REM GLEN HELEN RACE REPORT: LAPD’S FINEST, JAPAN’S FINEST, KUWAIT’S FINEST & ONE AWESOME CRASH

Japanese Honda rider Chihiro Notsuka over-cooked the corner at the bottom of this downhill and the rear end kicked up. Chihiro was the the All-Japan 250 National Champion, raced the 250 Grand Prix in 2017 and has represented Japan at the Motocross des Nations.. Photo: Ernie Becker

Chihiro’s rear wheel got back to the ground before got his body back on the bike or had any track left. Photo: Ernie Becker

His CRF250 hit the bank and launched him over the bars. Note the riders on the section of racetrack below him. If he tumbles more than 10 feet, he’s going to end up down there with them. Photo: Ernie Becker

Luckily, Chihiro landed on the edge of the drop-off and was able to climb back up to this bike and continue. Photo: Jon Ortner

By Ernie Becker
Photos by Dan Alamangos, Debbi Tamietti, Ernie Becker & Tyler Nichols

REM’s Saturday Motocross races are 30-year-ritual for the hardcore SoCal racing community. Originally held at Carlsbad Raceway in the 1980s, they moved to Glen Helen Raceway 25 years ago. Amazingly, some of their founding Carlsbad racers are still pounding out laps today—albeit at a slower pace than when the were young bucka racing on the rock-hard Carlsbad clay.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck (545) retired two weeks ago and now has time to do what he really wants—race motorcycles. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

As a going away present the LAPD had a Maico fuel tank painted as a trophy for Charlie Beck. Note the Chief Beck logo on his electric Power Lift stand. Photo: Jon Ortner

From the top, the Maico gas tank has an LAPD badge as a gas cap and the skyline of Los Angeles painted on. Photo: Jon Ortner

The top cop of LA went 1-1 to win the Over-65 Intermediate class. Photo: Jon Ortner

Promoters Myra and Frank Thomason aren’t interested in trying to keep up with the modern day trend of endless jumps separated by short smooth straights. They want to hold races on a pure motocross track with big uphills, steep downhills, ruts, jumps and berms. The REM track is rough. The REM competition tough. and local knowledge has a lot of currency at REM. It is also the place where factory riders come after an injury to get ready for their comeback and foreign riders come to hone the edge of their skills.

Kakeru Kamoda (38) raced his Suzuki RM-Z250 to third in the 250 Pro class. He is a 17-year old Suzuki factory support rider. Photo: Dan Alamangos

This past Saturday’s REM race had lots of interesting people. Most notably, recently retired Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck came out to test his skills. Since retiring, Chief Beck has found more time to twist throttles—so REM was on his list.

Taiki Koga races at REM every time he is in the USA testing with Honda. Koga swept the 450 Pro class. Taiki is a Japanese National Champion who had a fill-in ride in last year’s 250 World Championship. Photo: Jon Ortner

Three Japanese factory riders were in attendance—with Taiki Koga taking the win in the 450 Pro class and Chihiro Notsuka and Kakeru Kamado going two-three in the 250 Pro class. British riders Kurt Nicoll and Tony Parsons were flying the Union Jack. Kurt is prepping for the Vet MXDN at Farleigh Castle in a few weeks, as is American Airlines Captain Joe Melton (a name from the 1980s SoCal scene).

Ralf Schmidt. Photo: Dan Alamangos

Dutchman Ralf Schmidt uses REM’s weekly races to fine tune the TM race bikes that he imports from Italy. This week he raced an enduro model and a motocross model to 1-1 sweeps in two classes—with fellow TM test rider David Cincotta going 2-2 behind him. Kuwait star Abdulatif Al-khanna is using this summer to prep for the Arab National Championships by racing every week in SoCal (he likes the cooler 100-degree California weather to the 117-degrees back home). And, of course, REM had the regular group of Aussies, Hollywood stunt men and Saddleback Specialists that come every week.

