DAVIDBAILEYMX.COM

FEATURE STORY

CONTACT
I have something I would like to point out regarding the collision between RC and James, or James jumping on RC. If I were Ricky, of course I would be mad. That could’ve been the end of his season or worse, but the same can be said for James. James isn’t stupid… he’s aggressive! He didn’t do it on purpose; he just didn’t realize how different Ricky was doing that section.

Before I go any further with this, I want to say to everyone on Bubba’s case, lighten up. Most of “US” love James because he is aggressive and goes for it, but as soon as he messes up a little bit we jump on him with all kinds of criticism. Ricky was the same way when he got on a 250 in supercross, but over time he learned when to make his moves. James will too. Don’t expect him to be careful in the meantime.

I was so impressed with the way he attacked practice on Sunday that I was sure he was the fastest. What I was seeing was the absolute max speed anyone could get away with on a motorcycle on that track. It was the craziest speed I’ve seen all year, until I realized Ricky was reeling him in! I want to keep seeing that. We all do. So chalk this crash up to the will to win by one of the best to ever ride motocross. They’re okay.

Ricky’s boss who wasn’t too pleased with James’ move (and I understand that) has to remember back in 1978 when he and Hannah T-Boned each other! During the final moto their lines crossed and they hit hard causing Hannah to go down and smash his pipe and lose the overall. Hannah swore he was going to break Roger’s leg at the next race. Nobody bitched about it. We just called it “Epic.”

My view (and I saw the whole thing including my dad’s footage) of it is that they had different lines, yet James didn’t know exactly how Ricky was doing that section and assumed wrong. James was much faster right there all weekend. When he came down the hill in his usual line, it looked to me like he might just fly by on the outside, but as they got closer, Ricky had that covered forcing James to either back off or square him up. As James went for the square off move - which was the correct thinking – what he didn’t know was how much more Ricky was slowing down right there, and while closing in fast he realized at the last minute that he wasn’t going to be able to cross back to the inside and he was caught by surprise. At the last minute he kind of gassed it off the lip, which puzzles me a little bit, but I think he was just a bit panicked and trying to avoid a collision and guessed wrong. You be the judge when you see the footage, but my point is James was RACING and shit happens when you’re going that fast. If James knew how Ricky was doing that section he would’ve handled it different.

When I rear ended that guy on the freeway last month and totaled my truck, it appeared that I was an idiot, and I was. Hindsight…I should’ve been watching the road closer just in case. The flip side of that, is that the guy in front of me was one of those stop 100 feet behind the guy in front of him kind of guys. If he would’ve had the normal spacing between himself and the car in front of him I wouldn’t have hit him and my truck would still be in my driveway, 3 feet longer.

db

Photo by me. This is the approach to the section where they crashed. RC went all the way down the right side and James was going down the left and carrying more speed off the drop off.