FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS !

Minimoto SX Las Vegas 2005 ! The biggest Pit Bike race on the planet!

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS!!!!!!

PART 1...THE TRIP!!

well it's a long story ,so i'm doin' it in parts,hold on,here we go!i'll start by introducing the motley crew of our trip.team miniX was of course,our rider and owner of miniXuk.com Lee Stevenson age 25,Tom M.long time friend and ridin' bro from doncaster,and myself Elvis Jenner. Co owner Shane happily stayed at home and held the fort (Aint going on no plane!) we began our trip on a monday morning,2am(doh)!!with tom at the wheel of our team vehicle we made gatwick in a record 2 hr and change.oh, did i mention that we had disassembled and packed a minibike in our 3 suit cases!!so feeling a bit like a smuggler we checked the cases thru,fully expecting to have a big customs officer lookin' for us!but all went thru without a hitch! didn't even open one bag!so, on the

747 we boarded,and settled down for our 10!! hour flight direct to the city that never sleeps!! LAS VEGAS! we arrived in vegas tuesday afternoon,vegas time, and checked in to the luxurious orleans hotel,casino,and arena where the minimoto sx was to take place. man was this place huge!! gamblers everywhere!

the trucks and cars outside were mind blowing!! hummers ,lambo's,huge 4x4's it was like hollywood!!GUY COOPER had the biggest truck i've ever seen (and i'm texan so thats BIG)see pix later on miniXuk site!! we headed across the street and rented our team van for the week ,a 15 ft box van (with a V8 yeehaw!!)and proceeded to our spot in the PITS! as we parked up,our new neighbor a guy named Dave from pennsylvania(sic),made us feel immediately

at home and came over for a chat!! he lived near southwick,a very nice national,outdoor track back east,and he and his bro had driven 4 days to get there, stopping at tracks along the way!!he began to tell of the tracks they had visited along the way,kansas,texas,oklahoma,colorado,and others!!my english traveling mates were glued to his every tale!! so as our long trip started to catch up with us,we begged forgiveness for an early nite ,with a promise to hook up the next day,we headed to our very nice hotel room for some well earned Z's! for the next day we had a bike to build out of three suitcases of bits!! 

PART 2 

well with a good night's sleep under our belts, and an awesome,all u can eat breakfast for 3 bucks traditional,mexican,pasta,and a bakery!) i know now why my fellow countrymen/women are so fat!! we then headed to our van to go score some tools,as i mentioned before, we had a minibike in 3 suitcases to get built!! so we headed off to the famous WALMART. our list included tools of various types,water,chairs,and an array of special items from a list my sons gave me,in exchange for using their video equip. for the trip! biscuits, hostess cupcakes, and kool-aid were found and off to the check out we ran!! the temptations to buy stuff was evil!! almost everything was half price!!on the topic of cheap goods,just an example:fox gear bag,£50!, CRF50 $1200 dollars! an i wish i had a bigger suitcase! anyway,back to our pits,and with quite a crowd we began assembling our weekend weapon.BBR frame, SHIVER forks,12" (Thanks Windwave Marzocchi uk)  12"  front,10" rear, Taki motor ( Thanks Takegawa Japan/ Monkeybike uk) and the usual MINIXUK bling!! about 2 hours later,it was barking' like a bad dawg! a few laps around the supermoto track that occupied one corner of the pits(the minibike pits were bigger than the SX pits!!) and the bike was certified ,sorted!! well now, what do 3

motocross nuts do when they have time to kill in vegas?? first a trip to the,as we were told , the best burgers in town,IN-AND-OUT BURGER! great burgers! long wait! but a full meal for 2£!!needless to say we marked this place on our map and headed for the famous LAS VEGAS STRIP! the stratosphere was our target, and in a cab we went! tom and lee went UP TOP for rides on the rollercoaster, and i did some shopping in the mall below! a great time was had by all as we headed back at out hotel with dreams of downtown vegas in our heads!! 

