VOL. 53 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 17, 2016 P79
fully overcome by the management at
the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Even
the weather tried its best to wreck
this historic weekend with a tropical
storm that canceled all of Friday's
qualifying action. This decision was
obviously not great for public relations
and the hardcore image of motocross
(compared to its NASCAR rival), but
it definitely benefitted the track for
the main race day on Saturday. A lot
of rain fell on Thursday night, which
continued throughout Friday morning,
and despite covering sections of the
track, there really wasn't any need to
churn up the race surface for practic-
es and qualification, as this event was
all about the Saturday night showcase.
The result of all this was a motocross
track that ended up better than any-
one could have expected, even if the
schedule more closely resembled a
Lucas Oil Pro Motocross National and
not an MXGP World Championship.
When this event was first an-
nounced, the track was going to be at
the Z-Max Dragway, one of the other
facilities at this huge motorsport area.
It didn't take long for this venue to be
canned, though, with a whole host of
reasons being given. First, there was
a big drag event a week later and they
were worried that they couldn't clean
the tarmac off in time. Secondly, the
track would have had to have some-
how negotiated all the concrete walls
that run the length the drag strip,
which would have required a lot of
dirt and still been pretty dangerous.
And lastly, and this wasn't confirmed
by anyone official, that there were
too many seats in the stadium which
encroached a little bit too much into
Feld's Supercross territory. Whatever
