VOL. 51 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 7, 2014 P65
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE COX
T
hroughout the history of mod-
ern motocross and Super-
cross racing, the saying has
always been, "Jump for show, corner
for dough." Red Bull turned that ad-
age on its head when they came up
with the Red Bull Straight Rhythm: a
bracketed, head-to-head, best-two-
out-of-three, single-lap Supercross
race—with no turns.
Red Bull released a video and pho-
tos of the concept almost a year ago
either as a teaser for what they had
planned, or to test the public percep-
tion of the idea, either way, it came to
fruition this past Saturday at Auto Club
Raceway in Pomona, California, with
both a 250cc and an Open class.
The race worked like this: Timed
qualifying on Friday determined the
order for the 16-rider bracket in both
classes, and just as with drag racing,
the brackets were set to reward quali-
fying well: First in qualifying faced off
against 16th in the first round, second
against 15th, third against 14th, and so
on. The better a racer qualified, the
less likely they'd get knocked out of
the tournament early. This also pre-
vents racers from sand-bagging quali-
fying in order to manipulate who they
will face in the actual race, because
the better a racer qualifies, the slower
his early round competition will be.
Also just like with the NHRA, the num-
ber-one qualifier was on one side of
the bracket, while number two was on
the other, which helps to insure that if
1 and 2 faced off at all, it would be in
the final.
And finally, each round was deter-
mined by a best-two-out-of-three for-
mat, with the faster qualifier picking
the lane for race one, then switch-
ing for race two, and finally switching
back to their preferred lane for the
third and final race, if they split wins
with their competitor.
250 CLASS
Red Bull KTM teammates Marvin
Musquin and Justin Hill (in his de-
but with the team) qualified first and
second on Friday, and as designed,
they dispatched of their competition
quickly in round one. Musquin faced
off against new TLD/Lucas Oil KTM
racer Darryn Durham in round two,
JUMP FOR SHOW,
CORNER FOR...
NEVERMIND
Red Bull turns up the heat at the
inaugural Straight Rhythm
