Supercross 2020

[Guth_imp]

I have grown beyond tired of professional sports in general and of professional athletes in particular. This applies in terms of the athletes’ attitudes along with our society’s tendency to place them on such a lofty pedestal here in this country. Baseball was my one mainstream sports weakness and this time of year would normally find me tuned in to watch some spring training games. But so far in 2020 that hasn’t been the case. I mention these things not to break the very rule that I myself initiated of “motorcycling only” conversation on this forum, but to set up the rest of what I wanted to say.

To fill the void of baseball I found myself subscribing to NBC’s special sports network that will allow me to catch every race this this year for both the Supercross series and the Motocross series including all of the qualifying activity and other coverage. I have found myself more or less glued to the TV at some point every weekend. While I have been entertained by the Supercross racing so far this season I personally much prefer the format of outdoor motocross both from the logistics involved (scoring involving two separate moto’s) as well as to watch (I definitely prefer to watch dirt bike racing in an outdoor setting). Still the Supercross season has really provided some spectacular racing so far this year. Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of motocross/supercross racing at Daytona. The racing was incredible as the course laid out on the infield at Daytona is much larger than the average Supercross course.

Unlike the ferret and others here who raced motocross when younger, my time spent with dirt bikes in my youth never extended beyond trail riding and general screwing around. But I have always loved watching Motocross. I sort of lost track of the sport as Supercross became more popular. However, the past few years I began tuning back into the sport. This years racing has been really entertaining. While I am really looking forward to the 2020 outdoor Motocross series to begin, I must admit that so far the 2020 Supercross series has exceeded my expectations.

The most impressive thing to me, and what prompted me to start this thread, is the manner in which so many of these young racers carry themselves. Of significance last night:

In the 450 class there was Ken Roczen making the effort to acknowledge Eli Tomac’s victory via a nod, a fist bump and a few words spoken between them only seconds after crossing the finish line. Roczen led practically the entire race only to be caught by Tomac with just three or so laps remaining. Roczen didn’t crumble and put in quite an effort himself to try and close the gap, hoping for an opportunity to pass Tomac back before crossing the finish line The two of them had entered the Daytona race tied in points for the lead and knew that only one of then was going to be able head to the next round with the red number plates affixed to their bike.

The 250 class also had it’s share of good stories but the one that stood out to me was how Chase Sexton (last year’s champ) dealt with his second place finish to 18 year-old Garrett Marchbanks who grabbed the holeshot and managed to lead the entire race, while holding off Sexton all the way to the checkered flag to claim his first ever professional race win. In the post race interview and the press conference that came later Sexton credited Marchbanks with riding a great race and admitting that he just could not catch him. Marchbanks was all grins with no cockiness to be found at all.

In this sport there will always be some words exchanged between racers who have experienced really hard intentional contact between them resulting in one or both of them going down and maybe some injuries on top of that. In those cases retaliation will usually follow at some point later, they n they move on. For the most part when asked about it these kids typically just chalk it up to racing being racing. It strikes me as a night and day difference between so many of today’s mainstream athletes.

There is no “Riders Union” to speak of. While there is big money to be made in the way of endorsements for the most part racers are only going to get really wealthy if they are able to perform exceptionally well season after season. In addition, while some of them make enough money that they could retire as soon as they hang up their boots, none of them head into their professional career thinking that they will (or should) make enough money to comfortably retire on after less than a decade of competing. It is safe to say that I am having a lot more fun watching these young guys racing dirt bikes than I would be watching Spring Training games right now. Good stuff.

[Cormanus]

Nice post, Guth. I'm glad you've found some sport to watch where the behaviour of the participants is ... what's the term ... half decent? I've deleted the rest of what I wrote about the deplorable state of global professional sport.

[the Ferret]

I love outdoor motocross, and have been a fan since 1973, however I am not a fan of indoor Supercross. I acknowledge that Supercross is probably much better from a spectators standpoint in that he can see the whole track from whatever stadium seat he is sitting in, but the racing is just not the same as on an out doors open air track. The riders are too bunched together, with strings of whoop de doos connected by sharp turns... and it's more like bumper bikes than Motocross. If the riders are cordial to each other I am surprised with all the contact that goes on, but glad to hear it.

