Welcome to the first installment of Wide Open, your all-access pass with a behind the scenes look at a Live Nation event. We all know what happens when the lights come up and the gate drops for racing, but most fans don’t get the opportunity to see what the riders and staff do to prepare for the events, and how they blow off steam at the end of the night. Over the course of the season I’ll take you backstage, WAY backstage, even out in the pits and to the rider meetings where the riders and their crews let it all hang out. I hope you enjoy it, and if you want me to roll with one of your favorite Arenacross or FMX riders, let me know and I’ll track them down to find out what they are really thinking. The first stop for Wide Open is the Arenacross in Reno, NV.

Thursday is travel day and I spent most of the day in airports. Everyone thinks flying all over the country to races is soooo glamorous, but I am here to tell you air travel is about as much fun as sitting in rush hour traffic. I know the riders are hanging out with Miss Arenacross, Ashley, at the VIP party in Reno having a blast and I am jammed in a coach seat next to a screaming child. Just a courtesy note to air travelers, if you don’t have an interesting job DO NOT drone on about it for the entire flight!

It’s Friday and things are looking much better. The smell of the race fuel from the bikes always improves my mood. I spent most of the day hanging out with the track guys basically messing up their well laid-out tech check and riders meeting. The riders are always nervous during the tech check that they won’t get under the decibel meter limit. Of course it doesn’t help when I am shouting over the P.A. doing a sound check at the same time. Sorry Harv!! Another of the interesting conversations I had during the day was with BJ Dalsing. BJ is one of the guys that builds those gnarly whoops the riders have to navigate. Just to get to town he had to fly from the Albany Areancross to New York City, then Salt Lake City, and finally Reno. And I thought my trip was bad! A highlight for me on Friday was talking to Bob “Hurricane” Hanna. As you know Hanna was one of the fastest guys to ever ride a motocross bike and he spent the entire night hanging out pretty much incognito. Bob is a huge fan of Arenacross and predicted that Dan Reardon (from Australia) will make a ton of noise here in America. Of course, I shamelessly agreed with him. During my Pit Prowl I came across an unassuming young man dressed in Thor gear that looked like a little Chad Reed, so I decide to give him a hard time and interview him on the microphone. Little did I know it was Loretta Lynn’s 6th place finisher in the 65 class #651, Jesse Sanchez. He held his own in the interview and went on to dominate the 65 class all weekend. I was beat after a long day adjusting to the time change and jet lag so I bailed on the late night activities and head back to the hotel.

Saturday went very well and I have to give a shout out to Maxie and Jayme for making me look so good. What a lot of you may not realize is that the announcers are pretty much just puppets on and string and we need direction to be able to do our job. Without the show directors and support staff we would pretty much look like your typical 3rd grade teacher during assembly. After the great show the sales staff set the riders and crew up with a VIP party at a rockin’ place that was inside a casino but it looked like it was outside! There were A LOT of cool people hanging out in the piano bar singing along with the performers including a contingencyof the Metal Mulisha. I was fortunate to score some time with Jim Holley from the DMXS radio show and he told me the upcoming year of Supercross is going to be the best ever. I know he is right because he and Jason Weigandt have their finger on the pulse of motocross racing. After a ton of fun we headed back to the hotel where I ran into the Team Ti Lube Racing. The fellas were hanging out with their team owner having a blast. You would be surprised at how funny Teddy Maier is when you get him to open up. Reno was a great stop and the series points battle is really heating up, so look for us in a city near you! David Knisley