Hangtown...A View From the Pits

55^th annual Hangtown

2024 AMA National Championship motocross round at Hangtown was the 55^th year for the Dirt Diggers Motorcycle Club and still the only motorcycle club to put on a national championship motocross event in the country.

Well here I am again, rolling into the Prairie City OHV Park in my little motor home for the fourth time, to volunteer to be a security person in the team Husqvarna pits. It’s a great gig that I enjoy doing very much.

Friday afternoon I pulled in to the credential parking lot next to the will call and security tents to pick up my stuff. And as it has been in the past all they had for me was this year’s gray wrist band and my RV parking permit, the gray wrist ban  by itself is enough to get me anywhere in the facility. But I was missing my official big “Staff” lanyard and either a T shirt that said Event Security on it or bright yellow vest that said the same thing, I got both.

It was probably the hottest day of the year somewhere a little over 90 and the nearest tree to me was at least 100 yards away. So the first thing I did when I pulled into the Diggers parking area was fire up the generator and turn on the AC. A couple of hours later I rode my E bike down to the WC area again and finally hooked up with the leader of the security team and got the rest of my stuff and was told to meet the next morning at 5:30 for a team meeting.

The Dirt Diggers were serving dinner to all the volunteers in the Diggers reserved parking area where I was. Dinner was excellent and the next morning they were offering big breakfast burritos to volunteers as well. An interesting side note, I know a lot of members of the Dirt Diggers and the Polka Dots and there were a lot of Polka Dots who volunteered to help at Hangtown and there were a lot of them who camped out there, but they were not in the Dirt Diggers camping area. Apparently the Dirt Diggers are more than willing to accept them as volunteers but apparently they are not allowed to camp in the Dirt Diggers compound. I guess sometimes we never grow up.

5:30 AM is beyond early for this old long time retired man; I set my alarm for 4:30 and turned out the lights. I woke at 3:55 to pee and of course couldn’t go back to sleep. Sleep deprived I made my way down to the meeting on time. I think all the flaggers plus a couple of other volunteer groups plus all the security people were there, it was kind of a shit show, but eventually it all worked out and everyone went to where ever they were supposed to go. I took my E bike and rode down the hill into the pits at 6:00 AM there were only a handful of people there. I rode my E bike up and down all rows where the factory racing team rigs as well as all the smaller teams and privateer rigs were parked, it was very surreal in the early morning daylight, no bikes to be seen or equipment lying around all the factory rigs were dark no lights anywhere. Eventually people started showing up and by 7 or so things were starting to ramp up. One of the first things that started happening around the factory rigs at least besides the bikes being unloaded was someone on the teams were starting to cook breakfast and the smells filled the air. Everywhere I rode I could smell all the good smells cooking and there’s nothing like the smell of bacon cooking in the morning.

I had been assigned to find and bring a whole outside security company team, about sixteen in total to a meeting in the pits at 7:30 with the head of the Dirt Diggers security team and the AMA head of pit security. These team members were then dispersed one each to factory and larger teams as security. I went to my spot in the Husky pits.

At 8:00 AM the pits are open to those who have purchased a pit pass. The pits are open until 12:00 PM then all the security people along with county Sheriffs, etc. sweep the area removing all of those who don’t have the proper credentials and from then on the pits are closed. From 8 to noon it slowly gets more and more crowded, I think during the last hour most of the teams make their riders available to fans for autographs and pictures. The Honda pits, with the Lawrence brothers, the Yamaha pits, with Hayden Deegan and some of the other popular Star Racing riders and the KTM pits with Chase Sexton and Aaron Pleesinger. The Honda pits were over whelmed. After noon and the rest of the day my job becomes a lot less vigilant. One of the changes I noticed this year is the number of kids that were now roaming around in the pits. Like little gangs, not malicious just hanging out together trying to entertain themselves while whoever they belong to does whatever it is they do in the pits. All that I saw had the proper credentials to be in the pits. Most will probably spend the summer traveling around the country, how cool is that. Also more and more of the riders have started families it was common to see say someone like Justin Barica walking around holding his kid or Christen Craig’s son playing catch in the Husky pits.

