AMA crowds are still Super
By TMX Archives on 24th Feb 10
While the crowds turning-up for the AMA SX series remain awesome the global downturn has hit the teams hard but this can be a good thing argues editor JD...
REGULAR column readers will know that I am a keen follower of the AMA Supercross series via the wonders of television. The spectator numbers alone 60,000 at Indi last weekend, and they are genuine numbers keep me amazed. In Britain we struggle to attract a genuine 15,000 spectators for our annual GP yet in the good old USA they pull fantastic figures every weekend.
The magic trick that the Yanks, like ‘em or hate ‘em, have managed is to ‘SELL' the sport of Supercross as a mainstream family attraction. That's right, a family attraction. This is, or at least it should be, the Holy Grail of promoters everywhere. Imagine a Premier League football stadium packed to the rafters for a Supercross!
This didn't happen overnight but it did happen relatively quickly. And the promoters work hard at keeping it fresh. The tracks in particular have moved with the times and this year are proving very technical.
Whatever, even in the face of a recession the American crowds keep turning up in their tens of thousands for the SX.
The recession might not have hit the crowds but the riders are in no doubt as to the real state of the nation. For years the AMA SX series has been the focus of attention of International riders. Contracts were for hundreds of thousands of dollars and a journeyman rider, if he could only get on the bandwagon, could make a very nice living thank you. Young Euro hotshots could barely wait to complete a season in the World Championship MX before shipping out Stateside at a dead run without so much as a backward glance. To them, the World MX Championship was no more than a qualifying series for the AMA SX and riches beyond dreams.
In recent years I have noticed that many AMA SX riders have been putting what I would call minimum effort into their riding. Apart from the likes of Stewart, Reed, Villopoto and a few others it has been pretty obvious that many were doing little more than going through the motions. Why kill yourself when you have a big fat contract in your pocket, results or no results? Sign autographs, get a slick haircut, say nice things about your team – and hit the town.
An interesting article in American publication Cycle News recently pretty much confirmed all this. It also confirmed that this year all this has come to a screeching halt. The recession has hit hard, the fantasy contracts have hit the wall and Dutch auctions have broken out all over the place as riders bid one another down to riding for nothing.
Now, this might not seem like a good thing but what it has done is bring a dose of reality to the whole circus. There's clearly good money still to be earned. And the key word is earned. Even I can see, from the comfort of my settee, that there is a LOT more racing going on this year. There's no room for slacking, if you want to keep your ride you better be racing your butt off!
The entertainment industry is a two-way thing. You need the riders to put on the show and they need to be paid. But you need the fans to tip-up their 25 bucks, or quid or euro or whatever and in return they need to be entertained. Too many riders had forgotten the latter, no-one is going to pay good money and be literally taken for a ride.
The good thing that should emerge is that the younger riders will have learned a lesson in values, that you have to work for your rewards. Also, that if you are talented enough and work hard enough you will succeed because the sponsors are now looking for riders that will deliver results, not just look pretty in the paddock.
nAS expected I received lots of correspondence regarding last week's page five column which touched on the sensitive subject of Pre-65 machine eligibility, whether trials or scrambles related. It was, of course, the equivalent of lighting the blue-touch paper and standing well back.
I have listened to every possible variation in every possible situation and the only conclusion I can make is that everyone will forever agree to disagree. Some would insist on all bikes being totally original. Others want machinery to ‘look' like it is original (never mind that the model could be 100lbs lighter!). Then there's the questions over electronic ignition/ Japanese carburettors. Electonic ignition now appears to have been pretty universally accepted.
Personally, I don't have a problem with an alternative carb, whether it comes from Japan, Italy or Greenland. My thinking is not just bloody-mindedness. If the fitting of a quality instrument allows the engine to perform as the designer intended what's wrong with that? It wasn't the engine designer's fault that the carbs available back in the day weren't up to scratch... Over to you!