Big Dan might need one as he lost his the wind gods.
Amatuer 2019 mint 400 to include bikes
- Thread starter snowflake
- Start date
K, so I was going to type this up last night when I got home, but even just the first couple sentences were so messed up I went to bed instead lol.
Way back when I first moved to ABQ there was a discussion in the office about rather or not dudes had safe words, being my goofy self I piped up and said I do, mines panda. Since then, its more or less become yet another nickname for me lol. (You know who you are)
Then it was announced that the bikes would be back at the mint this year, without even really thinking about it I said I'm gonna do it, didn't bother looking for team mates, I was going to iron man it from day one. I didn't have any idea how much it was going to ultimately cost, or even if I was in good enough shape to do such a thing, so I went to work, on top of my 60 hour work week I started spending 1-2 hours in the gym every night after work, I'm sure theres people out there who out work me, but at any rate, I stepped it up pretty majorly, and there wasn't a day where I didn't go to bed totally exhausted.
A few other things happened, Red Rock Motorsports stepped up and paid for my entry fee, AJ Tires stepped up and wrote me a check for sponsorship, High Desert Cycles paid for my most expensive tracker rental, Rev Designs created a set of custom graphics (if you go slow you might as well look fast) Chris Whelchel donated a ton of yz parts, the list goes on and on. T-shirts were made, team panda became a thing (for now anyway) and people came from nowhere to do my pits and work other ways to get support for me (theres a couple of really cool ones in there that may come to light here in a bit
)
and Team Panda became a great big hell yeah among a small group of people, theres even a t-shirt headed to scotland if you can believe that.
The day I was suppoused to leave I was up at 5 a.m, headed to my storage unit to grab my boots and head to gallup to put some finishing touches on my bike, my gate code wouldn't work, so I waited till 9 when they were supposed to open, dude didn't show up till 9:30, I grabbed my stuff in a hurry and headed for gallup, I was planning on being enroute to vegas by 12, but due to unfinished bike and storage unit delays I left gallup at 6 p.m, arrived at buffalo bills at 12 a.m. Went through tech/contingency, was one of the last at the meet and greet, and the off road part on freemont street was beyond badass, it was a lot of fun talking to people who raced other vehicles, other motorcycle bros, both familiar and unfamiliar.
Race day came, my pit crew arrived at 5 in the morning, we rolled out a rough plan, sent timmy to pit 2, dan to main pit, knowing they'd be able to take care of anything within reason, not much was required.
The start of the race was a blast, really nice bermed corners with no consequence jumps, they advertised this as single track, but by my standards it wasn't single track, it was an extremely fast course and the recent rain made the dirt/sand absolutely perfect, still, early on in lap 1 I was riding very tight, overly cautious, then I looked behind me and someone I have a lot of respect for was right on me, and something clicked in my head that I could take it up a few notches, and I did, I lost them by the time I hit Tim's pit on loop 1, and I started riding more like what I feel like I'm capable of, at one point on loop 2 I came up on this downhill (road) with a uphill leading into a hard right hand, I never let off the throttle despite being at about 50-60 mph, airborne off the downhill, slammed into the uphill and landing at the start of the corner and tokyo drifing the bike around the outside without even having a notion of how bad all that could have ended, loop 2 was a lot of passing, those who were doing this race as a team were swaping riders, and I'd have to deal with dudes who were fresher and fresher despite the fact that I had the entire 240 miles to myself. On loop 2, I reeling in another racer when I heard this weird noise and this media helo came swooping down and ran along side us for a bit and I was like damnnnnnnnn its just like dust to glory all over again, I ran into pit 2 loop 2, drank a gatorade while tim refueled the bike, took off, and within 10 miles of the end of the loop, I notice the handlebars were woobling in ways they shouldn't, one of the bar clamp bolts was coming out, scared of having the bars separate from the bike, I toned it way down, limped it to dan, where we'd try and correct the issue, we thought we had it, but before I could even get out of the pits the wobble was back, but I didn't come out here to quit, I took off for loop 3, and about 10 miles in, the bar clamp bolt came totally separated from the clamp, I did my best to limp it, thinking I just have to get to tim and he'll know what to do, it was extremely sketchy, if i had a hard turn it wasn't happening, I'd ride a bit past the corner, get off, swing the rear tire around and take off again, I did this for about 50 miles but when I got to tim, I was cut off time wise, a tough pill to swallow, as I limped up the pits to the truck people took a look at the bike and it was all the same, how the hell did you ride that thing? I don't know, I just did, I just refused to quit, people can doubt the story, but me and my pit crew and those who saw first hand know its true, I did ride a bike with no handlebars for 50 miles. Best piece of advice I was ever given is theres always a way, don't get emotional, examine the cards you're dealt and think unconventionally. They still scored me as 13th though.
