Grass Roots Heroes
Amongst a crowd of tens of thousands of people at Round 5 of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championship presented by FMF , four dudes in blue shirts came uniformed in effort to implement branding, to gain recognition and to put their names on the national map. Their shirts read “Grass Roots Illustrated” in a simple and clean font and by the looks of it they were young in game. These guys were not alone in their quest for recognition, your Monster and Muscle Milk Girls were on hand as well, along with countless Andrew Short fans and a flood of jersey guys. We gathered along a fence as moto one of the Lites class unfolded and I decided to introduce myself on behalf of Vurbmoto and get the rundown on Grass Roots Illustrated.
In brief conversation, they told me that they were from North Dakota and had put together a publication and website that focuses on the moto community in North Dakota and surrounding states. We exchanged cards, returned to fence line to see RV take another moto win and went our separate ways.
After returning to my desk the following week, I visited Grass Roots Illustrated online in effort to learn more about their mission. Upon visiting I was left with no choice but to respect the efforts of this group. They have set out to fill a void, pursue a passion and make their mark amongst a motocross community that gets little recognition in comparison to other regions within the states.
So in this fitting addition of Grass Roots Heroes, I take honor in introducing the story of Grass Roots Illustrated.
Enter Grass Roots Illustrated editor Justin Fisk -
It’s rather ironic that this segment of Vurbmoto carries the title of Grass Roots Heroes, because this time around we’re going to use this piece to introduce you to some of the young people who put together a little motocross publication called Grass Roots Illustrated. It’s hard to tell the story of Grass Roots without slipping into the first person, so I’m just going to run with the bench racing attitude here.
Grass Roots Illustrated is the brainchild of myself, Justin Fisk, and my partner in crime Brandon Kruger. Sometime back in early December, the two of us were sitting around enjoying the wonderful North Dakota winter when I pitched the idea of a regional moto pub to BK. At the time, there was nothing like it in the area, and with his graphic design skills combined with my knack for running my mouth, we thought that we could actually make something kind of cool. Overnight, Grass Roots Illustrated was born.
Since I was a college student with expensive hobbies and Brandon had recently moved to my hometown, we basically started GRI with zero dollars in our bank account. We started with a half done mock up of issue one in a resume holder and went around the state pitching advertisement proposals. After several shops and some other local businesses signed up to advertise, we finally had enough money to go to print. Our first issue consisted of three, yes three, pieces of paper, six different advertisers and one contributor column by KTM sales rep, and all around funny guy, Steve Drewlo. Then we just started doin’ work. I’d write the material, BK would make it look legit, D Lo kept sending in funny stories about his adventures and it became a hit with everyone who got their hands on it.
Recently, BK and I, as well as senior photog Reiss Leonard, jumped in a borrowed car in the middle of the night to make the trek to the Thunder Valley national. We wanted to witness the madness under the lights for the first time in history and, hey, we could write gas off as a business expense, right? Anyway, by pounding ample amounts of Monster, and listening to that sexy voice coming from our GPS, we made it into the black hills by daylight only to plow into a deer in the middle of nowhere. In the last few milliseconds before impact, everyone seems to do their own little thing to brace themselves. But for some reason, all three of us puckered our butt cheeks simultaneously before screaming, “ooooOOOOO!” in unison. The car screeched to a halt at about the same time that the deer fur—and poo—settled to the ground when we found that there was miraculously no damage to the car. The deer just stood in the ditch and stared at us, after all, we did just knock the crap out of him. The whole GRI experience revolves around stories like this and that’s what we try to bring into each issue that we put together.
Now, midway through the summer, we’re working on issue five and I constantly find myself wondering where the time went. Everything has gone so fast, but the one thing I always try to remember, is how many people have pitched in to help with each new issue. It’s still the same core group of people that started it in the beginning, but everyone has found a way to help. BK still shreads all of the graphic design, I still do the bulk of the writing and Drewlo still sends in his “D Lo” column. Now, though, we’ve added a few good friends to the GRI cast. Casey “Sasquatch” Schriock runs our website, Reiss Leonard helps out as our senior photographic contributor and dramatic arts major Jay Jenkins does some excellent editing for us. Tammy Bohn from ktmhutt.com also hosts our website, and passes her business savvy to us more often than not, and Mike and Sara Fisk offer their voice of reason when ever it’s needed. Without the support of the North Dakota motocross community and all of our advertisers though, we wouldn’t be putting in the extra hours or all-nighters to put Grass Roots Illustrated together. None of us have gotten paid for any of our work with GRI. That’s not why we do it. We just keep doing it for the absolute love of the sport.
See you at the races!
grassrootsmx@hotmail.com
