REM GLEN HELEN RACE REPORT: THE FUN JUST KEEPS COMING

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Photos by Dan Alamangos and Debbi Tamietti

AMA National rider Austin Howell (292) was injured all of last season. He’s just started racing again and looked sharp as he won the first 450 Pro moto. Unfortunately he crashed in moto two to end up with a 1-2 day. Howell is a former World Two-Stroke Champion and with this year’s $10,000 two-stroke purse, he wants to regain the title he held back in 2011.

With one race to go in their 40-race 2015 motocross schedule (on December 19), the REM regulars showed up for the second-to-last REM motocross of this year. Believe it or not, there are racers who have not missed a single race in 12 months. That means that they have raced through illness, family parties, relative’s birthday, holidays and most amazingly—injuries. But with one race left before the Christmas break they will get to take some time off after next week’s race before the 2016 season starts. How much time off? One weekend. REM doesn’t race the day after Christmas (December 26, 2015), but they do start the new season the day after New Year’s Day (January 2). The strange thing is that most REM motocross racers don’t want to take weeks off—they want to race. Which is why REM is the best motocross racing organization in the world—they race. Need proof? The 2016 schedule starts on January 2 and ends on December 17, 2016.

To learn more about REM go to www.rematmx.com, but until then just enjoy the photos of this weekend’s race.

Troy Lee Designs KTM rider Sean Cantrell has been putting in the laps this year. He won the 250 Pro class with a 1-1 sweep.

Dominic Desimone (595) holds the high line, while Sean Cantrell gets as deep into the next rut as humanly possible.

Robbie Wageman (108) donned a sweatshirt to ward of the cold of the 65 degree SoCal winter. Cold is relative.

Greifswald, Germany’s Ron Noffz (36) went 3-3 in the 250 Pro class.

Intermediate Anthony Montante (423) tries to keep Bradley Denton (174) off of his six with a quick burst of roost.

Ciaran Naran (11) upheld two-stroke honor as he took his Husqvarna to victory in the 250 Intermediates over Dylan Woodstock (2-2), Gordon Keck (3-3), Matt Cerami (5-4) and Josh Kaller (4-5).

It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it. Jody Weisel (52) spent his day at REM testing Showa A-kit forks for KTMs. He went 4-5 in the Over-60 Expert class.

Tom White (80) churns his way through the oatmeal-like dirt at Glen Helen. It normally isn’t so loose, but a flash thunderstorm the day before left the dirt wetter than normal.

Val Tamietti (31) and Luther French (2) are still adapting to their brand-new KTMs. It must be nice to do your adapting at the front of the pack, but do they have to do it in unison.

Tom Holmes (510) won the Over-60 Expert class by outlasting and outsmarting his chasers—many of whom made mistakes in the ruts.

This is the Over-50 Expert class in the first turn. The only outsider here is Alan Julien (70). The South African is an Over-40 Expert, but he wanted to race two classes. Ron Shuler (33), Jon Ortner (10), Luther French (2) and Val Tamietti (31) lead the charge. Luther took the win with Shuler second, Tamietti third, Dan Alamangos fourth, Phil Dowell (23) fifth, Joe Sutter sixth and Cary Brown (73) seventh.

In the first of a trio of TM photos, TM importer Ralf Schmidt comes through the roller coaster section with his two-stroke singing a happy song. Ralf was second in the Over-40 Intermediate class.

The second TM photo is Randel Fout powering through the debris on MXA’s 2016 TM 450FI-MX. We were trying different gearing and spring rates this weekend.

The third TM photo is of Mark Hall, who set his normal Husqvarna FC450 aside to race the same TM 450FI-MX. Every MXA test bike gets lots of race miles. Mark won the Open Vet class. Our TM test bike was raced in 5 different motos.

Greg Pierce (416) was second in the Over-40 Expert class behind South African Alan Julien.

Italian Luca Trussardi (6) won the Over-40 Intermediate class with a solid 1-1.