by Davey Coombs
A Sad Day in Mexico
Sunday, May 13, 2012 | 11:05 AM
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PrintWe've been following the reports of some rider dissatisfaction down in Mexico at the first-ever FIM World Championship Grand Prix, held in Guadalaja and promoted by former two-time World Champion Sebastien Tortelli. At issue were the track conditions, and the dust led all but two Grand Prix regulars -- Monster Energy Yamaha's Michael Leib and Honda-mounted Max Anstie -- to boycott Saturday's qualifying races. They ended up racing with nine local riders in the MX2 race, while right locals started the MX1 round.
Here's a report from the event by Alex Hodgkinson of MX Pure.
According to Jeff Cernic, who is on hand, the organizers were able to find 18 water trucks for today's race and hopefully the riders will feel that they can compete. The race is to begin at 3 p.m. ET (12 noon out west) and can be seen on www.mx-life.tv for a fee. See a photo of the track this morning below and photos from Sarah Guiterrez of the track yesterday.
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It dont look good to say the least.....Starting gate has a ways to go...Good Luck to Tortelli
Dust? At a motocross track? I'm shocked... Though I used to race many a dusty So-Cal track, I can see that these guys would want to risk their lives in dusty conditions. The track looks as flat as Lake Elsinore... too bad.
Funny, I don't see a standing army surrounding the track, so this little article may end up being almost prophetic. The day is long, and there is potential for much more sadness, without robust security.
I have to comment since I've been working in Guadalajara for a few weeks fighting fire. The media has been very unjust to the area, The people here are very nice, friendly and hard working. A friend we fly with, knows the promoter and everything is new to him, and by bringing Tortelli on board I'm sure was to make everything go smooth, I hope things go better today.
@Chowderhead: dude you need to do some traveling or at least some reading. Guadalajara hosted the Pan-american games last year which is the pre-entry ticket to some of the athletes to the the olimpics and you did not saw "a standing army" either but neither saw a single violent incident.
U really need to get out Farmville.
Hey kxguy324, maybe you should do some reading! Bad guys are cutting heads off just a few miles from this track! The whole country is a sewer!
Moto87, your comment is a great representation of a population with a very low IQ. Mexico as a country is a sewer? That is racist on so many levels. Mexico is a beautiful country with amazing people. Most of us up north have no problem flying directly over the US to visit Mexico.
@Moto87: There are about 90 guns for every 100 Americans, this translates to roughly 85 fatal shootings per day in America. You should shut your mouth before you go getting all high on your horse talking about other countries being violent.
Beaners Suck Wieners...
i guess many of you guys haven't gone to the oakland suburbs.... "a few miles from the the stadium where the AMA SUPERCROSS race is held", but that doesn't mean all the gang is gonna come out of their holes and run a riot on the stadium, get your facts straight. p.s im not mexican
3rd world country sewar pit..PERIOD... You dont see Americans immigrating ILLEGALLY to mexico UNLESS youre an outlaw!! Get it?
You knew this was gonna happen there, sadly!!
http://www.teapartybrief.com/stay-out-of-mexico-49-mutilated-bodies-left-on-mexico-highway-near-us-border
@Holeshot413: Don't even have to click on your link to know that anything that starts with http://www.teapartybrief = closed minded hypocrites fear mongering.
Hey slideshow and gills, 18 found beheaded near Guadalaja a few days ago; 40+ found dismembered near Monterrey yesterday; 9 found hanging from a bridge in Nuevolaredo! Want me to go on? Granted you see gang shooting in any major American city, but you don't see headlines like this! The Mexican population doesn't seem to give a damm and the Mexican gov't is too riddled with corruption to care! How many Americans do you think are attending this GP? In fact, how many non-Mexicans are attending (don't count the riders!). Sorry, but I stand by my previous comments!!!
The times that Racerx are showing for the race are wrong.The race is going on right now on MX Life TV.
@sideshow ...feel free to fly right over on your way to being robbed at gunpoint , and then feel free to fly right over on your way home. I'll pass ..been there done that. I'll have a nice safe beer and semi/safe hot dog at Hangtown , thank you.
All the illegal aliens are over here no one to fix the track. Piss poor job from seb just like his American career!
The 49 mutilated bodies left on a highway near Guadalajara was actually an Associated Press story that was carried by news outlets worldwide.
But hey, at least the corndogs served at the track are 100% all dog... So they've got that going for 'em.
