Reconnecting with old racing friends on the line!

It was a slow year for racing for me in 2016, but life itself had a lot more in store than usual! I did some limited racing this year, welcomed my second baby, a girl, into the world, watched my boy master some new skills (and new words), and expanded my business. Next year, I’m looking to do a lot more racing! Here’s a recap of 2016.

Firstly, thank you to my great sponsors who have stuck with me over the years! Some of which I have been partnered with for more than 10. I rely heavily on their products to get me to the finish safely, and for many, I have developed a lot of friendships. I guess I’m just lucky to be in a sport where I can meet people and those meetings evolved into friendships that cross states, borders, and time zones. My sponsors, including my wife, have helped make my career something to be proud of, and for that I am forever thankful. I have loved representing the best over the years! Read More

My first thoughts upon receiving my Klim F4 helmet was “Wow! I love this flat black!” The new styling was great and fit and comfort has never been better. Then, I got the red and white Klim F4 helmet to match the red, white, and blue XC gear, which is new from Klim. Two words: Blown away. The F4 not only looks awesome, it’s light. Super light. Feather light. Almost nothing on your head light. The interior is plush as well. I thought my black helmet couldn’t get any better, but the ECE version of the F4 is on another level of comfort. Read More

The Dick Jagow Memorial GP is held every September in honor of Dick Jagow. The event is put on by the Mt. Scott MC club out of Portland, Oregon. Being one of only a few times quads are allowed in Washougal, and one of only 2 times the off-road course will get used there, I made some last minute plans to do this race. Washougal’s MX is legendary, but the off-road is often overlooked. It features tight and technical sections of trees, and some wide open parts in the lower fields. Overall, the XC here is a great time, albeit a little dusty. The GP combines a large off road section with the MX, offering the best of both worlds. Read More

Stoked on this new Klim gear! I’ll have a couple reviews on it soon!

The QXNW season wrapped up on September 6 and 7 at Washougal MX in Washington. Washougal is an iconic track for the Northwest and the rest of the nation. It features some killer elevation changes, beautiful scenery, and sections that are fun and challenging. Washougal is a favorite among riders and a personal favorite of mine. In fact, it is where I first raced the Pro class on my 250R at a WORCS in 2002. The racing this year  has been really great for Quadcross Northwest and Washougal is the perfect place to cap off the season.  While I struggled a little over the weekend, I had a great time and decent finishes both days. I can’t complain. I would say it was successful weekend of racing!

Saturday: We had a mishap requiring us to get to the track late – Saturday morning. All season I have been racing my desert pre-runner. With help from Ed Teixeira, I put some spacers on the rear shock to make it more moto friendly. His a-arms work in any environment and I have complete faith in them, so that wasn’t an issue during the year. My Fox shocks are easily adjustable for a variety of conditions, but the rear sprung Fox I have on this bike has a ton of up-travel for soaking up the rough desert. The spacers worked, but it’s not an ideal set-up! I had my MX bike 90% together and ready for the weekend when I encountered an electrical problem. Without enough time to troubleshoot it, I serviced my desert bike and took off the MX shock. Saturday morning we arrived at the track and the first thing I needed to do was swap the rear shock before practice. I parked, unloaded, and with help from Troy Oestreich, swapped my rear shock in record time and put on a new K&N filter. I went out for practice to get a feel for the track, which sometimes suffers from over-watering when it comes to quad weekends and then ends up dusty by the end of the day. Read More

If you’ve never tried a set of Powermadd handguards I recommend that you do. I’ve used them for years because of their great coverage, great accessories, and great features, plus they look good on every machine. That’s a combination that is tough if not impossible to beat.

Lots of colors to choose.

