SATURDAY AT THE GLEN MOTOCROSS: BLAKE BAGGETT VS JOSH MOSIMAN

PHOTOS BY DEBBI TAMIETTI, JON ORTNER & BOB PRITCHARD

Who has the best style? Blake versus Braeker?

Everyone was thrilled when Blake Baggett showed up at Glen Helen to make his first race appearance since walking away from the sport four years ago. What brought Blake back—not so surprisingly, Blake’s son, Braeker Baggett, has been racing the Pee-Wee class at Glen Helen and that reignited Blake’s love of motocross. Blake had only ridden three times in preparation for his “Saturday at the Glen” debut, but showed  his classic style to it’s fullest—especially on Glen Helen’s long downhill. It might have been a fairy-tale plot line for Blake, but “Saturday’s” local pro talent knows every inch of the big layout and two Pro’s gave Blake a run for the money.

Blake had the holeshot coming out of the Talladega first turn, but Josh Mosiman (56) knew the hot line going into the 180-degree turn at the bottom of the Shoei Hill climb and took the lead. Blake took it back on the Mt. Saint Helen downhill and Josh took it back a couple of laps later at the tree turn.

In the first moto Blake grabbed the holeshot on his Husqvarna FC450, but MXA’s Josh Mosiman passed him almost immediately. Blake retaliated by going supersonic on Glen Helen’s 22-story Mt.  Saint Helen downhill to blow by Josh just as they hit the bottom. From that point on, it was all-out war with Mosiman probing Baggett’s line choices in every corner.  Josh finally railed the tree turn down by the scoring tower to squeeze by on the exit. Baggett regained the lead when Mosiman glanced off of a lapper and went down on the climb up Shoei Hill. Blake rocketed by Mosiman and must have let out a sigh of relief, but he wasn’t going to get any rest of Todd Sibel, who had been hanging with Blake and Josh, suddenly put the pressure on Blake. They battled their way through traffic, both unaware that Josh Mosiman had been reeling them in as they played cat-and-mouse. And just like that, Josh Mosiman wen by both of them in another sweeping corner to take the lead and the first moto win.

Because of all the rain this winter, Glen Helen has more sand than ever. It’s not really sand, the rain erodes the decomposed granite hillsides and washes the broken rock down to the track.

The second moto played out with the same scenario, but Josh Mosiman’s full-time job at MXA means he spends a couple days a week testing bikes at Glen Helen. Blake was also a Glen Helen diehard during his AMA Pro  racing career and it won’t take him long to relearn the nuances of the layout. Mosiman went 1-1, Baggett 2-2 and Sibell 3-3. It was, in a pleasant way, a very memorable race for all three of the front runners as Blake returned to the sport, Josh got to race against one of the heroes of the sport and Todd proved he could hold his own.

Jon Ortner (N1R) leads the pack out of Talladega. Jon is just ahead of Robert Reisinger (96).

The high of the 450 Pro race suddenly turned to concern for a fellow rider in the Over-60 Experts. Robert Reisinger, who was a Kawasaki test rider in the 1980s, a helicopter pilot, owned his own mountain bike company (Mountain Cycles San Andreas), developed one of the first disc brake systems for mountain bikes and, for the last ten years, has been the engineer on the 6D helmet project.

Robert was in second place chasing multi-time World Vet Champion Pete Murray and being chased by Indian Dunes star Jon Ortner. On the fourth lap of their first moto, Robert swept over the Log Cabin turn to enter the fast start straight heading back to the Talladega first turn. The momentum of coming over the Log Cabin, which goes up and over the dual spectator tunnels, carries the bike and rider into a big arc that leads them eventually into the steeply banked Talladega turn. Robert was using the far outside to maximize his speed when he noticed a lapper coming into view also on the far left. In anticipation of the lapper being in his way, Robert moved farther to his left, actually putting his wheels in the loose dirt next to the banking. The lapper heard Reisinger and Ortner coming and moved to his right to get out of the way. But it was too late for Robert, his wheels wallowed in the deep berm and he swapped violently to his right, back on to the track surface, where the chassis swapped to the left and again to the right, eventually high-siding Robert into the ground at approximately 50 mph.

Richard Hurtado (100) is a 29-year veteran of the Fire Department, and most of it spent as a paramedic. He took over in Robert’s time of need.

