DECEMBER MATT NEWSLINE

New segment: Am Sorry, I Forgot or ASIF. Last month I forgot to mention that as I approached the Carver campfire, I noticed a very beautiful young woman standing near the fire. Now, all the MATT women are very beautiful but I did not recognize this one. It took me probably 10 minutes to realize that this slim, sexy blonde was Jennifer Carpenter! Jennifer and Marc have taken up running and competed in a half marathon in KC the first weekend of November. They each finished and had a good run, and Jennifer is really getting into it. Congratulations to both of you!

ASIF: Dale Malasek attended the NATC meeting in early November. The 2008 NATC Championship series schedule is out. After having difficulties getting clubs to sponsor NATC rounds and taking into account travel expenses incurred by riders and teams, a solution was finally found. Colorado will hold a 3-day event at Canon City on May 24-26. Minnesota will host a 3-day event at Spirit Mountain in Duluth August 22-24. Rider fees are going up and the clubs will get more income per rider but with reduced travel, overall expenses and time commitment will be less. Pros count all six rides; support class is best 5 rounds.

ASIF: The World Round schedule is also set for 2008. TTC in Sequatchie, TN will host rounds 3 and 4 of the series on April 26-27. Promises to be a GREAT event! Rats, I have a wedding to attend that weekend!

ASIF: Larry Lund of RMTA, the guys that put on the Ute Cup, was at the October Test in Oklahoma and I got a chance to visit with him. The attendance at the Ute Cup has been suffering of late and I believe it has to do with RMTA’s current trend of having sections that are too difficult. Earlier Ute Cups engineered sections for high Intermediate to low Expert caliber pilots and enjoyed fields of 100+ riders. Larry is making plans to bring back the former tradition of easier sections and a spectacular ride off if necessary to break ties for the Pros that have a tendency to clean all the sections. Consider this an EDITORS COMMENT piece for now, but I will try to get more on this next year preceding the Ute Cup. Also, rumor is that the event will be held on some new property if all goes as hoped. The date is set for August 16-17.

Chris Hopkins kicked Carl out of the house the weekend of our November trials and welcomed the MATT women into her home for “Girls Weekend Out”. I don’t have a complete list of attendees but suffice it to say she had a very good turnout. I’m not sure what all they did, some visiting, some shopping, some drinking, some gossiping and other girl stuff. No report of Chester standing up for an appearance, but word on the street is that some of the attendees were calling for Ralph and Earl in the wee hours of morn. I don’t know Ralph and Earl personally, but I guess the girls were hankerin’ for some men folk. I could be wrong, would not be the first time or the last. Luckily for the neighborhood, Catalyst Keri was not in attendance. The men folk probably would have needed bail money if she had shown up! Chris hopes to make this an annual affair. Affair eh, I wonder what those lovely ladies were really up to?

November Trials: “Awesome; best event ever! Best sections I have ever ridden! Really fun! We had a great time!” These are just a few of the great comments I have heard to describe trials events, didn’t hear any of them last month but… I think the event was a success none the less. Jim Jeter and yours truly set up 8 sections for all classes. The weather had been fantastic and dry going into the weekend, so the sections were set accordingly. Imagine my frustration when I drove thru cloudy skies and spitting rain all the way to the quarry on Sunday morning. The day started out overcast and the rocks were slick as ice in the very beginning. But the sun came out and it turned out to be a beauty of a day for riding! The only thing is, Marilyn did not show up with her famous carrot cake, chocolate cake and butterscotch cookies! I hope she and Deward are okay.

EVENT RECOUNT:

Dawson Dennis had the Novice class all to himself. Nate Dennis continued his domination of the Amateur class. Young Seth Gray is learning fast and anxious to put the heat on Nate. Harley Griffeon got a good win in the Sr Amateur class, but you’d a thought Russ Amos had won. He was so happy to medal that he seemed to have forgotten the tough fall he had in section 3. Paul Turnbull and Randy Dennis continue to keep it close in the Intermediate class. Jeff Arndt has stepped it up to this class. After a bit of a tough first loop, Jeff settled down pretty good and ended the day with a big smile on his face.

Ken Carr and Matt Roerick from Springfield area had been up in Iowa, pheasant hunting. What luck! They just happened to have their trials bikes with them and decided to stop in and kick some Expert butt! Well, not Steve Morgan’s butt, but the rest of us got our, well, you know!?

Matt Hopkins and I had a duel of excuses, I guess Matt won. I had more excuses but fewer points, he had the toughest excuse to overcome (clutch trouble) and more points. Speaking of bike problems, Adam Hopkins sheared the pin in the swing arm that holds the rear disk caliper in place. When it broke, the caliper swung around on the rear axle and broke the brake line. That was the end of his day. I imagine Carl had his hands full trying to get his two sons’ bikes going again!

