Poor Sportsmanship By Team Gorilla/Can-Am At 2007 Highlifter Mud Nationals

Well we just got back from a 5 day trip to mud nats. Saw alot of people and watched alot of things happen. but i feel the one that will stick in my head the most (as sad as it is) needs to be talked about here.

Before we start i want to say i held nothing against the team gorilla/can-am guys before mud nats. i had respected them for what they have done in the last year or so. ive met john cannon in person and have talked to him several times on different forum boards. so i start this story with a total neutral feeling toward them.

so were standing there watching the mud-a-cross and ofcourse team gorilla/can-am were there in force (as you know they would be). most of them were in the open class because of the big lift and other mods on their bikes. so i see a kid on a bone stock bike (no lift, no paddles, no nitrous or anything) lined up in the open class. seems since he had some 27" tires off a tractor or something highlifter felt the need to put the kid in the open class. i talked to the kid the day before and found out he was from way up north (wisconsin) and had driven a longggg time to get to nats.

well his turn comes and ofcourse hes up against the team gorilla/can-am guys. as the flag drops and the race starts he stays on the back bumper of the team gorilla guy whos in the lead. on the final back stretch before the finish, he makes a move to the inside and pulls ahead of the team gorilla rider. well the team gorilla guy decides to put the squeeze on the kid and winds up pushing him into the dirt bank on the inside causing the guys bike to turn up on its side leading to the boy falling off the bike. the team gorilla rider continues to push the guy into his bike pinning him between the 2 bikes. the officials and all the people at the track were telling him to stop, waiving their arms and the guy on the loud speaker were telling him to stop and let the boy get out from between the 2 bikes so he wouldnt get hurt. he was totaly pinned between the 2 bikes with just his head and one arm above the water. the team gorilla rider ignored the official, the race director and all the pit guys and everybody else who were screaming at him and continued to drive the boy into the wall keeping him pinned bwtween the 2 bikes...never letting out of his throttle. the kid is swinging his 1 free arm in the guys face screaming at him to stop. as the team gorilla rider keps going, he bends the guys exhaust snorkle around on top of the kid and has still not let up.

once he figures hes not going to move any more, the team gorilla rider backs up, goes around the kid and wins the race as the track workers and officials are swimming to the kid to see if hes ok.

i ask this to the team gorilla/can-am team members. have you gone crazy to put your own greed to win above and beyond the life, well being and safety of another human being? are you so greedy to win that you push yourself that far to not care that you were playing with that kids life and by your actions you seem to not cared?

when your rider pulled out of the pit i saw high fives and hand shakes all around. THEN, one of your riders walked over and said something to the kid and walked off to more high fives and hand shakes.

you destroyed his bike, and hurt the kid and all you cared about was that you won and moved to the next round???

i told one of your riders that was standing there watching that it was a true show of bad sportsmanship and that was wrong, dangerous and careless what he did to that kid and i got the reply from your team gorilla rider "its just racing man, what do you expect me to do" then he walked off.

is that what message you want to get out to everybody? that winning comes before anything else? including the life and safety of other? is that what you want to accomplish by doing what you did? i had my 12 yr old nephew with me and when he looked at me and said "why was he trying to hurt that guy?" what was i supposed to say? its just racing man, what did you expect him to do?

i know it might have just been the action of a single rider. but as the saying goes "1 bad apple ruins the whole crate."

for the first time since ive had the gorilla stickers on my bike, i was actually ashamed to know it was there....