P132
CN
III EMPIRE OF DIRT
BY STEVE COX
T
he RedBud Motocross
of Nations has been over
for a few weeks now and
we've had time to reflect a bit
about the events of October 7,
and while I don't expect Team
USA's racers to "get over" what
happened that day until they
have a chance to avenge the
loss (if then), the fans are prob-
ably starting to feel a little less
salty about what happened by
now. To put it simply: Team USA
went to RedBud with the reign-
ing 250cc and 450cc National
Champions and the second-
placed American in the 450cc
Nationals and was soundly
defeated.
Back in August, I wrote two
columns where I attempted
to temper American expecta-
tions from the race. In the first
column "Wide World of MX" I
detailed the rules that have been
changed in order to help the
rest of the world defeat Team
USA – and with good reason,
considering the size of the USA
and the size of its motorcycling
community, among other things.
In the second column "The
Tilted Table" I detailed other
reasons why we should temper
our expectations, such as the
fact that RedBud wouldn't be
prepared the same way, and the
track wouldn't develop the same
way, as what the AMA racers
were used to. Almost everything
I detailed in those two columns
came true at RedBud.
But there was more.
There was Eli Tomac's bat-
tery failure during qualifying on
WHAT HAPPENED