So I spent the $6.63 US to watch it unfold, the track looks pretty good to me, some small lakes in a few valleys from overwatering the virgin track, but they took care of the dust issue! So the big boys didn't bother qualifying yesterday, but they all raced this moring, first MX1 race just finished up. AC222 got a decent start and passed CP777 and CD25 for the win. CP was riding clean but pulled off with 2 laps to go, his rear wheel full of the green fencing so he went off the track somewhere. The stands look pretty full but the track layout doesn't allow for fans to get close to the track, tough to tell but i'd be amazed if there are more than 5k fans there. Track got rutted but there was some good racing, decent elevation changes, i'd say the pics above don't do it justice.
A MX gp in mexico was a joke of an idea to start with..... especially with the BS from Youth stream that it is "too costy" to travel across the sea to race in another country!" Anyway you want to spin it to say that mexico is a nice place will not work as I have been there several times and it is indeed a garbage pit of corrupt cops and most of people who can care less about the condition of their country.
@yogi ...obviously you've never actually been to a race and seen Tortelli ride...what an idiotic thing to say...did'nt he win the first supercross he entered. And didn't he beat Mc and kdub in his first national outdoors. If you don't know sh*t just STFU. I remember him haulin the mail on more than a few occasions.Finishing second outdoors to RC is not a piss poor job to the rest of us.
i hear if people accidently travel into the wrong neighborhood in the great USA bad things could happen to them... .Has anyone watched the news lately, it's all crazy horrible stuff in the USA... The USA seems to be the most violent country in the world , inocent people suffer in the USA!!!
But its the sign of the times!!
IF the government who are supposed to look over the peoples best interest did there job then usa would be a good place..
.like helping the poor citizens get a good education so they can get a DECENT JOB!!!!
ya , mexico is crazy bad and it's not going to get any better anytime soon!!!
If the GP's need a place for a international race then how about canada? Americans will drive for hours to see a race in there own country..... so no big deal to drive for 1 to 2 hours to go to canada...They love it up here anyways!!
Lot's of Redneck Randall's in this thread. I wish the GP's would come back and do a USGP, but the top AMA riders would not race and so the uninformed, uneducated American fans would not attend. Another sad reflection of the black and white thinking of so many Americans.
If GP racing is held in North America, perhaps the race could be in the USA?
Why has the FIM appeared to have made such a no-brainer error?
Please inform ....
I would not attend a GP in Guadalajara, BUT, I SURE WOULD HAVE GONE TO GLEN HELEN AGAIN THIS YEAR!!!! Too bad for us!!! I have a bunch of nice photos from last year I would have loved to have gottten signed. (Cairolli, Herlings, Leok, Phillipaerts, Searle, Desalle, Etc, Etc) The European riders make themselves really accessible to the fans.
Maybe another year it will come back. Wishful thinking.
@scrub/handlebar/jair/whatever...thanks for all that motorcycle racing information...the same sub-human take you been at forever...geezus you suck. I don't understand why you would'nt feel better on a political or racially oriented site. try one PLEASE ..now go goose step around your basement.
Lots of interesting comments on here today. I do understand that it is a rough to put together a race at that scale in Mexico. I have been there many times and have raced offroad there back in my day. There are a lot of good people there, but have always been denied a good life due to the corrupted goverment, the few rich people who control everything and the drug cartels. But I do know that many people there are looking for that same pursuit of happiness as people do here. Mexico hasn't changed over the last couple hundred years and may never change. I do know there are lots of people there who do share the same passion for the sport as we do.
@Johnmotoman- the GP's at Glen Helen were great. It would be nice if they brought them back. So keep wishing!
Gayairtime ist eine rassistische Idiot voller Hass. Er lebt in der Zeit in Nazi-Deutschland zurück, waren, dass Sie eine weiße puristisches sein müssen
i fu#king told everyone in my post yesterday,"prepare for mayhem". 25 yrs ago when i raced in mexico it was a scary dust bowl! you still cant make a phone call in mexico.i hoped for tortelli things would go well, but anyone who has spent time in mexico,.(tortelli must not have) knowes you cant get shiz done there. always was a dump and looks like it still is.
There are not many people in the US or Mexico who will pay to watch a GP. The racing is pretty good but the talent level is not very deep compared to a National. How can anyone take a "World Chamionship" serious when most of the best riders are not racing?
Certain guys posting in here are a disgrace to the sport - and country.
Grow up and explore this planet. Get a passport. Live a little.
That aside, by all accounts this GP has been very poor. Compounded with the terrible live broadcast and technical problems there. I wonder how it went so wrong, so early.
How could the watering issue not have been addressed weeks/months ago?
Hey loser Canadian mx fan, stay the hell out of the USA. What the hell do you do well? Hockey? A meaningless sport that no one cares about. Stay the f&@k up north and shut the f&@k up.
