REM GLEN HELEN RACE REPORT: THE MEN FROM THE PAST RETURN

On Dec 21, 2014 Last updated Dec 23, 2014

You have to admire Rollie Rodriquez. He decided that he wanted to start racing again after 20 years off. But, the only bike he had was his old 1983 Maico. So, he showed up on it and went 15-13 in the Over-60 Expert class. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

REM planned to run out its 40-race long 2014 motocross season with four straight races in December before taking a one-week breather before starting all over again in 2015. But Mother Nature has played a role in the schedule SoCal has suddenly become rain central. Last week’s motocross race (December 13) was canceled because of flooding, and this week’s race (December 20) had it’s iffy moments after rain on Tuesday and Wednesday was punctuated by a forecast for rain on Saturday morning. Luckily, the weatherman was wrong and the sun, although obscured by high clouds, was peaking out all day long.

This is Photo One of Ryan Surratt’s pass on Justin Jones (42) in the 450 Pro class. Jones is on the disced and watered part of the track. Surratt is in the giggle weeds (where there are the rain ruts, rocks and no other tire tracks). The lack of tire tracks means that every other rider at Glen Helen understood where the corner was — and that Surratt did also, until he was desperate enough to cut the course. Photo: Dan Alamangos

In Photo Two, Jones is still on the actual race track, but Surratt is dive bombing towards him through the infield. Note the boulder. Photo: Dan Alamangos

Ryan Surratt almost loses control in the rain ruts, but pushes Jones aside as they begin to set up for the next left hand corner. This pass was for the win, but it wasn’t for the honor. Photo: Dan Alamangos

The Justin Jones versus Ryan Surratt battle in the 450 Pro class was epic in both motos, but was ruined by a questionable last lap pass by Surratt, who cut through the infield to stuff Jones in a downhill hairpin. This questionable move earned Surratt the “Greg Groom Creative Line of the Day Award,” which isn’t an honor by any stretch of the imagination. The pass got Ryan Surratt the overall win, because the promoters didn’t see it — but the camera did, and cheating is cheating.

Swede Jonathan Magnusson won the 250 Intermediate class for an all-Sweden podium. Photo: Dan Alamangos

We don’t see a lot of Hungarian motocross racers in SoCal, so Imre Adamek (132) was a surprise. Photo: Dan Alamangos

The Swedes are back in town and they swept the 250 Intermediate class with Jonathan Magnusson, Anton Stahlberg and Marcus Hansson going one-two-three. On another international front, Hungarian motocross racer Imre Adamek took the Vet Pro gold.

Randel Fout gets a little crossed up in his pursuit of Mark Hall in the Over-50 Expert class. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

As everyone on the planet who follows REM motocross should know by now — the big classes of the day were the men from the past. The two biggest classes were the Over-50 Experts and the Over-60 Experts — with the Over-50 Intermediates and Over-50 Novice being the next largest groups.

Pete Murray (7) took the Over-50 Elite win on his YZ250F. Photo: Ernie Becker

Jon Ortner (192) has been part of a giant MXA fork test on KTM forks for the last month. He raced his motos with different sets of forks, along with three other test riders. These are WP Factory Service forks. Photo: Rich Stuelke

Over-50 Elite: The “Elite” class is a special class set aside for former AMA National riders who are too fast for the majority of the Over-50 Expert class. Thus, Pete Murray, Willy Simons, Jon Ortner and Bob Weber were kicked up stairs into a race of their won. Pete Murray took the win after making a second moto pass on Willy Simons. When asked where he passed Willy, Murray said, “I don’t remember. The whole race was a blur.” 6D helmet founder Bob Weber, an NESC star a few decade ago, was third with Jon Ortner, still doing suspension testing for MXA, in fourth.

Jerry Black and Bryan Friday (43) dueled in both motos of the Over-50 Experts. Black got the gold. Photo: Ernie Becker

The battle for third in the Over-50 Experts came down to Aussie Dan Alamangos (58), also racing with different forks in every moto, and Val Tamietti (31). Alamangos got the better of Val in both motos. Scotty Walker (5) chases. Photo: Ernie Becker

Over-50 Experts: It’s hard to determine why the Over-50 Experts fight so hard to win — given that too many victories will get them moved up to the extremely fast “Elite” class, but they go at it hammer and tong. Two riders spearheaded both motos, Jerry Black and Bryan Friday, but a five-man pack followed them closely. In the end, Australian Dan Alamangos fought back from crashes to go 3-3 for third in front of former CMC number 1 Val Tamietti (5-4), Dave Eropkin (4-6), Joe Sutter (6-7), Luther French (9-5), Andy James (8-8), Will Harper (7-9) and Mark Hall (10-10).

You only need a passing grade in High School geometry to see what’s about to happen between John Roggero (222) and Norwegian Per Sturla Waernes (863) in the 250 Novice class. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Over-50 Intermediates: It’s not often that a 4-1 takes the overall and even less likely that two riders would tie on points with a 4-1 and 1-4, but that is just what happened in the Over-50 Intermediates with Arnie Davis taking the top spot over Terry Varner. Robert Pocius continues his rise in the Intermediates after moving up from the Over-50 Novice in early December. His 5-2 got him third in front of an equally sharp Jeff Scott (3-6), Gary Harada (2-7) and Mike Phillips (10-3).

Nothing can ever compare to a Full Floater, especially one that gets second in its class 33 years after it was built. Photo: Dan Alamangos

Over-50 Novices: With Robert Pocius out of the Novice class, there is room for new winners and Lonnie Paschal took the win with a 2-1 over Tim Hoole’s 1-3 (on a Suzuki RM125 Full Floater). Mike Hillion was third with a 4-2.

The combined age of these two racers is 140 years. The number of times they have been in this exact position — 140 times. It boggles the mind that Lars Larsson (80) and Jody Weisel (192) could still be racing against each other 50 years after they first met on the field of battle. Photo: Dan Alamangos

Over-60 Experts: This class was jam-packed with former winners, World Vet Champions, AMA Hall of Famers and a four-time AMA 250 National Champion. And it was Gary Jones, who was not only a factory rider for Honda, Yamaha, Can-Am and Ammex in his younger days, but has also won the World Vet Championship in the Over-30, Over-40, Over-50 and Over-60 classes in the past. Surprise! Jones didn’t win win. It wasn’t his day as Too Tech’s Rick Johnson used a 1-2 to defeat Jim Latendresse (4-1), Gary Jones (2-3), John Alden (3-5) and Ken Ehlers (8-4).

Brian Martin: Over-60 Novice winner. Photo: Dan Alamangos

Randy Skinner (383) and his two shadows. Later they all went out for dinner and a movie. Photo: Ernie Becker

Tristan Morts swept both motos of the 450 Novice class. Photo: Debbi Tamietti

Dad points out the direction of travel — just in case Junior forgot. We are positive that Jack Carngg (53) and 85 Beginner winner Gustav Johansson knew the way. Photo: Dan Alamangos

By luck of the draw Ralf Schmidt’s (73) two classes were back-to-back. He won the Vet Novices and the Over-40 Intermediates. Gary Renko (28) is behind the Dutch TM rider. Photo: Dan Alamangos