For those of you who are motocross fans you will probably know that Husky has two 450 riders Malcolm Stewart and Christen Craig , Craig is just starting to ride after a history of injuries this year and Malcolm made it through the SX series after being out most all of 2023. And this was just his second outdoor race in ten years and I think maybe his second race on a 450 outdoors. In fact Malcolm said the last time he was at Hangtown he was riding a kick start bike. So both of those guys are just trying to get up to speed again and if you are a fan you also know RJ Hampshire broke his hand before the first outdoor race. Husky brought up a young guy named Casey Cochran to ride a 250, Casey was part of the 250 SX futures which were part of the SX series. He rode well enough to be the number one 250 qualifier. Those of you who know who Malcolm is know his brother is James Stewart and their father Big James who’s about as well known as his two sons. He hung out in the hospitality area a lot and quite frankly spent a lot of time signing autographs and taking pictures. I introduced myself and we chatted off and on during the day and I can tell you based my conversations and observations he seemed to be a very, very nice man, very funning and laughed a lot.    

 I’m too old to just stand there for hours so I bring a chair and try and position it so when sitting I can see what’s going on primarily in the rig where the all the bikes and mechanics are. Saturday I chased the shade for hours and eventually ended up in a corner until the sun ran me out. Husky has two big rigs one is used primarily for hospitality. As I’m sitting there I had a fair amount of people I know some in groups and some individually stopped by to speak with me, most were laughing at the fact I was a security person asking the obvious question, what was I supposed to be guarding. I told Big James he wasn’t the only celebrity around here.

Between noon and 1:00 PM things in the pits were quieter but more serious; the first 250 race would start a little after 1:00 PM. All the race activities revolve around the TV coverage, everything is on their schedule.

I watched the first 250 race from the comfort of the Husky hospitality area sitting in the shade watching it on TV. I followed the Husky riders and mechanics down to the starting line for the first 450 race. I was sitting underneath a couple of pop ups on a bale of hay at the end of the starting line I had a perfect down the line view of the starting gate and actually could see who came out of the gate first. After the gate drop I followed the mechanics down through a tunnel to the mechanics area and watched the race from there. After Jets crash he came into the mechanics area right by me to have his front end straighten before going back out.  

I didn’t go back to the pits until after the last race of the day. I would go back through the tunnel to the start line sit or stand in the shade under the pop ups and wait for the next race. So I watched the 2^nd 250 race and both 450 races between those two areas. All the credentials I had gave me access to anywhere, yes I know, but someone had to do it. While sitting on the hay bales in the shade and when the riders would return from their sight laps or after the finish they would ride right by where I was sitting. If I stuck my foot out a foot from where I was sitting the riders would have run over it. I told one of the guys if I had a stick I could stick it in Deegan’s wheel when he rode by just to make it a little more fair. But he did a big helicopter move right in front of the mechanics area and gave the moto win to Tom Vialle.

Aaron Plessinger has a huge fan base almost as loud as Jets fans and when he led almost the entire race they were loud everywhere. But the man of the day was Chase Sexton he came from a ways back in the first moto to win, but came from dead last to pass Plessinger on the last lap to win the second the 2^nd moto was incredible to watch. Many thought Sexton was the first AMA 450 outdoor rider to go from dead last to first, but apparently in 2017 Jeffrey Herlings making a rare AMA appearance went last to first in a moto.

After the last race I went back to the Husky pits to pick up my bike and my chair and say goodbye to some of the Husky people I’ve come to know. I really enjoyed talking with Tyler who is Malcolm’s mechanic. Said goodbye to Big James and Malcolm who was lying in an ice cold tub of water cooling off, he looked spent.

Something of interest I noticed Saturday, first of all the mechanics washed the factory bikes a total of five times that day. After the first practice, the second practice, after each moto and after the races before they put them back in the rigs. I also saw on the Husky 250 factory bike (I’m sure the KTM and Gas Gas bikes had them as well) in the air box they had what looked like some sort of a nozzle to do I don’t know what, inject air towards the throttle body? Made me wonder if it was some sort of air pump to increase air flow, it was shinny like either polished aluminum or stainless steel but the thing took up a lot of room in the air box.

I believe the thing that impressed me the most about this year’s racing was the talent level of the riders. I’ve been to most of these events during its 55 year history and it seemed as though there were always a half riders in each class who were by the end of each moto just circulating around the track waiting for the checkered flag. Not so this year, now maybe it’s been like this for a while and I just didn’t notice it but it stood out this year. I dare say if we saw the last place rider at a local event we would be like wow. I understand there were sixty, seventy riders in each class trying to qualify for this year’s event, that’s a lot of talent. Now just maybe that’s part of the reason Jet was only able to make it up to 24^th by the end of the first moto, although to be fair he was a long way back before he even caught up to the last place rider.   

