A1 Trip | Story of the Day #1

A1 Trip | Story of the Day #1

By Billy Rainford

Thursday was my first full day out on the west coast in California for Anaheim 1. I’m staying at Viney Ranch with the Viney family, originally from Ottawa, Ontario. I’d like to thank them for making me feel at home here in Murrieta.

We were supposed to be hanging out with the Partzilla/PRMX team here at Viney Ranch but they have decided to wait until Friday to maybe come by. This morning, Noah Viney was busy shooting a video interview for BTO Sports, one of Noah’s main sponsors. I went out back to take a few behind-the-scenes shots and generally make a pain in the butt of myself while they tried to get some real work done. I do what I can…

With the news that I wouldn’t be seeing Julien Perrier and his riders today I decided to hit a few Supercross practice tracks to see who was putting the finishing touches on their SX prep.

The way they’re all located, Ulf Viney told me the order that made the most sense would be to hit State Fair MX Park in Perris first, then Lake Elsinore, and finally Fox Raceway down in Pala. It sounded good and made sense to me, so after filling up on coffee, off I went.

Perris is about 30 minutes away, so I plugged it into the old Google Maps and headed north on I-215 in their Honda Ridgeline.

I’ll tell you more stories from my time at the track, but the point of this article is the ‘Story of the Day,’ so let me move on to that now.

Among other people, #120 Todd Bannister was there putting in laps on his Kawasaki. He had just mounted his new suspension so he wanted to break it in before hitting A1 in the 250 West class.

I met Todd a few years ago out here in California and actually did a video interview with him at the same time. He’s a true privateer if ever there was one! His story is an inspirational one on its own.

Anyway, after saying hello to him at the side of the track, I snapped a few photos and shot some video before everyone took a break. I decided to wander into the pits and say hello to a few people.

When I made it over to Todd’s pit, we got to chatting and talking about how things have been going with him living in his Dodge Sprinter van for the series. Classic.

Anyway, I mentioned that #150 Jess Pettis wasn’t going to be racing the 250 West class after all and his story started at this point.

He said he remembered being at Milestone riding Supercross a couple years back and parking beside this young rider on a KTM. He said the rider actually approached him and started a conversation.

They spoke for quite some time about their riding and what they were doing at Milestone that day. Todd, of course, meets lots of people in his privateer travels so this was just another one along his journey at this point.

Next, Jess started to get dressed to hit the track, and that’s when it hit Todd. Jess pulled out a shiny Red Bull helmet and Todd thought to himself, “Now that’s a nice flex! Who is this guy?!“

Here was this Red Bull athlete taking the time to strike up a conversation with him and talk about the most down-to-earth topics. He said he couldn’t believe someone of that calibre was still so nice and willing to talk to him that casually. He made it sound like that just didn’t really happen with the usual top riders he crosses paths with down here.

I simply looked at him and said, “Um, he’s Canadian.”

I just thought that was a story I wanted to tell. It says a lot about what kind of person Jess is and it also lets you know just how nice a guy Todd is, too.

Be sure to cheer for the #120 out there in the 250 class at A1. He’s a good guy who leaves it all on the track and still does it in full privateer style.