I'm an old-timer I suppose. I started riding on motocross tracks in 1974, racing motocross in 1976 and ended my racing career in 2007 after hard crash left me with only 1 kidney. The sport of motocross was pretty young when I first got involved. Over the years I’ve gotten to witness a great deal of growth. Factory box vans were the hot setup in the early days, available only to a precious few. Now we have privateers riding out of beautiful semi tractor-trailer rigs. The great Bob Hannah seems to get credit for ushering in the era of high salaries. There came a point when the top riders motocrossers could make a respectable living, certainly not comparable to some of the other professional sports, but respectable.
By the late 1970’s supercross was already wildly popular. Big turnouts were common across the country. To us Mid-Westerners, supercross was sort of a compromise--you know, something you rode or watched when the weather sucked so bad you couldn't get out to a real motocross track. Even the factories and the riders themselves seemed to concentrate more on building bikes for the outdoors and honing their outdoor riding skills. Still, the sport was called motocross and it seemed more like there was a form of motocross called supercross. Everyone that rode supercross was really a motocrosser.
Something changed somewhere. I even saw on one of the popular season wrap-up DVD’s a couple of years ago where a young professional rider said that he was really a supercross specialist and needed more time on motocross tracks. Huh? Some riders even choose to race supercross exclusively, or at least concentrate on supercross. Chad Reed was one of the most notable to me since he was among the best in the sport when he chose not to compete outdoors. He sat out an entire motocross racing season. Think about that. Think about how much you love racing. Think about how hard it is to work or go to school all week, and what a great feeling it is on Friday afternoon to begin to focus all of your thoughts and efforts on heading to the racetrack. Reed admitted in a post race interview that he really could have ridden the outdoors in 2008, but chose not to. Does that mean he was being dishonest when he originally said that he didn’t have an outdoor ride? Well, I don’t think so. He obviously wasn’t able to negotiate something to his liking. His expectations were likely pretty high, in fact, it turns out that they were prohibitively high. Whatever the offers were on the table, they obviously didn’t meet his needs for fielding a whole program. So, Chad went supercross only. I gotta tell you, I hated it. We forget that racing a motorcycle is not the same as sending a rocket to the moon. Chad would win outdoor nationals if someone took his bike in the back of a box van and he flew in on Saturday to meet them at the track. Certainly he would have to work hard all week riding, training and wearing out motorcycles. In the end though, all you need is to show up at the track with your body in shape to ride a couple of 35 minute motos. Plain and simple.
Of course James Stewart made the same choice in 2009. This only compounded the frustration for me that Chad tapped into. James too made what I’m sure he would refer to as a “business decision”. If you think someone wouldn’t have paid the absolute best rider in the world a ton of money to go out, and with a very high probability, win a motocross national championship, you are delusional. Hell, for a return on my investment I would have gotten him a couple of good bikes and sent him out there to win for me. A business decision. James didn’t need to though. Why would a guy put his body and mind through all that torture for a long summer outdoor series when he can make a lavish living racing shorter motos at slower speeds for a 3 or 4 months each winter? Supercross does provide the sport with lots of exposure to the less die-hard fans. A business decision.
In addition to not being able to understand why someone would choose not to go out kick everyone’s ass all summer on the world’s best motorcross tracks, other things bother me about this business decision. Even if motocross is seen these days as only half of the game, with supercross being the other half, why would it be acceptable for a guy to voluntarily participate only in one half. Would the Indianapolis Colts allow Peyton Manning to sign a contract that was half-season only? Not likely (yet?). How about Tiger Woods sitting out golf’s major championships because they are so much more grueling than the other tournaments? Probably not.
Let’s look at this from a personal and ethical perspective? Is there no dedication to the sport that gave these guys their lavish lives? The current economic climate has our sport reeling. Good people and good companies are losing their pants trying to stay afloat in what amounts to a leisure industry. Do you think that having your star players voluntarily bow out of competition helps the situation in any way? Of course not. We are still a very small sport. We are also a sport where skill consistently equals results. The best riders win every week. It is very unusual for the best rider in the world to finish 15th one weekend (unless he crashes or has mechanical troubles). We’re not like tennis or baseball. In tennis the number 1 seed can go out in the early rounds. In baseball the best team in the league can lose to the worst team in the league and nobody bats an eye. What I’m saying is that when our stars are not on the track it is painfully obvious. I was at RedBud this year. A great day of racing. I still couldn’t help but close my eyes and envision Stewart 45 seconds out in front of everyone displaying awe inspiring skills. It was a great day and a great summer, but in some ways cheapened somewhat by his absence. All at a time when the sport is struggling like I have never seen it struggle before. I hope for all of us that the realities of the current economy soon pass. At the same time, I also hope that our sport’s elite athletes will realize the shaky ground upon which our sport stands. If we are going to keep motocross growing, even under the best of economic circumstances, we need everyone on the starting line.
