A2 and San Francisco
by: Scott Cram

When life caves in, you do not need reasons -- you need comfort. You do not need some answers-- you need someone. And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation -- He comes to us with His presence.

•  Bob Benson

A2 was a total scratch, a bust, a throw away. I rode the first practice and decided not to race or even ride my second practice. I had a part on my bike that wasn't right. I changed it the night before the race, which is never something you are suppose to do. But the part on my bike honestly really affected the way my bike worked. Since the bike felt so different I didn't want to risk it. I am planning on trying to do the whole 16 race series, so I have plenty more races. I have to admit that it felt like I had taken one step forward and two steps back.

I have an Ipod shuffle that I listen to before I ride, which plays songs in a random order. I have quit a bit of Christian music on it and I kept getting songs on it that said more or less that I can't do this on my own. Kind of crazy, but it is so true. I really can't do this with out God's help and direction. I mean when I think about how I have met the people in my life that have made a big difference, I definitely see divine intervention. Even changing that part was a really big deal. In fact, now that I think about it, it may have played a part in my crash in Phoenix .

So, the following week I just put it behind me. Last weekend was last weekend. I put in as much practice as I could to get use to the changes I had made, which turned out to be a really good move. By the end of the day I was starting to jump some rhythm sections I had not been doing previously.

Unfortunately my teammate Kyle Mace who was my ride to San Francisco ended up crashing on Thursday resulting in two broken arms. So, I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to make it to San Fran. Luckily one of my friends from Chile flew in that week and was planning on going up there anyway. So, I loaded up my truck and headed up to LA to pick him up on Friday. I got 30 minutes away when I saw a sign saying that the 405 was closed. It ended up being a guy on the freeway over pass attempting to jump off to end his life. I never heard if the guy jumped or not, but it took me 2 hours to take a different route to pick up my friend. That was really random that that person just decided to do that on that day, I don't think they ended up doing it since I didn't see it on TV. Oh well, at least I got to spend some time driving in the City of Angels .

Once we got up to San Fran we discovered that it had rained a little bit that day and there was a chance that it was going to really pour the next day. With that in mind the AMA decided to change the events schedule and qualify all the riders directly to the night event so they could keep the track covered up. So, my first ever night event had to be in the mud. The funny thing about the whole day was that it really didn't rain until the track workers pulled off the plastic that had been laid on the track. After the track walk it felt like the dirt under plastic was pretty firm. Plus, the track layout looked really fun. Well, I soon found out that it wasn't. I am admittedly not that great of a mud rider, as I haven't raced too many mud races, let alone a mud race on a supercross track. But nonetheless I just went out there, had a lot of fun, and got really dirty. It is a little ironic because my friend from Chile is the rider I wrenched for at the Spain round of the World Supercross GP in 2004. That race was a super muddy race as well.

At the end of the day I ended up missing to qualify for the Last Chance Qualifier by two spots. Since they changed the schedule and everybody made it to the night show, we had to qualify to make it to the LCQ. Usually you go directly to the LCQ if you don't make it in the Semi. But honestly I was dog tired after just one practice and two short races. After the race while we were loading everything up I just felt like I had the crap beat out of me. The thing is that is was so muddy that I literally rolled the whole track all night. But looking back on it now and it was one of the most fun races I had ever done. I mean there really wasn't any pressure, I just went out there and tried to keep it on two wheels and finish, while racing in front of a huge crowd under the lights. It was covered by CBS too, so the next morning I got to see my name on tv in the riders list for the first heat race. I have always wanted to see my name there. Well, now that I have my first night event under my belt it is back to Anaheim to try and qualify for real on a dry track with big jumps and whoops. The Anaheim tracks always seem to be a little tougher then in the other cities.

God has really been putting some important points in my life for me to learn about in my walk of faith. I always know when it is God that is trying to teach me something because I hear it from a few different places. Usually I get the message in a devotional then hear the same or similar message on the radio, and then I hear the message again at church or at the Zoo Ministries bible study all in the same week. The thing I have been hearing lately is that it isn't about following the Law. Living for Christ isn't about following laws and being this upright perfect person that doesn't make any mistakes, which is impossible by the way. It is about living life by faith. If we live by the law then it takes out all the important stuff like spirit, mercy, grace, and love. For the most part I think we are all built the same as humans. After traveling a lot and meeting a ton of different people from different countries it seems like we all want the same thing. We all want a God that we can love and believe in even if they are or aren't Christians. Nobody loved the principal at his or her high school or any other person like that unless they were exceptionally cool. I think God gets labeled with that persona a lot of times, that he is just a law enforcer. From what I have learned since walking with Christ is that what we say are laws and rules really aren't laws and rules. They are just the way that life was designed to be lived. Not following them is like living our lives on the half, at 50%. In fact you could say Jesus was the first rock star and rebel. I mean he had all the religious leaders of his time against him, it sounds like he broke a few or all of their rules in his time.

I guess my main point is this, “All things work together for the good of God to those who are called.” Personally I say we are all called to at the very least be God's children, it is up to you to decide to answer that call or not. If you decide to answer what God is calling you to do it seems to me that your “mistakes” turn out to be the events that lead you to something greater. I kind of feel that my wild party past really helps me relate to people in that same situation as well as being able to see the difference in my life between the two. I would much rather be struggling to make it in Supercross then to be getting drunk all the time again. Not to mention I can be 100% focused on what I really want in my life knowing that partying may be fun, but it is something I can say “Been there done that, next.” Well, I am off to get ready for another challenging track at A3.

See you at the races,
Scott Cram #457