Eric Peronnard talks X Games EnduroCross

There has been talk of EnduroCross being a part of X Games for a long time now - how many years in the making is this? 
Basically
the seed was put in the ground six years ago in '05. At the second
(ever) EnduroCross, I invited Tim Reed from the X Games. He was really
taken by it. He said, 'Hey, this is a great sport and it would fit X
Games.' But there was no open space for it at the time.

What did it take to finally make the big show?
We
started to have a working relationship at first. We exchanged a lot of
ideas. I kind of kept the EnduroCross dream alive for them and just
waited. It was a lot of hard work with great people for many years, and
finally we were at the right place at the right time. At the end of the
day, EnduroCross seemed like a good fit because it's young, exciting,
it's going up and it's been getting a lot of traction in the motosports
world.

We've seen from past X Games that they like to
put their own creative spin on existing events. Will there be any new
crazy obstacles or anything? 
No,
we're not in the business of hurting people. That's what I always try
to remind [people of]. We have a different format, but that's all that's
different. We go from three heats to two LCQs and a main - no
semi-races. That's going to be a quicker, faster format than usual.

Event promoter Eric Peronnard is the man behind getting EnduroCross into the ESPN X Games.
Photo: Scott Cox / resmarket.com

Zip-Ty Husqvarna's Ryan Sandoval is one of many athletes preparing for the big show. Photo: Scott Cox /resmarket.com

So it won't be anything too out of the ordinary, then. 
Right.
I made sure that we kept it in the championship. The wrapping might be
slightly different, but the essence is still the same. It's an AMA
EnduroCross championship race - and we call it "Enduro X" for the
weekend.

Are the riders and teams really excited about the X Games factor, or are they focused on the start of the championship?
We've
been asking all our participants to really understand the value of this
opportunity, so we ask every rider to be overly professional in
appearance, etc. But at the end of the day, this is a series, so there
is no difference. Riders are getting special gear made and getting bikes
all pimped up, and I think everybody is really getting the scope of
this. But the series is the bigger picture, and they all get that, too.

As
the promoter, you'll be having a race, too - building an EnduroCross
track faster than you've ever done before. Talk about that.
Yes,
definitely it's going to be a long, short night. We get the keys of
Staples Center Saturday night at 9:00 P.M. and we need to have a track
ready to go 15 hours later. It usually takes us three days; we have 15
hours. So it won't be the most challenging track we've ever built
because we don't have the time. We're not going to be able to fine-tune
obstacles so we're going to make them medium. It will be spectacular,
but also safe. I think people will be impressed.