its crazy to think back on how far this Hooligan thing ended up going in our industry. From not being wanted at the local tracks to million view live streams at X games. We ( Rusty Butcher, SMCO, Speed Merchant & some other awesome companies/friends ) started out this whole thing with a few dudes who just wanted to take a not so smart bike onto the flat tracks. Back then it wasn't the most popular idea to show up to the tracks and a bunch of tattooed idiots would invade the pits to crash and spill oil all over the track. We had the wrong tires, bars, suspension, bike.... literally everything. Shit I even put on trials knobbies one time and ate shit bad because the knobs were too soft, haha. A while after this happened eventually some of the real flat trackers took us under their wings and show us the ropes so we would piss less people off at the track learning. This all started around 2015 and my first race I personally did was a Harley night at OC Speedway around that time. It was a short race for me as I got the hole shot to high side in the first corner to a broken collar bone. haha
The Hooligan movement at the time was "Run what you brung" class as we didn't get dubbed "Hooligan" til later in the year at our first race series that popped up in Del Mar, CA. By the time this series rolled around we dialed in our bikes more and started to get the hang of things. The day I put on real flat track tires and used a hot shoe ( metal slipper on your left foot used to slide into corners) I was pretty dominate of the series. That first year for Del Mar I won everything and ended up the #1 plate for "run what you brung" and "Hooligan". Unfortunately for me the next year people started to get the hang of it and I started getting my ass kicked, haha. Looking back at that Del Mar series we had the best time. The pits were like a giant drunk family that was having a great time.
Over the years we have had tons of "team" members under RB Racing. I would always invite my buddies out to build bikes and tag along in the fun... Sometimes not so much fun that would end them coming to the tracks with us like the photo on the right. Hooligan racing aint for the weak that's for damn sure!
Above is a photo of the last race at Del Mar for us. Tensions were high a few years deep into the hooligan movement as everyone wanted to show their skills and win. This was the main event and my front wheel got taken out and it started a 6-7 bike pile up. The race was called after this since so many of us got hurt. haha I think I walked away with a fractured wrist after get slammed like a rag doll and ran over. This I believe was the end of that race series but didn't slow down the Hooligan movement but was only the start.
I will keep updating these Hooligan History emails more and more to give you all an insight on how this whole thing started.