I am not much of a dirt bike guy. I prefer my two-wheeled ripping on smooth pavement and my tires slick and grippy. But much in the way I enjoy professional basketball when I attend games in person and can’t be bothered to watch on television, going to a Supercross event is a totally rad way to spend an evening. Last weekend my wife and I hauled down to San Diego to check out the series and see what all the fuss is about.
What we found was a fast-paced mixing pot of adrenaline, Zyns, and L-carnitine that travels around the country, packing stadiums full of yee yee flatbillers taking time out of their busy drywall-punching schedule to cheer for young men risking life and limb in the pursuit of speed. Crack a beer and shout your lungs out, man. This is what America is all about, baby!
Full Disclosure: Kawasaki invited me to San Diego to see the pinnacle of dirt bike racing up close and personal. The bike manufacturer put me up in nice hotels, fed me some good food, and loaned me a new Ninja 7 Hybrid to ride around for a couple of days. I drove my own car to Southern California for the event.
Much like my recent Formula E experience, Supercross is a single-day fan event. If you want to catch all of the practice and qualifying sessions you need to show up when the gates open at 10 AM, like I did. There are two classes of dirt bike racing in Supercross, there’s a 250cc class and a 450cc class, and each get plenty of on-course action to keep you jazzed all day long. After a practice, two qualifying sessions, two heat races, a last-chance qualifier, and the main, you’ll end up seeing 14 individual sessions in a single day, and the main to close out the night is over before 9PM.
When there is a bit of downtime between sessions to re-shape the course, you can get away to the pits area and check out each of the teams and have conversations with the riders. I walked through the pits once and ended up with a few cans of free Monster Energy, a cup of delicious barbecue, and a pocket full of hot sauce giveaways. The freebies alone are practically worth the cost of entry.
The dichotomy between the pristine factory-supported semi truck rigs and the down-home do-it-yourselfer privateers is pretty stark, but in this sport almost anything can happen and with the right luck and preparation a non-factory rider can pretty easily make the 450 final. I got a quick tour of Kawasaki’s factory team rig, and it was truly eye-opening. These teams basically have a complete shop full of tools and spares for their bikes, plus a rest area for the riders stocked with food and energy gels and shit. If one of these rigs were plopped down in my back yard, it would exceed both the usefulness and square footage of my home garage.
A few weeks ago Ducati announced that it would be joining Supercross to compete head-to-head against KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, Triumph, Beta, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki. This is a from-the-ground-up racing effort sponsored by Troy Lee Designs and operated in North America by Chip Ganassi Racing. It’s pretty cool that a series with nine manufacturers is still drawing in new ones. I wonder why open wheel series can only attract a small handful.
The pit area is a pretty rad place to spend some time. There’s a bunch to see and lots of activities to keep the family entertained. You can test out new products, sign up to win a bunch of stuff, and go out of your mind on energy drinks. Bright colors and loud noises, this place has it all!
Everyone in attendance is participating in market capitalism to the fullest extent of what Adam Smith could have possibly dreamed. Everyone has a favorite brand, team merch, loyalty to a beer or chaw brand, and a cheer loud enough to be heard for miles. Who is your favorite rider? What is your favorite manufacturer? Who do you have picked in the fantasy sports league app on your phone? This is the highest highs of brand loyalty, but ultimately everyone is there to see a good show. And holy shit does this series provide.
As the sun went down on the stadium the action heated up. With a huge pyrotechnics display (and one rider using this as an opportunity to show his support for CalFire’s efforts to contain the Los Angeles fires) finished, the racing could begin in earnest. With 22 riders in each heat there isn’t much time for in-depth human interest stories, but a few tidbits break through. One young man is riding with two broken fingers, and wouldn’t you know it, he made it into his class main! The crowd goes wild.
The 20-minute-plus-a-lap 450 Main was the last event of the night, and the most anticipated, of course. The big race was won by someone who has been racing in Supercross since 2010, making him the elder statesman of the sport at 32 years of age. This is a young man’s game for obvious reasons, but Eli Tomac put on a masterclass come-from-behind victory that had the crowd roaring. I’ve never seen energy like this before. I’ll be buzzing for days to come.
This series will see 28 rounds between now and late August, before a three-round championship playoff ending in September. That’s a tighter schedule than any four-wheeled motorsport on the planet, and I can’t imagine doing this much travelling and setting up and racing and tearing down every week of the calendar year from January to September. As a Supercross first-timer, this shit is wild and you absolutely need to see it in person. With this many rounds, there is bound to be a stop of the tour happening in your back yard. Check it out.