THE BONDO REPORT By Bobby Bonds

Note from the Editor:

Bobby Bonds is one of us. The man is a true underdog, having won a WORCS championship, followed by a year of injuries and bike dilemmas, and then having to buy machines just to compete again. His goals this year are vast, but the bottom line is that he wants to race, to produce and to win. His off-season was spent training and his weight is identical to when he rode 125s in Supercross for Pro Circuit (down 25 pounds from last year, almost triple that from 4 or 5 years ago!). Bobby is going to be blogging in his status, with reports from the races that he is attending. Here’s round one, with a few pics that I took during some testing at Piru, and at the WORCS opener in Arizona.

Tom Webb

Off-season. This off-season was one of the most stressful ones I’ve ever had to deal with. With the way this industry is right now, it’s extremely tough to end up with a good ride, and like many others I was left without one. I thought I had some things lined up, but every few weeks the next thing feel through. I soon found out, if I were going to ride at all, I would have to do it completely on my own as a full on privateer. I lined up some very good sponsors, and just went for it. Without a big manufacture backing me, I am pretty much relying on my results to make my family money, which is more stress than anyone needs.

I took a step back and really thought about my racing, and I decided the day after my wedding, I was going on another diet and I was going to train my butt off and get myself in the best shape I had ever been in. The last few years, I have trained hard as well, but was still a bigger guy, and still heard people talking about my size a lot. I was also talking with my dad about the possibility of me riding some Supercross’ this year, and I knew if I was going to do any of those, I needed to trim up. So, I busted my fanny (this was edited) for three straight months, and dropped almost another 30 lbs. I was really happy with my off-season training, knowing I was coming into the 2010 season the best shape I’ve been in since I’ve turned pro, if not ever. As far as I bike goes, everything came together much later then I was hoping, I didn’t even get my suspension until 8 hours before I left for the race! So it was a scramble, but my mechanic does a great job and everything came together as best it could.

Saturday: We had to do a timed qualifier for the first time in WORCS, and it was a little weird to say the least. I hadn’t even had the chance to break in my bike, (reason stated above) so I was riding my bike for the 1st time in practice, trying to take it easy and make sure everything was good. I only got one lap in (of the qualifying part), and ended up 7th, which considering I wasn’t pushing it, I was pleased with.

Sunday: The race started, and I got a really good jump, but Mike Brown was to my left and he got a little better jump then got sideways and came over on me, so I had no where to go. I don’t really know where I ended up off the start, a typical ‘Bondo’ start somewhere around 10-15th place. Ricky Dietrich was right in front of me after the first few corners and we were making a lot of quick passes on the first lap, we were coming out of the sand wash and we both were going for the same line, I don’t really know what happened but somehow I ran into the back of him and I fell over. So much for all the passes we had just made. So here I am, I got a bad start and then proceeded to fall and ended up at the very back of the pack. I got going quickly and caught made a lot of passes before we finished the first lap. I think someone said I ended the first lap in 15th place. Now, I know I’m pretty far back; I have to make up a bunch of time, without crashing again, and without wasting all my energy. I was going a pretty good job and by the 3rd lap I had already made it to 5th place. I was happy with my riding, and still felt great. Then, this is where I get sad, I was trying to close in on 4th and 3rd place and my bike starts cutting out. Its only 40 minutes into the race, but it feels like I’m running out of gas. Not possible. My bike dies and everyone I had just worked so hard to pass blows right on by me. I was in fact OUT OF GAS! I had a nice mile long bike pushing session to get back to the pits. By the time I got back there and got gas I had been lapped and was completely out of the race. I still went back out there and finished the race, hoping I might get a couple of points. But I ended up 23rd place. uhhhhhhhh.

Thoughts: I can’t even explain how bummed I am about the out come of this race. I did nothing but train, ride for 3 straight months and I was ready to show everyone I meant business this year. I know I was riding well, I know I’m in good shape but it still kills me to start off the season like this. I just gave everyone a huge head start on the year. There is nothing left to do this year, but win races and try to put myself back in the hunt. I really wish that round 2 were tomorrow, but it is what it is. I guess the reason why I ran out of gas soon early was doing to some efi mapping being off, so we gotta get that all straightened out. Taylor Roberts ended up winning this weekend, and I’m pumped for him and the Valli team.

Next few weeks. Well, I ended up letting my dad talk me into trying to ride some Supercross again. I am going to ride San Diego this upcoming weekend. And here is the funny thing; I haven’t gotten the chance to even ride a Supercross track yet! As with everything else, nothing came together as expected, and I didn’t get my suspension until a few days ago, and with the WORCS race being this weekend, I never got the chance to ride with it. So, I’m going to ride SX everyday this week and then go race. I’ve been saying I’m on the Jason Lawrence plan, minus the jail time. It has been 7 years to the exact race since I raced any Supercross and I’m really looking forward to it. Of course I wish I had more time to get prepared, but I gotta roll with what I got. As far as expectations, I really have no clue where I’m going to fit in; it’s been so long since I rode SX. I really am just going in with an open mind, and see how everything plays out.

It’s been a rough start to the season, but things can’t get any worse. I am really looking forward to riding some SX in the next couple of weeks, then getting some vengeance at the next week race @ Primm, Nevada. I really have to thank all my sponsors, things looked rough coming into this year, but I have a lot of people helping me out. Maxxis, NTS, R&D racing, AXO, Fasst Co, Scott, Arai, Topar, GPR, MTA, Untied, Primary Drive/Tusk, SSB, FMF, DTI trucking, JR Publications Kal-guard, Decal Works, Pollisport, CCR, my entire Family and I really like to thank Tom Webb, Mike Farmer and Dave Simon.