Rupert X Ruport: Put Me In Coach, I’m Ready To Play, Today 4

Opening Day. I’m sure all the motocross riders in Florida and California, and all the other fair-weather areas of the world, care not that much of the northern states experienced one of the most brutal and lengthy winters of our merry lives. But yeah, it sucked. So, therefore, Opening Day at our local tracks across the Midwest and Northeast, this year in particular, were Big Ass dealios. Heck, just last week in Ohio, mid-April and we’re still getting these goofy snow showers and swarms of arctic bugs or what-not… Moto People in these here parts are usually going bat **** crazy with not being able to ride by December. But this year it was well into April before we could successfully navigate around an earthen circuit. So yeah, when the scheduled races are run and the practice tracks announce the gates are in welcoming position, we get stupid giddy and locate our boots.

Just a few days after my local track, Briarcliff Motocross Park, held their gala opening day (with probably 200+ smiling riders on hand), I approached the promoter, a Mr. Jeremy Osborn, to see what the dealio is and, to see if he could tell us about some huge upcoming events at his noteworthy facility.

(That's Briarcliff's owner/promoter, Jeremy Osborn on the right.)

Jeremy, what does Opening Day mean to you, personally, as the owner of a motocross track – especially with this ridiculously long winter?

It is very important.  It sets the tone for the season.  Also, I look forward to a good opening day each year, because it wipes away the winter blues and brings optimism about the year ahead.

Give us a brief history of Briarcliff MX Park, how it came to be, how long you’ve been in operation, etc?

I created Briarcliff to be my own private practice track, but more and more people began helping us out with it.  It just kinda grew and turned into place that begged to be open to the public.  That was back in 2005.  We started with literally nothing but an orange-handled shovel and ideas.  Now nearly ten years later we still run a lot of practice and seem to be getting some bigger better events at our facility.

Speaking of bigger/better…we understand you have some huge events on your calendar this year, one with TV coverage and everything? Tell us more.

In addition to our two yearly motocross events; Moto Revolution and the Battle for Ohio State Championships, we are on board to hold an Area Qualifier for Loretta Lynn’s AMA Amateur National Motocross on May 17-18th, and we are promoting the Built Ford Tough ATV National -presented by Mountain Dew.  That will be televised on MAVTV on July 19th at noon.

What are some of your future plans for Briarcliff MX Park?

I’m taking it year by year. We plan to keep improving the place to accommodate bigger events.  More parking, utilities (water, electric, showers, etc.), and buildings. Hopefully in a few years we will have grown into a regional facility.

I know that most of your races are sanctioned by the O.M.A. What is the O.M.A. all about?

The Ohio Motocross Association was created by Jason Rogers (Malvern MX) and I to help better promote motocross racing in Ohio. The AMA Districts were slowly going away here, and the Club model of motocross promotion had a great deal of turmoil and in-fighting.  We simply wanted to cut out all the BS, and get back to racing. The OMA is the next generation of motocross promotion.  We are teaming up with the AMA on a few events this year to try a limited partnership for the Battle for Ohio State Championship Series, which has two Pro-Am rounds and will be the biggest races in Ohio this year.  In our first season, 2013, we had over eighteen hundred members, and roughly eight hundred people at our awards banquet.  I think it will grow and become bigger this year.  2014 looks to be a very good year.

What are some of the misconceptions riders have about motocross promoters – and what’s the craziest rider or parent experience you’ve dealt with?

The biggest misconception is that it costs very little to run a track.  If you prep well, it costs more than most people make in a year, to run a track for six to seven months…if not more, depending on loans, debt, retirement, new projects, etc. The second misconception is that you must ride all the time. Um, no. I have ridden my track twice through the week, if we aren’t open, in the last two years.  It’s pretty rare to have time to ride through the week between equipment upkeep, fixing stuff, and promoting upcoming events. It’s a second full-time job.

Craziest parent? I really don’t want to go there.  I could name names, and they know who they are, but I think I would rather tell you the craziest request I ever received. So, this guy rides up on his YZ426, yellow and black edition, possibly a 450, I don’t know. …. Jeans, flannel shirt, and sunglasses.  He proceeds to tell me that he has an issue where if wears a helmet, it causes him to, “Black out.” He wanted to know if it was “cool” if he rode without a helmet today.  After I told him, “NO!,” he proceeded to get pissed off and do a fourth gear sprint back up the drive to where he had parked.

GNARLY! – Rupert X