Pastrana, the '02 season
By Malcolm McCassy
Apr. 01, 2002
 
This story is about a kid who redefines heart. There is no ass-kissing going on here, just straight facts. I guarantee these words are the same ones that anyone would use if they had the pleasure to travel around with this kid. I'm going to breakdown only the last three months, and trust me it is going to be hard not to write a book.

Travis at the Daytona SX.

"He's out of shape, he's playing to much, he's not focused, he should be training and not jumping in Canyons". Those are just a couple of opinions said about Pastrana coming into the opening round of Supercross. Not only did Travis prove them wrong, but also he accomplished a couple of amazing things while having fun. Let's start with getting certified for sky-diving, flipping at 80mph off a ramp into the Grand Canyon on his RM, and racing a million dollar Subaru rally car in Europe. And what do you know, he showed up for the opening round of SX in the best shape of his life, and hauling Jennifer Lopez (which is lots of a#%*s). So the season starts out with nothing but heart, endurance, and mad skills.

If not for a front wheel blowout, which wasn't Trav's fault, the podium would have looked much taller, about 6'2". Before the opening TP hoped to hang with the best athletes in the World, but somehow at just eighteen he's ready to race with them. It weird to listen to people say how he wasn't a threat, and out of shape from playing. All of this as he casually blew past riders without even breaking a sweat. The lineup of racers I can easily say is the all around greatest bunch of athletes to ask for in any industry. We are lucky to have such a great sport that is still small enough where they are all pretty much friends, and get along great. Where I am going with this is to show that the strength mentally it takes to keep these friendships up when bar banging accurs with 20 riders on the line with the same goal. Travis has experienced a few incidents this year in the highly competitive 250 class, and that has gotten people talking about his control.

Ramsey, and Larocco are the two encounters with Pastrana that seem to stand out the most. To start out, Travis has had nothing but compliments and respenct for these two riders. At the same time Travis, Ramsey and Laracco all live for a good race, and all try cleanly as possible to be the first rider past the checkered flag. These aren't old ladies in walkers racing with plenty of time to keep from bumping, but more herds of Cheetahs attacking each corner fighting for the same meal. Actually the speed and aggression of these Cheetahs come from a #4 piece of red meat that keeps giving them something to hunt for.

Travis isn't riding out of control; the sport is just at such a technical and aggressive level that the riders are more prone to unintentional bar banging.

I hear more about James Stewert riding out of control than I hear about beans giving you gas. At 16 I can't even believe how talented this kid is. Viewer can have their own opinion about James but I have watched Stewert pull off lines, corners, and passes that might seem unsafe because we haven't seen skills like this on a track until now. People need to learn to accept that the next generation is here, and instead of fighting the system be grateful that Motocross has remarkable athletes like Pastrana, Stewert, Reed, and Langston to help it grow.

I've got to talk about the Atlanta Supercross because I have never witnessed so much heart and devotion to Motocross in my life. Travis arrived to Atlanta looking like the guy from the movie "POWDER", white as a ghost. I understood why he came, knowing that he had rested all week, and praying that he would feel better by the weekend. Healthy or not, he had a smile Friday as he walked the track. After setting the fastest lap times, the fatigue caught up so he packed up and headed back to the hotel to rest. Saturday came and he still wasn't up to par, but when the odds are against TP he always seems to raise the level. He went out for his heat and astonished everyone who knew how sick he was by setting the fastest lap time. I had a pit bike so I was the first back to the pits, sadly to see the happiest kid in the world throwing up uncontrollably. His mom came to take care of her boy, putting the still determined kid to sleep until the 250 main. The gate dropped and Travis looked like a new man, hunting down RC until lap five came up, and I mean literally "CAME UP". It started getting to a point where the sickness hovered like a rain cloud week after week affecting his ability to give it 100%. Determined to be healthy for the infamous Daytona, TP went to the doctor, and rested two weeks until the race. Testing with DeCoster in Florida a couple of days before the event had both Roger and Travis confident to have Daytona be the win they have been waiting for. Things couldn't have gone better in qualifying with TP winning his heat race like a true champion. We kept him super hydrated until the main, but Travis seemed to question himself on endurance making it for the whole twenty laps. Ten laps into the main it would get worse then Atlanta, TP blacked out from still lingering flu still in his system. Why did it even get to this level, how come he wasn't pulled out before it got this out of hand? Doctors just kept giving Trav medication and treating his sickness as the flu. When you're eighteen, train, and travel as much as he does, the doctors said it wasn't uncommon being around so many sick people all the time. Well the doctors were wrong; it turns out that Travis has been sick for the past three years with Chronic Sinus Itis. Basically his nasal passage has been clogged, giving him severe migraine headaches, which made him more vulnerable to sickness. Also like many teens Trav needs to get his tonsils taken out to prevent him from getting all these sore throats.

I will now breakdown the outcome of this entire story I just put you to sleep with. Travis is getting his nose and tonsils fixed so he won't have to worry about getting sick as much. It is scary to picture this but TP will finally witness actually what it feels like to be 100%. He will probably be so strong he will be able to do a couple more back-flips into the Grand Canyon. Now that Trav made it into "TEEN PEOPLE" and Britney Spears is single they can go on a date.

Although is seem like Travis has already achieved everything, I guarantee this is just the beginning.

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