The Mag 5: December 2010

After 52 years history was going to be made again on the streets of Avalon. Luckily I (Special Ed) and Jethro "Whiskey Throttle" Tigert were going to be there to represent the Mag 5!

If any picture represents off road racing this is it! Dont know who the blue bike is, but I freakin love his line choice. Tigert got tangled up in a bottleneck right around this spot and had to work way to hard. His 4th place doesn’t even come close to representing how fast he was going. 30+ class? Yeah right, the guys watching his race next to me thought he had "whiskey throttle" cause the 450 was bouncing off the rev limiter,,,, entering the turns!

"Whiskey" Tigert passed about 20 people per lap and was flat out hauling the mail. He would have won by minutes if he coulda kept his nose clean on that first lap. He represented well. Good job!

The only real asphalt was about 1/2 mile long, with a K-rail on one side, a curb on the other. It was only 40" wide. I didn’t see it, Tigert denies it, but I am pretty sure he was passing those poor offroad guys thru that section. I would have sharted in my bates leathers if the Tigert came flying past me in ninth gear!

This race was all about the experience. How could I not go without the whole Ed 5 clan as my team? It cost a grip anyway, having my own cheering section/pit crew cinematographer, super hot Trophy girl was the best. (They loved it too and are hoping as much as me for next year)

First turn of my moto. I had two goals for the weekend. A) Don’t leave my family in an ER waiting room while I have all the fun, again... (Zaca 09-destroyed shoulder) B) Beat Mark Cernicky- I tangled with Mark in 05 at a supermoto race at Willow. (It was my fault and he didn’t even go down, but that doesn’t matter-he’s faster than me, better looking and works for cycle world.) I know Mark has an AMA pro card so I figured he was a ringer. Accidentally, bumped into him scoping the track before the race, turns out he IS a super nice guy and he did in fact invent the wheel, but being nice doesn’t mean SpecialEd is gonna give it to you.

I rode my own race knowing that my last lap would be my fastest. The vintage 250 sucked in the motocross section but as soon as we hit the offroad I could just peg it. The fire road was like Rancheria road with no cops or on coming jeeps. The only technical was like poohers cow trail and the moto section was like the Docs track only bigger. On the last lap I caught Cernicky who sure enough had led the entire race. I was hounding him and would have made the pass fair and square but pulled a old Wisconsin enduro trick and started screaming and revving the bike to spook him. He let me bye. Nice guy.

The old bike can still hook it up!

Representing the MAG 5 at the banquet. The kids were embarresed, but I thought the trophy made a nice table center piece.

The pro race the following day was fun to watch. I was cheering for Travis. He came up to me out of the blue at the start of the 2nd moto at a totally unknown chicken licks racetrack here in Bakersfield a couple of years ago. He told me I looked good in the first moto but needed some advice; "More gas-less brakes". He's good people in my book. (He was at the race watching his girlfriend)

On the trip home I was sporting the hardware (it wouldn’t fit in the luggage ok?) and this lady asks me if I would take a picture with her dad Bob Sandrem. Bob told me how cool it is and proud he is that we are still "carrying the moto torch". He raced in every previous Catalina and is now 90 years old. I was totally floored that he wanted my picture, can’t lie-I got a little choked up. It is all about the experience.