The riders in MotoGP are very friendly and cordial to each other for the most part..until someone bumps someone off the track lol

(On that note, it might be interesting to hear that I was the announcer at the first indoor Supercross held at Cincinnati Gardens here in Cincinnati).

[WRXer_imp]

Watched every race this year & for the past several years. Started watching in the MC years.

Barcia & Tomac had some post race "words" last week in Atalanta too.

[Guth_imp]

Mickey, the fact that you were the announcer at the first Supercross event held in Cincinnati somehow does not totally surprise me. Interesting? Absolutely. What year was that race held? While I have gotten a good amount of enjoyment watching Supercross over the past few seasons I would not call myself a fan of Supercross itself. I pretty much agree with everything that you've noted, yet I still watch. As to the exchanges between riders, they definitely take place as WRXer pointed out (it's ironic to think of Barcia being upset by someone else's "racing etiquette"). But there is a lot of contact that happens and most of the time the riders realize is just part of racing and in Supercross in particular one of the few ways to pass at times on those tight corners that you mentioned. Ricky Carmichael is part of NBC's broadcast team and he does a pretty good job of keeping things in perspective from a racer's point of view.

I have only two personal experiences with indoor dirt bike racing. Once when living in Dallas back in the late 80's I went to a Supercross race held at Irving Stadium. To be honest, I would rather watch from home. While some might appreciate watching from the stands with the entire track sitting down there in front of them I just felt too far away from the racing. If I find myself checking the Jumbotron all of the time I might as well be watching at home.

My other experience occurred in Lubbock, Texas while I was attending school there. The race was held inside of the old Lubbock Municipal Coliseum and while they somehow pulled it off, there was definitely wasn't anything "super" about it. I signed up to volunteer at the race so I didn't have to pay to get in — at least I wasn't out any money. I ended up on the flagging crew and developed a keen appreciation for hay bales as a result. While keeping an eye on the section of the course assigned to me I was knocked flat on my face by one of the hay bales lining the course. The good news was the hay bale was what prevented me from being plowed down directly by the guy who overshot the corner what that particular hay bale was sitting. I wasn't really hurt and when all was said and done it struck me as appropriate given the rest of my experience. I never bothered to check into whether or not they ever held another race there, lol.

The reality is that the bigger money for the riders now comes in the form of Supercross. But for me as a fan of dirt bike racing it serves more as a conduit until the national outdoor motocross season starts. Back when I was attending motocross races as a fan one of the things I particularly liked was the ability to move around and watch the racing up close from a variety of locations. Just the opposite of Supercross racing. They hold one of the national races on the other side of the Columbia river up in Washington [url=https://goo.gl/maps/WbML5sgfKf77DALS8]outside of the town of Washougal which is not far from Portland. I've been to that race just once since I've lived here in Oregon and it wasn't too long after we moved here (17 years ago). I've considered going again a few times but never made it happen. Maybe this year...

[the Ferret]

Guth I'm not real sure of the year 75, 76 maybe? It was not a good experience. Cinti Gardens where the event was held, although the 7th largest indoor venue in the nation at the time, was ill prepared for running 2 stroke motorcycles indoors for a full day. Ventilation could not handle the exhaust fumes or smoke. My announcing table was half way up the stands on one side of the stadium. 3 or 4 motos into a day of racing and the 2 stroke haze had settled well below me, and the noise was deafening. Even though I had experience announcing and scoring outdoor motocross, indoors with 20 r more riders per moto, the riders were so bunched up with riders being lapped after a couple of laps you could barely keep track of the leader much less the top 5 or 6, so if the leader went down I wasn't sure who was next in line. It was just a constant parade of riders one following the other for 20 mins plus 2 laps per moto. It was such a disaster they only had the one. They also tried 2 short tracks, but that was the end of motorcycle racing indoors at the gardens.