By the late 1970’s supercross was already wildly popular. Big turnouts were common across the country. To us Mid-Westerners, supercross was sort of a compromise--you know, something you rode or watched when the weather sucked so bad you couldn't get out to a real motocross track. Even the factories and the riders themselves seemed to concentrate more on building bikes for the outdoors and honing their outdoor riding skills. Still, the sport was called motocross and it seemed more like there was a form of motocross called supercross. Everyone that rode supercross was really a motocrosser.
Something changed somewhere. I even saw on one of the popular season wrap-up DVD’s a couple of years ago where a young professional rider said that he was really a supercross specialist and needed more time on motocross tracks. Huh? Some riders even choose to race supercross exclusively, or at least concentrate on supercross. Chad Reed was one of the most notable to me since he was among the best in the sport when he chose not to compete outdoors. He sat out an entire motocross racing season. Think about that. Think about how much you love racing. Think about how hard it is to work or go to school all week, and what a great feeling it is on Friday afternoon to begin to focus all of your thoughts and efforts on heading to the racetrack. Reed admitted in a post race interview that he really could have ridden the outdoors in 2008, but chose not to. Does that mean he was being dishonest when he originally said that he didn’t have an outdoor ride? Well, I don’t think so. He obviously wasn’t able to negotiate something to his liking. His expectations were likely pretty high, in fact, it turns out that they were prohibitively high. Whatever the offers were on the table, they obviously didn’t meet his needs for fielding a whole program. So, Chad went supercross only. I gotta tell you, I hated it. We forget that racing a motorcycle is not the same as sending a rocket to the moon. Chad would win outdoor nationals if someone took his bike in the back of a box van and he flew in on Saturday to meet them at the track. Certainly he would have to work hard all week riding, training and wearing out motorcycles. In the end though, all you need is to show up at the track with your body in shape to ride a couple of 35 minute motos. Plain and simple.
Of course James Stewart made the same choice in 2009. This only compounded the frustration for me that Chad tapped into. James too made what I’m sure he would refer to as a “business decision”. If you think someone wouldn’t have paid the absolute best rider in the world a ton of money to go out, and with a very high probability, win a motocross national championship, you are delusional. Hell, for a return on my investment I would have gotten him a couple of good bikes and sent him out there to win for me. A business decision. James didn’t need to though. Why would a guy put his body and mind through all that torture for a long summer outdoor series when he can make a lavish living racing shorter motos at slower speeds for a 3 or 4 months each winter? Supercross does provide the sport with lots of exposure to the less die-hard fans. A business decision.
In addition to not being able to understand why someone would choose not to go out kick everyone’s ass all summer on the world’s best motorcross tracks, other things bother me about this business decision. Even if motocross is seen these days as only half of the game, with supercross being the other half, why would it be acceptable for a guy to voluntarily participate only in one half. Would the Indianapolis Colts allow Peyton Manning to sign a contract that was half-season only? Not likely (yet?). How about Tiger Woods sitting out golf’s major championships because they are so much more grueling than the other tournaments? Probably not.
Let’s look at this from a personal and ethical perspective? Is there no dedication to the sport that gave these guys their lavish lives? The current economic climate has our sport reeling. Good people and good companies are losing their pants trying to stay afloat in what amounts to a leisure industry. Do you think that having your star players voluntarily bow out of competition helps the situation in any way? Of course not. We are still a very small sport. We are also a sport where skill consistently equals results. The best riders win every week. It is very unusual for the best rider in the world to finish 15th one weekend (unless he crashes or has mechanical troubles). We’re not like tennis or baseball. In tennis the number 1 seed can go out in the early rounds. In baseball the best team in the league can lose to the worst team in the league and nobody bats an eye. What I’m saying is that when our stars are not on the track it is painfully obvious. I was at RedBud this year. A great day of racing. I still couldn’t help but close my eyes and envision Stewart 45 seconds out in front of everyone displaying awe inspiring skills. It was a great day and a great summer, but in some ways cheapened somewhat by his absence. All at a time when the sport is struggling like I have never seen it struggle before. I hope for all of us that the realities of the current economy soon pass. At the same time, I also hope that our sport’s elite athletes will realize the shaky ground upon which our sport stands. If we are going to keep motocross growing, even under the best of economic circumstances, we need everyone on the starting line.
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