I am still stoked on the entire thing, I had the speed, I had the bike dialed, I just didn't have the luck, I met some awesome people, a whole bunch of which think panda is badass (many drinks were bought saturday night for me as I told this story lol) next year, the mint will be my bitch. And if I can afford it, I'll be at v2r, as I am in love with best in the desert racing now, hands down the most fun race course, and event I've ever been too, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported and made it possible for me to be there.So yeah, I'm bummed on the dnf, but I'm stoked on the fact that I had the speed, and I had the endurance, I mean, we didn't have a ramp and after 7 hours of race speed I was helping tim lift my 250 lb motorcycle into the back of his truck, and going over the texts between my pit crew it was a matter of 7 hours in, he's still hauling ass and showing no signs of letting up, so yes, I'm stoked.
and now i have a burning desire to solo vegas to reno
Way back when I first moved to ABQ there was a discussion in the office about rather or not dudes had safe words, being my goofy self I piped up and said I do, mines panda. Since then, its more or less become yet another nickname for me lol. (You know who you are)
Then it was announced that the bikes would be back at the mint this year, without even really thinking about it I said I'm gonna do it, didn't bother looking for team mates, I was going to iron man it from day one. I didn't have any idea how much it was going to ultimately cost, or even if I was in good enough shape to do such a thing, so I went to work, on top of my 60 hour work week I started spending 1-2 hours in the gym every night after work, I'm sure theres people out there who out work me, but at any rate, I stepped it up pretty majorly, and there wasn't a day where I didn't go to bed totally exhausted.
A few other things happened, Red Rock Motorsports stepped up and paid for my entry fee, AJ Tires stepped up and wrote me a check for sponsorship, High Desert Cycles paid for my most expensive tracker rental, Rev Designs created a set of custom graphics (if you go slow you might as well look fast) Chris Whelchel donated a ton of yz parts, the list goes on and on. T-shirts were made, team panda became a thing (for now anyway) and people came from nowhere to do my pits and work other ways to get support for me (theres a couple of really cool ones in there that may come to light here in a bit
)and Team Panda became a great big hell yeah among a small group of people, theres even a t-shirt headed to scotland if you can believe that.
The day I was suppoused to leave I was up at 5 a.m, headed to my storage unit to grab my boots and head to gallup to put some finishing touches on my bike, my gate code wouldn't work, so I waited till 9 when they were supposed to open, dude didn't show up till 9:30, I grabbed my stuff in a hurry and headed for gallup, I was planning on being enroute to vegas by 12, but due to unfinished bike and storage unit delays I left gallup at 6 p.m, arrived at buffalo bills at 12 a.m. Went through tech/contingency, was one of the last at the meet and greet, and the off road part on freemont street was beyond badass, it was a lot of fun talking to people who raced other vehicles, other motorcycle bros, both familiar and unfamiliar.
Race day came, my pit crew arrived at 5 in the morning, we rolled out a rough plan, sent timmy to pit 2, dan to main pit, knowing they'd be able to take care of anything within reason, not much was required.
