The title of this Woz Up couldn’t be any more true.  It’s been a crazy and fun ending of my summer with the past month and a half just being pinned to the max with video and photo work.  Today marks the official start to the Fall season so let’s look back at one of the busiest summers I’ve ever had.

Back To Loretta Lynn’s

Last time I wrote up my last Woz Up, it was late July just before I dove into the heat and humidity of Loretta Lynn’s dude ranch in central Tennessee for the 9th year in a row.  I have always dreaded going back to Loretta’s.  Not just because I have done the event so many times in a row, but just the overflow and overwhelming amount of work that goes into that week in early August.  Some people say, “Oh, you just walk around and film races. That has to be fun!” But in reality, you’re out there under the brutal sun dealing with every photon and particle that sun can pierce into your pores while you sweat everything out of you capturing the action for everyone back home.  It’s not an easy task for anyone out there.  But it’s an event you can’t miss.  Loretta Lynn’s has been stepping up in a big way ever since my first visit to the ranch in 2004.  I remember then, it was just simple track pennant banners and tarp podium backdrop.  Things have greatly changed since those days.  Red Bull and Thor have skyscraper-sized displays and the look of the track just has changed overall.

For MXPTV that week, it was a last minute overload of work that included 21 Battles videos presented by Nihilo Concepts, 5 short rider videos of Factory Connection’s top finishers, 7-8 personal rider videos, and a 2013 Cobra intro video.  So with about 40 videos to film for that week, I had to be on my A game even after a 3 week stretch of the nationals going into Loretta’s.  But I had some great help that week with Matt Rice providing excellent photo reports during the week and Troy Zeigler being that much needed 2nd camera op on the track.  All 21 of the Battles videos have been online and you can check them out below in a YouTube video playlist.  The personal rider videos will be uploaded pretty soon as there are a couple posted already and more to come.  The remaining videos will be posted after review and approval.

The Local Nationals

After my battle against the LL humidity, it was back home and quickly back to the pro national scene with the Southwick and Unadilla rounds back to back weeks.  At Southwick and Unadilla, I met up with a lot of old friends since I started racing in the New York state area back in the day.  Even though Budds Creek is the closest national for me, I feel more at home at Unadilla just because my first national I ever watched was Unadilla back in 1999 and my first national reppin’ a photo vest was there in 2004.  The feeling of showing and having that home-like feeling is always there when I go to Unadilla.  Check out my press day videos from both rounds below:

Yo, Let’s Go To Long Island

After those 2 rounds, it was a weekend break for the series but not for me as I ventured off to cover Long Island MX’s Xcluvsive Pro Race near Yaphank, New York in central Long Island.  It’s an event I get an opportunity to cover the past few years so I knew I had to be there and get the cameras rolling.  I appreciate the Merrill family for having me there once again and show off what that race is all about.  Check out my LIMX video below:

Finishing Off The Dirty Dozen

After Long Island, it was back home for a few days before finishing out the pro national series at Steel City and Lake Elsinore.  Steel City went by pretty quick for me as I had my sights set on Lake Elsinore the week after.  I left for Elsinore earlier than usual for a west coast pro national as I left on Tuesday.  Leaving early gave me some time to stop and talk with some advertisers of the site such as Dubya USA, Hookit, and more and also check out some SoCal scenery before press day kicked in on Thursday.  Check out my raw press day video from Elsinore below:

After the race, I had a lot of people ask me about the new Lake Elsinore facility.  Simply put, some people liked it.  Some didn’t.  That’s understandable.  Could it be better?  Oh yeah, definitely.  Any round can be better.  But for a facility that basically started from a clean blueprint and having its first goal to not produce a practice track but a top national caliber pro motocross event, I’d say it was a gamble that not many can make and the MX Sports crew along with the Nanci family did everything they could to make the event as good as it did.

