| It's good to be back! With one week of training/riding under my belt, it was off to the race at Glen Helen. I finished the opening round yesterday with a breathtaking dead last in both motos. On the last lap of practice i went for a 130' tabletop on the backside and blew out the front wheel. It was the thrid wheel i had blown taht week trying that jump. I would have given up after my first failed attempt, but a day earlier, a 14-year-old peanut rider (Honda factory-supported Mike Alessi) made it to the downside smooth as glass. The difference on my last attempt was taht I broke the frame as well as my front rim. Unknowingly, i went into the start of moto one with a broken frame, which was putting stress on the electrical box. I started the first moto in second, but every bump or jump I hit cut the motor off. By the halfway mark in the first moto it was over. With 40th pick to the gate in moto two, my start was lackluster at th best. I expended a lot of energy on the first few laps and was able to work my way up to eight before the halfway mark. Too tired to hold the pace, i slowed down to make sure i would recieve some points. It as to no avail; my arms were butter, and with two laps remaining, my hands blew off the grips. It seemed as though i would hit the fence at about 40mph... But that would have been too easy. The front end tucked, and I flipped over the bars. Somehow i clipped the top of a four-foot fence right below my kneecaps. With the speed i had, this sent me into the dreaded NSEW (north-south-east-west) spin. Luckily, the people scattered, and the only victims were an old man's walker and a half-abandoned chair. They younger msn that was in the chair moved just late enough to get hit with my failing arm. Everyone was pretty astonished, and thankfully, no one was injured. In fact, everyone involved seemed rather excited taht i had come within inches of judo-drop-ping them WWF-style. Everyone helped me to my feet, and two guys literally threw me back over the fence, cheering the entire time. This year has been by far the worst in my 14 years of riding. But i'm still excited to be back on the track, and with a little luck i will be back winning races again soon. One thing about the weekend taht asn't completely frustrating had to be the Jay Leno show. Even though i was just brought on the show to talk (perhaps the IFMA didn't want to take a chance with the ever-unpredicatable freestyle crew?), it was a great experience. All of the freestyle gus have progressed at warp speed, but Kenny Bartram is unbelievable. His Rock-Solid is so big that i thought he was crashing every time. Kenny was also doing a no-handed running man with a full extention into a heel-clicker, all in one jump! All the freestylers did a great job. Even with the wind blowing in every direction, none of the four jumpers failed to do a trick on any jumps. Jones was probably the most entertaining. In rehearsals they told him to do some bar tricks... He showed them some "bar" tricks, but they had nothing to do with moto. Kenny recieved the most attention from Jay, as he was obviosly a bit nervous. Somehow Bartram managed to mess up the only question he was given. When asked why he was called the Cowboy he answered, " i drive a country truck and listen to diesel music." Then he took a least a minute to buckle his helmet while Jay continuously cracked jokes about his Super Cuts-quality hair. Despite the wind, Kenny went for the trick that won him the Gold last year in X Games Big Air. The bike blew sideways, and Bartram became the second motocrosser to crash on late-night TV. Later that evening, Jay took Kenny and me to his personal garage, Well, actually, calling it a garage would be like calling the Grand Canyon a rain rut. With approximately 150 motorcycles nad cars, it was a sight to be seen. Everything from a 1908 steam engine racecar to a 1998 fromula 1-style and a million-dollar Aston Martin were on hand. Surprisingly, he knew more about every car in the shop than most race team mechanics would. I didn't have high hopes coming into the season for the first few rounds because of my illnesses, but i was hoping to fare significantly better than i did. Everyone on the team workds so hard, and now that Kevin's out for a while, the entire SoBe Suzuki tem has only me to rely on. I have a great bike this yearand a lot of support. Even though this year has been one to forget for our team, everyone is working hard and no one is giving up. It will get better... It has to! Se you at the races. P.S. Check out www.travispastrana.com when you get a chance. It's got merchandise for sale, free computer wallpaper, photos and streaming video, and lots of other cool stuff too! |
| "The Prospect" August 2002 |
| By: Travis Pastrana |