After a week off I was looking forward to getting back to racing and this week we were off to Hampton, VA. Thankfully we had a three day event and I left on Thursday, because the entire Midwest and Eastern seaboard got hammered with a wicked winter storm on Friday. My luck with travel seems to have finally changed! WoooHooo! Guess I better not jinx it. That would be like counting my AMA Supermoto championship before I actually won it, ala David Pingree. Poor Ping. Dude can’t seem to catch a break, or maybe it is the breaks he catches that cause him all the grief. (Two broken wrists this time derailed his latest championship hopes.) Oh well, at least he will enjoy all the perks of living in SoCal and the mass quantities Krispy Kreme donuts. And he has the best “side job” in the world writing for the greatest magazine on the planet, Racer X Illustrated. Keep your chin up DP, or at least your elbows next time.
 
Like I said the weekend started out great. I got to Norfolk (pronounced, “I don’t drink, nor’ smoke, nor f… you get the picture). S and Liz met me at the airport bar and we headed to the rental car counter together. Somehow when we were picking up the rental car S and I lost Liz and she ended up in a panic. By the time we found her she was crying and shaking. There’s no crying in Motocross! After a dozen or so apologies and a trip to the psychiatrists office we finally got her calmed down enough to head out. Of course after all that drama S and I needed a little “debrief” so we headed to a local watering hole for some “pops” and crawfish. The place was loud and crowded plus they didn’t much care for me wearing my sunglasses at night so we ate and bailed. Virginia has this weird law that says the bars can serve until 1:30 am, but you can’t buy alcohol from the stores after midnight. That seems a little backward to me and it would be a reoccurring theme all weekend. I mean most of us get finished working at the arena about 11:30 pm and like to grab a couple of cold ones to take to our room. Not happenin’ in Virginia.
 
Friday started a little earlier than normal because we had press day at 3:00 pm. It was great to have Kelly Smith with us in Hampton and he had a tremendous weekend going 1-1 and making up a ton of ground on Chad Johnson who only managed a 5-4 finish in Youngstown. For complete details check out Arenacross.com/resultList . Kelly is one of those guys who brings fun with him wherever he goes. I hung around the pits talking to all the riders since I had extra time at the venue and saw a couple of things I wish I hadn’t. First off, if you drive over a stop sign right in front of a cop you are DEFINITELY going to get questioned about it. Secondly, riding a pit bike in the parking lot when you have NEVER been on any type of motorcycle before, is going to end badly. Like with some serious road rash. Thank God a helmet was being worn. And finally, I couldn’t believe the drama in the parking area. It was like a soap opera. Grown men crying over having to move 3 parking spaces further away from the pits. I mean literally crying. Again, NO CRYING IN MOTOCROSS, EVER!

The crowd on Friday was VERY loud. They set the bar very high for the Hardee's Pit Party on Saturday afternoon. We had Travis’ family in the house and we spent a little extra time playing some special songs for him, including, but not limited to: Culture Club, and George Michael. It REALLY made Trav’s day. After KS finished dominating the field we decided to go out and celebrate. Ironically there was a pub called Kelly’s right across the street from our hotel and that made a perfect rallying point for the crew. Kelly has established himself as an icon in the Lites class on the Monster Energy AMA Supercross circuit and was totally pumped after our weekend in Hampton, VA. He talked extensively about the work he and his team mate Brock Sellards did out in California to get ready for this Toyota AMA Arenacross season. Well it is obvious their hard work paid off and Kelly had a smile a mile wide. In addition to KS we had a Monster Energy AMA Supercross East Coast rider LL in the house. LL cool J was so serious about his training that he decided to jog back to the hotel. Dude is for REAL! S and I did our level best to keep pace.

We are taking a week off from the Toyota AMA Arenacross Series but I am still runnin’ till I fall over so drop me a line and I keep you up to date. Next week I am going to be in the D (Detriot) for FMX! Love what you do and do it! Mxannoucner@hotmail.com