Rennie Scaysbrook | October 27, 2016
Time to get your slide on with some of the most bitchin’ little bikes on the planet. Welcome to Mad Dog racing, Texas style.
There’s something about little bikes that gets grown men all excited in the pants. These bikes remind us of the wonders of being a kid, of giving zero crap about anything other than riding. Then we go and chuck a big-bore kit at them. And shit gets real.
Big boys, little bikes. It gets pretty tight in turn one at a Mad Dog race!
Welcome to the wondrous, often insane world of Mad Dog flat-track racing. This is pure racing on small bikes where technique and skill reigns even more supreme than it does in other forms of motorcycle sport.
A grown man weighing over 220 pounds has, for the most part, no business riding a TT-R125 designed for an 11-year-old kid. But that’s the great thing about this sport. There’s no age limits, no license—all that’s required is to be committed to sending it as hard as you can with eight other lunatics that think they’re all of a sudden transported back to the era of teenage abandon. And then you drink beer and see who can tell the biggest lies at the end. Sounds like fun, right?
To read this in Cycle News Digital Edition, click HERE
Photography by William Markus and Rennie Scaysbrook
Mad Dog racing doesn’t owe its existence in this country to Colin Edwards and the Texas Tornado Boot Camp, located in Montgomery, Texas, but they’re certainly the ones pushing it the hardest right now. Colin and the crew even host the unofficial one-off national championship, dubbed the Steven Bodak Classic in memory of the late Boot Camp instructor.
There’s a bike from nearly every manufacturer you can race in the Mad Dog class.
“The flat-track scene around here was pretty dead for a long time,” says the Camp’s lead instructor, Joe Prussiano. “We run a Dirt Wars race on our own camp bikes that run unmodified engines, but once we started to look at the Mad Dog class where you can heavily modify the engines, it grew really, really fast. Then we had to come up with a basic set of rules, otherwise things would probably get out of control quick.”
Taylor Myers throws it down during the heat races.
Mad Dog racing requires your given motorcycle to have started life as a 156cc or less, the number chosen because the Honda CRF150F comes out as 156cc stock, making it the upper class limit. The engine must be a two-valve, air-cooled, four-stroke, and you can then go and build the engine up to a modified class limit of 175cc via a range of aftermarket parts, many of them made in China and Indonesia.
The closest race of the night had Edwards (5) pipping Prussiano (42) on the line by a whisker.
“Colin’s [Edwards] been getting right behind the concept of late,” says Prussiano. “I built him a 171cc motor based off a TT-R125, which was the second of that type I’d made, he signed up for a race and, basically, he found the vein! He’s in the process of building a second bike right now—he’s hooked.”
The best thing about the class is you can spend as much or as little money as you like and enter a race with a competitive package. Craigslist is your best friend here.
“You can get crazy and spend a bunch of money of you want to, but you can keep a lot of that cash in your pocket and still have a fast bike,” says Prussiano. “If you picked up a 2003-05 kick-start Honda CRF150F model, you can fit a ready-made 175cc kit that requires little to no fabrication, fit up a Bridgestone Trail Wing tire on the stock rear rim, and you’ve got yourself a competitive racer. It’s that easy.”
(Left) Colin’s youngest, Hayes, has the style and speed to burn. (Right) Two ways of doing it: Prussiano (42) bolt upright while Edwards (5) sends it sideways.
Alternatively, if you’ve got the idea of building a bike on the brain, Mad Dog racing is almost the perfect fit.
“To me, that’s the best part about the class, the building of an engine and bike yourself,” says Prussiano. “I like to tinker in the garage, come up with different frame and motor combinations. It’s easy to have a competitive bike that you have a bit pride in because you built it.”
But then you have try and beat Colin Edwards. And that’s far easier said than done.
MotoAmerica RC Cup hotshot Josh Serne took out the Amateur class.
Steven Bodak Mad Dog National
It’s a tragedy of life that the 2016 Mad Dog National needed to have Steven Bodak’s name attached to it. The Texas Tornado Boot Camp junior instructor, the man responsible for guiding young children into their motorcycling lives—many for the first time—passed away earlier this year following an incident with a car while cycling.
As such, this year’s National doubled as a fundraising event for the Bodak family, and to say it was a success would be an understatement. Over $12,000 was raised via the 420 paying spectators and competitor entry fees, a sum that will no doubt help a family whose father had helped so many in his all-too-brief time on this planet.
It’s serious racing, but all in the name of a good time.
This year’s event had a whopping $5000 prize money on the line across all the classes—that’s right, $5000. Not bad for dirt-tracking minibikes! The circuit was a mix of tight switchbacks and fourth-gear sweepers that changed in traction constantly as the temperature dropped later in the night and more bikes carved out every line possible.
With two heat races and a final per class, the action was absolutely furious. To no one’s surprise, Colin Edwards walked away with the Pro-class victory in the main event, Josh Serne took out the Amateur 175 class; Hayes Edwards dominated the Mad Pup category; Joe Prussiano pipped Colin Edwards in the Over 35 category; Cody Kitchens won the Mad Pup 12 and Under class and Brandon Beal took out the Amateur 156 class.
Kyle Martin hoists it over the line for the win in the Amateur class.
For us at Cycle News, we managed to sneak a heat-race win in the Young Dog class (34 and Under class) on our Kawasaki KLX140 but blew it in the final, finishing second to Taylor Myers but edging ahead of Colin’s young son, Hayes. Had Hayes been on a bike as fast as the one we were riding, we have no doubt the little whippet would have smoked us and at least got second!
In the overall Pro category, we ended up seventh after carding 8-7 finishes in the two-race format and even took home $350 for our troubles! We’ll be back again for next year’s Mad Dog National; you can bet on that!CN
The Bikes
(Left) Kawasaki KLX140 Big-bore 170cc kit fitted. Also runs shortened Yamaha YZ80 upside down forks, 26mm D-Slide Chinese carb, ported big-valve cylinder head. (Right) Honda XR100/Yamaha TT-R chassis Takegawa 136cc big bore kit includes cam, carb, piston, rings. Frame modification done in house by Prussiano.
(Left) Honda CRF150 175cc BBR kit includes cam, piston, rings, Kehin carb. Many parts sourced locally at Parts Unlimited. (Right) Honda CRF150 171cc kit sourced from China. Includes piston, rings, cam and some cylinder machining done locally in Texas.
Come for a lap on board with Colin Edwards:
To read this in Cycle News Digital Edition, click HERE