I would have won the Expert class (NOT) except I got penalized in section 8, third loop. It was a very difficult section to clean, set on the edge of “The Mind Field”. I pulled off a beauty of a clean ride and got hit with a stiff penalty for excessive celebration, but it was worth it! Matt Roerick had cleaned it earlier with a very fine ride, but that was before Nathan Dennis broke a huge chunk off a massive rock in the middle of the approach of the most difficult part of the section. Well, we accused Nathan of breaking it anyway. This changed our approach to that particular section of section. Kari told Nathan to show us how it’s done. So Nate hopped on his bike, flew up the rocks, thru the narrow path up to the most difficult part. Nate touched his front wheel to the top front of the apex of a large triangle rock in the middle of the path. He stopped, balanced with the front tire just softly touching the rock, hopped his tire to the left, and floated it back to the right, well away from the rock and safely on a good line out of danger. We kicked his @$$ out of the section and proceeded our own attack on the monster. Steve Morgan rode very well and set the pace for the Expert class. The visiting Matt Roerick was grinning ear to ear, tickled to death to be within 3 points of Steve.

Section 8 was a crazy section for the Masters, as they had to leap up on this helter skelter rock pile, with big rectangular boulders going at all kinds of angles. First loop, Marc Carpenter was up in the rocks, getting ready to leap over the small path the Experts used as their line. Something went terribly wrong as his front wheel just dropped down and so down he went as well. Luckily, Steve Morgan broke his fall, well, Marc landed on him at least. Everyone survived. Watching Bill Sanderson ride the section at about the same point as Marc had his difficulty, Bill looked troubled. “There are so many angles!” he said. I guess he wasn’t too good at geometry, but he did get thru the section!

Believe it or not, even though Jason has not taken deliver on his new GG Pro, he was still able to muster a win in the Master class. But the big story is Bruce Carpenter. Bruce had a great day and turned in consistently hot low scores for a very close second place finish. Way to go Bruce!

We had a special competitor at this event. RJ Sanderson (grandson of Bob Sanderson) rode his Oset to an impressive victory. After the trials, RJ was practicing in the sections, piloting smooth and graceful clean rides, followed by Bill Sanderson who required some stopping, balancing, kicking the rear tire over to accomplish a turn. But hey, a clean is a clean. Good job RJ and Bill. By the way, the Oset is a great little bike for young aspiring trials pilots. It’s electric (reminds me of a disco song) and affordable and works great. You can even set up sections in the living room and have your young riders Jap Zap the couch and leap to the coffee table etc without those smelly fumes. Really, it’s on their website! The only bad thing about the bike is that it is so quiet they can sneak up on you really easy!

After the awards presentation, I got an edumacation on how to pronounce Dujmovic. I sympathize with people who often get their name pronounced incorrectly but hey, I got the Mark part right! And why do they need a “j” in there if you don’t even use it! Thanks for the lesson Mark!

REMINDER: The 2007 MATT Christmas Party will be held on December 8th at the Jackson County Shrine Club (same place as Eva’s Birthday Party). The address is 120 ½ S. Pleasant in Independence, MO and the start time is 7pm.

REMINDER: The December MATT club trials will be a “Set Up and Ride Event” or ‘SURE’ if you are an acronym kind a guy or gal. The SURE event will for sure be held at Trenton club grounds on December 16th, unless no one shows up. The awesome, spectacular, fun and exciting sections from last month were left intact should any December participants want to relive the events of last month or challenge the gnarly buggers again.

Note from Russ Amos: Attention all Trials riders: Don't forget the 14th annual Postage Stamp Trials on January 1st, 2008 at a start time of 1pm. The reason for the event is to raise money for our club newsline to be mailed and to get you all out of the house. Admission for all riders is (1) book of twenty, new $0.41 stamps or $10.00. Friends and family, as always, are free. The event will be held on the sprawling estate of Russ Amos and Jane Drury in Shawnee, Kansas. There will be Coffee, hot dogs, chili, and all the fixings to have a really good time. Please BYOB! The address is 7018 Bell Rd near I435 and Midland Dr. If you get lost, call 913-962-0159. Please check the weather, or call, before coming but we usually hold it regardless unless you can't get up the hill. Please try to car pool because parking can be a problem. Oh and in case I forgot to say it is BYOB!

New Product News: The December Trials Competition is out. The publication has info on the Sherco, Beta and GasGas offerings for 2008. But the really cool news is info and PICTURES of the GasGas 4 stroke! The engine is very short due to the side valve design. In fact, from the shifter side of the motor, it is hard to tell that it is not a 2 stroke! The new model was unveiled at the Milan Trade show in Italy. The frame has the same measurements at the TXT Pro and the weight is reported as just 71 kg (x2.2 lbs/kg=156 lbs if my conversion is correct). No production date has been announced.

Note from the Newsline Editor: Three IF’s: If you are reading this-Thank you! I hope you enjoy this publication. If you know someone who would like to receive this via email, I would be happy to add them. If you wish to stop receiving this publication, please reply to this message and I will take you off of my mailing list.

On behalf of MATT I want to wish you all the merriest of holiday seasons. Be safe and remember our SURE trials on December 16th at Trenton and the Postage Stamp Trial at Russ’ on January 1st at 1pm!