Important Up-date. It is imperative that every member who lives in the Gold Coast Council area contact their local Councilor and voice their deep dissatisfaction with Councils resolution (read below for details).

Remind them that you and your wife/husband vote; and unless commonsense prevails and Council reverse its decision to close Stanmore Park MX, you will exercise your vote at the ballot box in March 2012 at the Council elections – and that you will influence others to do the same.

If you have friends and family that live in the Gold Coast City area, ask them to contact their Councilor as well, with the same message.

We have a small (7 day) window of opportunity to get this resolution overturned, and it’s now up to you and “people power”.

Please click here for GCCC Council or contact details.

Lease Update. This afternoon, we received the following information from GCCC. Councilors voted in a “closed meeting” on Mon 28/11 to; (a) Confirm that Stanmore Park will close on 30 Nov as previously directed; (b) That the Reedy Creek facility will close on 14 December; (c) That Council will hold another meeting on Mon 5/12 to determine their position on the proposed Stapylton MX Facility.

This outcome is contrary to our genuine understanding from Council, that neither facility would be closed until a replacement facility is operational. The ADMC management committee is working through available options for the continued use of Stanmore Park until this occurs. This web site will be updated as the situation develops.

If you are a Gold Coast resident (in particular, Division 1) – now is the time to contact your local Councilor and complain about the poor and unjust treatment dealt out to the members of our Club; and the motocross community in general. Be smart with your e-mail, fax, phone call or letter (not abusive), and let them know that you’re a voter and MX rider (and that you can influence the vote of other like minded people in the Gold Coast area as well). Council elections are scheduled for March 2012.

Chad Reed guns for 3rd straight win

Reed looks for 3rd win

A couple of mistakes from Tedesco saw Villipoto take the lead and ride strongly for the remainder of the 20 lap final. Dungey made his way up to second while Stewart made his way through the pack displaying the speed he is known for. Reed struggled to pull back positions as quickly as Stewart and was out of the top five nearing the closing stages of the race. Canard rode consistently and found himsel in the top five.

There were no surprises with the expected riders filling the top 10 positions as expected. The quickest lap went to the man known as the fastest rider on the planet AKA James Stewart.

Anaheim 1 supercross open class final results
450 Supercross Results
1. Ryan Villpoto – Kawasaki
2. Ryan Dungey – Suzuki
3. James Stewart – Yamaha
4. Trey Canard – Honda
5. Chad Reed – Honda
6. Kevin Windham – Honda
7. Ivan Tedesco – Kawasaki
8. Brett Metcalfe – Suzuki
9. Josh Grant – Honda
10. Andrew Short – KTM
11. Kyle Chisholm – Yamaha
12. Nick Wey – Yamaha
13. Kyle Regal – Yamaha
14. Mike Alessi – KTM
15. J Thomas – Suzuki
16. Justin Brayton – Yamaha
17. C Blose – Kawasaki
18. M Boni – Kawasaki
19. Davi Millsaps – Yamaha
20. T Hahn – Yamaha

“We originally started out as a group of guys that just loved to ride dirtbikes and hang out and hey if we could earn a little money doing so – even better! For me, the Mulisha has gotten away from that these days. Don’t get me wrong I am appreciative of everything that the Mulisha has meant to me but at the same time I feel like I have been a loyal and constant presence on the team. I continue to compete and win competitions and always try to give back to our fans. As a company, the now very corporate Metal Mulisha was not supportive of the other things in my career – I think, for some reason, I was being pushed aside so the decision was really inevitable – it is just that simple.”

Yo can download this free media player from the http://www.videolan.org

What happened to Chad Reed? One of the main draw cards to increase the popularity of the sport in Australia would rather spend time preparing for the US AMA Supercross series. But I guess you’d know if you’d ever come face to face with Chad in one of his autograph sessions just how distant he is from the rest of us. Yeah, he’s earned it and he is one of the greatest riders on two wheels but without the fans and people that support the sport whats left?

It would have been nice to see one of the Australian based riders like Jay Marmont or Tye Simmons step up and take control of the series but I guess we just don’t have the same talent pool the US does? But then again Micheal Byrne would certainly be at the head of the pack. Maybe its time Matt Moss stepped up to the 450?

The final round of the Super X series was held in Queensland in a washed out mud pit. Practice was cancelled on Saturday before the racing so the riders got three siting laps before the qualifiers. The first open qualifiers saw a little air with riders only doing a double of what was supposed to be a triple and the finish line jump. What were supposed to be whoops before the finish line jump and the straight before looked like a washed out attempt at a rhythm section. The track was reduced in size from the previous years and didn’t even go close the southern stand so fans where a little far from the action.

Racing was more like survival. The start strait had half a foot of water laying over a large part of it. Ruts developed during the night that went down to the ply underlying the dirt and were trapping bikes as they were deeper than the clearance between the wheel base and the pegs. No one was jumping anything by the time the finals were underway. Riders were coming off everywhere, the starts were chaotic with riders being blinded by the spray from others riding through the lake. This resulted in a couple of pile ups with one rider being run over.

