What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas
April 02, 2007
Just how big has the mini moto scene gotten in the US? Well for the second year in a row, thousands of fans and hundreds of adults on mini bikes got together at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for the second annual Parts Unlimited Mini Moto SX. With the race going down Friday night, the THQ Supercross Saturday night out at Sam Boyd and the SX banquet Sunday night at the MGM, it was a non-stop busy weekend of all day and all night action.
When I say thousands, I mean a sold out crowd of standing room only screaming fans packed the Orleans Arena. And when I say hundreds, I’m talking about a capped entry of 500 riders that included 7-time Supercross Champ Jeremy McGrath, former 125 National Champion legend Guy Cooper, freestyle MX superstar Dustin Miller and Arenacross stars Darcy Lange and Tommy Hofmaster, to name just a few.
The Mini Moto SX people had to cap the entries this year at 500, or they would still be racing today. It’s that popular of a race now. The schedule this year was down to just six classes with many of the qualifying action taking place during the day. The entire night was AMA sanctioned with five of the six classes giving out actual AMA #1 plates. By the time doors officially opened at 7pm, the promoters had slimmed the show down to a tight ten-race program.
The classes were basically separated into two categories, the 10” and the 12”. The 10” being the 50cc class and the 12” inch being the 110cc class. However, these engine displacements don’t really exist any more and the only thing resembling the original motorcycle are the size of the wheels.
This is no longer backyard racing like we saw in the original Crusty Demons of Dirt. With some of these bikes being hand built with an astronomical cost of around $10,000, this is a specialty sport of factory racers and teams. There are so many hop-up companies around now to modify your stock mini bikes, it really is an incredible site to see.
Before we get into the race action, I’d like to explain my quick yet even quicker day of riding. I say ‘riding’ because I didn’t even make it to the race action. Being good friends with the folks over at Two Brothers Racing, I was lucky enough to line up one of their factory 12” bikes for me to race. Jeremy McGrath was their main guy with MC racing both the 10” and 12” classes. So I was going to be pitted with the legend himself. How could you not be excited about that? My only problem is this, I haven’t been on a bike since the Mt. Morris National pit bike race back in May of last year. I work for Smith Optics behind a desk and I’ve taken to the good life of being a parent, enjoying the holidays, and only getting exercise when I walk to my rental car when I’m at the races.
OK, it might not be that bad. But when I threw my leg over that monster of a mini bike and headed out for practice, I might as well have been Doc Wob for the way I felt. I was a fish out of water. Mastering riding a little bike can be a chore as it is. Make it run like Tedesco’s race bike on 12” wheels with double jumps and a big ol’ set of whoops (yes, they had a set of whoops on the track!), and after six laps of practice I had decided it was in my best interest to head back to the Two Brothers Racing race truck, hand the bike back to the owner Joel Albrecht, and go find my microphone and co-host for the night, Jamie Little. Oh yeah, did I mention I was announcing the gig too? A much safer way to enjoy the races. Man it’s a bitch to get old…
So back to the real racers and the perfect night of Mini Moto SX. They kicked off the night with a crazy Sphere of Death demo show brought in by the people over at Monster Energy Drink. The show is just what it sounds like, a metal ball that holds two teenagers on modified mini bikes. It’s like the old school circus show, but done Supercross style and these two kids had the Orleans crowd fired up and me wondering just how many Monster Energy drinks these two kids had drank.
When the races began, each race was packed full of action. From the amateurs to the experts, there was plenty of crashes and carnage to get you on your feet and even more “Bar to bar” (has anyone seen Art Eckman lately?) action to keep you standing. One of the best displays of riding skills I saw all night was by Dustin Miller. The pint size Miller has rocked the freestyle motocross world over the past few years, but the kid can ride to. The cool thing was watching him race around the difficult track on a stock Honda XR50.
They obviously had a class for the backyard burners and Dustin smoked it by jumping everything on the track and looking as smooth as glass. I think a lot can be said for having to carry your momentum and flowing like Bubba and Miller was doing just that. The only problem with the stock 10” class was it wasn’t one of the premier classes and it didn’t carry the gloss, glamour and big payday like to the two expert classes.
Speaking of those two classes, man those guys go fast on those little bikes. It is a sight to see watching them standing up, bent over the front of the motorcycle to the point their helmet is almost on the front fender. Drop into a bowl corner sitting down, with their leg extended beyond the front wheel of the bike with the inside bar dragging, to back up standing as they manual through a set of two foot deep whoops.
These riders are specialists to the point of perfection. Just ask Racer X Illustrated’s David Pingree, who took the win in the 10” Modified Expert class. “I’ve been riding and testing with the guys at Red Baron for about a month now. I figure if they’re going to take the time to make me a factory bike that rips, I can at least learn to ride it to its fullest,” said Ping.
Spoken like a guy with a lot of time on his hands if you ask me. What’s your official title over there at Racer-X Ping? Slacker writer, still full time racer? Nonetheless, my old friend was $4,000 richer with MotoWorld Suzuki’s Chris Gosselaar taking home $2,500 for second on his BBR racebike, while California’s Michael Sleeter earned $1,000 for third.
The final race of the night was the 12” Modified Experts and picking up where he left off on the 10”, but one step on the podium better was Gosselaar. Little Goose rode flawless throughout the 10 lap main event and took off with the win and the $4,000. When I asked him about his incredible night of racing afterwards he said, “Man I made almost $7,000 tonight. I’m pretty sure that’s more than I’ve made all year in Supercross! It’s been a tough season for me, hopefully this momentum will carry over and I can turn around my year on the big bikes.”
As for some of the other notable riders, Guy Cooper suffered some badly bruised ribs in a practice crash and just wasn’t himself all night. Last year’s 10” Champion Tommy Hofmaster suffered from poor starts and crashes and is looking like he is still on the mend from a brutal Arenacross season.
And finally Jeremy McGrath, he had a crash in both of his main events. When I ran into later that night the always fan favourite had this to say about his night, “I’ve only had a chance to ride once in the past seven weeks since my crash at Anaheim, but I really wanted to come out here and have some fun.” He added, “Two Brothers Racing set me up with two bikes and like you’re going to see on these pages, they are two incredibly trick motorcycles.”
Well that’s it for me and another perfect night of Mini Moto SX. I want to thank the promoters Tim Clark and Eric Peronnard for everything and congrats to Jamie Little my co-host, who came back from a big trip over the bars last year to place an impressive third this time around in the women’s class. I highly suggest you start making travel plans now for your ’06 Vegas Vacation. Why wait?
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