Euros taking over

They have 85s, 125s, and 250 2 strokes raceinh the full GP schedule every week on real tracks. So every week their top amateurs are racing each other and learning racecraft and learning to open up real race tracks. There is no real facilities there so they travel to various places to train on different terrain. 

Our 85 riders race a total of 6 times a year, not always against each other. We don’t have a real 125 class, so we have guys racing 250 4 strokes racing in a couple future events indoors and out. But when they aren’t racing their 10 events a year, they are following each other around the same one lined tracks every day at their chosen facility that they are paying an average of 30k a year to live at getting trained by ex riders who have no qualifications other than they use to race pro. 

I'm in NJ and there are virtually no 50, 60, or 80 riders at open practices. Some of the local tracks don't even let 50s & 60s run the same day as big bikes because of insurance issues. The stark reality is that motocross as a sport is dying, tracks are closing, new tracks are not opening, insurance is fleeing the sport, and there is virtually 0 support from the AMA or AMA pro sports to keep the amateur racing scene alive outside of Loretta's. I'd bet money that there will be significant track closures across the U.S. during the next economic downturn. 

Everyone knows the training facilities and LL model is broken but no one will speak out against MX Sports. 

We need an emx type series for outdoors. Our amateur scene is a bunch of one off races scattered all over the country that dont have the same riders show up and dont happen often enough. So many kids are just living at the test track now and not racing. That develops certain skills, but not race craft. Europe has is down pat with emx as a feeder series into mxgp. I know they want to have wmx come to a few rounds, so why not have amateurs at the others? 

SX futures has been a huge success as far as bringing up the next crop of supercross talent and getting them experience + exposure. Winning at Loretta lynns is not and has never been a good gauge of whos ready to go pro. Its just one event, it doesnt show how someone does over a series and also some people have good luck and some bad luck. Today at least someone could have a bad lorettas, but if they won futures theyd get a ride, because its a much better gauge. We need to have a motocross futures to go with sx. 

-Also it had looked like more amateurs were going to race pros up in canada, but then that kinda died out. That also would have been good for getting racing experience. 

i hear what you are saying but I think your problem is more of a NJ thing…..Florida and upstate NY are thriving with riders and places to ride…I”m 2.5 hrs north of NYC… I have an easy 5-6 public tracks within an hr of me…and a shit load of awesome private tracks….and if I want to drive 2hrs, New England has a bunch of epic tracks….as urban sprawl continues, tracks and riding spots will have to migrate to rural counties….as for the mini”s…I realize Insurance liability differs state to state, so thats a tough issue for track owners…..seems like a separate mini track would solve most issues or at minimum give the minis their own session……

WEVE LANDED ON THE MOON 

Costs of bikes as well. When I was 17 I could work a summer job and save enough to buy a new bike every year.

Today's average 17yr old kids A) can'  make enough in a summer to buy a new $10k-12k bike. won't work at all C)

Even the average working father cannot afford to buy 1 or 2 $10-12k bikes for their kids. Add to that the rising expense in everything from gas to parts to entry fees. Plus everyone thinks they needs a box van, big RV, etc. I hauled a converted hay trailer turned into a 3 bike hauler. Or in the back of my truck. Me and my friends jammed 3 bikes and gear into an older single cab F150 and we raced all over the south Texas area. We made it work because we loved MX. Our bikes were scratched and dented but mechanically sound. We didn't care if we looked like factory riders.

We are killing the grassroots riders. Forcing them away.

Vincent wey, Ryder Malinoski & I believe also Kade Johnson all going up to Canada this summer. 

Vincent wey probably the best bet for an up & coming American who can hold it down 

“Euros taking over”? Huh. Just the Euros?

Personally, I’m loving having The Fastest Japanese, Australian…etc…riders form around the world…all of them…racing…

Here, in America.

Kenny winning at SLC…and “The Germans” dressed like it’s Oktoberfest goin’ all in on it…

Awesome.

Hearing Dylan talk to his wife and friends in French? Love it.

The weekly jokes about Cole being an Aussie? Love it.

Barcia becoming “A Token Englishman”? Love it (and he’s absolutely loving it, too).

I never forget that DeanO’s a Scot that got here via Canada…love that, too. 

While we’re gettin’ “All International & Stuff”…

Honestly, it’s time for SX to go back to Toronto. Vancouver, too. Add to that Mexico City…hell, have it at the Autódromo…you’re gonna need to…the Mexicans are gonna show up…a lot of’em. Our sport, in our country, having the best riders from around the world is where my mind goes when I’m reading a thread like this…

And that gets me thinking that we need expand our series to an actual international presence…all the while…NOT expanding the calendar.

Yup, I love this sport and the amazing athletes in it.

Shoutout to LaLa…another Number 1 Bad Ass…don’t want her and her WMX competitors thinking we’re not diggin’ that they’ve accomplished! 

Jett and Hunter aren't European and Jett spent very little time on a limited amount of GP tracks; his pro career has been in the U.S. on our tracks. It took Kenny ten years to get an sx title, MM25 never won one, Vialle only won regional, Prado has improved but not been a title threat. 