The conditions played havoc on the bikes with a number of cooked engines and burnt out clutches. A number of riders elected to use a second bike after just one 5 or 6 lap race. The rules were changed to allow two mechanics and a team manager to help get the bikes back into shape between heats. Normally only a single mechanic is permitted at the start gate.

Going into the final of the Lites class Matt Moss and PJ Larson where tied with the same number of points as Larson crashed out of the first final of the triple header and Moss having a ad run but still finishing. PJ Larson had a much better run in the 2nd final with Moss doing poorly again after a number of crashes. But in the end Moss pulled it together in the final round with Larson close behind. Matt Moss took out the lites championship for the third year in a row.

The final rounds of the Open class went as expected with Josh Hanson leading the way. Hansons bike was the only one that looked clean after both finals 1 & 2. The order of the day was to stay on the pegs and try to keep the bike straight while negotiating rhythm sections and triple jumps but without leaving the ground.

All in all the series has been a little disappointing due to the weather conditions and the promoters not delivering the riders they promised. If there not on the plane don’t tell us they’re coming. The undersized tracks compared with previous years and the premature shift of two round to New Zealand.

Hailing from Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley, 28-year-old Reed has endured a difficult racing season overseas battling both injury and illness.

One of the AMA/World Supercross title favourites, Reed was ruled out of the running in January with injury. He made a successful return to race the US national outdoors season, winning the opening round, before being diagnosed with the debilitating Epstein Barr virus which put a halt to his championship defence.

The back-to-back Super X Open Champion underwent an extensive and exhausting treatment program to attack the virus and has gone to great lengths to ensure he would be fit to compete at Newcastle.

A partner with Global Action Sports in the successful Super X venture, Reed finally realised a long-held goal of having a round held in his home town.

Currently free of any commitment to motorcycle manufacturers, Reed has partnered with a blue-chip global brand to appear at Energy Australia Stadium and will debut his unique race machine in the week leading up to the event.

“It’s been a tough year, and although it’s not ideal to be racing at this point I would not miss the chance to be able to race in front of a home crowd with my family, friends and fans in the stands,” said Reed.

“This will be a really special time for me, I can’t wait to compete in front of a Novacastrian crowd again.”

Further information will be released as it comes to hand and Reed will be available for interviews upon his return to Australia.

Then there’s reality, you get out on the track and try to clear a jump, say a table top for starters but your not really sure how much power you need to clear it. You pin the throttle and hit the ramp only you’ve jumped way to far and had your weight to far forward. You end up nose diving and knowing what your in for pin the throttle in the hope that the rear end will drop and you’ll land safely. Nope, at best you’ll be limping around for a couple of days.

After a while you learn to gauge how far you need to jump to land on the down ramps and your getting pretty good. Someone forgot to tell you about ruts on jump faces though and for some reason the bike kicks sideways of the peak of a ramp and you are all crossed up when you land, oh no, here comes that soil sample again.

How do you become a better dirt bike rider? Ride your bike. Take your time when trying new things and build up to them slowly, knowing what you can and can’t do. Think about what people tell you and take everything you read online with a grain of salt. Watch what the faster riders do on the track, look at their body position, listen to what the pro’s have to say. You probably won’t put any of it into practice until long after you knew about it though.

Unfortunately the most important lessons are those we learn the hard way, like the things I did when learning to jump the I mentioned in the beginning of the post. You can’t just get advice on something an expect to go out and do it straight away. When your able to do things it will come naturally and you will then release what you should have been doing all along was something you had been told or read about before.

So reality aside what advice can I give you?
When learning to jump keep your body in the attack position central to the bike, try to stay relaxed, you’ll most likely become a statue in the air though. Start with table top jumps and gradually work your way to jumping the full distance. Keep the bike in a higher gear rather than under power and keep a constant pace don’t back off but give the bike a little more power just before taking off.

When cornering try to put your leg out straight, don’t dangle it down or sideways. Sit on the opposite side of the seat to the direction you are turning, lean the bike and push against the outside of the bike and down on the outside peg. Power out of the corner from the apex. Make sure you’ve got good tires on the bike and practice pinning the throttle to get a feel for the rear end slide.

Use your legs to steer the bike and point your toes in to grip the bike over rough obstacles. Shift your weight off the seat and to the opposite direction to steer the bike while standing.

Keep your weight way back when braking to get maximum traction. Practice taking the inside line and braking harder if you usually take the outside.

Make adjustments to your suspension in small increments if you think it could be better. The more you play around with it the better you’ll get, but be careful as the wrong adjustments can be very bad for the bikes handling, if not dangerous. I increased the compression dampening so I didn’t get as much spring when learning to jump and not quite making the distance. This was great, only problem was now I had head shake in the front end at high speed. Not so great.

Come join motocross superstar, X Games gold medalist and Guinness World Record-holder for highest air.
Load up the trucks, bikes and haulers and come be a part of the action. It’s not everyday you get to ride and party with the best. There is no rigorous schedule, no info booths and no egos … just pure freeriding.

Ronnie Renner Free Ride Tour