part 3

hey now! i'm back in tune! anyway thursday was an off day,so we ate and headed down to the pits to see what was up! as we arrived we were approched by a guy eric ,it turns out he was the main man'runnin' the race from minimoto mag. him and his bro were riding' these things called SEGWAYS!two wheels,stand upright on them,lean forward,ya go forward,lean back it stops and reverses!twist the handle and it turns on a dime!we soon talked him into letting' us have a go , and lee and i were of like a shot ,zippin' around the pits like space-age nuts!!freestyle moves soon followed(can can!)and we soon be lost our visitation! anyway after such a unique morning ride ,we decided to head over to the local bike shop! man what a place,nice folks!hooked us up with a place to keep the

bike and smoked us some deals on our purchases!thanks CARTER POWERSPORTS if your in vegas ,check them out!! when we got back to the pits,we were told we could have a sneak peek at the track!didn't have to tell us that twice, and we were in! what a mean little track!holeshot to the left,rhythm section into double,double'double,or triple,triple!left again,jump to table,dogleg right,step-up thing,left into a mean set of whoops,right into a sand whoop section, then right again ,small double,then table-top finish line jump!whew!like i said ,mean lap,no room to rest and burms 5' tall! well ya always feel better when you've seen the track,so we were doing good! just then the BALL OF STEEL stunt boys started doing run-ups on a little kicker ramp they had set up,

and being fellow TEXANS they let us hang out and watch!soon we were watchin' these bro's bust some awesome backflips on a crf150! it was cool just hangin' out with fellow lunatics! well with the track layout fresh in our minds ,we hit IN-AND-OUT BURGERS again and went for a cruise around town! man , the cars and trucks were awesome!hummers ,vettes,huge trucks,lambo's,mustangs!i could go on as i'm a bit of a car nut!but needless to say i had a sore neck from lookin' around so much! we decided a mellow nite was in order,as friday was race day! so we hung out in the pits with our new bro's from the east coast,and told bench racing stories till late in the nite! 

part 4

well this is why we had traveled so far(over 10000mi roundtrip)and spent months organising!all contingents were covered,tools,water,parts,gear.our rider seemed cool and calculated!we were ready for whatever they had in store for us.half a world away from home,in a rented box van.i'm sure we didn't intimidate anyone! but we were sure our rider had the skills to get in the mix!!we hoped! we could of chose the lower classes and smoked it !but are guy wanted to do battle with the elite!)  first practice was about to start ,and lee's class was loaded into the gate! what a class,MCGRATH,COOPER,HOFFMEISTER,ABRIGO, PINGREE,GOSSLAAR, and another dozen hotshot pro's!!! At this Point Tom and i were front row with stopwatches and clipboards at the ready,to get some valuable lap times to give lee an instant idea of how fast these dudes really where! the riders hit the track!we held our breaths as lee got his first ride on the track! lee was looking' very smooth,moving thru the pro riders just as if he were at his home track in blyton! AWSOME!!!! Practice 1, 6th place!!!! 0.3 covering the top 7! 'SHOWTIME MCGRATH' but to name a few behind lee! WOW! If your reading this then you probably already know lee,So like uz, it' will be no surprise to hear how competitive he was right of the bat! even in this elite company!! Relief!l Practice 2, as the first lap went by we watched with glee as we noticed Abrigo behind lee!and within a couple of laps had put a couple of bike lengths on him!result! i think it was just about then ,when the music from the twilight zone started playing in my head and ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! as i said,lee was lookin' good out there,and he was probably thinking that these superstars wasn't so bad ,when he doubled thru the rhythm section,got hung up with ABRIGO and went full tilt over a 6ft berm, immediately popping up with his arm in the unmistakable position of a

dislocated shoulder!damn! ( old injury,and about the 4th time it had popped out this season alone!!!) and i started to run! as i was running around the arena tunnel,i remember wondering were the vegas hospital was!doh!and more important would they honour lee's english travel insurance?! well as i came across lee ,he looked bummed,cuz he knew that if we had to go to the hospital, the hassles would start!so the medics put him on the stretcher,and i went to lock and load the bike! as i ran back to the ambulance and looked in , i saw lee with a ****-eating grin on his face ,which knowing lee meant things had changed.turns out that when he was being loaded into the meat wagon, his arm was bumped and it went back into place!YAHOO!

i immediately told him to get out of the wagon,gave a fake address,signed a release ,and we limped back to our pits to re-group well we had about an hour before lee's next qualifier so we decided that since he felt o.k. we would give it another go! so we taped and strapped lee up and headed out for the next round.just me videoing with a shaky hand! i think you know when its not going right cuz lee looked very tight.ya know when you see someone trying really hard, but the PAIN just to deep,well thats how it looked!every jump looked agonising,every bump was felt by us,and sure enough after a couple of syko-hot laps, as he went thru the whoops i saw that familiar rubber shoulder wiggle and he rolled to a stop next to a flagger,and again ,i started to run!aw hell,those

medics are gonna really hate us,i thought!as i went to get lee and his bike! well we must have a minibike guardian angel,cuz by the time i got down to the track we had taped lee up so tight,it put his shoulder back in!! WHEW! that was it though cuz there is only so much abuse one can put up with!TRUST ME this kids tuff ! we headed back to the pits with our wounded (mostly pride)rider, the crowd gave him a well earned round of applause!So did a few of the pro's! it didn't go unnoticed that lee was one of the faster guys out there!!motocross folks always support the injured,cuz it was them last month! humbled and glad lee was all o.k. we watched the rest of the action! the racing was awesome ! those boys haul a*s!pingree won,gossler 2nd.all the top guys from last year got smoked!MC,coop,hoff. the new young bloods had arrived! well, 

knowing lap times and promising next year will be different,we hung out in the pits till late in the warm vegas nite planning next year!we can rebuild our rider,bigger motor,more training!CAN'T WAIT!! 

