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TFS World Headquarters TFS Regular Surf Stops
The new TFS e-mag Empire "Logo of the Millenium" was designed, produced, saved, and e-mailed by the one-and-only Chris Tedesco, smpmxracer@aol.com, who will now be showered with e-mail requests for more. Check out his site at www.dirtrider.net/mxro.
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NEWS:
Who's this?
It's our new friend Dorina Groves, excellent PR tyrant for Chaparral Motorsports. She's organizing the Jimmy Button benefit on Feb 8, and working the crowds that stop by to see MC and Tim Ferry at the races. More news, in case you missed it: Vohland is fine, he just didn't keep riding after he and Holland hit hard at Phoenix. Gosselaar is OK too, just sore. Judging from the reaction at the track and on the web after Phoenix, people aren't buying MC's explanation of his second place finish to Vuillemin. Dirt Cool's Shibata and I interviewed MC right after the main saturday after he finished talking to DC for ESPN. MC said he could honestly say he had no idea Vuillemin had also passed KW, RC, and Ferry and caught him while he was cruisin. He sounded sincere, and he had just told Stanton, the podium folks, and everyone else the same thing. Oh well, part of the fun of sport is watching this happen and deciding for yourself what is what. It's over, Vuillemin won, and MC said that won't happen again. Look out Houston! The depressing part of the Teams 2000 section of emag 2000 (the injury section) got an update.
Tracy McGrath reports that Jimmy Button was very pleased to get a book of e-mails today. There are also plans for stickers for the other riders to use this weekend wishing him well, and at least one big banner for TV. He will be moved to Arizona as soon as they are ready for him to move and start rehab. Still the best place for updates is the message board on www.nacnac.com. Lamson to ride 125 outdoors? Lamy hinted that could happen at San Diego, and after a little arm twisting we pried the scoop out of Andrew at Works Connection. As of now the plan is he will ride factory Hondas on a Works Connection team. Larry Ward is sore after his crash out of the 250 main last weekend. He might even be a little beyond sore, but so far the word is he's going for it this weekend. Chaparral posted photos from their huge Jan 13 Fan Appreciation night. In case you missed it they are on www.chaparral-racing.com. Chaparral's new PR whiz is doing a great job, but she won't let me post her photo! Imagine that! She is on the emag 2000 anyway, see if you can guess who it is (check Anaheim 1 thumbnails).
The largest ever Windows wallpaper photo splash just went up on the emag 2000. It features 44 full screen photos, many from riders who don't get enough press.
Check out a monster-sized photo of Vohland.
Button is OK, Ward is OK, Travis Pastrana broke his thumb at MC's, Reynard is almost ready and riding good, Lawrence had his arm in a sling at San Diego, Lytle's power valve spring failed while he was leading at SD, Dostal crashed out of qualifiying at SD, MC bent a brake disc in the main, Stefy was doing a triple Friday and compressed both her ankles, Travis Elliott is OK. Guidetty went back to France, So there. What else ya got? Everyone on the web is talking about injuries. What is happening? Dunno. When things like this become a topic it's a good idea for a credible (and quick) study. A review of the facts and some suggestions would not be a bad idea right now. Who is supposed to do it? Dunno. I would suggest a look at equipment, tracks, practice tracks, and practice schedules. Let some experts sort it out.
America's Hero - French rider David Vuillemin!
Today is round three of the EA Sports SX series! You already know the live party is at www.pacesupercross.com, and after you can check out the emag 2000 as it starts coming together. MC will have a chance at three straight, but the competition is still very tough. Here's a Wallpaper image of Donald "Uptown" Upton. Class Act - How about Denny Stephenson! "Snoop" finishes second to his teammate Buddy Antunez in both classes at the Baltimore Arenacross last night, then he makes sure a race report goes up on www.motoxdream.com before he calls it a night. That has to be a first. Snoop is a sponsor's dream - good results, sounds good on TV, and he gets the race report out as fast as the media. I'm impressed. Speaking of Arenacross, here's a Wallpaper image from last year. It's old but I thought it was cool anyway.
Serious? You want me to bonk Budman with this plaque so YOU can make up points???
Smith trying to jump past Vohland at Anaheim. He got second, but won the crowd.
There is significant news in the SX/MX photo world - Hoppen's own URL is ready! Now instead of surfing the race sites for Hoppen photos, you can go right to the source, www.FrankHoppen.com. The site releases photos in two phases, first they are released immediately after each event and available for viewing by industry publications and suppliers (for ad photos). Then after a couple of days they get moved for viewing by everyone. If you are a potential buyer and want to get in on the early releases, contact Frank Hoppen directly.
