TEAM DIRTBIKEMIKE

Round  5  -----  Baltimore, Maryland 

JANUARY 12 --- 14, 2007

January 11
Sightseeing in Washington , D.C was fun, but I wouldn't want to live there. Today we just had to make sure that everything was ready for Friday's races. I went over the bikes and made sure they were ready to go for Friday. Chad , Tolland and I went out to eat at Uno's Pizzeria which was only a couple of blocks from the arena. The weather in Baltimore was excellent for January.

January 12
The bikes were ready to go and the riders were too. Chad had no problem making the night show in both classes. Tolland also transferred out of his heat in the Lites class. Beau also made the night show for the second time. Mason struggled with his starts and failed to work his way up through the pack into a qualifying position.

In the night program, Chad and Tolland both transferred to the main in their Lites qualifiers. Chad struggled to get the start he was looking for in the Arenacross class and failed to transfer. Chad was on the front row in the Lites Main and Tolland was on the back row. Both riders got off the line good and Chad came out of the first turn in third place position. A big first turn pileup brought the red flag out and the race was restarted. Jim Neese and Tolland were two of the three riders involved and they were relegated to the back row on the restart. Chad didn't get a very good jump on the restart and he struggled with the narrow track. He wound up with an eighth. Tolland was on the back row for the main and he had a tough race. On the second lap his bike quit in the rhythm section. It looked like his bike locked up, but when the track crew pushed his bike off, they found a rock stuck between his rear brake lever and the case. He ended up twelfth even though he was down a couple of laps.

January 13
Today was Mike's birthday, but we didn't have much time to do any celebrating. Chad made the night program in both classes. Tolland had some bad luck and failed to make the show, so I turned him into a mechanic for the night. Mason made the night show on Saturday again. Not too bad with only two weekends on the AMA National Arenacross Series. On Saturday afternoons, we take the bikes out on the starting line for the Toyota Pit Party that is held every weekend. They set up tables and the riders all sign autographs and the spectators get to check out the track up close. All four team riders were at our table and I got invited to join in. It was pretty cool. Toyota rolled in two of their new Tundras and they are big. They are full size trucks and good looking too. The Air Force had their truck with videos and a jamming boom box in the back. Miss Arenacross sat next to us and she is hot. During opening ceremonies, announcer Tim Cotter interviews a team manager or owner. Dirtbikemike got the duty Saturday night and Tim got the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to him. I don't think Mike liked that too much.

During the night heats, Mason could not get a start and didn't make the main. Chad was complaining about his 450 not having the hit he wanted and decided to ride the 250 in both classes. In the Lites class, he transferred right to the main from his heat race. In the big bike race, Chad worked hard, but he was under powered on the starts and that killed his chance to make the big bike class. In the Lites main, Chad didn't get a start and worked his way up from dead last to finish eleventh with Friday night's winner only one position ahead of him.

January 14
Sunday was my birthday, but there was no time to celebrate. Pam's Sunday announcer flaked out on her and she recruited me and Chad for that duty. We realized pretty quickly that we couldn't pronounce a lot of the rider's name's correctly. But we gutted it out and Pam said we did a pretty good job. She said we could announce on Sunday at Dayton too. Now I have another responsibility on the tour. We had a good time interacting with the spectators keeping them informed.

January 15
On Monday, we loaded everything up and headed out for Ohio . Our plan was to check out the AMA Hall of Fame in Pickerington , Ohio . We made it to a KOA campground near Dayton that night. The campground was flooded from all the recent rain, but they found us a spot and we called it a night. Tuesday morning, we did our laundry and then headed for the AMA. We got a special tour of the AMA offices from AMA Motocross Manager, Ryan Holaday. Then we checked out the special motocross display at the AMA Museum . It will be there through May of this year and then it goes on the road with the International Motorcycle Shows. Check it out if you are near Dayton , or look for the show's schedule of events. We're headed to an indoor motocross facility tomorrow for some practice. More later.

Toyota Phil

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