I rode back up the hill to my motor home turned on the AC laid on the couch and cooled off. After saying goodbye to a few others I took off and headed home to spend a day or so recuperating. It was worth it and if I’m able I will probably do it again next year, after all its tuff to get a phony baloney job like this.

The weather and the fans were great and we were all treated to a special day of racing. The new track layout and prep were amazing as well.

Doug 21J      

Dual Sport Perfection

Nevada County Woods Riders (NCWR) held their annual fund raising event this year this past weekend at the Skillman campgrounds in Nevada County, which is located about 20 miles above Nevada City CA. Dry camping was available and I’d estimate over half the camp sites were full and by Saturday morning the entire campground was full.

Because of all the snow this year’s event was limited on the amount of single track available do to fallen trees and huge snow drifts still covering a lot of the trails. Skillman is just below the 5000 ft altitude marker, so most of the trail system is above 5000 feet. In past years the event typically started out with the first forty miles single track, then back to camp for lunch then an 80 mile loop consisting of as many dirt roads and two tracks as possible. The second loop doesn’t need any alternate routes

This year’s event was sold out with 140 entrants and started with a 97 mile loop with as many dirt roads and two tracks as possible. After having to postpone the event a few times because of the weather, the weather this past weekend couldn’t have been better. Finishing the loop back at camp for a BBQ lunch provided by the club was waiting; those who wanted to participate in the raffle had to buy their tickets before they left on the 97 mile loop. Because when they got back to camp for lunch the club volunteers had pulled the winning number’s bagged their prizes along with a 2023 Dual Sport T-shirt and other goodies they put the rider’s numbers on the bags so all they had to do was stop by the tables and pick up their goodies. And it turned out the club had enough swag to give out to all the riders, thanks to the very generous donations from the manufactures and motorcycle shops that help support the club. After lunch for those who hadn’t had enough riding could ride a 26 mile loop of single track

Some side notes, two weeks before the event, Skillman Campground had about four feet of snow covering the open areas. One of the members brought in his bob cat to clear the open areas of snow. There were thirty NCWR’s club members and five club members from the local equestrian club (Skillman Campground is a popular campground used by equestrian clubs) volunteered their time to clean up the campground of branches, twigs and stuff to help get it ready for the event.

I’ve said this before and it bears repeating, one of the things that makes this club so special is the willingness of its members to give back by volunteering their time to something they know to be worthwhile

Everyone I talked with had smiles on their faces when asked how the ride was.

It’s very rewarding and comforting to see a large group of like minded people show up for one purpose, to help put on an event like this and to be able to enjoy being part of an event like this doing something they all love doing riding their motorcycles.  

A reminder, this can happen to any of us any time we ride, two of the riders who were riding together collided and one of them sustained major injuries and is as of this writing is still in the hospital, we all wish him well.

Doug 21J

Kid’s Ride Day

On a beautiful Sunday the Nevada County Woods Riders and Scott Rabeneau hosted a ride day at Scott’s home, I think this was the third one he’s hosted. Scott has an area that has been used as a trials riding area for years. Sunday morning before the families showed up a friend of one of the club members showed up with a big skid steer and reworked the track into a very nice track for the little guys and gals. The club provided some barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs and the rest of the food was pot luck, which always means plenty of good food.

There were a couple of grandpa’s there with their grandkids plus the moms and dads, plus us spectators Stan and I were there and we are the two oldest members of the club at over 81. Stan brought his E bike and put a few miles on it.

It was so enjoyable to watch the little guys do lap after lap, after lap. There were of course a few crashes along the way. One little guy had a pretty good little get off, got up and hobbled off crying his head off. When they took his boot off you could see the black and blue appearing on his toes before your eyes. I walked over to him while he was still sobbing and asked if he was done for the day, through his tear stained cheeks and still a little sobbing he shook his head NO. And sure enough he did put his boot back on and rode the rest of the day. And that says a lot about his family and all the other kids who crashed not one of them quit for the day. There weren’t any soccer mom’s and dad’s there yelling, all the kids rode at their level and by the way they all got better by the end of the not because someone was yelling at them, because they were riding with each other and against each other as well. There was no bickering amongst the parents or the kids.

One family had seen the Face book posting Scott put up, called and asked if it would ok if they came even though they weren’t members, Scott said yes. Their little almost three year old daughter was amazing to watch on a Stasic by the end of the day it was clear she had no fear. Their father will be joining club by the way.

In this day and age with all the negative things in this world it was wonderful and reassuring to spend the day with families who are great role models for their kids and are instilling great values that will help them and give us all a little hope for the future.