The US is turning into a sewer because its inhabited by a bunch of ignorant, racist, neophobic (look it up) morons.
What a shame, at least they can all go to the super nice mall next door.
hey,when most people go to mexico.........they stay in the resort and dont see the real schit happening. mexico has real problems........ big mofo problems. i raced down there some 15yrs ago and SCHIT!!! i thought i feel through a time warp and it was 1970. the track was a pile..... dusty, narrow, no prep....... i got no problem with mexico, just stay down there and we will get along fine. i feel bad for seb.........but , "HE REALLY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ! "
When I read the headline...."Sad day in Mexico" I was prepared for the worst. A rider being gunned down ran through my head. But the issue turned out to be dust? I think the headline really needs to be less sensational.
As for Mexico, all you people who have no issues with it, have a blast. Don't denegrate anyone for having a preconceived notion of it though. Forget the beheadings and drug lords, the policia will get you too. I read a story of a woman and her husband sailing in their boat and were boarded in the Gulf of Mexico (in Mexican waters) and she was found to have some of her prescription medication in an unmarked botttle. She was locked up and facing 20 years, have no idea if she is still locked up now. People think everywhere is America and saying you're an American means you get special treatment wherever you may be. I do not ever plan on having the chance of being detained as a spy while on vacation. Mexico may have some great vacation spots, but I'll stick to the resorts on the other side of the Gulf where I don't need pesos. There is still so much of this great coutnry I have yet to see, no passport needed.
I have asked this a million times. Why is it okay to call someone a redneck as you admonish them for using words that you find ethnically offensive? Isn't redneck a word used to denegregate a person of a certain ethnic and social background? Always found it very hypocritical when people do that.
Hey RacerX.. it wasnt a sad day.. and if it was, could of been because how the riders treated all the fans.. track was techincal.. maybe they where complaing about it.. but remember they are top athletes, they should handle anything.. 100,222,84,25 19 where haulling a"".. by the rollers... especialy 19... cp just couldnt handle them in his stock bike.. it was a great event... and i was there as a marshall.. and heard alot of rumors, since fans to riders.. so it is what it is... congrat to the winners.!!!
looks like motoguzzi is the only guy with any sense.as for you liberal assh%les you like mexico so much,go sell your house,invest in a mexican business and go live amungst those fine people! hope you survive
Flithyanimal: I wouldn't be so sure about the reason for why the US is going down hill. The U.S. is going to see those neophobes become a minority in all of our lifetimes and with the changing of the ethnic culture of the country, so goes the social culture. When immigrants came to America generations ago they were forced to assimilate to American life, but now America is forced to assimilate to the immigrant culture. Many of us already are unqualified for jobs because we don't speak Spanish and that issue will be huge in 50 years. Speaking Spanish will be as important as a college degree...if not more important. Some will now label me a racist for speaking about facts, but it is a sad reality and not anything to do with racism. Just today I went to a store in suburban Connecticut and had the cashier and the 3 customers in a row in front of me speaking Spanish to each other while I stood in line.
Google Rene Reyes motocross. We should all always remember what happened to him the night after a race in Mexico in 2008. Gladly this isn't what awaited when I opened this article, but it is what I was fearing and am glad to see was not the case.
What is happening in Mexico is unfortunate and the ignorance to it in this thread is disturbing. You can always tell who the people who live near or frequently visit the border and who don't by their comments on this subject.
B-KR is right.
Wow what about that race ....whats that...this isn't a moto site anymore?...... oh this a political sounding board for @tbone to battle his personal foe ,the liberal assh*⩽ (who compete with the conservative assh*⩽) who both suck , and everybody else to discuss racism and their vagine's. @cz whatever you said , i think i agree.lol....How about next year lets have a gp in a Croatian mine field , its probably safer.
B-KR makes a good point. Business news reported sometime back that the largest growing consumer market in this country is the Hispanic Market. Many companies have required that their employees learn to speak Spanish. When it comes capitalism, these people don't care where the money comes from. Anyone who speaks 2 languages will be far better off in the competeing job market. The reality is it's not going change.
There is a rape every 20 minutes in America by all races, we invade countries not responsible for 9/11 and killed close to 1 million innocent civilians, 10 million and counting since 1953 if you want to get technical. We rank top 3 as most violent nations in the world...Mexico is not even close to all those stats, but as ignorant Americans tend to do is throw rocks while living in a glass country. I'm not Mexican, but I have a brain and use it quite well. Critical thinking, apply it.
There is a rape every 2 minutes*
@tonewall- you will agree, thanks! I like the Croatian mine field thing, interesting! lol
i got raped...........on april 15th. happens every year ,same time....... and it gets worse. I say how much ? and they say more !
