Covering all the bases...

Burn's Night – that's January 25 to us Sassenachs – has always carried a little more significance in the Lawless household than simply being the anniversary of Robbie Burns' birth and, therefore, the cue for a widespread slaughter of haggis.

 

A full 178 years to the day that baby Rabbie first emerged kicking and screaming into this world, my dear old dad also made his debut. That was all the way back in 1937 which means Bill – as he's much better known in off-road circles – turned 75 this time around.

 

Given his preferred lifestyle for much of those 75-years it's a testament to his ox-like constitution that he's still going strong and continuing to confound medical science. He stopped smoking over 20-years-ago but his daily consumption of Famous Grouse, love of buttery sauces and abhorrence of all forms of physical exercise still laugh in the face of General Medical Council guidelines.

 

As well as being a collector of cholesterol and an enthusiastic sampler of Scotch, my old man is also a life-long motorcyclist, hardcore petrol-head and a lover of most things literary. These last three qualities came in pretty useful back in 1977 when he was given the job of launching a new publication called Trials and Motocross News.

 

I was still a snotty-nosed kid when we relocated from a seaside town in the North East to a seaside town in the North West in May of that year and within a couple of months T+MX was going great guns while I was enjoying slightly less success on my first bike, a bright red Italjet JC5B. Let's not mince words – I was crap – but the seed was sown and last year it was my turn to do the fatherly thing and let my daughter loose on something with two wheels and an engine.

 

I'd love to say my daughter Hazel was a natural, but like her father and his father before that I suspect that it's going to be a steep learning curve if she's going to attain even a half-decent level of skill on an off-road bike.

 

While I'd like to think my dad's literary gene has passed through me into Hazel, I'd be kidding myself if I claimed that any sort of natural dirt riding prowess existed in the Lawless family.

 

I'm not totally convinced if it's a case of nature or nurture – or maybe a bit of both – but a riding gene really does seem to exist.

 

Right from the word go my fledgling trials talents were always completely over-shadowed by the skills of one Julian Ingham, whose dad was a top centre rider in the 1960s and trials, motocross and enduro all boast famous families.

 

There's the legendary Lampkin clan for starters – dad and lad both world trials champions – and then there's the likes of Jem and Kristian Whatley, Vic and Mark Eastwood, Harry and Stefan Everts, Elliott and Mark (and John) Banks (Browne). 

 

Obviously, that list just scratches the surface – there are many more dirt dynasties at international, national and even regional level.

 

That's not to say a family theme is essential – there are plenty of first generation aces about – but it's certainly a big help, most probably from a genetic standpoint and most definitely when it comes to passing on the mindset needed to win.

 

nHow many readers have taken to stumbling to bed at an unearthly hour on a Sunday morning with eyes like a lab rat having stayed up to watch AMA SX being streamed live on the worldwide web? 

 

After years of being promised "...the most exciting season ever,” only to yawn as one dominant rider or another cleaned up, the sport seems to be hitting its stride and charging head-long into a new golden age where there's no shortage of genuine title contenders to choose from.

 

The 2011 series was epic indoors and this year the big guns are picking up where they left off in Vegas last May.

 

Defending champ Ryan Villopoto won the opener, then former champ Ryan Dungey struck at round two to take KTM's first-ever 450cc Main Event win. And then another former champ, Chad Reed, made it three different winners from the first three rounds.

 

We once ran an interview with ‘Speedy Reedy' in DBR where the Aussie talked about cultivating a winner's mindset and how his desire to win had, at times, made him pretty hard work to be around.

 

At one point in his career after he'd had – and then lost – success Stateside he was in a pretty bad place. Overweight and unpopular, it looked like the writing was on the wall.

 

Since then Chad's shown time and time again the ability to dig deep, to bounce back from adversity, to never surrender.

 

In 2009 he shocked everyone by winning the AMA outdoor title, last year he came within a few points of regaining the SX title and what about the way he got back on his bike and re-entered the race after his huge crash at Millville?

 

So when it comes to AMA SX I've got both feet firmly in the Thunder from Down Under's camp – well, at least until Dean Wilson and Max Anstie graduate to 450cc machines indoors.