It was a bad crash and as Robert lay on the track he was gasping for breath. The force of the crash had jammed his helmet upwards so tight that the strap was choking him. The medics and people on the scene cut the strap, but Robert was still in distress and had stopped breathing. In one of those stories you read about on the internet, out of the crowd, came Richard Hurtado, who had started in the second wave of the same race and pulled over when he came around to the accident scene. Richard was a 29-year fire department veteran paramedic. He took control, dispersed the crowd and went to work on Robert and didn’t stop until the he got a heart beat and breathing from Robert. When the fire department medics showed up with better equipment, they took over from Richard. We all hope that someone as good as Richard Hurtado is there when we crash.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Robert and his family.

As for Robert, he did fracture C2 and will most likely have surgery today. Our prayers go out to his family and friends, which includes everyone who races with him at Glen Helen, as he faces a long recovery .

Hawaiian Brian Medeiros (934) is prepping for the Pala AMA 250 National on May 25. He won the 250 Pro class and was fourth in the 450 class on his RM-Z250.

What follows are  Debbi Tamietti’s, Jon Ortner’s and Bob Pritchard’s photos of all the action from “Saturday at the Glen.”

Josh Fout (left) and Logan Fout (right) camped out on Friday night to race “Saturday at the Glen” and then camped out Saturday night to race Sunday’s SRA Grand Prix. Unfortunately, it rained so hard on Saturday night that the SRA Grand Prix was canceled.

Josh Mosiman and Ashley Mosiman.

Sean Gall (left), Jody Weisel (center) and Stephan Gall (right). Stephan was the five-time Australian National Motocross Champion (1977, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983) and four-time “Mr. Motocross” Champion (1978, 1980, 1981 and 1982). Stephan made a special trip to Glen Helen on Saturday to hang out with Jody just like back in the good old Saddleback days. Stephan’s son Sean (left) runs Stephan’s company in Australia.

Aussie Dan Alamangos (192) was thrilled to see Stephan Gall at Glen Helen. The five Alamangos brothers were maniacs on bikes and most of them emigrated from Australia to the USA to race. They idolized Stephan Gall the way American’s loved Jeremy McGrath.

Shawn Bushnell (58) won the Over-40 Expert class on MXA’s 2024-1/2 GasGas MC450F Factory Edition.

Ron Lawson was 4th in the Over-65 Expert class and 7th in the Over-60 Experts on a 2024 Beta RX450.

Collin Todd (27) swept both motos of the 85cc Beginner and 125 Beginner classes.

Pete Murray typically races the Over-50 Experts and the Over-60 Experts every week. This past Saturday he won the Over-60 Expert class with a 1-1 over Jon Ortner (2-2), Ron Shuler (5-3) and Pete Anagnos (6-4). The remainder of the Over-60 Experts elected not to race the second moto after the first race was red-flagged for the Reisinger crash.

Chuck Peterson (157) practices his wheelies on his way to a 3-3 day in the Over-60 Novices.

Bob Rutten (83) drives down from New Harmony, Utah, every other week to race the Over-65 Expert class against Val Tamietti (31). Bob almost always leads for most of the motos, but Val has the knack of running Bob down late in the motos.

Marshall Tomei (11) finished behind Jacob McCoy (1-1) and Dillan Alantara (2-2) for third in the 450 Intermediate class.

Pasha Afshar (L7) never races a four-stroke. He puts all his faith into his KTM 150SX two-strokes.

2024 “SATURDAY AT THE GLEN” RACE SCHEDULE

If you are looking for a racing organization that offers long motos, low cost and very consistent race schedule—this is it. “Saturday at the Glen” motocross will race again on May 11. Pre-entry is only $30 ($25 for minis). Post entry is $40 ($30 for minis) on the day of the race. The Gate fee is $10 (per person). You can sign up for the next “Saturday at the Glen” motocross as late as the Friday before the next race (or just show up in person on race day). For more info go to www.glenhelen.com

2024 SATURDAY AT THE GLEN MOTOCROSS (UPDATED)
Jan. 13…National track
Jan. 20…Arroyo track
Feb. 3…Arroyo track
Feb. 24…Arroyo track
Mar. 16…National track
Mar. 23…Arroyo track
Apr. 13…Arroyo track
May 4…National track
May 11…National track
June 1…Arroyo track
June 15…Arroyo track
Jul. 6…National track
Jul. 20…National track
Aug. 3…Arroyo track
Aug. 24…National track
Sept.14…Arroyo track
Oct. 5…National track
Oct. 19…Arroyo track
Oct. 26…Arroyo track
Nov. 16…National track
Nov. 23…National track
Dec. 7…Arroyo track
Dec. 21…National track