DATELINE: Los Angeles County Raceway, Palmdale, California. May 29th 2000.

Bakersfield Man Injured at Gran Prix Race.

A Bakersfield man was injured Monday morning at LACR during the JB Memorial Gran Prix/Motocross charity event. Mark McGowan, 40, sustained a broken femur, separated shoulder and concussion when he failed to clear the big double jump in muddy conditions. He is currently in serious condition at Antelope Valley Medical Center after undergoing surgery to pin his femur yesterday evening......

OK..That was never in any paper(that I know of), but it would have made pretty good copy! Motorcycles, serious injuries, hospitals..the stuff of interesting stories. Only it wasn't very interesting to me. It sucked..It sucked really bad! It ruined my summer. The summer I was to defend my So Cal AMA Vet class championship(the class for racers between 30 and 39 which I won at 39) while chasing the Senior Class(40-49)title at the same time. It ruined a new pair of Pro Taper Bars, a new pair of FOX pants and a new FOX jersey. It also ruined, as it turned out, my racing career, even if it was only a sportsman career. I haven't raced since.

I was told I would be down 10 to 12 weeks, but the rod that was placed in my femur at AVMC turned out to be too small in diameter and wasn't allowing my bone to knit properly due to movement, so in January 2001 I had it replaced with a 2mm larger diameter rod. It felt better and began healing quickly but it was another two months, ten months from my injury, before I was able to take my YZ to a track and take some laps. It just wasn't the same. I wasn't afraid, I was in pain. Major pain. Everytime I would put my foot down I seemed to catch a hole. Landing big jumps killed my hip and thigh. I had also sustained a lot of soft tissue damage that took years to fully heal. I took those laps at the Tulare Raceway, loaded up the Bill's Pipes/Boyesen/RG3/ Bakersfield Yamaha sponsored machine and never took another lap on it.

In September of 2001 I ordered my Harley Davidson, got it in January of 2002 and sold the YZ a month later. The guy got a hell of a deal! I still kick myself for dumping the YZ. Yeah..it was a two stroke 250cc machine, but I'm not Ricky Carmichael and I could have still competed at my level with no real problems, I just didn't think I was ever going to feel good on a dirtbike again. I didn't think my leg and hips were ever going to loosen up and feel better..But they did. It took about five years, but I felt great and everytime I saw a pic of me racing I would get nostalgic and remorseful. That bike was paid for and new ones run a cool seven grand by the time you outfit them with necessary accoutriments, another grand for a tuned suspension...you get the picture. On top of that I had given all my gear away to my grandson(the superstar prep and now star college football player), Ryan.

The better I felt, the crappier I would feel about not having a bike. Oh, I could afford one if I REALLY wanted to do it, but the Harley is an expensive and time consuming mistress as it is so I just settled for getting all teary eyed when I watched a race on TV or saw a pickup load of muddy bikes heading home from some track. I walk down sidewalks and hallways pretending I am hitting a set of whoops pinned in fourth gear or hitting that dreaded double at LACR with a vengance. When making left turns from a light I grab the holeshot and pretend I am charging into a first turn, pushing everyone wide and running away with a moto!

I think about motocross all the time. I have since I saw my first motocross race on TV in 1972. I am obsessed with it and I don't care. I know everything about it from it's history to how to go fast on a bike and what makes modern suspensions work. I remember like it was yesterday how it felt when the green flag(this was before starting gates at the local level)dropped on my first race at Dos Rios Raceway outside of Arvin, Cal. I miss it. I miss it terribly. I have never done anything(and that includes sex)so excititing or satisfying. I have played other sports, but there is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment when you win a race knowing it was all YOU and not twenty other guys. Of course you have nobody to blame but yourself when you don't win, but that's what drives you to ride harder and take chances. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush of almost crashing at speed, but pulling off the pass anyway! I want another dirtbike!

Enter my grandson, Ryan, and his new college career on a full ride at Fresno State. What, you may ask, does that have to do with dirtbikes? Just this. Ryan has a 2006 Kawasaki KX250F and there is no way his Mom or his coaches are going to let him ride a dirtbike while he is playing football. They will not allow him to jeopardize his deal by getting nuts on a bike, and there is no way you cannot go nuts on a nice dirtbike. So, there was this beautiful KX250F sitting in the garage just waiting for someone to pay some attention to it.

Enter ME! I asked Ryan if I could ride it, and possibly, buy it if I like it. I went over and loaded it up today. It was still filthy from his last ride and in desperate need of some care and repairs. I brought it home and unloaded it in the driveway, broke out the hose, Saf-Sol 20 and some rags and cleaned it all up. I took inventory of what it needs partswise and what was loose(almost everything..Ryan isn't much on upkeep obviously!)and rolled it into the garage next to the Harley..well not so close that it might fall on it, but still next to it.

It will be nearly seven years since I swung a leg over a dirtbike when I get it all ready to go and boot it over. It is a four stroke and I have never ridden one of the 250Fs. I wonder what it will be like. I was too big for the old two stroke 125cc bikes, but I am told these 250Fs are something else! It is sleek and beautiful and looks like it's hauling ass when it's just sitting there and I can't wait to try it out. Bev has warned me to take it easy, but she knows it won't be long till I am seeing just what it, and I, can do. I have butterflies already and I haven't even SAT on it. I can't wait!