Louis Milone's Take on the King's Cup

Jan. 20, 2011

Kings Cup 2010, from the eyes of a Crew Chief..


I have not come up for air since returning, and there is so much I want to share with the community, but I genuinely cannot find the time. Here I am at 10pm, I have not fallen asleep yet, so I am going to do a 1/2 way crumby job at giving some insight to the trip.

Team Jettribe USA / Team Mean Racing, believe it or not had not even made the commitment to attend Kings Cup until Sunday (race day) in Lake Havasu.  This was for a lot of reasons, 1 being that our Turbo GTI was just not running right, and 2 our RXPX limited had dropped a valve in practice, and we rebuilt it on a picnic table with mostly used parts. It just did not seem right to send this pile of stuff 1/2 way around the world. On top of that, we had no other commitments for the 40 foot container ride over, and the financial burden was just more than our small group could handle. 

We wanted to go badly…Ok that's obvious, and if you know Jeremy, Christine, Chelsea, or Derek, you know just how badly...Well the Rxpx was now running great, it finished every moto, and the health check on the motor led me (the only mechanic in the group) to give it a thumbs up.. The GTI was another story.  It was just not making power. It came down to Saturday night at about 11pm when we found the major part of the problem, and anyone who was anywhere near the race site at that time... yes, that was us that did the full power pass in the dark.. Of course now we had back tracked so many other things, the setup was horrible, but we had no time to dial it in… We simply raced it on Sunday (Pro Runabout Open) the conditions got rough, and Jeremy hung on passed a lot of boats and got into the top 10, and we made the decision that with a little bit of time we could finish it… That time would have to come in Bangkok... holy cow?!?

Ok, we made the commitment with Tony Vo, owner of Jettribe… (by the way in my opinion Tony is the most supportive and enthusiastic individual involved in our sport right now). We still really didn’t have the funding all in place, but we were in Lake Havasu, only a few hours from LA where the container would be loaded…  LET’S DO IT!!!  We can worry about the money later... Our great friend and Team Mate Ken Waddle drove the truck to the Jettribe Headquarters, and Tony took it from there.  The Logistics were quite overwhelming, but we got a few breaks right at the last minute.  We were able to fill the container with a few other boats and bits that were for export, Hot Products came in with some sponsorship, and it just started to click.

A little over a month later the Team arrived in Thailand, and I got the time and the water needed for the much needed tuning that the GTI required, and although we never got the Launch control just right, Jeremy rode it like a true pro, and the competition was spectacular.  Christine and Derek shared the Limited RXPX in Expert limited and Am Vet Open respectively, and both did great.. Christine even got an inside holeshot in the second moto and led all the boys for a few corners... if they only knew she was racing with a torn ligament in her elbow against Dr. orders, and is having surgery next week !!!  Wilson and I did have to tear back into the RXPX engine to fix some band aids from Havasu, but it was all taken care of before the motos started.  I want to take a sentence to thank Les Cooke and Kylie Elmers as they helped out in my crunch with a few bits and a tool or 2… They are the class of the sport !!!

Beyond that I have to take a few sentences to mention Motor Field. Motor Field is a power sports dealer in Bangkok, and Sam and his Dad (and family) run the business.  They are the Thai importer of Jettribe products and are very good friends to Tony Vo of Jettribe. Basically these guys were our hosts.  They made available a fantastic facility to work in, fed us, and transported our equipment to and from the race site...which by the way was a 6 hour ride each way.  I still don't quite know how we can ever repay the hospitality.  Next I have to mention Eddie.  Eddie was a friend to the MF guys as well as Tony, and he was basically our personal tour guide.  Eddie got us to and from the race site every day, made sure we were eating, worked out hotel mix-ups, the list goes on and on.  Eddie was the guy that when you said you needed a "whatever", 30 minutes later he came back with exactly what you needed.  Eddie even got the team Thailand souvenirs as he realized that we had never found the time to get anything on our own, and we had an early flight out of Bangkok! 

Simply amazing!! In general the people of Thailand were just incredible, and mark my words Team Jettribe USA / Team Mean Racing is going back, and next time we will be better prepared!!

The list of experiences goes on and on..... 

We gave a team shirt to the Princess!!!
We vacationed in Vietnam, ON the South China Sea
We camped out on the floor in the Jettribe Manufacturing Facility...

I hear people say all the time that our sport is dead or dying..  That is not true, that is simply an opinion..  We did not win any motos, and we collected no prize money as a team, but we found a way to pool our very limited resources, and make it fun, affordable, and created memories that we will never forget… Our sport is only dying in the minds of those that are not trying to keep it alive. 

Attached are some photos… I took over 2000, Derek another 1600, and our friend John took another ...Who knows… This is just a sample…

I look forward to seeing everyone on the road in 2011, and if you want to hear a good story look for one of us...

Thanks Tony....  You were the driving force...

David Cabrera... you have to heal up, because we needed and missed you there badly !!

Big Team USA Thank You's to:

- TiAl Sport - Gregg Jones
- Tony Vo - Team Jettribe
- Hot Products
- Chris Maccluggage (loaned Chelsea his spare steering cable)
- Less Cooke and Kylie Elmers
- WRT - Allen Walker – RXPX magic
- Champion Motorsport
- Tai'd Up Graphics
- Motor Field, Sam, your Dad, and Eddie
- The Team Flamingo guys that helped pull the boats out every day !!!
- my apologies to anyone I missed