After focusing completely on the first few rounds up in Canada, our man, Filthy Phil Nicoletti, was finally able to take a moment to breathe, and answer your questions of course. This week Nicoletti disagrees with a reader regarding the lapper dynamic, cites Newtonian physics, and discusses racing in adverse weather.

As always, if you don't mind possibly getting ridiculed by Nicoletti, load your questions into your email and fire them off to [email protected].  

Zack,
My friend, you can’t be serious comparing skiers and snowboarders coming down a mountain doing a leisure activity compared to a professional racing event. That can’t be for real. In racing, you start on the same gate drop. YOU ALL GO AT THE SAME TIME. So in that case, when you go a lap down from which you started with that person at the same time, GET THE F@&$ OUTTA THE WAY!

At that point, you don’t have the choice to decide which line is best for you because you’re battling in 26th position. Your option is to move far out of the way. Like, the water lane. I’m so sick and tired of this topic. Lappers know when you’re being lapped. MYSELF INCLUDED. End of story.
-Phil

Phil,
We all know that when you rev the bike in the air it raises the nose, and when you stomp the rear brake it rotates the bike forward. What I don’t understand though, is why!? It’s not like the wheel is out of balance, and when it spins faster one side of the rim is always spinning in a different direction than the other (one side is traveling upward, the opposite side is traveling upward, for example).  I don’t understand how a balanced, spinning object changes the attitude of the motorcycle in relation to its rate of rotation. In all your years as a pro, were the physics of this dynamic ever explained!?
-Gyro Geoff

Gyro,
Hold on, let me ring my buddy Sir Isaac Newton and get to the bottom of this. I don’t know man. An object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by an external force. Is this suffice? Dude, I don’t know. Whatever the inertia does, from locking it up mid air versus holding it wide open, changes the pitch. Why, I have no idea about the scientific explanation. All I know is that by smashing the rear brake or holding the throttle wide open, I've been bailed out a million times. Sometimes it’s not enough unfortunately, which results in a first class ticket to Endonesia!
-Phil

Phil,
I was watching High Point and the second moto of the 450 Class was cut short because apparently there was lightning in the area. I’m sure, just like after they cut the motos a few minutes short at Hangtown because of the heat, there were plenty of old moto hounds calling the riders soft. I’m sure back in their day they jammed forks in sockets instead of drinking coffee and licked lightning polls for breakfast, but I’m getting off topic. My question for you is, what’re the gnarliest conditions you’ve ever had to race in? And have you ever been in a race that was cut short due to weather?
-Lightning Jack

Lightning,
I have been in a few motos that have been cut due to weather. But honestly, more so cut so early that we ended up going back up to the line for another gate drop after the storms passed us. The cutting of the moto’s due to heat is after my time. I know in 2022 they did at Pala, which I should have been there but was hurt. That would have been the first race I’ve done in the U.S. where they cut the motos due to heat. They did cut a moto in Canadian Motocross in Sand De Lee in 2019 when we had the Nicoletti/Alessi debacle. That day I was already mad because they told us before moto two they were cutting the motos to 25-plus-2 laps.

For me, I was so mad. I was in my prime and training my balls off at ClubMX in the heat, and preparing for the gnarliest conditions possible. Always. Every year pushing the limits and managing the heat, and learning to adapt to it. It is not easy. It does not feel good. It’s extremely exhausting. But that’s what it takes when you get days that are 100 degrees plus. Yes, 90 percent of races are decided already at the 30min mark. I get that. But for a guy in seventh who is strong has the chance to get two more positions on the last two laps, it's a huge deal. I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, I am all about safety, 100 percent. But a little bit of me squirms when that happens. I’ve done some GRUELING races at Millville, RedBud, Southwick, Freestone, Muddy Creek, Budds Creek, Hangtown, Washougal, and Glen Helen. Literally I can name off years where all those tracks made you feel like you were in the devil’s kitchen.
-Phil