Kissimmee Supercross 8

Photos! Click the following link for a 40-photo gallery of images from the Kissimmee Supercross.

What? You thought Supercross was still a couple weeks away? Well, that's true of Monster Energy Supercross, but this pre-season event (and its $10,000 purse) attracted quite a few riders to Kissimmee, Florida. Here's a report from Vital MX's Tim Eggers.

The night was amazing on many other levels aside from the actual racing. Number one, the event was staged in Kissimmee, Fla., at the “Bull Riding rink” – The Silver Spurs Arena – long been the bull riding center of country loving cowboys in this area for about 50 years. This is absolutely a first that motorcycles have entered into this famous ring of cowboys. Another awesome level was the fact that this is a “one-off” race. The promoters of the event were Kevin Franklin and Nick Pinaud. I estimated that there were 1000 local fans and there were was radio station support. The track was nothing short of the most professional quality Arena/Supercross track that can be built. Nothing was spared. Future plans call for several more events...maybe six a year. For more info? Check out www.eastcoastracers.net. Well if they are anything like this one, I’ll be happy to attend.

The night featured a variety of levels of racing from the 50cc 7-year-olds, up through the “B” intermediate riders, all the way up to the professional Supercross riders that race the full SX circuit vying for a $10,000 purse. There were thrills, spills, and several on track fights that marked the excitement of the evening. Mouth of the South - Wes Cain was on hand for the commentating.

Without question, Matt Boni is ready for SX. He dominated the entire night which is no easy task considering the other talent that was on hand. Other SX riders included Matt Goerke; Shawn Skinner; Tiger Lacey; and up and coming youngster Steven Clarke were on hand for the entire night. Matt was several levels above the rest of the field. It was a solid spanking of the other riders as he cut through the pack in a semi, moving from last to the lead in about seven laps. He won that race by a comfortable margin. He grabbed the holeshot in the feature and never looked back by putting two seconds a lap on his lead at every lap.

Without a doubt, the quality and professionalism of this event will mark a new goal for next year and will have many more sponsors and vendors. This was an unbelievable event for a first time effort and was as entertaining as any full time scheduled Motocross/Supercross/Arenacross event.