Doh! The emag daily missed a couple of days to redesign the front page to help navigate this mess. Now www.motonews.com/tfs, the starting point for the emag empire, is more like a search engine. Hopefully this will help make surfing Motonews 2 easier.
Saturday's Anaheim EA Sports Supercross (Round 2) track will feature both a killer quad jump and an over-and-under section. Last week's track was pretty gnarly, and this one sounds ever more so! Stefy Update: Our friend Stefy looked hesitant on her first few laps at Anaheim. She rode first on press day (and made it on the local news), then she went back on practice day (Friday) and fell a couple of times. After that they called it a weekend. It takes a lot to get ready for Supercross at the pro level, at least a couple of months on the right track. Still it's cool to she her going for it. She makes good PR for Kawasaki and the series. Injury Updates: So far it looks like Casey Johnson is out for this weekend, and for sure Ezra with a fractured shoulder. PACE's website, www.pacesupercross.com will again be the place for surfers to be saturday night. Watch for more updates, and results and photos. Arenacross champ hopeful Denny Stephenson has www.motoxdream.com, and now another top rider has his own site. Stephane Roncada has build his own, www.ronronmx.com! It's great, and right now he keeps it current. Most web folks know Roncada is a Microsoft Motocross Madness freak, and he is very much involved with the upcoming version 2. If you haven't been checking in with Jeff Piccolo on www.mxmadness2.com, along with regular game news he follows the races too.
Chris Williams, digicam novice of the week, got some real cool close ups at Anaheim. You gotta see these... (Some people are having trouble with this link. If it doesn't work try going to www.motocross.com and start from there. It seems to like IE but not Netscape.) Also, CaptainKE from Mototalk 2 sent these bike images from Anaheim.
Pingree was on the gas at Anaheim!
A Press Release from Honda announced their addition of Paul Slovik as media coordinator. Two new injury reports have surfaced on the message boards, one says Casey Johnson is out, the other Keith Johnson. It's always a good idea to wait for more details when you get injury reports on the web. Brad Z also reports that FMF has expanded it's support to include the entire Strategic Three Team (Fro's team). That would mean they also support Phil Lawrence and Brian McGavran. Thumbnails have been added to allow a quick view of all the emag 2000 photos from Anaheim 1. Check it out!
The EA Sports Supercross series had a fantastic kickoff last weekend. Maybe it was the new millenium, maybe not. Everything just seemed to click. There was some bad news however. One of MC's key challengers, Lusk, has a fracture in his shoulder. He will be out at least six weeks. SX on the web! How many web sites can you find with SX reports? So far here are some worth looking at: PACESupercross.com (the source)| FMFracing (our Mototalk buddy Brad)| RacerXill.com (DC and Co)| Speedvision.com (Mark Mitchell) | Motocross.com (Chris W) | Motoworld.net (Has a Stefy special too) |
The emag 2000 got a lot of new photos, so if you already browsed it, you might want to go back and reload the pages. Hint: Re-load the Crossover event page, check out Ryan M at the bottom. Haha.
This new Supercross stage is the coolest! Click the photo to get a full-screen wallpaper version for your PC!
Guy on right: "OK RC, ready to go at it again?!" Supercross 2000 Highlights:
"If it's in the game, it's in the game..." OK, "The Game" (EA Sports SX 2000 for Playstation and Nintendo) has PACE tuff blocs covers around the track. The real track will feature EA Sports tuff blocs. So does that mean the game copies the track, or the track copies the game? I give up.
This is it! Day zero for Supercross in the new millenium. There will be a few more preview photos going up on emag 2000, but when it's race time, the party is on PACESupercross.com. After that, give your modem a rest and get ready for a week of Supercross photos. Several hundred megs all already taking up space on the TFS laptop.
Stefy and her rider card! Is she ready for SX? Even very, very fast male pro riders get a wakeup call when they go for the step up to the big show. Stefy is important because she has remarkable self-confidence and she inspires women, and does great PR for SX and Kawasaki. It doesn't matter if she qualifies. She is a great addition to the weekend!
Here's a shot of Lusk in practice from Friday:
Lusk looks like Lusk this weekend. Scary Fast! Don't get too close to the rail if you sit by the triples, or like to lean out during practice and get a photo.