My setup has pretty typically been a set of Powermadd Star series handguards with the wrap around kit. The wrap around kit helps ensure that your handguards are in place no matter what happens or what hits them. A useful addition to any type of riding, even though they are designed for XC in the woods. Additionally, Powermadd has some great color combos on their Star series. I’ve usually had a set of black/blue or black/orange handguards because my current bikes and longest running color scheme has been orange and blue. They do have black and white, red and white, Suzuki Yellow, Honda red, etc. You have plenty of options to choose from to match your current bike. Read More

Into the pits…

WORCS made it back to Washington this year and I knew I wanted to go. For one, I made a lot of friends when I traveled the series and quite a few of them still travel with the series. Friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time because they live far away and I am no longer racing that series. I wanted to meet up with those people and catch up, which I did. For two, the desert might have my heart, but XC racing is where I got my start. I raced WORCS full time from 2003-2008 and part time in 09 and actually raced my first WORCS race in 02 . The people I mentioned in my first point are practically family! Of course I was going to go play in the trees!

With the birth of my son and all the work I’ve had this year, I haven’t been riding as much as I used to be able to, so when I got to Straddleline, I knew I’d opt for the A class and try to qualify for ProAm. These days, WORCS has a condensed schedule because the bikes and quads are combined, so the Production A and Open A run together (with about 5 other classes). I chose Open A, which was the second line to leave.

I had a great start on one of the bigger lines and took off into the motocross track. It was essentially the same track I had ridden the weekend before, but my desert bike is no match for a bike built for WORCS or for kids half my age who are riding all the time, and I was down a few riders going into the off-road section. I ended up clipping a rock toward the end of the off-road and broke a wheel. I limped my bike through the scoring chute, all around the motocross track, and into the pits where I swapped the tire and wheel with help from Troy Oestriech who was pitting for me and his son, Trevor. I took back off into the woods and did my best to gain back some positions. I finished 10th in my class.  Read More

It’s July! Middle of the summer, but getting closer to the end of racing season, unfortunately. There’s still plenty left on our schedule, though.

Firstly, I’d like to announce that my wife and I had our first baby, a boy, on June 3rd! His name is Loic (rhymes with heroic) and he’s been the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. He’s now 7 weeks old and it’s awesome to see how much he’s changing and learning. He made his first appearance at the race track this weekend and did awesome. My wife and I are looking forward to the day we get to see him on a quad. Right now we’re just enjoying how he is small and new.

7 weeks old.

Like this, Dad.

Welcome Loic!

He’s a natural.

My beautiful family.

Speaking of racing, I made it back to Quadcross Northwest’s round at Straddleline in Olympia, WA. Straddleline has a beautiful location and a great event facility. The motocross track is medium sized and changes every so often to provide different levels of challenge to racers. Nothing is too huge though, making it a great track for beginner MXers to learn the ropes and get comfortable. It made for some excellent racing!

Dan Dehut and I battling during the second moto.

On Saturday I went out for practice, but had a few jetting and suspension issues. I made some adjustments for my second practice (thanks Eric Mott for your help and loaner parts), but didn’t entirely fix the problems. I pulled myself out of the ProAm race at that point. I’m not in the points for that class, it was going to be close to a full gate, and I don’t need to be in the way by not clearing the jumps I needed to because I wasn’t confident in my bike. I felt like a wimp for not running two classes, but it did afford me some extra time to help some other people at the track. If I got the bike dialed to where I was comfortable on it, I could enter the Pro Am race on Sunday. Read More

Last weekend was the opening round of Quadcross Northwest at my “home track” of Horn Rapids in Richland, Washington. I’ve never been much of a motocross guy and practiced it more out of necessity to race WORCS. When I switched to desert racing, I pretty much said good riddance to that whole flying through the air thing. I never felt particularly good at MX, and was much happier flying through the dust and desert at high speeds! A couple years ago, at the inaugural year of Quadcross Northwest, I took it up again for most of the local season while still racing in Mexico. In part to support the new series, which was a great thing for Northwest quad racers, and also in part to support a fellow racer who I believed had a great chance at winning the series. I raced the Pro class, but on an old bike. With 20s. And desert suspension. We’ll say it was fun, but it sure wasn’t pretty!

