Steel City Saturday Practice and Extra Sideshow

CR_Dave

Sponsoring Member
Mar 3, 2000
102
0
Just got back from a great day at Steel City with my 4 year old son. This was a great day that will probably be topped by Sunday's race.

Practice was great to have a chance to see Ricky on a 125 again (and it was green). Brown, Langston, and RC were all in the same practice. Brown and RC were about 5 bikes apart. Then it appears that Brown and RC swapped at a point on the track I could not see. Brown was wicked fast. Langston looked awful, his timing was off everywhere. Maybe he his just holding back.

I did notice that once RC was in front of Brown, he was not catching him, but RC was not gaining either.

It appeared (rather sounded) like Larocco was on the 4 stroke and so was Hughes. I thought Hughes was out, but someone was riding that bike.

The track is in perfect condition and the weather is sunny and cool.

Now for the Sideshow......

Mike Jones lives next to Steel City. As we were leaving I noticed 3 ramps and huge mounds of dirt. Nothing new for the Jones'. But there were about 5 people waiting along the fence and a party going on at his house. I decided to stick around. It became apparent that there was going to be a ride. There were only a handful of us there. We proceeded to wait about 40 mintues before any bike started.

Mike Jones, Trevor Vines, and Dan Pastor were all present and ready to put on a show for the fans and the camera. They did a 30 minute freestyle show that was sick. Pastor blew me away with his talent and Jones is just sick. I was never so close to an event as this. About 25 feet from the takeoff ramp. My son had a blast as he named every trick as they did it.

About 10 minutes into the activity, I turned around to notice that there were about a 1000 people behind me. Wow. I understand that they had to wait until the qualifiers were over beause too many people would leave the track.

Hats off to Jones, Vines, and Pastor for putting on a great show that my son and I will NEVER forget.

Based upon today, I say 125's - Brown, Carmichael, Langston. I also predict that Windham will win as well in the 250. He looked very smooth and fast.
 

roosteater

~SPONSOR~
Dec 27, 1999
216
0
Nice report. It's good to hear a first hand account. Thanks.

And not meaning to take this too far off track, but we must cease all use of the word "sick" when describing anything related to dirt bikes. I'm sorry...but it truly makes me nautious. Am I alone here? Whoever coined the term should be destroyed.
 

IBWFO

Member
Aug 5, 2001
367
0
Talked to a buddy of mine and he sad RC was doing the fastest lap times of ALL the Pro's. Also said Ryan Hughes crashed very hard and was knocked out for a couple of minutes and went to the hospital.
Since he will be riding on McGrath's team it looks like he won't be riding the Honda again.
Regards:cool:
 

CR_Dave

Sponsoring Member
Mar 3, 2000
102
0
Re: Re: Steel City Saturday Practice and Extra Sideshow

Originally posted by roosteater
Nice report. It's good to hear a first hand account. Thanks.

And not meaning to take this too far off track, but we must cease all use of the word "sick" when describing anything related to dirt bikes. I'm sorry...but it truly makes me nautious. Am I alone here? Whoever coined the term should be destroyed.

roosteater...sorry about the word sick. I don't mean to offend anyone. However, you need to realize that times do change, and words have different meanings. Using the words MUST CEASE in reference to speech is not at all in alingment with the freedom that we all are privledged to have in this great country. Next you will be saying that my DIRTY bike refers to some sort of deep pornographic sex scene.......ooops I used the word DEEP. What about my carb SUCKING air? Or my bike sounds SICK and dying. It will never end if I or anyone give up on the word SICK.

In short, I hope you are alone on this, especially since riding motorcycles off-road will require all of us to not give up any freedom or have it taken away....by you or anyone.

No dis-respect.
 

roosteater

~SPONSOR~
Dec 27, 1999
216
0
Settle down there CR Dave...it was meant to be taken lightly. Sorry if it didn't come across that way. It's just that the use of the word sick in this context makes me downright sick. (Sick like puke; not sick like insane.)

I'll get over it. I promise.
 

nikki

Moto Junkie
Apr 21, 2000
5,802
1
I'll get pictures up from both Steel City and the freestyle show soon - what a great weekend!! :)
 

KDXDan

Member
Oct 17, 2000
186
0
nikki

nikki, I think I saw you there at Tim Ferrys trailer. Was that you that got his team mx pants and a t-shirt? I saw you at the staging area also. How did you like the track. Sat was a muddy mess in the morning. I think I finished 29th out of the 41 riders. Not bad for a KDX. What time was the show at Jones house? We had just left and saw him walking around the jumps.
 

OldManIn

Member
Mar 12, 2001
72
0
It was a great day of racing. I thought for sure that Brown was going to try and take Langston out. He was behind 6 points going into the second moto and started pretty far back in the pack but it turned into a really good race. It was too bad that Langston broke his front wheel - that undoubtedly cost him the series. RC came out of turn one in second and had a good time with #531 (don't know who that was) for a few laps, but once he got past him he was gone. He turned in the third fastest laps of all bikes. That little guy is fast on any bike.

Tim Ferry was really fast out there. If he hadn't got caught behind LaRacco in the second moto he probably would have beat KW. Windam was way out front and Ferry/LaRacco were tied up in a battle for second for about 10 minutes. Ferry finally passes and begins catching KW. Almost catches him and wipes out. He had put enough space between himself and LaRacco that he was able to get back up and not loose his place but he lost all the ground on KW that he had made up. There was about 7 minutes left in the moto with at least a football field between he and KW. He almost made it back again. He was definitely that fastest guy on the track.

The freestyle show after the race was great too. I sat and watched the three in Jones' backyard for about 20 minutes. Talk about balls, these guys have em.:p

Great Day!!! :cool:
 
Last edited:

nikki

Moto Junkie
Apr 21, 2000
5,802
1
KDXDan - yeah that was Red and I by the Yamaha trailer. Yeah - we got some great souvenirs - Ferry's pants (mainly for the Red Dog patch on his butt for Red - we also call him Red Dog and he rides a 426 too and Ferry is fave rider - but Ferry's pants fit me :) ), Vuillemin's jersey (also fits me and matches Ferry's pants :) ), a Ferry t-shirt, and some excellent photos (my favorite - 2 PRICELESS pix of Kevin Windham and me - he's ALWAYS been my favorite rider)

The track was pretty cool - those were some monster ruts out there! Every corner had a good 5 deep ruts to pick! Red had an early moto (3rd moto) and yeah - it was sure muddy out there!! I think I made it through 2-3 corners in practice before I pulled off of the track. Sounds like you did well and had fun! You had a full gate - that must have been exciting in that first turn! It was like people were just scooping shovel loads of slop at ya! The freestyle show was around 5 pm on Saturday - we saw Trevor Vines go by out trailer and towards Jonsey's house, so we headded over for the action. They were pulling off some great tricks - it was actually real exciting to watch up close!

And the racing on Sunday - you couldn't have asked for much more - it was all definately worth the 1,200 mile trip for us!! :confused:
 
Last edited:

Motogrl307

~SPONSOR~
Jan 10, 2001
93
0
Yeah Steel City was a great time I thought the track was awesome, I had 2 good motos in the mini class. And the Pro motos on Sun were great.

I didn't see who you were nikki I forgot what number you were to look for you. I was no 8 on the Kaw, I won the overall in the minis this year.
 
Top Bottom