And cud do’s to Scott for being willing to offer his place and heart to do this for these kids, the future of our country. 

I’m so glad I spent the day watching these guys do lap after lap I think some may have done 500 laps. One of the little guys still on his bike with his helmet on the handle bars fell asleep.

Doug McCaleb

21 J

21J Deep Thoughts

Sometimes in order for me to truly understand what I’m thinking or feeling I need to verbalize it or write it down. I wrote this for me, but my hope would be in reading this you might find something that resonates with you. If you did nothing could make me happier. 

I’ve always believed throughout my life I’m lucky and unlucky at the same time. During my life time I’ve had things happen to me and I could say that was unlucky but, at the same time I could also always say yes that was unlucky but it could have been so much worse.

Most of my life I considered a lot of the good things that happened to me as being lucky. As I’ve gotten older I no longer think some of those good things were just being lucky. I use to always say things like I’m lucky, things like I’ve been pretty healthy my whole life. I’ve been lucky. I’ve been able to race and ride dirt bikes for all these years.

Well yes, I have been lucky in that way, but I no longer believe it’s been just luck. Somewhere during these past years I started realizing, this isn’t just luck. I’ve never been religious, never really been exposed to organized religion. If someone asked about my views or beliefs regarding religion I would usually say something like I consider myself to be a spiritual person and not much more. Interesting though for many years, say after a day of trail riding on my way home, I would sort of look up and out of my windshield and say thank you, thank you for allowing me to do this again even if I had tweaked myself a little that day.  I also started saying this was the best ride ever (Thanks Eric), especially if someone asked how my ride was, because it could actually have been my last ride.

My views on spirituality have changed and continue to evolve. One of those changes was recognizing I am blessed. I can’t say I feel them around me as some people do, but I do believe there are sprits (Some people call them angels and spirit guides) who have looked out for me all my life and there are forces at play in my life if I listen to will help me along the way.

I spent nearly fifteen years as a Hospice volunteer, I found it to be very rewarding and my views on death and dying have changed. If you know you have made a difference at the end of someone’s life and if you’re lucky (That word again) they made a difference in yours and if you are willing to let that happen, it can be one of the finer moments in your life. And, at that moment, you will know what it means to be a human being operating at your very best. There are unlimited things we can do to feel we have given ourselves to something greater expecting nothing in return other than the inner feeling of just being a human being in the best possible way.  

But, I am a human being and I don’t always do the right thing for the right reasons. I’ve had many times in my life when it didn’t go my way perhaps at some else’s expense or at my own. I’ve had times when l felt like I’ve had more failures than successes, but I’ve learned when I’m am truly being the best possible human being I can be, I know I’m being successful. 

I spent most of my life thinking of myself as primarily a physical person. That’s who I was. I put no value on myself as being anything else. Certainly not as an intellectual person, I didn’t begin to think of myself in that way until later in my life, thankfully I did.  At about the same time I began to realize someday I will begin to lose this physicality, then what? Fortunately I was also discovering I had other things to offer and as time has marched on and my physicality has begun to diminish those other attributes I discovered began to supplement the physical me.

I had two years of dealing with neck issues that sort of started preparing me for the day I could no longer ride. Intellectually I knew that day was coming for years, but not today, right. Well when it finally happened I was still hoping for a fix, still am to a degree, but my sights are a lot more realistic now.

I’ve sold most of my bikes and surprisingly when I sold the dirt bike I had bought, but never got the chance to ride it was a relief and in many ways brought closure to that part of my life.

Again I’ve been blessed. I’m now over eighty and complaining that I have just recently lost my ability to do what I did for nearly fifty years. I’m also blessed in that I’m still able to form complete sentences and like many others do struggle with CRS but as long as I can continue writing things like this I’m doing alright.

Now I find myself at another crossroads the one extreme physical and mental activity (motorcycle racing) I had done for nearly fifty years is suddenly gone. I have had the time and been able to develop my other skills and now my other skills are taking the place of all that physicality. One of the things that has been very important to me all my life is daydreaming. I’ve done it my whole life.  I’m very good at it and practice doing it all the time. When day dreaming I can do anything, be anything, be anyone, go anywhere, I can have good endings or bad ones, I can be a good guy or a bad guy and I have done all those things. If I’m someplace and I feel comfortable and I am left alone I can close my eyes and daydream. Even if I’m someplace where I’m uncomfortable if I’m alone with my thoughts I can close my eyes and daydream. I can take myself anywhere and be anyone. Still those physical abilities are diminishing and for someone who has relied on, depended on those abilities it is freighting.

