Budget Tips

Not all of us know the luxury of chilling at the track in a pristine toy hauler, with fresh gear, and a brand new state of the art bike with all the latest bling. For those of you out there on a budget, here are a few tricks of the trade to keep your wallet from getting in the way of pounding laps.

- Plan ahead: Making a budget and planning out your weeks of riding will help immensely. Knowing where you want to ride will help keep a balance of how you spend what little funds you have.

- Pick and choose: If money is tight, you aren't going to make it to every practice and race. So decide where your priorities are at. Whether it be practice day hero, strictly doing races, or making it a priority to hit up more tracks than just those in your local area. Check the weather ahead of time, and make sure you are going to be getting the best experience for your dollar.

- Be lady like: Shop for sales! Check the clearance racks or the blowout stuff online. If it's something that is ultra cheap, and an item you may not need at the moment, get it anyway. Better to have parts at hand that were inexpensive, than to wait until something breaks and pay full price. Last years gear was cool looking too, and will cost you about half the price.

- Stay safe: Nothing hurts a budget rider like medical bills and costly repairs. Don't ride over your head and risk your body writing checks that you can't cash. Same with your mount. Make sure you stay on top of routine maintenance. It doesn't get much worse than missing prime weeks in the spring and summer because you're saving up to rebuild the top end.

SX Academy

Supercross Academy: Here

Check out Mitch Rask putting down some supercross laps in this video from Racer X, at the SX Academy at the Honolulu Hills MX Park. Good to see him out there working with some very fast guys. Good luck in 2010 Mitch.

Josh Hill to San Manuel

Check it out here

After a rough 2009, Team Yamaha called it quits, and is setting up a lease program, to send out support to L&M, JGR, and Star Yamaha teams, instead of running an official factory effort. But where did that leave J-Hill, after his toughest year as a pro? Luckily he was able to slide into the #2 spot at San Manuel, behind James Stewart, and rumor has it that Larry Brooks (I'll keep my opinions about the man to myself) is trying to sign an aging K-Dub as well. That would be one hell of a blue trio.

I know I'm super pumped to see Josh on the 2010 YZ450 come supercross. Congrats to Josh!

The only thing I am desperately hoping is that Josh is not going SX only so early in his career...

2-Stroke Revival?

I've ranted about the ups and downs of 2-strokes and 4-strokes before. Basically it's whatever floats your boat. Different strokes for different folks. I recently made the switch back to premix, and I find I ride it better. That's just me. Some riders just flat out don't like it.

The point is, I've observed quite a few more pingers around Albany and other tracks lately. I'm hoping it's not just a temporary trend while the economy is in the shitter, but it doesn't appear to be a short term fix. A lot of us, myself included, bought into the 4-stroke hype when all the shiny new thumpers were coming out, with all the new bells and whistles, and double the cc's I might add. But now, after seeing what crap the used bike market is due to ticking time bomb 250F's, I think a lot of people are wising up, and realizing what we had wasn't so bad. Not to mention the fun factor of holding a 2-stroke pinned around a motocross track. Not that I would know what that feels like...

Indoor Motor-Cross

The sun has gone away behind the clouds, and all the riders are moving their pits under the covers for the Winter. Arenacross is starting up in Salem, and Clark County as well. Gone are the days of wet morning practice, the big table tops, and choppy braking bumps, and enter the days of tight bowl turns, and man made triples.

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who preferred the lights compared to the Great Outdoors, but the indoor months always have their own special draw. The racing is tight, and physical, and all the riders get to rub plastic just a little more. 2nd place on the last lap? The only option might be that block pass in one of the 180 bowl turns. Rubbin's racin.

New Management

AlbanyMX.com website captain Wes Hare is now at the helm of nwmoto.com, and is working to keep the northwest moto scene alive and kicking. Make sure to check out both regularly for all the info, and important race dates.

Obviously I'm just doing this for fun still, but hopefully I can provide some insight from a riders standpoint.

Washougal 2009

(YOU BETTER BELIEVE I GOT ME A RACER X BUTT PATCH STICKER!!)

This is gonna be a long one...

As usual, Washougal is the only pro event I get to physically attend each year. I've been trying to make it up to Seattle SX for years, but can never pull it off. Who needs gucci-cross anyway? Also as usual, the entire week leading up to race day, I was super pumped. This was the first Saturday event I had been to, and the first time I had got to see practice too. It was interesting to see riders piece the track together, and ultimately lay down some blisteringly fast laps times.


If there is a God, he blessed us with great weather on on Saturday. Washougal is already the most beautiful track on the tour, and arguably in the world if you ask me, and blue skies just made it that much more picture perfect. The track was good as well. Alot more "jumpy" than in years past, but lets face it, this is 2009. It's still a dinosaur as far as jumps are concerned. People complain about the dirt every year, but like I've said before, diversity is good for Motocross. It mixes things up, keeps riders on their toes, and helps seperate the good riders from the BEST riders.

Enter Chad Reed! Washougal is about as technical and slippery as you are going to get in AMA motocross, and as many expected, Reed rode to the occasion. He has admitted that he is having trouble pushing it to the edge, so I'm sure it was nice to be at somewhat of an advantage in the NW.


As far as the event went, Washougal is always a great facility, and the fans just straight up love MX, myslef included. From what I could tell, turnout was a little low this year. If memory serves me correctly, it was about 28,000 last year, compared to 20,000 this year. The Amateur racing suffered this year as well. Bleak economy? Saturday's? 4-strokes? Not exactly sure what the problem was.

Also the viewing was worse than in years past. In '06 when RC and James battled tooth and nail, me and my dad were able to catch almost all the racing from one spot towards the back. We saw almost all the passing, and screamed our heads off. The same could be said for '08 when Dungey edged out Villopoto for his first win. Same spot, same story. This year? There was a giant hospitality tent, and a few food stands up in the back that completely blocked the view. I love cruising around the track and seeing the spots as much as the next moto fan, but this was a little ridiculous.

A few observations I had:

Chad Reed is a great rider, and ultra smooth and very technical.


Erin Bates is one of the nicest people you will ever meet

The only bike louder than the PC bikes of Pourcel and Wiemer was Ben Evans bike (but that was more than likely due to the fact that his MUFFLER was GONE) not sure how those bikes pass sound?

J-Law finally rode good, but is obviously going through a tough year. I was extremely pumped for him to be on the podium in the second moto, but had mixed feelings after his podium presence was less than stellar. Either way good job for J-Law.



Josh Grants YZ250 that he is riding at X-Games is the coolest piece of machinery I have seen in many years. On our way out, one of the JGR guys was riding it back into the pits. Between the smell and the sound, I practically fainted out of sheer horniness, and jealousy.

Nic Wolfer is one of my new heros, for trying to make this big show on an RM-250. I made sure to cheer a little extra every time he came by. He didn't make it this year, but he hadn't in years past either, so in no way do his results have anything to do with his smoker. Go get em next year Nic!

Overall, Washougal '09 was a great day for real motocross fans. See you next year.