VOL. 54 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 P87
involved as possible, because if the
OEM's are getting involved, then
they're promoting it. And if they're
promoting Super Hooligan racing,
guess what? They're promoting flat
track! We're all promoting flat track.
If you get into flat track racing, I think
you're a motorcyclist for life. It's the
motorcycle gateway drug."
Super Hooligan racing struck while
the flat track iron was hot and is still
riding the crest of a wave that's seen
an explosion of popularity for one of
the oldest forms of motorcycle sport.
There's something anti-establishment
about the Hooligans that's completely
addictive, almost like the surf coun-
terculture of the 1970s. Guys and
girls are racing purely for the fun of it,
never mind the chance to win a $50K
Indian at the end of the year.
"They're putting us on a bike that's
not made to dirt track—it kind of
brings out the fun in it again," says
2000 AMA Pro Grand National Cham-
pion Joe Kopp. "The crowds we have
been getting around the country have
been crazy! And it's a totally differ-
ent group. I'll go through the stands
and listen to the crowd, and it's neat
because I've heard quite a few times
some lady who drove with her hus-
band or her boyfriend say, 'Honey,
you need to get your bike and go do
this.' When you go to a supercross or
an AMA flat track, you don't get that.
"This is the fun stuff and people are
like, 'I can do that!' It's neat seeing
that part of it because that's some
new blood in our sport and it's open-
ing flat track up to people that have
never seen it before."
One such rider has been Hunting-
ton Beach local Rob Dixon, who got
