TMX Says - What's with all this beef?
By TMX Archives on 25th Jan 17
If youre gonna take life advice from anyone at all then make sure its not Elton John, mmmkay?
After all he reckons/says/sings/whatever that ‘Saturday night's alright for fighting' which is true if you mix in certain kinds of sporting circles but not for us dirty, dirt-biking folk!
I'm not sure if you saw it or not but Karma was fairly quick in striking down Husqvarna's Jason Anderson at the weekend after he gave Vince Friese a slap following their heat race altercation at Anaheim 2.
Pretty much two seconds after his hand made contact with Friese's lid, El Hombre's face made contact with the stadium floor.
I'm guessing that Ken Roczen must've popped up on Karma's naughty list n'all as that season-ending crash seemed to come from absolutely nowhere – maybe he squished a bug on take off or something and Karma's all like ‘I ain't got time for that!'.
Regardless, it looks like K-Roc's out of the running and The Dunge is in pole position to take his fourth SX title – well, right up until Donald Trump slaps a 100 per cent import tax on European motorcycles from 50cc to 500cc and KTM, Husqvarna, TM, Sherco, Gas Gas and all disappear from the US off-road scene altogether.
That beef, believe it or not, is about actual beef as the EU won't touch exported US beef with a barge pole as it's not up to European standards.
Most MXGP team managers could've told you that years ago of course...
Apparently, imported Japanese bikes – over 700cc – fell foul of similar legislation back in 1983 which kept the Harley Davidson brand in business.
That said I think the likelihood of that tax law actually coming to fruition in real life is fairly slim so don't go out and assassinate the president just yet...
In other news I was fairly dismayed to see some fisticuffs outside the Genting Arena on Saturday night as the huge crowd queued to get in for the third round of the 2017 AX Tour.
Fortunately the security staff dealt with it swiftly and effectively and not too many families were affected.
Why it all kicked off I don't know but would guess alcohol was involved – something else that doesn't mix with motorcycles in my opinion.
Regardless, once inside the fairly massive crowd witnessed a whopper of a show that had real appeal for newcomers and enthusiasts alike.
I particularly enjoyed the Hot Lap section this week as with just one bike out on the track you could really hear how different riders attacked different parts of the track – a real treat for AX aficionados.
I also liked the fact that the Greedy/Snow incident (Ash sent Alex over a berm in their head-to-head race) was dealt with quickly and the decision to disqualify ‘the bad boy of AX' was stuck to.
Was it the right decision? That's debatable but at the end of the day the person who's employed to make that call, made it and that was that.
It's not only in AX that contentious decisions are made and pretty much every sport with a referee – from singular ball sports such as football through to a discipline that requires two huge balls like speedway – is full of drama when somebody, somewhere thinks that the man in black is a complete and utter dingbat.
And finally, it's the last week of January so it's imperative that anyone driving between junctions 15 and 14 of the M6 motorway is absolutely aware that it's 28 years ago since I took part in my first ever motocross race at Trentham Gardens on January 29, 1989. Wow, doesn't time fly...
