Posts
15458
Joined
12/28/2008
Location
Wildomar, CA
US
Fantasy
45th
Edited Date/Time
9/5/2017 10:16am
David Bulmer just shot over this weekend's GP interview so I rushed to get it up before I head out on the road bike...thought most would find Tomac's words interesting from this race, enjoy.
http://www.vitalmx.com/photos/features/Winners-Circle-Eli-Tomac,39228/S…
http://www.vitalmx.com/photos/features/Winners-Circle-Eli-Tomac,39228/S…
I'm really hoping that the riders here and the teams , take a close look at this whole thing , and realize we need to focus a little more on our outdoor skill sets if we are going to stay competitive against the rest of the world.
I also think that DC needs ( has to if this is going to work ) is to start getting some different track surfaces to ride on. Seems like all the tracks get super deep , chocolate cake loam and they all start to form really close to the same on race day.
We need the hard pack. We need some deep sand tracks. We need variety if we're going to stay competitive.
SX is great I guess.....but when the riders spends half the year doing just that , we become " Part timers " in MX. And we're falling behind.
I think it's more of a case of the GP riders upping there game in recent years than a decline in US riders.
Great interview by the way Vital thanks !
How about AMA comes over to Europe for a round ? would be awesome , but wont happen
The Shop
MX here....is what 99.999% of us ride on weekends ( Speaking of SX vs MX ). If SX was to be the sole purpose for American riders , it'll be focused on something that those 99.999% can't / won't do. It starts to lose touch with what we actually do here. It would become obsolete in my eyes after a while.
People who are interested in moto ( I think ) , after a while would start to crave to watch professionals do what they ( The 99.999% ) are trying to do...MX.
Seems we are at a cross roads here in America. I actually dig SX , but in all honesty , I don't see how SX can survive without MX. It just doesn't make sense. MX is where it all starts , and it's what we all grew up on.
So yes, I guess the AMA is down a bit right now. If Roczen and Musquin didn't come over, our field here would be very weak following Dungey's retirement.
SX with its always extending season and major money has obviously added to the AMA MX scene getting weaker. There really wasn't a debate for a long time where the best riders in the world went. It was the AMA scene here in the states. It's not like that anymore. SX has gotten to be such an overwhelming portion of the AMA schedule that you can't just be an okay SX rider and great MX rider anymore. Tortelli and Albertyn are perfect examples. That was sustainable in their day as long as they got through SX injury free (something they often didn't do). Now, the top GP talent stays in the GPs unless they have been exposed to SX at a younger age and can actually compete and battle for SX championships like Roczen and Musquin can. If they don't fit that bill, then they stay in the GPs like Cairoli and Herlings, among many others. 15 years ago, Jeremy Martin would have been offered a top 450 ride for 2016 following back to back 250 MX championships, coupled with a few wins here and there in SX. In 2017, that will get him a factory support ride at best.
In conclusion, the rise of SX and the fact that the AMA scene doesn't have an all time great out there for the first time in a long time is leading to a weaker US MX scene. Add this onto the fact that top GP riders aren't coming over for reasons mentioned above, then you've got yourself the result of what we are seeing right now.
Side note: It really sucks that MX fans don't get to see all the best going at it for an entire series. Any sport that doesn't have a way to get the best to always compete against each other is just frustrating for fans of that sport.
If I was someone for whom money was no object, I would provide the funding to increase the nationals to 15 rounds. Then I'd make the payouts for the top 20 riders so lucrative they could not refuse to ride the series. I would provide the funding to make every track's facilities world class. And I would have a rule for participating that said anyone who participated in a "supercross" series would be ineligible to ride the outdoor nationals.
I would kill deathcross and return the sport to its roots, where it all started.
So, one off races are certainly interesting and can potentially signal a trend, but they also have to be taken with a pinch of salt to some extent. The top riders in both series are very comparable. Just quickly out of interest, during the various slides I noticed some black box things on the side of Eli's Kawi, extra cooling?
I know there are a ton of things to work out, but it could be done.
A rider like Tomac who suffers with the long schedule, could do season more similar to AC & JH. Bin SX off.
I can imagine your going to say they need SX for a decent pay cheque. My guess would be if the true world best raced MXGP the outdoors would increase in popularity. That will enable more money to be brought in in all sorts of ways.
Have a few GP's to keep USA in the loop.
Riders should choose SX or MXGP. rather then trying to do two different sports.
Pit Row
RJ Hampshire killed it though no excuses from the euro's he smoked them, but I genuinely think Seewer and Jonass are able to beat him.
KCCO.
After listening to his explanation I do feel bad for being a little too hard on Tomac this last week, I don't think he or anyone in his camp read any of it or should care. But I do feel like I went a bit overboard and I hope he comes back next year a little more consistently like the guy on Sunday than he was this year.
If that were to happen, it would kill the industry altogether. SX puts fans in the stands and makes money for the comanies in the industry, there's no question on that. MX does not. SX is a more watchable experience for casual observers. This past season I took my 70 year old mom to her first SX event and she loved it. Had a ball! She's been around racing, Nascar, MX, road racing, etc her whole life with my dad loving motorsports racing. She said it was easy to watch because of the short race formats (good for people with ADD). I started taking my wife to some SX events about 2 years ago. She too had a great time, thought it was fascinating. It's a great venue for casual fans and non-hardcore MX folks. It's a "production" or "show", not just a race event. Like it or not, that gets the seats filled and TV sets on with eyeballs watching. That in turn drives revenue.
I get that you are one of the hardcore MX fans, I too love it passionately. I'm glad if you had so much money that money were no object, you would put so much into MX. But the reality is, unless you win the lottery that's not going to happen. And if you did win the lottery and still did what you claim, you'd likely go broke eventually because it would be an sustainable financially losing venture. The solution is, getting fans in the seats and on TV. To get better riders, the industry needs to pay riders more money - but that doesn't happen without fans in the stands.
I don't know what it takes to get more money pumped into the industry. I just know that if you take away SX, it would be far worse for the industry instead of better.
There is one world motocross championship, that's MXGP, it's the measuring stick for being the best mx rider in the world.
If you want to be the best SX guy, race in the USA. It's pretty simple, those are the two biggest championships in the world.
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