Hard work and the stars align...

ohh not for me... oh no but I will get to that in a bit.

First, rollout is still going OK - no one is freaking out, some compliments, etc.. and of course - for those of us who did the hard work - nothing... well not nothing - we got to leave early and get food and drink and games at Dave and Busters.. Now for the Merc.. this is a big deal so I'll take. We still had to buy our own alcohol but hey.... the most I ever got for this type of work. What I am hearing and is par for the course is those who are taking the applause etc.. Senior mgmt who were not here when it started or did not really work on it. Typical corporate crap I am sure - oh well - there are those of us who take personal pride and know we made it happen.

Put in over 60 miles on the bike this week. Feeling really good now.

Now about the title. I do not talk about my family that much - not the wife and kids but brother or sisters so this one is for and about my brother. I'll do my best to keep it short..hahhaha just like Wrider.

I love motocross - my bro loves it more. He has never stopped riding since he was 9. Well as the years pass and stuff he finally decided it was now or never to race a once a year race at Mammoth Mountain. He knew it would take time, effort and of course - MONEY!!! Now he has raced local races before and even won some desert races in the amateur class he runs but he never won a motocross race. So about 4 months ago he begins to train (mammoth is high altitude) working out, mountain biking, total change in diet (massively healthy) and lots of riding and racing the 40+ novice class locally (that is where the money comes in - a lot of gas) He really pushed himself for 4 months - won one local race to get ready.

Mammoth is open to the country so as long as you can register and pay - you can race so there are lots of good riders from all around in every class - even his - 40+ Vet Novice and Mammoth is a very rough track - no changes from the amateur to pros - they all ride the same track.

His best friend works for Suzuki racing so he gets to pit with him and a motocross legend - John Dowd - who is great friends with my bro's friend.

Friday - just a practice day
Saturday Qualifier - bad start in qualifier - goes from 22nd to 6th and makes it to the final race
Saturday Final - bad start again - goes from the 20's up to 3rd in about 5 laps - see first and second - a goggle tear off sticks during a jump and pulls his goggles half off - by the time he fixes it - he is in 6th and moves to 4th at the end.

He is bummed cause he knows he should have won but happy cause he did so well

Sunday Qualifier - bad start - in the 20's (notice a pattern here hahahaha) and moves up to 6th again and makes it to the final race

Sunday Final - before this, the legend John Dowd ask my bro how it went and he said fine but my starts suck. John had watched him and gave him "the tip" for starts at Mammoth
Gate drops - my bro takes john's advice and holeshots and leads out of the first turn. Now he thinks - cool if I can get one lap in - awesome. End of lap one he is still leading - hears the other guys but no real challenge so he says - well one more lap, and if they pass me, they pass me. End of lap two - still in the lead. Now he just says - I am just gonna race my race and puts his head down. Finally around lap 5 he sees some friends cheering him and giving him the arm movement indicating "big lead" so he decides to check. They have about a 1000 foot climb up and down section and he gets to the top turns and looks at the other side and sees NO ONE!!!! He cannot even see second place that guy is so far behind. He has about a minute lead after 5 of 7 laps. It really hits him at this point and he feels like his favorite rider Ricky Carmichael when you have huge lead and a couple laps to go. So now he can relax and enjoy the final laps.

He cross the finish line all alone to the checkered flag, gets high fived by all the fans along the fence and gets to go the top step of the podium for his trophy.. and all along the guy who announces Supercross was announcing the races so his daughter could hear the whole time how DAD was was kicking everyone's butt!!!! His friend Cole hugged him, John Dowd was stoked for him and my bro said it was the greatest week of his life!!!

So like my title says - he put in a lot of hard work and for 30 minutes that Sunday, all his stars aligned and gave him his dream.

I am totally happy for and proud of him.

Finally Song of the blog: I'm not over by Carolina Liar




and

The Wait by the Pretenders. Love old Pretenders!!