Cycle News

P104 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX P eople don't like change. This has probably been true since the dawn of man. But it's also true that some- times change is necessary, and sometimes change is inevitable. In regard to supercross, this past weekend's event at Anaheim II represented a change, go- ing from a system of qualifying followed by a single main event in each class to a system where qualifying was done prior to the opening of the night show, lead- ing to a race program consisting of three main events for each class. The promoters have deemed it the Triple Crown, and there will be two more of those this year, making up the Triple Crown Series—a series within a series. We can debate whether a change in format is necessary, but this particular change cer- tainly isn't inevitability. After using this format for a few years at the Monster Energy Cup, the pro- moters, Feld Motorsports, are trying it out during the series this year to see how it's received, and how well it works. The primary complaint I've seen online about the new format is that there was too much downtime. Some people expressed this by stating there were too many commercials, but in actuality there were the same amount of commercials. How- ever, there was less racing. I added up the amount of time that racers were on track in Houston, a week earlier, from gate drop to checkered flag, and the total amount of "race time" came to 78 minutes and eight seconds. At Anaheim II, under the new format, there was only 70 minutes and 50 seconds of race time. That's a net loss of seven minutes and 18 seconds of total race time, which means that there was approximately 10% more racing in Houston than there was at Anaheim II. So that seems like a valid complaint, looking at the data, but I find it hard to believe that people could tell there was 10% less racing. My bet is that it seemed like much less racing mainly be- cause there were two really long gaps in the program itself. Normally, at a race such as Houston or Anaheim I this year, there are four heat races run in succession (two for the 250SX class, two for the 450SX class), then a very short break before the 250SX and 450SX LCQs, which are also run in succes- sion. The break can be short between the heats and LCQs because the 250SX racers who raced in either of the first two heat races got about a 20-min- ute break after their heat to THE TRIPLE CROWN Reactions seem to be fairly mixed about the Triple Crown format in AMA Supercross. But most agree there is too much downtime. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE COX

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