KTM STRAIGHT TO STRAIGHT RHYTHM
F
irst there was motocross,
and then a little over 40 years
ago came supercross. Over
those 40 years, supercross has
evolved into such a special-
ized discipline that motorcycles
are built just to compete in
that sport, and top AMA racers
spend the majority of their year
riding supercross tracks. It has
become such a dominant sport,
in fact, that the setups factory
racers are running in motocross
are actually based on their su-
percross settings nowadays.
Just as supercross has
evolved into something almost
entirely different from moto-
cross, the Red Bull Straight
Rhythm is evolving into some-
thing different from supercross.
"It really is different, because
taking out the turns means you
hit the obstacles way faster than
you're used to," said defending
supercross champ Ryan Dung-
ey. "It's hard to say if you can
apply things you learn here to
supercross because it's hard to
imagine hitting the rhythms go-
ing as fast as we're going here."
Now in its third year, the
Straight Rhythm has always
struggled to fill the 16-racer-
fields with factory-level talent.
This year's event in Pomona,
California, October 22, was
even lighter on talent than usual,
as both of the Stewarts—last
year's 450 champ James Stew-
art and his brother, last year's
Lites champ, Malcolm—are
without rides at the moment,
and the entire GEICO Honda
team, which Malcolm raced for
in 2016, stayed away this year
(likely due in major part to their
rider RJ Hampshire's huge crash
at the event in 2015).
Besides James Stewart, there
was one Red Bull athlete who
sat out this year's event as well:
Ken Roczen. At last week's
Monster Energy Cup, Roczen
revealed that he would've liked
to do the Straight Rhythm, but
most of his new factory Honda
IN
THE
WIND
P28
Red Bull KTM teammates
Ryan Dungey (left) and
Marvin Musquin squared
off for the 2016 Red
Bull Straight Rhythm
Championship.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
STEVE
COX
