On The Pegs January 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 1 | Page 45

On The Pegs
VOL. 5 ISSUE 1 - JANUARY 2020
45
me try. So we went to Germany and watched all that, and talked with JONTY who
had been running something kind of similar in England. It took a year to convince
Krista to be like, “Hey, let’s try it.” So finally the next year we went to Italy and
watched. So then that year she let me have a go at it. Then we did one race and
I think we maybe had a hundred riders or something like that. It wasn’t a smash-
ing success, but it wasn’t a complete failure. The feedback was just crazy. Not one
person had a bad thing to say. That kind of made me think that maybe this could
work, but still it was scary to try. I had a good job. I was doing okay. To just throw
everything aside… We did that first real series which was five rounds. It went well
enough that we were like, all right. By the end of that year I was pretty burnt out
at my old job. I was tired of being a desk jockey. So here we are four years later. I’m
a full-time race promoter. I guess that’s the way things work, though. Sometimes
you don’t plan them out and it’s just meant to be.
What was it about this format that appealed to you and what do you think
it is about it that appeals to riders?
I grew up with a motocross background, so even in the early ‘90s motocross
tracks were closer to a grass track now. They weren’t super jumpy. Photos from
when I raced at Loretta’s in the mid ’90s, there was a lot more ribbon and stakes
and stuff defining the course. So it kind of just reminded me of that. If you were
into riding dirt bikes and you look at a big, old, grass track like that, and if that
doesn’t make you want to go rip on it, I don’t know. Check your pulse. I have a
moto background so I’ve ridden enduros and stuff that were super, duper tight
and I didn’t like it. Then the idea of riding for three hours just didn’t really appeal
to me. So I think that was really just personal preference. This is the kind of stuff
that I would want to ride. I think that works out really well. You get your weekend
warrior guy who maybe doesn’t get to ride during the week. Works a 9-5, has a
family and stuff. They can come out here and be competitive and feel like they’re
going really fast. It’s super fun. Just hold it open a little bit. You don’t get to do
that in other races. So that’s the weekend warrior kind of guy who it appeals to,
but then on the super high end of the spectrum where you’ve got guys like Sipes
and Kailub and Stew and Grant and Taylor and all those guys. They need a place
to practice this format. I think that was the biggest thing that shocked me when
we went to Six Days. There’s nothing like this in the US, and our guys are getting
their asses kicked every year. Doing pretty well for having no practice. All the
European countries are racing some sort of format like this. So I think that’s the
appeal for both ends, for the novice and for the pro. It works on both ends.