Blah.  That's the feeling we riders have here in the North this time of year.  We can tell Spring is on the way, there's just no evidence of it yet.   But, apparently they're riding in Jersey.  That's right, Englishtown Raceway (Home of the Kawasaki Race of Champions - the original race of champions, btw) is open for practice.  A bunch of dudes from New England made the trip last weekend and checked it all out.  They said it was a little wet, but certainly rideable conditions.

Drool, drool...  Englishtown Raceway's practice track. How far can Jersey be?

In other news, Uxbridge Motorsports Park (the new MX park/practice track in Massachusetts) is still closed due to copius amounts of snow on the ground.  However, they're supposed to be opening in early April.

That's funny you say, the first New England MX race is March 25th at Southwick - what's the deal?  The deal is this - if the snow isn't gone by March 25, the track crew at Southwick intend to push the snow off the track with their D9 dozers.  Really.  They take their racing seriously at the 'Wick.

The March 25 race also marks the inaugural race of the newly formed New England MX organization.  Formed late last year due to persistent problems with the region's main MX organization (New England Sports Committee - NESC), the NEMX intends to be a kinder, gentler organization for the riders.

The next race at Southwick is April 1st and is a NESC race.  Confused?  Try the complete New England motocross schedule here:  http://www.nemx.org.  It gets more confusing still because our friends to the South have a third MX organization called the New England Motocross Association (NEMA) which is more focused on youth riders and their families.  Neat huh?  All three schedules are posted at nemx.org.

Hmmm... what else?  Adam Turner is currently in Georgia doing a little riding at the famous "Ranch" where Ryan Lockhart is currently maintaining a residence.  Apparently Ryan's got himself a pierced tongue (unbeknownst to his Dad, Scotty).  And, since Adam drove down to Georgia last week with Scotty, he figured it was going to be an interesting reunion between father and son.  

Wonder how that turned out....?  

Wonder when Lee Steeves is coming back from Florida?

Suppose I'll find out soon enough because Adam is set to come home this Friday along with fellow Nova Scotia export Paul Smith.  Smitty has been in the Sunshine state for the past couple weeks and even had tickets to the Daytona SX where RC decimated the field.  Can't wait for him to start re-updating his popular Fast by Design site.  I also heard a rumour Boo Green went south, but I don't know that for sure.  I do know he's now the proud owner of two 2001 YZ 125's and one YZF 250.  Should be interesting.

What other news?  I talked to Terry Bird a fair bit a few weeks ago and he was saying Blaine Prest and Jamie Bird were thinking of doing some riding south of the border, but I don't know if they managed to pull that off, or if it's still upcoming.  Personally I'm looking to do a little riding in New England soon if I can coordinate everything right.  Maybe set it up so I can be there before the race in Southwick April 1st.  No news from Johnny Montes lately on whether he's lined up a ride for this year, nor the Landry's - Jake and Abbey.  Anyone know what those guys are up to this year?

Anyway, that's about all for now.  I'm gonna go check out www.mapquest.com and see just how far a drive it is to New Jersey...

Roddy