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involved in all this stuff since the FIM chose to go over the AMA's head and deal directly with the promoters of the track. The FIM and AMA were feuding about other issues at the time. Remember the original World Supercross Championship? At this point, the race seemed doable. The track opened for practice on September 3, ap- proximately three months behind schedule and less than a month before the MXdN race, but people thought, well, this might work out after all. Unfortunately, with the con- troversial race already on shaky ground, things took a nosedive when a rider was killed while practicing on the new track. To make matters worse, the rider was a key member of the So- boba Mission Band of Indians, which hit the community hard. Plus, the tribe was not thrilled by the dust, which supposedly clogged the air-conditioners of the nearby casinos, and the noise and traffic that came with the track. Four days later, during a previously scheduled tribal council meeting, many in at- tendance, who most likely knew very little about motocross or the MXdN but knew plenty about the dust, noise, traffic, and the death of one of its own, voted to close the facility. On September 19, 10 days before the MXdN race, all activities, including con- struction at the track site, were ordered to cease operation by the tribe. The facility was locked up for good on September 20, 2002. There wasn't anything the promoters could do about it. They had signed a "manage- ment agreement" (meaning the promoters didn't "own" the land) with some of the members of the tribe, and the agreement would see the two groups develop and maintain the property for use as an MX park for supposedly the next 20 years, and in return, the tribe members would get paid. Unfortunately for the promoters, when things went awry, the tribal council had the final say, and since Indian ground is also on federal land, California State laws do not apply. The Indians had spoken, which they had the right to do; after all, it's their land. This is the risk you take when doing business on Indian land. So, who was at fault? Well, it's hard to point fingers at the pro- moters for at least trying to bring the MXdN to the U.S. again or the Indians for not liking what was going down on their prop- erty. Or the AMA that had no say in it all. Perhaps, you can blame the FIM/Dorna for simply choos- ing a track that didn't exist just a few months out from their big race and not conferring with the AMA. The FIM eventually found a track to host the race just a few days after the Competition Park lockdown. The 2002 MXdN was re- scheduled to October, in Italy, but many teams chose not to go or now couldn't participate logis- tically anymore, including Team USA. It didn't help that Ricky Carmichael's wedding was al- ready planned for October. This was the second year in a row that the U.S. would not compete in the MXdN because of 9/11 the year before. To help make up for the Comp Park debacle, Glen Helen Race- way, on a week's notice mind you, offered to host a makeshift MXdN called the World Cup of Motocross on the original MXdN date (September 29). After all, some of the riders and teams were already here for the MXdN. It was a successful weekend of international racing, but it wasn't the MXdN. Team Australia won with riders Chad Reed, Craig Anderson and Michael Byrne. Team USA, made up of Tim Ferry, Sean Hamblin, and Kyle Lewis, was second. And what about the real MXdN that year? Well, the Chamberlain Trophy didn't have to travel far with home team Italy— Andrea Bartolini, Alessio Chiodi, and Alessandro Puzar—taking the win. Here's to RedBud 20 years later and more new Motocross of Nations memories and hopefully all good memories, like Team USA winning on home soil. CN CN III ARCHIVES P140 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives