The Herlings thread was interesting but getting a little personal and weird between some of the opposing sides, so I thought out of respect to the conversation, as well as a question Bearuno had about Stefan Everts' brief time in supercross, I would post it here before it went off the rails again...
In 1992 there was this surge in interest by Europe-based riders in coming to America for the early SX rounds, in part because they had seen how Jean-Michel Bayle had risen to the top, and also in part because a lot of Americans were the GPs and it made sense to come home and do some winter work. Everts, who was always interested and respectful of supercross, but not necessarily interested in going all-in, decided to test the waters with them. As a result, at some early races, nearly one-quarter of the field in an AMA Supercross main event was GP riders: Everts, Trampas Parker and his Honda teammate Micky Dymond, Bader Manneh... Stefan did well, but like JMB in '89 and Albertyn in '95 and Tortelli in '98, there was a learning curve for sure. (Interestingly, the two world champs that year, Donny Schmit (250) and Greg Albertyn (125) did not come and race SX in the winter of '92.)
With all due respect to Herlings' wins in '17 at Ironman and Jacksonville, the comment that they are tracks our guys "raced for years" is not true, as Ironman has only been on the schedule for four years and it's been a mudder all but once, and the MXGP was the first big race ever held at WW Ranch. (And remember, Eli and Jeffrey split moto wins there.) It wasn't like they were at Glen Helen, where they really have ridden most of their lives, and our guys did pretty good at the old MXGPs there... I have no doubt that if Jeffrey committed himself to SX he could be very successful, but he would probably have had to do it earlier, like Kenny and Marvin and DV12 did, so as not to miss his window where he could still adapt to it, which I believe is what happened to Albertyn here and also Shayne King and Tyla Rattray. Same would go for Cairoli and Paulin, and the same went for RV when he went the other way to MXGP after ten years of SX/MX in America.
So what's changed? In my personal opinion, and please think about this before you flame away, SX is no longer to the advantage of U.S.-based riders in motocross like it was in the eighties and nineties because they are not able to go wide-open like they used to indoors. The bikes (450s especially) are so much more powerful than they used to be, but the stadiums are still the same size, that racing has become about management, not pure speed. They are literally riding in the same gear most of the time and nowhere near as aggressive as they used to be because they have to restrict themselves in order to not literally jump out of the stadium. Our development is based in large part on a completely different type of racing, and I don't know how we change that right now.
As Roger DeCoster said, the emphasis in America is much more on supercross than motocross, and we are paying a price at the MXON for that because bike-development needs and riding technique in the U.S. has evolved/devolved on different paths than Europe, where it's all MX for KTM/Husqvarna (and shows in their results). In some ways, it's becoming as different as F1 is to NASCAR. It's still car racing, and there are badasses on both sides, but it's also an ocean apart in how it all really works out on either side ...
Just my two pence.
DC
Racer X
