The Grand Geezer Award!!!!

The Trophy no one wants to win.

(The Fish)

Now that I have been absent from the OTMX race series with a long term injury it seems everyone has done their very best to avoid THE FISH!

A bit of background for those of you that may not know or maybe recipients that had just tried to forget. The Fish Trophy (aka The Grand Geezer Award) goes to the OTMX rider that makes the biggest bonehead move at the International OTMX races. It was started around 2004 when the realization occurred that there were a lot of gaffs going on at the International Oldtimer races all around the western part of the United States.  Crashes are off the table, no one wants any of us to crash and possibly get injured, there is nothing funny there.  But the list of things that have been done to qualify and cause a rider to earn The Fish are, missing the start of your moto, taking off on the wrong gate with another class, pulling off on the White flag lap, running out of gas during your race, pulling off and trying to sneak back to the pits before the end of your moto because you forgot to gas up, crashing in the pits on your way to the gate, showing up to the race on the wrong weekend and any other bonehead move that anyone catches you doing.

So if someone slips up and another rider sees it you can be up for the Grand Geezer Award at the end of the weekend or even the next race if no one tops your boneheadedness! I can hear the wheels turning as you read this, “but what if two or more riders pull a bonehead move on the same weekend?”  Alas, it has already been done, so we created ‘The Fish Council’ and will convene when necessary to take a vote and award The Fish.

On occasion the not so proud owner of The Fish must carry the burden for several races until another rider does something and gets caught. To bring you up to speed on the current whereabouts of The Fish, Mark Kaestner had owned it for a few months because he is Mr. Social and was so busy visiting he forgot to top off his bike with gas.  From there it went to Doug McCaleb, aka Senor Kirby, for showing up to the gate just about the time his race was completing their first lap!  Now Senor Kirby is all smiles, as you can see by the photos, because he just awarded it to Mike Harper (of Halls Furniture Store fame) because Mikey had total brain fade on the line at the Sierra Oldtimers race, which was being held at the Prairie City OHV park using much of the same track that was used for the outdoor National. The starter went down the line and told everyone that the moto was going to be split into two separate starts but somehow between being told and watching the 30 second board go up he forgot he was now on the 2^nd gate! Mikey got one heck of a start and battled in the front even leading for a couple of laps until he noticed he was racing with the wrong guys. Doh!

So Halls Furniture store in Citrus Heights, Calif. Is the current resting place for the Infamous Grand Geezer Award. It rounds out the display very nicely with the mounted deer head, the motorcycle awards/trophies and the marathon running plaques Mikey has hanging on the wall showing many of his accomplishments. Drop by anytime and check it out, I am sure he would love to show it to you. But don’t let him talk you into taking it, you gotta earn it!!!

#33

“Be humble, Or you’ll stumble”