They say that sometimes life throws you a curve and how you take that path less traveled will speak volumes of you as a person.  Well, I am back writing these articles again because Joe traveled down that road that many don’t get down very often and eventually came out of the detour.

The last time I wrote Joe was down and out on himself and how the sport had played out in front of him over the past few years.  Joe turned pro in 1995 so this is his 14th year of racing at the Supercross and Motocross level.  He has traveled to every city, every airport and every track that has been on the schedule for the last 14 years all the while barely missing an event due to injury.  That was until 2005 when Joe has his best year in his profession.  He made almost every main event in SX and started out MX with a 12th at Hangtown.  A couple rounds later he would break his hand, have surgery and come back just 3 weeks later.  His comeback didn’t last long…one race…he broke his neck. 

Joe sat out the first time in his career for an entire season of MX and the following year of SX.  Let’s just say that he wasn’t happy and I was anxious to see him get out of the house!  I can still remember laying in the chair next to him that night he broke his neck in the hospital thinking of all the years that I have seen him throw his leg over the bike.  I have known Joe since we were about 5 years old.  My thoughts went straight to wondering how Joe was going to ride again and IF he would ever be able to.  Racing is Joe…it’s in his blood and always will be.  In fact, when he turned 30 a couple years ago I joked with him saying how he was getting old.  He turned and looked at me with a serious face and said, “Are you kidding?  That’s a whole other class for me to race in now!”  Only racers think this way!

Luckily, Joe was able to get back on the bike after his bad break and finish out what was left of his career.  He was given a second shot at what he loves, and now he has been given another.

Joe said he was ready to give up racing after Anaheim 3 when his bike blew up and he couldn’t catch a break.  For the first time, Joe didn’t know what to do.  He was burnt out doing his racing on his own and fighting to get good starts and finishes on bone stock motors and hand me downs.  After his huge success in 2005, this was a slap in the face.  He couldn’t find support anywhere other than product.  Which by the way is a huge thing, but he needed the bikes and money to get him to the races.

In all his 14 years of racing his income has been based on finishes.  Yes, that’s right…never in all Joe’s years of racing professionally has he ever received a salary.  How Joe finishes is how much he makes that week…that’s it.  Pretty rare to hear of a professional in their sport that can’t make a living at his job right?

Once again, we won the lottery.  We won the lottery the first time when Joe was able to get up and walk away from his neck injury.  This time, he received support from Yamaha and his other faithful sponsors that would see to it that he got to race again.  We spent the last 2 months putting together his deal with the Wonder Warthog group, Answer and Pro Taper and the rest of the key players.  Joe’s first race back was this past weekend in Minneapolis.

He received his Yamaha’s February 28th and went straight to Pro Circuit from Yamaha to get his suspension dialed in.  We got home and he spent the whole evening putting together the other bike just so he could ride that next day.  Since Anaheim 3, he hadn’t ridden because he didn’t have a bike.  With our new addition to the family, he had been busy helping change diapers, so riding was a much better deal for him hence wasting no time putting that bike together!

He shipped his bike back to Minnesota through a mutual friend the week before last so that it could get to the race on time and ready to go.  He arrived in Minneapolis early afternoon and spent the next few hours getting it ready to go racing the next day.  His practice times were a little shaky, but going into his heat race he was just a couple seconds off.  Joe ended up 13th in the first heat and was able to come from 12th to 7th in the LCQ. 

When I spoke to him after the races were over, he was busy writing up all the paperwork for his equipment to get to Toronto in a couple of weeks.  He sounded a little stressed with all that other stuff going on so our conversation was pretty short.  He basically felt comfortable but needed to find those seconds he was losing.  He wasn’t happy but he wasn’t pissed which is a long way from where things were a couple months ago.  Now, Joe knows where he is and can start piecing together where he needs and should be at in the SX class.

For those of you that say you enjoy reading my articles – I truly appreciate it.  I do it to show the “other” side of the sport that you don’t get to see.  If you ever see me at the track – whether it be SX, MX or my track CEMX – please don’t be afraid to say hi. 

Thanks for reading and I am happy to say that I will see you again in a couple of weeks!