P112
CN
III EMPIRE OF DIRT
BY STEVE COX
C
hampions aren't always the outright
fastest guys. Look at the Damon
Bradshaw years, for example; he
was almost always the fastest guy, but he
never won a national title. James Stewart
was almost always the fastest guy, but how
many titles did he take from Ricky Carmi-
chael?
Obviously, speed helps, and is neces-
sary to a degree, but champions are usually
determined by two things: belief and will.
Anybody who has had any level of racing
success, even at the local level, likely un-
derstands nerves, but for those who don't,
here's what it's like:
You've been working for months, or even
years, to win whatever class at whatever
track, and you're on the track, in the lead.
Maybe you've led before, and maybe you
haven't, but as the laps count down, all of
that time you've spent striving toward your
goal all of a sudden starts flooding back into
you. It's not necessarily cognitive thought,
but more a rush of emotion, and it only gets worse
as more laps go by. You become acutely aware of
every sound your motorcycle is making, and every
sound from your competitors behind you, and you
start getting more and more nervous, to the point
that as you get the white flag, you can feel your
hands start to tremble, and you just hope that you
can hold it together for another lap.
If you manage to do it, and you take the check-
ered flag, there's an adrenaline rush of elation as
you celebrate, and you realize the reason for all
your hard work, followed by an adrenaline dump,
leaving you completely emotionally spent.
Now, try to imagine this at the very top of our
sport, in the 450cc Supercross Series, after
spending the better part of two decades hoping
to achieve exactly that goal of winning a 450cc
supercross main event, and add in the crowd, the
money, the pressure of riding for a factory team,
and all the rest. What separates elite-level cham-
pions from one-time champions, and one-time
champions from winners, and winners from factory
racers, and factory racers from privateers, and
privateers from local racers, etc., is mostly how
well they handle their nerves.
Most racers, even at the factory level at the top
of the sport, can become overwhelmed under
these circumstances, and they end up getting
CHANGING
OF THE GUARD?
Cooper Webb is for real.
