End of the Summer, beginning of a new one?

It's August and the NDMA motocross season is a wrap! The season came to a premature end, compared to years past, but it may be a good thing.

It hasn't been that often that I could go into the first week of school without busting my ass to get ready for the last few rounds of the series, while trying to get settled into school. Lets face it: Starting classes each year is a hassle, and no matter what grade you'll be heading into, there are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up as you get rolling into the new semester.

On the flip side, I find myself wondering what some of the dedicated NDMA points chasers are going to do now that they've either; wrapped up the title in their class, or fell just short of they summer-long goal. There are numerous races else-where in our area but once you get into the habbit of exclusively racing the NDMA series, making the jaunt to another race run by a foreign governing body can be a daunting idea. This is why I always encourage people to try going for a series championship, but then spread their schedule out to do as many different races as possible. It loosens you up as a rider and when you do go somewhere else-ie: a Loretta Lynn qualifier, Ponca or Millville-you don't ride like a complete goon becaues you're too tense from the new environment. You know how to ride your dirt bike, so do it.

As the end-of-the summer doldrums set in, it's also very hard to motivate yourself, as a rider, when you're heading to the same track that you've seen numerous times already that season. Hopefully for next year, the NDMA series can pick up a few new-or old-quality tracks that not only will help to keep the racing fresh, but will help to further advance the North Dakota racing scene as a whole.

So, if you've caught the underlying drift of the latter part of this blog, then you already know what I'm thinking. But, I'll say it to make things clear. North Dakota needs to re-unify the racers, racetracks and promoters under one racing series, the NDMA, for the betterment of the sport. The folks at MonDak had a noble idea when starting their own series that would keep things closer to home for them but, with continuous reports of very low race attendance, and some very negative reviews on track preparation-as well as the loss of one of their most coveted courses-I believe it's time to get us all under one roof once again. Bringing the two organizations back together would not only increase race attendance and overall event quality, but would also show who the true champions of the area are, rather than giving a championship a 'regional series' feel.

That's the thought for now, and there is a long list of concerns and details that would be brought up in a discussion about this topic, but the initial step is joining all of the races in the state under the state's premier motocross racing organization.