But I am adapting and I am better equipped to handle the inevitable changes coming in my life. 

Doug - 21J

NCWR Giving Back!

Nevada City CA

The second annual NCWR (Nevada County Woods Riders) Awards Banquet / Meeting was held in Nevada City, CA on February 1^st this year. And this wasn’t just another motorcycle club meeting.

Besides enjoying the trails and back roads of Nevada, Placer and El Dorado Counties and the surrounding Sierra mountain forests and the vast Nevada deserts, the NCWR is very involved in promoting responsible trail use, advocates off-road vehicle OHV access rights and fosters trail improvement programs with the Tahoe National Forest Service. They are a charter member of the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) and District 36 (The AMA’s regional motorcycle competition arm) 

The club works very closely with the National Forest Service in that the club helps maintain existing trails by clearing overgrowth and fallen trees, they help in laying out and the clearing of new trails. (That’s right new trails) They also work with the Equestrian clubs in helping clear fallen trees on the trails that run through the existing OHV trails in Nevada County. By helping the Equestrians we also help the bicycle riders who also use the Equestrian trails. Yes it’s a very delicate balance and can be very challenging but it’s worth the effort. The club also works very closely with the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship which is a Non Profit Organization that builds and maintains hundreds of miles of trails in the Sierra’s. They are also working on a project called Connected Communities (through trails) There are a lot of small communities in the Sierra’s that suffered greatly when logging in those communities all but disappeared. This project will connect fifteen of these communities by creating multi use single track trails to and through each of them, when this project is complete it will add an additional six hundred miles of trails in the Sierra’s. And this project is not a dream it is in fact very much underway.

The club easily donates 1000 plus hours per year to the Forest Service and many additional hours to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship. The special part of the clubs volunteer work is The Forest Service and the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship receive funds from the Government based on an hourly rate for the volunteer hours, a huge win for everyone.

A brief history of the club, back in the late seventies there were a lot of trail riders from Nevada and surrounding Counties who also rode Dist 36 Enduro’s, one of those riders Pete wanted to put a club affiliation name on the entry form, so He started putting down Western Nevada County Dirt Riders (WNCDR) eventually others started doing the same until one of the riders Doug thought the name was too long and they changed it Nevada County Woods Riders (NCWR) Doug also had some T shirts made with the new Nevada County map as a logo and the new name and a club was born. Eventually the club became more organized and at first the club was basically an Enduro riders only club, but as the years went on  and more riders joined it became more like it is today, primarily focused on trail riding and maintenance but Dual Sport and Adventure bike rides are also part of what the club does.

As the club has become better known for what it does the membership has also grown and today has over two hundred fifty members. It’s very gratifying to know the vast majority of the members are members because they want to give back, help and be part of something where what they do matters, is very rewarding and positive.

The club has been drawing increased attention from other clubs and organizations from a regional to the national level, because of its success in working hand in hand with the US Forest Service and other local groups and organizations that have a shared interest in what happens in the forest. There are few if any other clubs who have this kind of success and commitment and other clubs and organizations want to know how the club does it, well one thing is certain it has taken years of hard work, flexibility and continued commitment is a key.

This meeting drew some 200 members and family plus key note speakers from the Deputy Director of the CA state OHV (CA State off Highway Program) who brought us up to date on what’s going on in the OHV world. They also announced a new program whereby they are looking for input on opportunities to expand current OHV locations or where there might be new opportunities to create new OHV sites.  The US Forest Service brought us up to date on current and future projects in the Tahoe National Forest.  And a long time advocate for the rights to off highway recreation also spoke to us about the progress this club has made and continues to make and what a difference they have made and has become and inspiration for other clubs to follow. The director of the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship spoke to us about the continued commitment to maintaining a vast network of single track trails and their current and future plans of expanding the trails. There were regional as well as national representatives from a number of manufactures who have supported the club for years and several others who have expressed an interest in supporting the club in its efforts.

Awards were given out to members for reaching twenty plus and forty plus hours of volunteer service for 2022. Special Service Award and Volunteer of the Year awards were presented to two of the NCWR club members by the AMA (American Motorcyclists Association) along with a few surprise awards and gifts. And one of the big surprises of the evening was the NCWR (Nevada County Woods Riders) a nonprofit club presented to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship also a nonprofit org. a check for $5000 to help in their continued efforts to create trail systems in the Sierra’s.

All in all it was a great evening and it’s amazing what can happen when you bring together a large group of diverse but like minded people who share in a common goal. 

Doug 21J