Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·.RACERX'·. By. DliveY CoomQs sn't it' funny how right when the morali ty police of motocross were about to put the last bullets into the ack of Crusty, out comes an entire ovement of free-riding counterculure? Just as everyone was about to ndergo the NASCAR makeover, a baggy-clothed, video-inspired revolution kicks in with underground leaders like Seth Enslow and Mike Metzger. Why is the very look of our sport suddenly spinning away from being a stock-car-racing clone and headed for the half-pipes of snowboarding and s!9'teboarding? And what in the world Will our 250cc.National Champion Jeff Emig be wearing next year? Shift? What's up with that? Motocross is having' some serious growing pains. Don't worry, they still hold races on any Sunday and the fastest guys will always be the coolest guys, but there really is an underground shift taking place right now that is changing the way Generation X racers dress and ride. Someone, somewhere finally figured out that motocross has more in common with expressi ve sports like surfing, ska ting and snowboarding than it does with ASCAR, IndyCar, road racing and other "garage" sports. Of course a lot of people hope aRd pray that professional-level dirt-biking one day becomes accepted mto the lexicon of those mainstream, corporatefriendly forms of racing, which would still be pretty cool for everyone. Bu t, in my opinion, that's the only way we're related to them: We want what they've got. Motocross is about participation and expression. It's about heading out to the local riding spot and going through a tank of gas while enjoying the freedom of being on a motorcycle. NASCAR racing is about something else, something entirely different than motocross racing. Think about it: How many people spend a weekend down at the local Brickyard driving their Monte Carlo around a paved oval, over and over and over and over.... You see, I those other forms of racing are about watching, not participating. Motocross and supercross are great spectator sports - the best. But unlike stock car racing, when you're done watching a motocross race on TV from the stands or in your living room, you can go do some riding and jumping yourself! Motocross is different because anybody can do it, not just someone with a autoracing team's budget. The people pushing for turning our sport into a NASCAR·c1one have good intentions, but they might want to be careful about what they wish for, because they might get it. They say NASCAR is a "good old boys" sport, but who gets to actually be a part of the sport? In order to work for a NASCAR team as a mechanic or technician, or even the guy who cleans the windows, you basically have to have a serious engineering education which would most likely include a college degree. (Forget about ever being a driver or a team owner.) As for just getting pit passes for an event, a la motocross and supercross, you'll need just about the same amount of pull it would take to get you courtside at an NBA game or backstage at the next Pearl Jam gig. Want to get to know Jeff Gordon but his Internet websites just aren't personal enough? Get a job at DuPont Corporation and hope they ask Jeff to come to the Christmas party. Want to be a flagman at the Daytona 500? Yeah, right. For better or worse, motocross just isn't like that, even though some of the old guard in this sport are hoping we grow in that direction. And they seem to feel that if the sport keeps letting this free-riding movement mushroom, we'll never attain NASCAR-like status. Back in the early 1980s', skateboarding was undergoing similar growing pains. The sport was huge and skate parks and competitions were plentiful. Then the insurance backlash hit them hard, a lot of skating spots were closed, and the sport nearly went away and died like Yard Darts. (Sound fantiliar?) Then someone figured out a new trick called an "ollie" that meant that skaters didn't need. an entire park to have funany curb, rail or wall would do. So skateboarding took off again and it's still going strong, only this time it's really huge because anyone can do it, not just someone who lives near a skate park. Now you see skaters all over the place, trying to copy and invent new tricks on their boards. There's a few professionals making good money, but most people just want to skate and do as many cool new tricks as they can. There's also a whole skater scene that comes with its own music, fashion and attitudes, and it looks a lot like what you see in snowboarding.... and surfing.... and the free-riding motocross movement. And it doesn't look or sound like anything tha t you'll find with the good old boys in the NASCAR pits. Motocross is undergoing changes in another, even bettet way as welL (This is off the free-riding movement path, but bear with me.) If you follow golf at all, then you know who Tiger Woods is and how Tiger Woods has begun to transform what's always been a WASPish sport into a more accessible