Posts
1973
Joined
8/26/2006
Location
Carson City, NV
US
Fantasy
2740th
Edited Date/Time
3/6/2015 10:17am
Before I get to my question, I want to say that since MX Sports has taken over the reigns the exposure the riders/companies are getting through MX is great. While supercross is exciting, seeing some of the best riders in the world going out for 30+2 is at the core of our sport. Some people may not be in favor of the single day format on Saturdays, but I think it's great to get home from a race and have a day to sleep off a hangover.
My concern is the tracks and the prep work that goes into them before and during the race day. If you haven't listened to the recent Pulp, Dungey and DV bring up some good critical points that seem to be handicapping the US riders. Each track is bringing in external dirt to make the racing surface more loamy. Hangtown is almost no different than Red Bud, which is no different than Budds Creek, and so on.
DV talks about having to setup a bike completely different for a US MX race compared to a GP MX race. The tracks are being groomed back to perfectly smooth in many areas instead of letting the entire track get really rough throughout the day. We have no true hard pack tracks anymore like a Carlsbad. Now we don't really have a sand track either with Southwick off the schedule.
Is there anything MX Sports can do to add some variety to our current tracks on schedule? Is it up to the track owners and MX Sports simply puts on the race with whatever the track surface the owners provide? I'm not criticizing your operations, I'm just curious to hear what your thoughts are after hearing some pretty prominent figures speak on race day track conditions.
My concern is the tracks and the prep work that goes into them before and during the race day. If you haven't listened to the recent Pulp, Dungey and DV bring up some good critical points that seem to be handicapping the US riders. Each track is bringing in external dirt to make the racing surface more loamy. Hangtown is almost no different than Red Bud, which is no different than Budds Creek, and so on.
DV talks about having to setup a bike completely different for a US MX race compared to a GP MX race. The tracks are being groomed back to perfectly smooth in many areas instead of letting the entire track get really rough throughout the day. We have no true hard pack tracks anymore like a Carlsbad. Now we don't really have a sand track either with Southwick off the schedule.
Is there anything MX Sports can do to add some variety to our current tracks on schedule? Is it up to the track owners and MX Sports simply puts on the race with whatever the track surface the owners provide? I'm not criticizing your operations, I'm just curious to hear what your thoughts are after hearing some pretty prominent figures speak on race day track conditions.
Edit: The biggest part of my question is track prep and how it's hindering our riders when it comes to MXDN. When you have a guy like Dungey mention how he felt like a fish out of water at an MXDN because the track got so rough, then I think we have a problem.
The Shop
Cheers
Simon
Live TV is extremely important to the teams trying to find sponsors, and while our tracks are prepped differently than GP tracks, to say they are all the same is not really accurate. Like the GPs, the same track manager oversees the prep, but unlike the GPs, we do it all in one day, and they have the luxury of two days and much less riders... And the reason we went away from a two-day format is that after 18 weeks of supercross, we would probably see some riders return to "supercross-only" deals, to be painfully honest.
My opinion:
We lost in Lommel because the sand was truly different for our guys, but we still got on the podium, but those German guys were very fast too.
We lost in Germany because Eli Tomac and Justin Barcia had some very untimely crashes, but still got on the podium, but those Belgian guys were very fast too.
We lost in Latvia because Jeremy Martin raced with a broken foot and Eli Tomac and Ryan Dungey had some very untimely crashes, but we still got on the podium, but those French guys were very fast too.
The single thing (besides luck and crashes) that I believe has been hurting our guys is the fact that our series ends mid-August, at the request of teams -- they have to have some kind of break, and it's usually September -- and the inability to draw a lot of fans out during football season. With the MXoN is six weeks later, our guys probably aren't as sharp as they are when our series ends.
DC
MX Sports
I don't buy into the whole track prep debate as some, these guys know how to ride, its more of familiarity thing to me, Cities, Countries, Food, Weather, Soft, Hard, Wet, Whoops, Jumps, Starts.....
You have the whole package, You Win!
Pit Row
(Its funny, the GP's don't groom their tracks and you bone-heads think it makes the GP riders more "manly" or something. Ever think it was because they just always did it that way and they decided not to change. What started out as being possibly lazy - this is a guess- has turned into a badge of honor for those "rough" GP tracks.)
Just be stoked we get to watch great racing from all over the world, including the racing in our own back yard. (And stop complaining about how tracks aren't like they used to be....if you want to watch racing like that...they still exist, they're called GNCC's.)
I think its the rider not being able to set a bike up properly for the conditions.
Not because of the track prep here in the states.
1.) Lack of setup time : We get our guys there a week early and try to get some testing in , usually on tracks that aren't that similar to what the actual race is on. " Most " of the time....the GP regulars already have a great baseline setting for that specific track , because they have raced or ridden it plenty of times. I'm not this happens every year , but close to it.
2.) And probably the most important thing here is.......our boys have a 6 week break " after " our nationals are over with before the race. That means 3 of our guys should / have to keep training up until the race ( every day they take a break , the GP guys are still training because their series is still going ). Mean while.....ALL of the USA riders here that aren't chosen to race it.....get that much needed break.
I think BOTH of those reasons are huge. It's not an excuse , or in any way taking anything away from the GP badass's across the pond. Just seems we are at a slight disadvantage before we even get there sometimes.
But....it is what it is I guess.
One year a track from the US series, the next year a track from the GP series.
Only real way to make things even.
When you go ten years between having a MXoNs on American soil its a bit lopsided IMO
I can tell you from experience though riding practice and then going to the lcq are totally different. For the motos the track is quite a bit different from practice (not that Ive made a moto but they fix the track before the lcq) and its weird because the flatten and fix some stuff and then leave other parts super gnarly. For example, Unadilla was a highway during the motos compared to the track in practice but the track in practice would be terrible for racing with guys tiptoeing around. While at Muddy Creek it looked like is had rained 6 inches the night before (it hadn't) and the track was unbelievably deep and then in the motos it developed just as bad, minus where they had to scrape bc it was just too muddy.
I think the real fix for the AMA circuit would be to be more consistent. Instead of flooding the track in practice and making it a quagmire for the first set of practices if they laid less water down the track would develop better and faster lines. Right now they flood it to make deep ruts, but its a mess, lines everywhere and then they go flatten the bad turns and the not so good lines and leave just a few good line. if they laid less water they wouldn't have to fix as much after practice, this would lead to a little drier and less loamy tracks and theyd have to water during the day but it wouldnt be like 2 different tracks throughout the day.
Some will say " Why cater to the American's.....there are 30 other countries that race it too! " ( MXoN's )........let's not look at it like that. Lets take a step back and look at it as two different series......the AMA nationals and the GP's.
Getting the MXoN's race scheduled so that it makes it a little easier. If there is 6 weeks before the race....why not compromise some how? I can see why some of our guys don't want to do it after racing for 8.5 months strait......then a 6 week break before that race. That schedule sucks for the dudes doing it.
I believe 2012 was the first year that the Outdoor National schedule was brought forward slightly? There was a three week gap that year, but the last two years there has been a four week gap between the end of the Outdoor Nats and the MXdN.
Lommel aside, I think Team USA's results over the last two years have been affected more by bad luck/crashes than anything else. Before that Team USA were able to avoid it, while the other contenders often suffered terrible luck.
And if its every country against every country, how come they haven't had a race in every country that fields a team???
Post a reply to: Question for DC