Jo Shimoda (47) took the 450 Intermediate win over Cole Tompkins. Photo: Ernie Becker

So what makes REM Saturday Motocross so much fun? REM races 33 times a year in what must be the longest points-paying motocross series in the world—and an amazing number of racers hit all 33 races (and when a race gets canceled or isn’t on Glen Helen’s schedule, they cajole Glen Helen into prepping the track just like on race day so they can ride together a 34th, 35th or 36th time). That’s a lot of racing. Best of ll, REM doesn’t dilly-dally around. They move through the program quickly, using multi-start gates in order to give everyone long motos, but still get them out of the track by 2:00 p.m. (because the racers have bikes to prepare for Sunday riding).

MXA’s Dennis Stapleton hasn’t completely bottomed the 2019 KX450—he still has 0.5mm of travel left in the front forks. Photo: Jon Ortner

If you are a Vet, Over-40, Over-50 or Over-60 riders, REM has more World Vet Motocross Champions and AMA Hall of Famers on the starting lines every week than any track could ever imagine. Being old puts you in the power elite at REM.

To anyone who has ever been to Glen Helen, this is a familiar scene. The O’Neal gear, Yamaha and number 15 can only mean Doug Dubach. It’s not. It is Carter Dubach on his way to the 125 Intermediate win. Doug took Carter on a road trip this summer to ride the amateur days at four AMA Nationals. Photo: Ernie Becker

Whatever you want out of the motocross, you will most likely find it at REM Saturday Motocross delivers. If your in the area, come on out and give it a try. Here are some
highlighted photos of this weekend’s REM motocross.race.

We recognize 6D Helmet’s Robert Reisinger (96) as an innocent victim of a crazy crash. The other two riders are so tangled up that racer Luc DeLey and a flagman had to come over to pry them apart. We think we see Brian Bolding in the pile. Photo: Jon Ortner

Joe Pena (911) makes a radical cross-over move behind Tom Alspaugh (626) and in front of Chuck Cook (827). Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Never fall sleep in a lawn chair between motos because your so-called friends will mess with you, or at the very least shoot photos of you and send them to MXA. Tyler Nichols shot this photo of Luther French getting 20 winks. Photo: Tyler Nichols

The Over-50 Experts were the biggest class of the day. Australian Dan Alamangos went 9-8 and was in the mix in the front-half of the pack. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Val Tamietti throws in a victory wheelie on his way to first in the Over-60 Experts. Oh! Wait! Val didn’t win, but instead went 3-2 behind Dave Eropkin’s 1-1 and in front of Bob Rutten’s 2-4. Who would have ever thought that the Over-60 class would fill up a gate on a weekly basis. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Less than a month ago Randel Fout broke eight ribs and cracked his collarbone. He came to REM this week just to see if he could ride. He could. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

OVER-40 EXPERT
1. Ralf Schmidt (TM)…1-1
2. David Cincotta (TM)…2-2
3. Pasha Afshar (KTM)…3-3

OVER-40 INTERMEDIATE
1. Louie Romo (Yam)…2-2
2. Brian Bolding (KTM)…4-1
3. Joe Sutter (Hon)…1-4

Baja star Bob Rutten (83), former CMC Number One Val Tamietti (31) and Joe Pena (911) are in hot pursuit of Dave Eropkin in the Over-60 Experts. They didn’t catch him. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

OVER-40 NOVICE
1. David McCarthy (Yam)…3-1
2. Lamont Dusseau (Yam)…1-4
3. Terry Miller (Yam)…5-2

Gene Boere (62) and Kent Reed (491) were running fourth and fifth in the Over-60 Intermediate class (which started in the second wave) when they noticed that Over-60 Expert Dave Eropkin (811) was closing in to lap them (from the first wave). They gassed it up, but Eropkin was on fire on Saturday. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

450 PRO
1. Taiki Koga (Hon)…1-1
2. Colton Aeck (Hon)…2-2
3. Brian Medeiros (Yam),,,3-3

Jody Weisel’s friends shot this postcard photo to show that they were thinking of him as he recovers from eye surgery. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

