Vurbwes Chilidog
A young Justin Barcia blasted by on a Honda 85cc, my Sony PD-170 following him through the corner, and I remember it was a really, really hot day in Cairo, GA. Summertime in the Southeast is always blistering hot so it’s not like that’s a bold recollection, but the impending phone call I was about to receive would quite literally change my life forever. As I felt the Nokia 3310 buzz in my pocket, I wiped the sweat away, praying it was going to be my high school sweetheart begging me to take her back – and I am fully serious I remember that. Not sure if there was caller ID on the phone back then, but I would assume so, and I was disappointed to see it wasn’t her dying to hear my voice. I’d been at MTF ignoring her the entire week while I was shooting an amateur motocross movie called The Prospects. I was about to be a big time dirtbike movie producer, it was unfathomable how she wasn’t blowing up my phone every five minutes for an attempt at reconciliation?!
Turns out it was my good friend, DMXS co-host and Bremen MX front man, Kevin Kelly, and he was calling with a bold idea.
“Wes, I was talking with Jason Weigandt over at Racer X. We should shoot a show at Loretta’s and turn it around same day, just like SportsCenter. You and Crutchfield shoot and edit, Jason and I will do the calls and voiceover.”
Perhaps not verbatim, but it was something to that effect. As I looked over at Colleen Millsaps telling Martin Davalos and Freddy Karrle to wick it up a notch, I emphatically told Kevin yes to the idea, despite having absolutely no idea how we would actually pull it off. As a lot of vurbmoto OG’s know, we say yes first, figure out how to do it later. I reckon that ideology started that hot ass July day in 2005.
Internet at The Ranch is still basically non-existent, can you imagine 2005? YouTube was just being pitched to VCs in Silicon Valley, Mini DV tapes and bulky windows computers were the only options for production. How in the hell were we going to pull this off and where do you even put video files for a 15-minute show?
All this and more on the next installment of MX Sports Center… We’re bringing it back!
Above: The very first edition of MX Sports Center ever. It seems like something so basic and normal for today’s standards, but 15 years ago this feat was ground-breaking. Throughout this week, we’ll weigh in on the first year of this legendary show, and hype up that we’re going to do it a few times next week as well!
