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431
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5/31/2020
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Gaithersburg, MD, USA
Growing up in the late 80’s thru the 90’s watching supercross and racing motocross and watching all my hero’s retire eventually. What I’ve been seeing with this new generation of racers that are growing up and graduating thru these private training facilities is that they are all similar nothing really seperatesvthem from each other. They all have the same style. I can understand these facilities can be good for running laps. But I guess my question is do they ever produce any champions? I see a lot of privateers riding at these places but never really seem to further their career. Then there’s the comment I heard RC and Fro talk about on their YouTube channel where RC pretty much says all these kids coming out of these facilities have no real race craft. They just run the same lap over and over. That can’t be great for your career. Reason I bring this up is from after watching the 250 main Orlando 2. In the first couple turns and jumps they didn’t seem to know what to do, it reminded me of some old C class races a free for all. So my question is are these facilities good for the racers racing career?
I won’t even get into how horribly they are trained physically.
Side note how cool was it in the 90’s when the pros would show up for a local money race... legit pros and a full gate of traveling privateers as well.. you would never get that nowadays...
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Always wondered why more Americans don't go and race in emx, seems a hell of a lot better than a training facility. But then what do I know.
I'll use the Masterpools as an example because my kid has trained there several times. When you show up, you have no idea what you're going to see that day. Mr Jerry gets up and cuts a new layout every single day. You don't know if you're going to ride the sand section, clay, combo of both, jumps, what corners, nothing. He keeps it fresh so you're not falling into the routine of burning up the same line every day. There's still sections of that place we haven't touched, it's huge.
The issue of race craft falls on the rider. These top kids don't race enough and that's what is causing the issue. They run the big amateur races and that's it. The factory kids are running the races they are told to race. Outside of those races, they don't seem to care to run anything else. I've never seen a coach tell their riders to not race and just work on technique for months at a time. Maybe they do, but I haven't seen it and my kid is nowhere near the level we are talking about. In my opinion, this isn't the facilities fault.
Now, with that said. Put yourself in the racers shoes. Say you're Levi Kitchen. If Levi came and ran all of the Texas Winter Series to work on his race craft, what would a racer of that caliber really gain? Yes the Texas winter series packs the gates pretty well, but there's not going to be any competition for Levi. Maybe 1 or 2 that can keep him honest for half a lap. Now look at the other smaller races, why would he even show up? He would just embarrass everyone on the gate with him.
Back in the day, I saw Kevin Windham at some local races. He would sit on the gate to let everyone go and fight through the pack. Even then, winning wasn't a challenge for him at all.
They have their place in the world. They're not all bad.
The spread in talent and ability with these kids and the local kids is night and day. They show up to the local track and they'd race who? These guys will smoke everyone and they can't race for money for fear of losing eligibility, and they'd smoke the money class too.
The facilities offer the same as the nationals (in theory)....putting the best together and work em hard to improve them.
When MTF was pretty much the only game in town, that kind of held true, as many of the top riders went there.
Now there's a number of facilities, so a lot of the talent pool has been spread out. Now you only have one or two top guys at each place. That is bad.
I have often wondered why they haven't gotten together and acted like teams and set up team competitions. Have home and away races. Keep everyone sharp, few more gate drops and can be reported on the get the riders some publicity. Bragging rights between the places.
The facilities definitely help kids get faster and learn some skills, but how many truly ever make it past that, and make a living racing a motorcycle. My wife and I make a nice living, upper middle class, and I still don't see how many of these families do it financially. I know what their parents do for a living, and man you scratch your head at what they are spending on training facilities, bikes, etc for these kids.
I know many people that spend a ton on these facilities, when in all reality their kids are more like mine. Fast, but realistically will never make a living racing a motorcycle. And my kid practices around home and races a lot. At the end of the day, it is a hobby for him and I to get out and race.
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What might be interesting would be some Red Bull MX Cup like they do in road racing.
That coupled with the SX futures races are all things that build towards the end goal. Make them each a championship series that holds a little weight and the gates will pack up with talent.
I know some that have multiple kids that are at a facility 3-4 days per week, their kids have multiple bikes, they travel to every national that matters. They put a ton into it, but one kid did win a championship at Loretta's last year in one class and podium in the other. They are legit and work hard, but I honestly don't know how they afford it.
I could certainly cut back in other areas of life to allocate more to racing if I needed to, but to get to that level of spending upwards of $2k per month just on training would be hard on us. Then factor in bike maintenance, gas, race travel, entry fees, and everything else. I estimate that I spend $10k per year on racing, maintenance, training, really everything minus new bikes. Mitch Payton said to get a kid to the pro level, plan on spending $75-100k per year. Very few people can afford that and it would be a major lifestyle change for me to swing it.
Would only make everyone up their game, riders, trainers and compounds
Keep in mind, they cannot race in any "money classes" and keep their amateur status for Loretta's.
Though for every success story there a kids who go and have a ton of natural talent but never make it to the next level. Not to mention these kids normally come from wealthy families and with that comes the privileged attitude. Girls, partying and heading down the wrong path is a fast way to kill your career and it happens a lot. They are basically living the life of a Rock Star until the parents realize little Johnny is not going to be the next RC.
As far as racing goes the compounds have killed the local racing scene. In the 90’s you would have several fast A and B riders showing up to battle and it would draw spectators and racers to the track. Now it seems you have a few local Pro’s and a handful of B riders. So, yes the compounds have hurt the local racing scene and turnout for sure. It makes it harder for the tracks to grow and prosper.
Though nothing stays the same and I can see more and more training compounds because that is where the money is.
While safer I do think these facilities do train the "send it" mindset out of these kids which kinda sucks.
Bet that'd up little Johnny's pay potential
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