VET NOVICE
1. Kenny Hernandez (KTM)…3-1
2. Luke Woodman (Ya)…2-2
3. Mark Taylor (Yam)…1-3

250 Novice winner Ryan Foster (26) looks like he’s in an expressionist painting as the low sun reflects off Glen Helen’s oddly colored dirt. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Kuwaiti motocross star Abdulatif Al-Khanna took an off-track excursion and picked up a buddle of tumble weeds. They don’t have tumble weeds in Kuwait. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

OVER-50 EXPERT
1. Ron Shuler (KTM)…2-1
2. Robert Reisinger (Hus)…1-2
3. Bryan Friday (KTM)…3-3

OVER-50 INTERMEDIATE
1. Robbie Carpenter (KTM)…3-1
2. Lonnie Paschal (Yam)…2-2
3. Luc De Ley (KTM)…1-3

OVER-50 NOVICE
1. Jim Naegle (Hon)…1-1
2. Corby Reutgen (Hon)…2-2
3. Morgan Pierce (Hon)…5-2

Before this week’s Over-50 Novice race Jack Phinn said that if he won he was going to move up to the Over-50 Intermediate class. He went 4-4, so he’ll have to wait until the next race to  fulfill his promise. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

OVER-60 INTERMEDIATE
1. Eric Cotter (Hon)…1-1
2. Steve Donovan (Hon)…2-2
3. Steve Chandler (TM)…3-3

OVER-65 INTERMEDIATES
1. Charlie Beck (KTM)…1-1
2. John Huegel (KTM)…2-2
3. Tony Parsons (KTM)…3-3

Luther French (2) has a KTM 450SXF that is so fast that it makes other rider’s eyes water when he blows past them. Photo; Debbi Tamietti

The last REM race was a shocker because there were no Suzukis or Kawasakis entered in any race. This week there were single digit RMs and KXs—adding up to 3% of the brands at REM. This week the biggest brands were KTM at 40%, Yamaha at 28% and Honda at 20%. These numbers are fairly consistent with the percentages from the last race—although Husky (5%) and TM (4%) lost a few percentage points that all went to KTM.

Theses numbers are only applicable to REM — not to the general numbers at other racetracks. REM is unique because it is located very close to TM’s USA warehouse (and the TM guys test at the REM races) and because 60% of the total number of racers at REM over over the age of 40 years old (which is a demographic that KTM dominates).

BIKES BY BRAND AT REM 8-11-2018
1. KTM…40 %
2. YAMAHA…28%
3. HONDA…20%
4. HUSQVARNA…5%
5. TM…4%
6. SUZUKI…2%
7. KAWASAKI…1%

Jon Ortner (10) backsides a step-up over a small hump on his way to second in the Over-50 Elite class and a big crash in the second moto. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Nobody races as hard as teammates, MXA’s Dennis Stapleton (45) and Josh Fout (78) hammer the throttle in personal drag race. Photo: Debbie Tamietti

“Dentist to the Stars” Marc Crosby switched back to a YZ250 two-stroke a couple months ago and is enjoying life. Photo: Debbie Tamietti

REMAINING 2018 REM MOTOCROSS RACES
Aug. 25…Summer Series #4
Sept. 1…Summer Series #5
Sept. 29…Glen Helen, CA
Oct. 6…Glen Helen, CA
Oct. 20…Glen Helen, CA
Oct. 27…Octobercross (National track)
Nov. 17…Glen Helen, CA
Dec. 1…Glen Helen, CA
Dec. 15…Glen Helen, CA
Dec. 22…Glen Helen, CA
Dec. 29…Glen Helen, CA

Hawaiian Brian Medeiros went 3-3 in the 450 Pro class. Photo: Debbie Tamietti

Pete Vetrano (37) leads David McCarthy (519) in the first moto of the Over-40 Novice class. Vetrano, who is over 60 years old, went 2-5, while McCarthy took the win with a 3-1. Photo: Debbie Tamietti

REM races again at Glen Helen on August 118. For more info on REM Motocross go to their facebook page or web page at www.remsatmx.com