And as you might know, I took all of 2013 off from riding and racing, got married, started the baby manufacturing process (Baby Brown is due in early June!), and spent a lot of time on my mountain bike riding with my wife. My first time back on a quad for training was February, just a week before my first race back (see that report here). The first round of Quadcross was cancelled in March due to weather conditions, and fast forward to April, here we are at the opener for the MX season. There I was, still on a desert bike (my MX bike is still getting some extra attention), still on desert suspension, not ridden much at all in the last few years, nor ridden any MX in several years. BUT, I at least had some MX tires this time around, so I wasn’t completely going in like a goon. I have to give a big thanks to Ed Teixeira at Teixeira Tech also. I called him to talk about some parts for my MX bike, and he was also able to help me turn my desert setup into something more MX friendly. Ed is super knowledgeable about all things suspension and I have loved riding with his parts since I started using them years ago. The Teixeira components work great for desert, XC, MX – you name it. Read More

The first round of the local MX series was cancelled , which was a bummer, except for the fact that the track was essentially flooded. I’ve raced plenty of mud races, and this was promising to be more of a lake race. A very dirty one at that. So the first round will actually take place a lot closer to home at the end of this month which gives me some extra time to get everything together. We have been so loaded at work that race prep has been challenging!
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It has been over a year since I’ve raced. Being completely overwhelmed at work, getting married, then finding out we’re expecting a baby, and still being completely overwhelmed at work made it nearly impossible to race last year. Combine that with some circumstances outside my control and it made for a tough 2013! I spent a lot of time mountain biking with my wife when I could, but it just isn’t the same! So, needless to say, I felt so much better on Sunday finally being able to get to pound out some laps on some rough terrain at the Eastern Washington Dirt Riders’ Spring Hare Scramble.

I am very grateful to my longtime sponsors and a few new ones that have offered support this year! It made getting back into racing much easier for me. This winter I took my motor to Arlan Lehrman of LED Performance for a tune-up. Arlan was my longtime motor guy when I was racing WORCS. He does an incredible job on everything from vintage motorcycles to ATVs. He has been building motors since the early days of ATV racing and if you spend just a few minutes talking to him you’ll know more than you ever wanted to about the intricacies, art and science of getting power out of a motor! He’s part of the reason I never had a DNF the entire time I raced WORCS (from 2003-2008). When I got the motor back I was confident in it and upon firing it up and riding it around the yard a little I was not disappointed. I use Wiseco pistons, HMF exhaust, Sunstar sprockets, K&N Filters and a Rekluse EXP Core manual clutch to get the power out as well. I have always had great results with this products and Rekluse has some new MX clutches coming out this year that will amaze you. Read More

We’re gearing up and getting organized for the 2014 season and received some “inclement” weather, for which we knew how to handle – get out the quad and pop wheelies in it! It doesn’t snow much here in the winter, and it certainly doesn’t snow much in February when it does. It was a nice treat for the weekend. We snapped a few photos while out “clearing” the yard, check them out.

Look for announcements soon regarding our sponsors for the year. After taking some time off last year we are looking forward to getting back into the swing of things!

A few weeks ago after getting my moto back from Arlan at LED.

Maxxis makes the best tires for all conditions – even deep snow!

You have to pop wheelies…everywhere.

Mowed the lawn a little too.

The 27th annual San Felipe 250 took place Saturday, March 9th with more entries from various countries in this year than the last few years. The combined team of Quad75Dezert and Los Chakas battled in 4th all day long, but finished the day in 5th after some confusion near the finish. After the stressful pre-race preparations, the team was less than happy with 5th but content with a finish without penalties and is now looking towards the Baja 500 in June.

Riders Juan Sanchez, Angel Sanchez, Jenaro Ibarra, Santos Perez and Brandon Brown were to compete in this year’s 250, however just before he was supposed to leave Brandon was in a training accident that left him with two broken ribs and other injuries. Then, while pre-running, Santos Perez encountered a chase truck coming backwards on the course. In his attempt to avoid the oncoming vehicle Santos crashed and broke his collarbone, just days before the race. It was a rocky start to 2013, but the team did not give up and replacement rider Julio Gomez was able to step in, however without enough time for pre-running. Read More

Baja is never without trials and tribulations, and this year’s season was no exception for the Quad75Dezert team. The pinnacle of challenges came just 5 days before the team’s scheduled departure when the race bike suffered a catastrophic failure while testing and 4/5ths of the team decided they didn’t want to race the 45th Anniversary Baja 1000, leaving their contention for the championship all but lost completely. 3 days before the race was to begin, Brandon Brown teamed up with Felipe Velez and the Colin’s Motorsports Team and left for Mexico, intending to see the season through, finish what his team started, and hopefully come out on top of the Pro Quad Class even if the odds were against it.