sport for the masses. Ever since Woods burst onto the pro circuit a couple of months ago, the color of the gallery is changing from "suburban/ country club white" to a more urban mix of white, brown and black, and that's a . good thing. Motocross is about to get a remix of its own. In the near future, American motocross and supercross is going to be introduced to Hispanic up-and-comers like Ernesto Fonseca and Edgardo Rojas and African-American flyer James "Bubba" Stewart. With props out to Carlos Serrano, Pedro Gonzalez, Andy Jefferson and Dave McClain, these youngsters are the first minority racers with a real chance of be'ing American motocross superstars. Their arrival (or that of any another fast, young minority racer) will further broaden the fan base and the appeal of our sport, in a direction that's less brickyard than it is skatepark. And then there are the girls. In the last few years, the women's motocross movement has gained huge amounts of respect and credibility within our sport, just as it has in other areas such as basketball, soccer and surfing. The U.S. Women's Motocross League proved that, as Nike tells us, if we let them play, women's racing can be very exciting and entertaining. The women's races were an excellent addition to the ever-growing AMA 125/250cc Pro National MX Series and will only get bigger next year. Do you think you'll see a women's support class in the Indianapolis pits next year? For anyone to be a part of the freeriding movement, you need a bike and a place to ride. The better you get, the more tricks you'll want to do and the more you'll want to ride. And you can still race on any Sunday. The older motocross establishment might not like the Crusty look, but they can't argue with the popularity. That's why LBZ and Xtreme and the new Shift are doing clothing lines inspired by Crusty, not Chevy. Garage fans, don't get me wrong. I'm in no way, shape or form against NASCAR racing, IndyCar racing, or even slot-car racing. This is about bike racing and my belief that motorcycle racers (and the sport itself) need to keep their own identity. The free-riding movement is a whole new look and way of participating that personifies the individual, not the corporate conformity that dictates those other sports. And Jeff Entig, in his new Shift threads, exemplifies the individuality and freedom that is our sport. As for the soul of motocross, it can still be summed up on Jeff Emig's tattoo: "Live to ride, ride to live." The Man ntight be dreading it, but I can't wait to see what 'Fro is wearing on January.ll, 1997. l~ I· -LOOKING BACK~ . .·: I 25 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 23, 1971 f;jj;j~~=;==_~ ond run at over 164 t the 13th running of the Dirt Diggers Me Hopetown Grand Prix, Huskymounted Bob. Grossi picked up the International Motocross win with a 2-1-4 day. West German "'--i.iiil;';"~ factory Maico rider Werner Shutz had a 1-4-3 to take second place. Two nights before, Shutz swept all six 250cc and 500cc Expert motos at Ascot's night MX in Gardena, California...Tulsa, Oklahoma .hosted the Trans-AMA series and Suzuki's Roger ·DeCoster took the win, followed by Joel Robert and Torlief Hansen...After rebuilding the engines on his twin Triurnph-engined Top Fueler, Borris Murray turned in a nine-sec- A won the Checkpoints' Bad Mountain Enduro/Bob Brooks Memorial Enduro held in Red Mountain, California. ~ Husky's Tom Webb finished second at one point back and National Champion and Husky-sponsored Dick Burleson finished in third. mph without the front engine running. Terry Vance defeated Jack Larragoitiy in the money bike brackets. 15 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 18, 1981 usqvarna's Scot Harden and Mar k H _ 5YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 20,1991 ...__~ Wallingsford won the grueling Baja 1,000 by 22 minutes over second-place finishers Bruce Ogilvie and Larry Roeseler on a Yamaha. Kent and Scott Pfeiffer finished third overall and first 250cc...John Cook won the U.S. Long Track Speedway Championship held a t Ascot Parkin California over Shawn . Moran and Shawn McConnell...Cyc1e News conducted an interview with Danny Chandler entitled, "The new smooth Magoo." ...Husky's Terry Cunningham onda's Freddie Spencer upstaged Thomas Stevens' clinChing of his first AMA Superbike National Championship on the streets of Miami by winning his first race since August 11, 1985, at the 500cc Swedish GP. Kawasaki's Scott Russell finished second and Stevens got third...Honda's Jean-Michel Bayle won the Barcelona SX over Suzuki's Larry Ward and Guy Cooper in third ...Czech Jan Hrehor H showed the Americans how it is done by winning the Morrison, Illinois, round of the AMA National Enduro Series. Suzuki's Randy Hawkins got second and newly crowned National Champion Jeff Russell took third on his KTM...Cycle News ran an interview with dirt tracker Dave Durelle entitled, "Better than ever. If G (N ~

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