@CZMark I want a GP or two in the US.I also wish that the top 5 US riders were required to race those GPs.Our riders seem to have no pride and maybe there's to much money involved.Probably just scared to get injured.I guess after a year like this year you can't really blame our riders.I hate the MXDN's format.They need to run each class seperate old school way.Coupe ,Trophy and Motocross Des nations.Bring back the Trans-Am's.
@ BK-R While you are somewhat slick with your words, "redneck" does not refer to a specific ethnicity, whereas "Mexicans" does. All rednecks are Americans, but not all Americans are rednecks. While there may be a socio-economic stigma attached to rednecks, there is not a general condemnation or judgment on a specific ethnicity *based on their race*. That is a huge difference.
@ localexpert...very well stated, thank you.
fred, you keep talking about the old days and old school GP format or Trans am series, I think that would be great. It would be cool if the FIM and AMA would have at least 2 combined points race in both the series. But what I think what you are really looking for is to dump Tons of Fun, hoping some Czech rider will take her home. lol
The posts on here are truly amazing. Don't you "civilized intelligent people" on here know that the crap you read in headlines are there to sell papers? They choose to leave out the fact that they are killing RIVAL Cartel members... and various other criminals associated with the drug trade. The same Drug trade that makes the majority of its money in the US.
Yet the same people condemning mexico live here in the US where people live in fear of their government everyday. Wake up... Our leaders are selling you for the highest bidder. Our country is no safer than mexico. here the headlines are doctored with the financing of politicians.
As for the race... I never understood why not in BAJA?... the Crowds are there and I for one would have been standing on the sidelines enjoying a Tecate if I was able to drive there...
I hope they are able to salvage this event. It could be another amazing stop once a year if it was coordinated correctly.
Im a local guy here in GDL, these pitcures that are shown arent from today, the organization guys were working very hard, since 4 weeks ago they were watering the track everyday for hours, the terrain is very rocky and sandy, so just think that.. Also if you take another look to these pictures theres no crowd on it, an obviously because the pictures wasnt from race day, i think this post is only to hear bad news... In my opinion the european guys act very bad by not riding the qualifing race because they are profesionals, the dust was minimum, the track was watered, they wereso come on... And for sure today in the track more people were there than glen helen GP last year... Dont go with first impressions, a lots of people made a huge effort to run this event and i think that was very good,
Also they were complaining about the weather, that was very hot, but what do they want? A track covered of the sun with air conditioning or what?
How about Glen Helen?
@handlebar ....and your just a racist pig with nothing as usual to contribute...your ignorant comments are just boring and show the result of your klan upbringing..you probably sit around all day trying to think up some stupid negative remark and then fail to pull it off.pathetic.No one ( including me )cares at all what you think of me. You don't know me ..but i know you...your hate and racism tells me who and what you are ..loud and clear.by the way are you trying to sound black when you say"nomesame' what the he*l kinda talk is that...i bet you don't talk like that at the klan meeting. Do you know what i'm saying...ignorant P.O.S
Dozens of bodies found on Mexico highway- The story was posted on MSN.com this evening.
Anyone see on Twitter how many people had $, passports, other stolen? It's crazy. With better scheduling, an American (or Canadian) would be a bug success. 2 weeks before Hangtown? Not so much.
By the way... The Klan was a democrat entity. Just sayin' (ist 'sayin' zu viel Rothals fur dich? Ich auch spreche Deutsch und Er hat gesagt nichts rassist- Du wohnst in der Zeit von Deutsche Arbeitpartei vielleicht?). Kraftstoff fur das Feuer.
Back in the early 90's Chowderhead was shot in El Paso. .38 through the shoulder. Don't talk to Chowderhead about Mexico, pollyannish azzholes. You know nothing!
@tonewall................... "sound black" is a very racist statement!
i mean.........are you saying that blacks(the ne-gro race) have a certian way they talk? all blacks? look in the mirror bra............
Dear Canadians:
I've been to Vancouver BC twice in the last 10 years, both times for supercross. The firs year my car was broken into in a gated hotel parking lot.
The next year I parked in a well lit garage, that had a "security booth" with a "security guard" at the entrance, and WITHIN SIGHT of my vehicle. I left nothing in the front of the car to "entice" the local hoodlums. It was broken into again. The police could care less. So that was awesome. Well done. At least the second time the crooks locked my car back up. That was nice.
So every country has its cesspools, and every country has its attractions. Its just that in Mexico, their cesspools are spilling over into their attractions. Have spilled over?
In the U.S. at least most of the crime stays in the 'hood.
Anyway, let your well to do keep coming to the U.S. to receive adequate health care...while it lasts.