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/1541408
"A little bit of the dis- ease for the cure" is the theory behind the science of the vaccina- tion. Chickenpox, measles and mumps are introduced to the system to help the body fight off…chickenpox, measles and mumps! The theory behind the sci - ence of motocross is that repetition is what makes us faster, so on the last day of the year in 2024, longtime SoCal pro MX'er Val Tamiet - ti was out practicing at the Glen Helen motocross track in San Bernardino, Califor- nia. He crested a tabletop jump at high speed, some- thing he had done many times, only to suddenly see something that he had likely never seen before. For some rea- son, another rider had stopped— right in the middle of the track and right in Tamietti's path. Changing lines in mid-air requires wings and propellers, so the inevitable collision between the two racers pitched Tamietti off of his Yamaha YZ250, eventually landing him in the hospital with a broken pelvis, broken tailbone and a brain hemorrhage. He remem- bers the moments leading up to the crash but has little memory of the several weeks he would spend in the hospital. Such a horrific crash, result- ing in injuries that would put a 68-year-old man in a wheelchair for three months, would likely mean it's time to drive a nail in the wall, put the helmet on it, and hang it up. Call it a career. But even with the pain, even when doctors opined that he might not get out of that chair—ever, Val and his wife, Debbi, knew that there was only one thing that was going to cure him. That vaccine was called "motocross." "It was the dirt bike that got him hurt," says Debbi, "and it is the dirt bike that made him well." Val Anthony Tamietti was 12 years old when he got his first motorcycle, a somewhat rare Keystone minibike. While most minibikes of that era had single-speed four-cycle engines, the Keystone fea - tured a two-stroke pow- erplant and a real hand clutch. He soon graduat- ed to a Yamaha AT-1 and would spend his sunny California days riding from his family home in Glendora to nearby hills and trails, a path that eventually took him to the motocross tracks. "My dad [Paul Tamietti, but "Tami" to all] owned a chain-link fencing company. He saw that I really sucked at most sports, so he got behind me when he saw that I wanted to race. He would handle half of my expenses, but I had to work at the fence com - pany to pay for my share." California MX kids lived in motocross' version of heaven. Racing was available nearly every day of the week, year-round. Wednesday through Sunday, Val and his buddy-rivals like Dave Eropkin, Davey Carlson and a tall CNIIARCHIVES P118 BY KENT TAYLOR Val TAMIETTI "My goal is to keep going and to someday be the oldest motocross racer in the world." Val Tamietti made the cover of Cycle News in 1977. He's still going strong.