part 5

well, did i mention that we had hooked up tix for the SX in sam boyd stadium? the supercross race from vegas was on t.v. last week ,and if you watched you'll know how insanely awesome it is!the show is like nothing else! but to see one live,is like no other event in the world if your a dirtbiker,and i still get very emotional when i go to one ,and i've been and raced in a few! and here i was again,with my 2 supercross virgins!as we drove into the stadium we noticed the usual "city" of RV's and other vehicles settling in for the big event.let me hip ya'll to a predominantly american thing that goes on at sporting events of any kind,the"tailgate party",its where everybody party's in the parking lot(sorry...car park!),before and after the event!mostly after! so we found our

bro's from the mini race(they had a huge R.V.to hang out in!)and parked up for the show. well we did the usual pit cruise so my travel companions could rub shoulders(lee had to be careful l!! lol with the supercross royalty!we saw them all,bubba (until he crashed!)ricky,reed,and all the rest.scored loads of freebie posters, autographs, stickers and headed in to watch practice and qualifiers like i said before,this is the greatest show on earth and we sat and watched as the "boys" did there thing! you can't judge how BIG the jumps are at a supercross from watching on t.v.!until you've stood at the base of a triple and watch as with maybe only 10 ft of run-up they launch 70 ft!!!like really angry birds of prey!braaaap!over the triple,straight into a hairpin then ba! ba !ba! ba! ba! ba!thru the 3 ft tall whoops,like they were an inch tall!!man,thats about all i can tell ya'll about the race cuz you just have to go to one!! thats my challenge to you all,GO TO A SUPERCROSS!if you can't ,watch them on t.v.(early in the week on ch. 5.sx and mx)cuz its the best action around! anyhow,we left the stadium ,still blinded by the huge fireworks that went off at the finish line(about 20min long!)and headed to our truck ,to spectate this

road warrior lookin'tailgate party action!well it was just that!4 wheel drive monster trucks,minibikes,crossers all ridin' around in the desert dust!folks hangin' out ,drinkin' and such.we had a video game set up with MXvsATV to play,next door one space they had a table-tennis table with fake grass! well we hung out till about 3am and headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep,for we fly home in the morning! oh and we picked up a hitchhiker who was an idiot!(thats anouther story) we were sad to leave vegas,but we had learned a thing or two!we got thru customs without any prob's and settled in for 10hrs of rest!what a trip! all home safe and not to badly bruised! 

EPILOGUE:

 

So the guys have made loads of connections over there , so hopefully will be able to get some new stuff, for you,the mini bikers of britain! i'd like to personnally thank,the guys at MINIXUK.com for making this trip possible!!these guys eat,sleep,and bleed mini motocoss!!its these guys, that are ALWAYS trying to make minibike a bigger and better sport! 

Who knows where this growing sport will be in the future, but be sure these guys will be pushing the boundaries and put themselves right up there in minibike Folk law! so big thumbs up to the guys for helping put minibikes in the UK,on the map!

i will also be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT next week!and thanks to everyone who read this little odyssey! hope ya'll enjoyed the lame attempt at journalism by myself!and see ya at the track!!keep ridin'! elvis420 

AND FINALLY:

Lee made the back cover of the,official DVD with a great 'bar tobar pic!!! and a write up in the centre spread of the official mag ! thats the cherry baby!! Are we doing it again next year?Watch this space.....

TIMED PRACTICE 2 10" PRO CLASS:

1. David Pingree       USA

2. Chris Gosselaar     USA

3. Mike Sleeter        USA

4. Ryan Abrigo         USA

5. Derek Costella      USA

6. Lee Stevenson      UK

7. Jeremy McGrath   USA

8. Kyle Coan             UK

9. Ryan Dudek          USA

10. Ryan Beat           USA

11. Willy Browning     USA

12. Grant Runkel       USA

13. Erik Anderson      USA

14. Tom Hofmaster    USA

© 2005 Elvis Jenner

share this!