The start of the race was a blast, really nice bermed corners with no consequence jumps, they advertised this as single track, but by my standards it wasn't single track, it was an extremely fast course and the recent rain made the dirt/sand absolutely perfect, still, early on in lap 1 I was riding very tight, overly cautious, then I looked behind me and someone I have a lot of respect for was right on me, and something clicked in my head that I could take it up a few notches, and I did, I lost them by the time I hit Tim's pit on loop 1, and I started riding more like what I feel like I'm capable of, at one point on loop 2 I came up on this downhill (road) with a uphill leading into a hard right hand, I never let off the throttle despite being at about 50-60 mph, airborne off the downhill, slammed into the uphill and landing at the start of the corner and tokyo drifing the bike around the outside without even having a notion of how bad all that could have ended, loop 2 was a lot of passing, those who were doing this race as a team were swaping riders, and I'd have to deal with dudes who were fresher and fresher despite the fact that I had the entire 240 miles to myself. On loop 2, I reeling in another racer when I heard this weird noise and this media helo came swooping down and ran along side us for a bit and I was like damnnnnnnnn its just like dust to glory all over again, I ran into pit 2 loop 2, drank a gatorade while tim refueled the bike, took off, and within 10 miles of the end of the loop, I notice the handlebars were woobling in ways they shouldn't, one of the bar clamp bolts was coming out, scared of having the bars separate from the bike, I toned it way down, limped it to dan, where we'd try and correct the issue, we thought we had it, but before I could even get out of the pits the wobble was back, but I didn't come out here to quit, I took off for loop 3, and about 10 miles in, the bar clamp bolt came totally separated from the clamp, I did my best to limp it, thinking I just have to get to tim and he'll know what to do, it was extremely sketchy, if i had a hard turn it wasn't happening, I'd ride a bit past the corner, get off, swing the rear tire around and take off again, I did this for about 50 miles but when I got to tim, I was cut off time wise, a tough pill to swallow, as I limped up the pits to the truck people took a look at the bike and it was all the same, how the hell did you ride that thing? I don't know, I just did, I just refused to quit, people can doubt the story, but me and my pit crew and those who saw first hand know its true, I did ride a bike with no handlebars for 50 miles. Best piece of advice I was ever given is theres always a way, don't get emotional, examine the cards you're dealt and think unconventionally. They still scored me as 13th though.
I am still stoked on the entire thing, I had the speed, I had the bike dialed, I just didn't have the luck, I met some awesome people, a whole bunch of which think panda is badass (many drinks were bought saturday night for me as I told this story lol) next year, the mint will be my bitch. And if I can afford it, I'll be at v2r, as I am in love with best in the desert racing now, hands down the most fun race course, and event I've ever been too, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported and made it possible for me to be there.So yeah, I'm bummed on the dnf, but I'm stoked on the fact that I had the speed, and I had the endurance, I mean, we didn't have a ramp and after 7 hours of race speed I was helping tim lift my 250 lb motorcycle into the back of his truck, and going over the texts between my pit crew it was a matter of 7 hours in, he's still hauling ass and showing no signs of letting up, so yes, I'm stoked.
and now i have a burning desire to solo vegas to reno
Go team Panda 
Good report to read Sean and I'm sure there's not one of us who doubt any of it,
Already looking forward to the panda livery on the bus
For next year
Good report to read Sean and I'm sure there's not one of us who doubt any of it,Already looking forward to the panda livery on the bus
For next yearI busted my ass for this in ways that most people wouldn't, my favorite part of the whole ordeal was when I got the text in the am that I had beaten several open expert (teams with 2-3 riders!) running solo, my physical condition is at the best its ever been, despite the set back I feel fast, capable, and ready for more.
Team Panda definitely has a fan up here, it was pretty exiting following everything from here, makes me want to make the trip. But congratulations Sean, sounds like your making a name for yourself in the racing world.
Yup same here too! Go get em kid! 
https://themint400.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Mint-400-Group-A-Overall.pdf
18 Brody Goff Las Vegas, NV O48 IM E 1 KTM 3 05:54:11.126
67 Sean Newton Albuquerque, NM O44 IM E 13 YAM 3 07:04:20.000
Considering what you dealt with for a whole lap of 78 miles, still can't believe what I saw when you pulled in(and then wanted to keep going), being only 70 minutes off of first, is very impressive.
18 Brody Goff Las Vegas, NV O48 IM E 1 KTM 3 05:54:11.126
67 Sean Newton Albuquerque, NM O44 IM E 13 YAM 3 07:04:20.000
Considering what you dealt with for a whole lap of 78 miles, still can't believe what I saw when you pulled in(and then wanted to keep going), being only 70 minutes off of first, is very impressive.