Friday is practice and crossover, so check in for results and photos. The emag 2000 already has plenty of new stuff to see from Press Day. The self-proclaimed "Honorable" SD Bauer and Mr published in the new Racer X (article on judging FMX) reports a autograph signing friday night at the No Fear store. Details are on Mototalk 2. Dominique's web site "Block Pass," right here on Motonews also got a plug in the new Racer X. The new Racer X is 220 full color pages and packed with content. I got a red butt ring and didn't even get halfway through it! Nice DC, better every issue.
First SX Preview! - Track Prep at Anaheim
The big show starts this weekend! Saturday night the EA Sports Supercross season will kick off big in the first of two consecutive rounds in Anaheim. The home office in Chicago is already starting to clear out, and the dirt is rolling in at the stadium. Press day is tomorrow. That is when the sport's best photohounds and journalists will pile on top of each other to get shots and quotes about everything new - new bikes, new teams, new paint on the trucks, new gear, a new calender shoot with mega-babes in little bikinis, new whatever!
This way cool new stage/podium was going together on Wednesday. It features lots of lights and these backlit EA Sports logos all around the edge. They say the whole thing is awesome at night. Friday will be the day for the second annual Extreme Sports Crossover event. This was kicked off last year to tie in Supercross as "The King of Extreme Sports" and give other top athletes and celebs a shot at a moto and a chance to say "It's a lot harder than it looks!" Yes, it is.
The track is coming together. Tomorrow: Press Day Photos
PACE Motorsports released info today on their live web audio, direct from their own web site. If you want to follow the races on the web, the party will be at PACESupercross.com on Saturday night. The e-mag will be pitching in with photos, and of course trying to distract all the fine folks from the home office in Chicago who will be in Press. The web has come a long way. Two years ago it was live text from Cycle News, and really bad photos from yours truly the next morning right here on Motonews. Last year you had the option of live audio (Motoworld.net) and text from PACESupercross.com. This year PACE hits the big time with the audio, and the transponders to transfer lap positions live. I guess you could see this as the show taking over the news (at least in the short term), or the Net becoming part of the show itself. Ah, who cares? Log on, have a cappuccino, and enjoy it! See ya on Saturday!
Photos by Steve G, thanks! He has more on his site, MotoDrive.
If you have happy memories of the Cycle News Virtual Grandstand from Supercross in 1998, you are remembering reporting done by vet newsguy Mark Mitchell, now at Speedvision. Speedvision's web site also just got a facelift! Mitchell is making sure the Speedvision site keeps a close watch on Supercross, Arenacross, and some other kinds of bike racing where they just ride around or something, no jumps!!?? If you haven't added it to your surf list, this would be a good time.
The riders who would have been riding SX west, but switched to allow time to heal from misc ailments, look like they will add to an already talent-packed east series. You can check the Teams 2000 roster for the scoop on who is where. Informed Mototalkers have been sending in corrections for a couple of days so it should be pretty accurate by now. Check TFS e-mag 2000 for the roster.
When you go to TFS e-mag 2000 to check out the new roster, you can check out the newest edit of the Best/Worst and What-ever-est of 1999. Yea, yea, yea, Racer X just did one too, but screw it, this one has been in work since Oct, and TFS has done one since 1996. (Trivia, the first Factory Spectator web site, previous to LCS Racing days, was a Best/Worst of 1996!) Mnews 2 cub reporters Denise and Todd are always up to something. They report the downtown Pittsburgh New Year's outdoor party was a dud - and that trainer Gary Semics is working with MC again - and next time you see Brandon Jesseman, you will see blonde hair.
(Who are these people, and who let them in?) Mototalker RC16's idea to invite Fro to do commentary at SX events is a damn good one. Fro is the king of one-liners when he is relaxed and having a good time! Maybe the people who make these things happen will talk and go for it. I don't think he will be ready to sign much yet though.
Happy New Year! And Happy Cheek Squeezes to all those people crowded in Times Square all day and night with no bathrooms. I guess they get to ring in the new millenium with a challenge to their willpower. There is still an hour to go for the real celebration, which takes place in Elba, Alabama. So far no reports of a mob over 200 people or Y2K buggage. I'm going for 'living on the edge with Diet Pepsi' here in Pittsburgh. If you are reading this, the bug was all hype! Thanks to all for adding corrections and more riders to the Teams 2000 list on the e-mag 2000. Motonews folks really are the most informed moto people on the planet! The new Cycle News web site looks great and is much easier to use! Thumbs up for the new years facelift.
(Special thanks to Steve G for the cool new graphics!)
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01/31/00: 
