Saturday, December 30, 2017

2017 Racing Reflections

With the end of one season of racing brings the start to a new one. I feel I did less racing in 2017 than years prior. The Bottpower bike was an exciting and all encompassing experience and it was the focus of the first half of the year. Getting to go to Spain and test on the MotoGP Aragon track was special even though I never had a complete lap without the bike literally falling apart. The Pikes Peak race week was stressful with the bike seeming like a sure suicide machine but coming away with a class win and respectable overall finish was rewarding. Since the race I have not spoken with Bottpower. After reading my story in Sideburn I imagine I am not well thought of. I see pictures of me on the Bott all over social media and the internet and rare is any credit given to me. When I see my picture on 10 foot posters at the Eicma show and no mention of my name or instagram pics of my race number with out a tag I feel almost plagiarized. I reckon the monkeys that were sent into space never had mention of their name either though.
Other highlights of my 2017 season were purchasing and racing the late great Carl Sorensen's ZX10. It is a proper race bike and I look forward to taking it to new tracks and having fun with it. Raging a DIRTBIKE through Morocco for Sideburn was totally rad! At the beginning of the year I got to race an electric Alta at the Indoor short track is Salem Oregon. That bike is amazing and I want one very much. The ultimate urban enduro assault bike! Later in the season I had a lot of fun with vintage MX. It is a very fun form of low pressure racing. I am building a yamaha twin for this coming season. For the 2017 season the only series I followed was the Colorado Hill Climb Association. these are not hill climbs like you think but more like a sprint rally. Gravel road racing on a 500cc or less dirtbike. I hope to get more moto racers involved with this great form of competition.
Much love and happy trails for this upcoming race season.

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