctass (25 l..su es for $2.1.110) 'f h is is a Q New SUbsc ription CJ Ren ewal Plea SE' toill m e 1 payment of $-l5 Bill 2 pa ym en ts of $22 .50 Enclosed is m) ' chec k or m on e y order C ha rge m y a Visa CJ Mas ter ca rd Signa tu re (In!: ~ CllI .......... 1. 2nd d ... MC /VlSd# Exp . Date c.....,.. or Mr , i,:" :;:'~':'~:::::~~(~.:;'~~'h). h I ~-------------------------------------www.cycle news.com CYCLE NEWS • JULY 14,2004 49