It’s not guaranteed that because a rider is fast in Europe, they will win titles in the U.S.  Just because you’ve never heard of some of the names, doesn’t mean talent is not rising up. How many of you heard of the Coenen bros 4 years ago?  What about de Wolf?  

is Arena Cross racing ever looked at for up & coming talent?

So by my math as the 2020’s sit, non-Americans have won 16 of 33 available titles so far in this decade. This is heavily weighted by Jett winning almost half of those (7). 

For the 2010s, Non-Americans won 7 of 50 available titles (includes Dean, who really was a product of the American am system).

For the 2000s, Non-Americans won 12 of 50 available titles.

So if we are being honest with ourselves, are non-Americans winning more titles than ever before? With a generational talent like Jett, yes. If you take that freak out of the equation, it’s much more in line with the past. But Jett is here, so yeah, it’s about 50-50 USA vs The World. 

50/50 isn’t a fun debate topic though so we can continue with our anecdotal arguments.
 

Prado?

Can you imagine how weird it would be if all the European kids focused their entire career and their family's life savings on going to somebody's oddball backyard track in Romania one week a year to race an oddball format, but also to mostly party?

Then imagine if after the Romanian Backyard Track Party (RBYTP), all the MX2 slots were selected based on performance at the RBYTP.

Would that be considered a normal system for developing elite athletic talent?

The majority of Jett’s amateur years were spent in Europe. Racing ADAC, Dutch championship and later EMX.

And every fan knows what they said about the American amateur system when they moved to US. If the team refused to let Jett go pro they would have moved him back to Belgium again since his riding went downhill after they moved.

The main discussion here is not origin, it’s where you grew up and raced as an amateur that formed your fundamentals as a future pro rider.

We already are.

Yes, it seems like American kids don't race. They just piss about at training facilities making Instabangers...

To quote David Pingree on the weak American future.
 
"It's embarassing."

It is not just in MX, almost every form of racing. Not just euros , lets call them non american

To much fast food and video games here in the USA. 

It seems to me that just about every motocross racing nation has amateur/ supporting classes racing along side the pros in their premier championship series, except the US. 
That has to be a factor affecting long term progression. The experience and exposure is priceless.

I didn’t realize our 85cc riders are only racing 6 times a year.

I lived in CT for a number of years and in the Midwest prior to that. Having 5-6 tracks within an hour of you is not common in 90% of the U.S. Count me jealous af. 

Wasn't that the whole idea behind the "Ricky Carmichael Road to Supercross" thing Feld was trying to do?

It didn't work out like they wanted, but it seems like the goal was to turn it into a feeder series.

It is embarrassing. 

From around the 5th, or 6th grade on, we'd get home from school, fire up whatever dirt bikes us neighborhood kids had, and spent the rest of the day ripping around the trails, and fire roads at the end of our street. (Google earth shows that area fenced off at the access points, sand pits squeezed off by shopping centers)

Or the local sandpits.

On most weekends neighborhood families would pack up and head out to borrego, ocotilla wells, etc...

Bikes were affordable. 

Dune buggies were homemade from old Volkswagen's, and corvair engines.

Then in high school you'd bring your stuff in, rebuild your top end, etc.. (for credit)

A new 125 Elsinore was about $760 out the door. Our kit was Levi's or bates leathers, long sleeve T-shirt, and work boots.

I could go on. 

Today kids are picked up from school by their mommies, waiting in their minivans. Shuttled home, fed McDonald's and plopped in front of the screen with a video game controller in their hands. 

We were products of our environment back then. 

As they are today.

Get rid of LL. It's become irrelevant over the last few years. Race 10x's to try to get in and base your entire future off of 3 motos on a backyard track. The last Horizon winner to make it to the 450 class was Jcoop. 

Run an EMX series and pull them up to the pros from that. 

Need an amateur ranking system like tennis has. Scrap the 250 and 450 classes for amateurs. Ride what you want. We need the best racing the best and it reduces the insane amount of classes.

The only big bike that races differently at the amateur or pro level really are the 125s. 250fs are good enough that they basically race the same as a 450. Clearing the same jumps, same lines, etc.

Enough with the c b and a classes as they are. Have specific qualifying races to sort by lap times, have specific area races that develop a rank for each rider, and going forward you could group into classes by rank. Top 40th ranked in mx1 next 40 into mx2 next 40 into mx3 for that particular race.

nobody would give a shit about a top mx3 amateur so no more sand bagging: your goal would be to crush it and make it to the mx2 and mx1 classes asap, so every race you would do your best to improve your rank so every race you go to you could qualify for the mx1 class.

Your last paragraph shows the problem.

‘Get to mx2/mx1 asap’

Why?  Why does the AMA run the series like MXGP with predetermined age limits.  Granted this would take at least a couple of years to bear fruition.  With no way of jumping a class EMX125 - EMX250 - MX2 - MX1 (unless you are TGaiser).  If you think about it backwards from MX2 age limit of 23 then why not age limit of 20 in EMX250 and age limit of 18 in EMX125.  This would surely be in line with min age of 18 to go pro.