The JAX report
4/6/2009
A regularly updated blog by Rupert X Pellett...
April 6
Sure, Jacksonville was a smaller crowd than your usual Monster Energy AMA
Supercross (an FIM Championship!) gathering, yet a fun and energetic
band, nonetheless. Yes, I think Jacksonville will be back on the
schedule, even with the lighter turnout. It is a grand venue with
generous accoutrements and a tremendous vibe. Yes, vibe.
How so? Well,
it's still pretty winter-like in many of the frozen-northern states
and, just to be in Florida and OUTSIDE, is a heartwarming and scalp-warming therapy session. Whether you saw it on your plasma-cutter
TV or your hardwired Blackberry-bluetooth and Blue-ray monitor in
surround-sound with 84 screaming inches of high-definition brilliance,
you knew it had to come down to this: bad blood between REED and
STEWART.
It's been brewing for years. Although they've been civil to
one another, there have been hard feelings since that race back at
Unadilla with Bubba on a KX125 and Chad on a YZ250F. And, as
professionals, they've been mostly courteous. Now, there's a
championship on the line and millions of dollars, too. And a kazillion
pounds worth of pride and honor, so there shall be some fireworks.
Go
buy tickets NOW. We have this upcoming Easter weekend off, followed by
Seattle and Salt-Lake City, before LAS VEGAS finishes off the year.
It's my AER-O-PLANE.
James Povolny heads outdoors.
JAX pits...nice!
Fill 'er up.
April 5
I guess I could be angered by "Smelta" Airlines, for abandoning me
in Atlanta on a Friday night -- vice properly whisking me off to my
destination of Daytona Beach, Fla., where I had a cozy motel booked.
But, it's cool. I'm "chillaxed." (Permit my whimsical explanation,
please.) Because, if they didn't mess up and dump me at a musty
countrified Georgia motel near the airport, I wouldn't have had the
opportunity to meet up with a GOAT in the ATL Aeropuerto -- on a busy
Saturday morning -- between gates seven and eight.
He was coming off a flight from California and some silly car race. I
was fully caffeinated and heading to the depository when our eyes
crashed in mid-air, and it cheered my chaotic morning tremendously to
see the RICKY CARMICHAEL in the Atlanta airport, in all his
GOATed-glory. Nobody was harassing him, molesting him or throwing
Sharpies in his hand. He was just another frenzied traveller, heading
to a motorcycle race in Jacksonville.
I'll tell all tomorrow,
these past two-point-two days have been a horrendous bamboozlement of
orchestrated mayhem and the unstructured, unexplainable and sleepless,
random and, yet, orderly, pursuance of all that is meaningful in moto.
And, we rented a convertible.
April 3
Look, just because I happen to reside in the same silly city that happens to harbor an alleged bar-stool driving hooligan, does not ensure that I am familiar with this person, know of him -- or am even in the same knitting circle as this buffoon.
While I'm no stranger to horseplay, hootenannies or whimsical conduct, I play within the rules and obey the standards of good conduct, whenever possible.
OK, enough about the barfly -- I'm flying to Jacksonville, to see this first ever Supercross at JAX. This being a fascinating round of your MONSTER ENERGY AMA Supercross, an FIM Championship. Bubba gets to drive there -- most probably in a Lamborghini Gallardo -- and Reed lives just three hours away. He's using public roads, too, as is Mike Alessi. It's a shame that I have to be whisked about the merry skies, but travel I must, to deliver the news.
Weather is looking sketchy for today and Sunday in that area, but Saturday appears to be a brilliant Florida day. Yaaaay.