If we back the truck up just a little bit, let's think bigger picture on some of this stuff. First, Loretta Lynn's has room for 42 riders on the gate in any class, which by all accounts is less than 1 per state in the USA. Add a few Canadians, a few other places (Like Ernesto Fonseca, or Martin Davalos, or whoever is the hot rich foreign prospect that can afford to come here and race) and you have less than 1 rider per state available on the line. And of course you have strong MX states that have a lot of really good riders which take away from other states, but let's stay on track here. Basically you have to be the best in your entire state to have a chance to make it, meaning that locally, you are killing it, and no one is happy when you show up because you are going to win. When you get to that level, you start looking for other places to race, so you have someone to race with. It's a vicious circle of the fastest getting faster, and the others falling behind. The best thing is to ride with someone that pushes you and has the speed to be a Loretta Lynn's type rider, and if we can get more of those home grown riders like that, more will be from Ohio. But the MX Compounds, home schooled kids are taking that away from the local riding buddies that push each other to the limit all the time like when Knox was a kid. The original Pitracer Posse was a group of Vets that rode and raced together in order to qualify for Loretta Lynn's each year. We practiced together, timed our practice motos for long motos to be ready for Loretta Lynn's 20 minute scorchers, and pushed each other hard in order to get better and qualify each year. We went to the same races together (outside of Ohio because of the need for faster competition) and pushed each other all the time. At the races, we cheered each other on, helped work on each other's bikes, and were our own little compound of Ohio guys racing together and trying to make it at Loretta Lynns. It was great fun, lots of riding and racing, and we all got better and pushed each other. We made it fun too, since we were all Vet Ages from 25 - 40 something, we made it fun by riding the +25 class together and having the DQ challenge in our group. We raced the first moto, split into teams with fastest and slowest paired up, and added total second moto scores for the champion of the day. Losers bought DQ for the winners on the way home. And you didn't want to lose due to the ribbing that you took from the other team for the next week about the DQ that you won.
Pushing each other like that is what Knox wants, but it's hard to come by. Everyone has to be on the same page and willing to go along and ride together, help each other, and get to be better racers. We did this for a few years and some of the stories we have are the best memories from riding that I have. I went from an OK CRA racer when we started hanging out, to a regular qualifier for Loretta Lynn's on a yearly basis after a few years of hanging with this group of friends. My riding / racing improved drastically over the mid to late 90's and this was done with the help of my riding buddies that were all from greater Cleveland area. We spent those years at first getting our butts kicked over in D-5 in Western PA, and improving our riding to where the PA boys were bummed when we all showed up at their races because that meant the there was going to be a battle in the Vet Classes. The kids need parents that will help each other out and not just be all about themselves only, and work on getting to the best racing possible from the Ohio racers.