With a lack of videos to do on Friday (which seemed to be a common trend at each round anyway), I decided to walk around the entire facility to check it out.  After my walk, I was very impressed with the infrastructure from the grandstands to the use of the off-road truck stadium section of the facility.  The track was HUGE.  Biggest and longest track on the circuit.  It’s just one of those tracks where it was too big to watch!  If you were able to sneak into the small announcing tower at the finish line in the middle of the track, you were able to see pretty much the entire track.  But from anywhere else, it was a 50/50 deal.  While there were some artificial shady spots provided by Red Bull and other sponsors of the series, there were no trees to hide from the direct SoCal sun that baked all the spectators on Saturday.  What I came away with the event is that Lake Elsinore looks to be it will be around for awhile and it’s only going to get better and better each year.  Everything that is great doesn’t happen overnight.  So again, major kudos to Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park and MX Sports for their overwhelming efforts on closing out a great outdoor series.

So in the end, I did it!  I was able to attend all 12 outdoor pro national rounds this summer.  A feat I never achieved before and one I have been wanting to do ever since I started getting into the MX world.  I was close last year getting to 10 of the rounds but with the great support of Alli Sports, I knew I had a chance to go for the perfect dozen.  It was a dream that came true after Elsinore to just look back and say wow, I did all that!  I already can’t wait to do it again next year (hopefully)!

I will be continuing my work with Alli Sports throughout the off season so I may go to some pretty cool places still the next few months.  Check out Alli Sports daily for my videos from the outdoor nationals and subscribe to their YouTube channel to follow all of their videos including mine!

Back To The Local Scene

OK.  The outdoor nationals were done.  Time for a break!  Nope!  Not just yet!  I was back home and after a few days of editing videos, I was back to the road again to cover the 3rd annual Allegheny Cup at Rocket Raceway in central Pennsylvania.  This event is heavily focused on the youth of the sport providing great attention to the 50cc, 65cc, and 85cc riders as well as the pros who come for their share of the pro purse that day.  Shane Durham cleaned house in the A classes getting $1000 total for his wins ($250 per moto).  Aiden Birckbichler took home the main Allegheny Cup prize in Class 2 for his come from behind ride in moto 2 to grab the overall win.  To check out more Allegheny Cup champions and highlights from Rocket, check out the video I posted this week along with a helmet cam run from Shane Durham on a borrowed YZ250.

Time To Wake Up Sleepy Hollow 2 Stroke Style!

Is it time for a break yet? Almost!  This weekend, I’ll be making the short trek to Sleepy Hollow for their U.S. 2 Stroke Shootout.  This event has been growing with popularity on the social media sites the past few weeks as more sponsors and companies come on board to support this one off race for the 2 strokes.  I’ll be leaving tomorrow to catch some open practice action as well as a 2 stroke showoff competition of sorts tomorrow night with of course, the shootout on Sunday.  So leave that expensive 4 stroke at home and grab a 2 stroke for Sleepy this weekend!  I’ll be on my A game getting every 2 stroke sound possible as Matt Rice will snap away the photos for this weekend.  Hope to see many of you there this weekend!

Check out some viewer-submitted shots of some of the 2 stroke steeds lining up to the gate at Sleepy Hollow this weekend! CLICK HERE to check them out.

NJMP Announces New MX Facility In South Jersey

Some big news this week out of South Jersey.  New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey has been a target for a new motocross facility for a few years now.  Well, last night, NJMP took a step forward in their process of bringing back motocross to South Jersey after the closing of Atco Motocross and the somewhat demise of the Thunder In The Sand beach race event in Wildwood.  That step forward was a full website (done up by yours truly) showing off their track and facility plans as they plan for a grand opening sometime in the Spring next year.  Check out the plans, designs, and their site at www.njmpfod.com.  MXPTV will be heavily involved with NJMP-Field Of Dreams over the next few months and will be showing some videos of the construction process once I get the OK to get over there and film away!

MXPTV Fall Schedule

With Fall kicking off officially today, what’s in the plans for MXPTV for the rest of the year?  Check out a schedule of events I’ll be at below:

• October 6-7: Kawasaki Race Of Champions
• October 13-14: Club MX Open House
• October 20-21: Blue Diamond – MAMA Final Round
• October 27-28: Budds Creek – Maryland States
• November 2-4: Blue Diamond – Ryan Patterson Fall Classic
• November 19-24: Mini O’s
• December 1-2: MX Day Event – St. Martin (Caribbean)

As you can see, it’s still an action packed year left to go!  There will be some shoots and events in between those dates as well that should keep me more occupied than what the schedule shows.

See ya at the races!