Going into the final race of the SCORE season, the top 3 teams including that of Quad75Dezert needed to win to cement their championship. If any of the three teams won, they would secure it, making the race more high stakes than usual. The 45th anniversary race started in Ensenada and the course traveled 1200 miles to La Paz. Baja has it’s own set of challenges, and point-to-point races add on additional challenges even when everything else is perfect. The race is unpredictable and you can’t prepare for every possible scenario. The team had drawn 1st off the line, with the 2a number plate and at approximately 6:30am November 15th 2a left the line with Colin’s Carlos Castaneda on board. He would hand the bike off to Damacio Maduena and eventually the bike would get to Felipe Velez who took part of the rough San Felipe section. Felipe came into El Crucero 4 minutes behind the 1a bike, but said the steering stem had an issue. After taking off the TCS Skidplate and seeing a secure nut and a cotter pin, Brandon told Felipe to run it and he’d see him at Vizcaino where Brandon would get on the bike. Felipe took off 8 minutes behind the leaders and handed the bike to Eric Marquez who took it into Vizcaino, approximately 500 miles into the race. Read More

Quad75Dezert is leaving the Northwest and heading South for the Best in the Desert’s General Tire Vegas to Reno Race. The 530 mile race takes place on Friday the 17th and will conclude that day in Reno. Normally riders Jorie Williams and Brandon Brown would be taking the Q10 race bike from Beatty, NV to the finish, however this year’s race has applied a lot of changes to the program, some of them very last-minute.

The original plan was to have three teams under the Quad75Dezert banner. Jorie Williams and Brandon Brown on one bike, Kenny Sanford and Jamie Kirkpatrick on a second bike, and Sean and Mary McHugh on a third bike. Sean and Mary have been helping the Quad75Dezert racers in Mexico with parts from their TCS Motorsports company as well as coming down to pit and chase for the team. This year, the husband and wife duo decided to take on a challenge of their own – get in shape and race the Vegas to Reno. Their plan seems to be the only one unchanged. A misunderstanding has left a shipment of much needed parts nowhere to be found for two of the race bikes, and currently Jorie Williams is out with an infection, resulting in needing his wisdom teeth removed just days before the race. The McHughs are nervous, but ready. “It’s still not quite feeling real yet,” Mary McHugh said via phone, “We are going to be in Vegas on Friday, the race is going to start, and we are going to see what we can do!”

Some photos from last year’s  (2011) Vegas to Reno race. Read More

While the team is busy preparing for the Vegas to Reno in August, they have partnered with a new sponsor, Ryno Power. Ryno Power is a supplements company founded by motocross legend Ryan Hughes and developed through extensive testing with several types of athletes from tri-athetes to rally car drivers to motocrossers. With several very impressive names under the Ryno Power tent we are happy to be a part of the team and incorporate the Ryno Power supplements into our work outs and daily life.

“We were never unhappy with our other provider. We learned a lot and owe a lot of our current conditioning to that company, but they have switched their focus and we needed to align ourselves with a company that was familiar with our sport and Ryno Power was the first one that came to mind,” Brandon Brown explained via his home in Oregon, ” I have been a Ryan Hughes fan for a long time and I was really happy to see him competing at Hangtown this year. I admire his story and identify with his determination to succeed. Our program is based on wanting to win and we put forth a huge effort on and off the quad to do so. I’ve only heard great things about Ryno Power and it was the obvious first and only choice for us to pursue. We are very excited about this new opportunity and the products Ryno Power offers.”

The team’s next venture is the Vegas to Reno August 16th, where they will have 3 entries into the Pro class there. In the meantime they will be competing at Quadcross NW’s 5th round in Olympia, Washington. Click the Ryno Power logo to visit their site.