Call me old school but motocross belongs outdoors. Long wide open tracks, proper turns and jumps, uphills and down hills. I agree about being able to walk around the track and seeing how different riders handle different parts of the course. I have seen Decoster, Weinert, Lackey, Pomeroy, Karmakers, Hartwig, Barnett, DiStefano, Howerton and many more and helped host Karsmakers, Hart, and Hartwig the factory Yamaha riders at the time at our shop before the May 1974 National MX at Gran Am Raceway in Hamersville, Ohio. I was a course marshal on the day of the race. The day before I went to the Yamaha MX school and got racing tips from the Yamaha squad. I remember this one steep down hill left turn, bottom out, go up steep hill turn left at the top where I came up over the first rise rise, kinda coasted down the hill preparing for bottoming out at the bottom, then accelerated up the hill. Karsmakers pulled me aside and said " Downhill is just level on an angle, you've got to give it more gas" lol

Ferret circa 1974

[pdedse]

I have grown beyond tired of professional sports in general and of professional athletes in particular. This applies in terms of the athletes’ attitudes along with our society’s tendency to place them on such a lofty pedestal here in this country. Baseball was my one mainstream sports weakness and this time of year would normally find me tuned in to watch some spring training games. But so far in 2020 that hasn’t been the case. I mention these things not to break the very rule that I myself initiated of “motorcycling only” conversation on this forum, but to set up the rest of what I wanted to say.

To fill the void of baseball I found myself subscribing to NBC’s special sports network that will allow me to catch every race this this year for both the Supercross series and the Motocross series including all of the qualifying activity and other coverage. I have found myself more or less glued to the TV at some point every weekend. While I have been entertained by the Supercross racing so far this season I personally much prefer the format of outdoor motocross both from the logistics involved (scoring involving two separate moto’s) as well as to watch (I definitely prefer to watch dirt bike racing in an outdoor setting). Still the Supercross season has really provided some spectacular racing so far this year. Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of motocross/supercross racing at Daytona. The racing was incredible as the course laid out on the infield at Daytona is much larger than the average Supercross course.

Unlike the ferret and others here who raced motocross when younger, my time spent with dirt bikes in my youth never extended beyond trail riding and general screwing around. But I have always loved watching Motocross. I sort of lost track of the sport as Supercross became more popular. However, the past few years I began tuning back into the sport. This years racing has been really entertaining. While I am really looking forward to the 2020 outdoor Motocross series to begin, I must admit that so far the 2020 Supercross series has exceeded my expectations.

The most impressive thing to me, and what prompted me to start this thread, is the manner in which so many of these young racers carry themselves. Of significance last night:

In the 450 class there was Ken Roczen making the effort to acknowledge Eli Tomac’s victory via a nod, a fist bump and a few words spoken between them only seconds after crossing the finish line. Roczen led practically the entire race only to be caught by Tomac with just three or so laps remaining. Roczen didn’t crumble and put in quite an effort himself to try and close the gap, hoping for an opportunity to pass Tomac back before crossing the finish line The two of them had entered the Daytona race tied in points for the lead and knew that only one of then was going to be able head to the next round with the red number plates affixed to their bike.

The 250 class also had it’s share of good stories but the one that stood out to me was how Chase Sexton (last year’s champ) dealt with his second place finish to 18 year-old Garrett Marchbanks who grabbed the holeshot and managed to lead the entire race, while holding off Sexton all the way to the checkered flag to claim his first ever professional race win. In the post race interview and the press conference that came later Sexton credited Marchbanks with riding a great race and admitting that he just could not catch him. Marchbanks was all grins with no cockiness to be found at all.

In this sport there will always be some words exchanged between racers who have experienced really hard intentional contact between them resulting in one or both of them going down and maybe some injuries on top of that. In those cases retaliation will usually follow at some point later, they n they move on. For the most part when asked about it these kids typically just chalk it up to racing being racing. It strikes me as a night and day difference between so many of today’s mainstream athletes.

There is no “Riders Union” to speak of. While there is big money to be made in the way of endorsements for the most part racers are only going to get really wealthy if they are able to perform exceptionally well season after season. In addition, while some of them make enough money that they could retire as soon as they hang up their boots, none of them head into their professional career thinking that they will (or should) make enough money to comfortably retire on after less than a decade of competing. It is safe to say that I am having a lot more fun watching these young guys racing dirt bikes than I would be watching Spring Training games right now. Good stuff.

...
To fill the void of baseball... [/quote]

I can ID with this to a degree...reading the rest of your comments makes me want to tune-in, go to races tho' I didn't grow up with any of that.