Supercross Futures 2020

They tame the tracks down quite a bit, but they’re still technical depending on your skill and etc.

It’s a very long long day, but it’s organized as long as you pay attention you won’t miss anything, I raced 30 and 35 plus last year at Indy and made both mains ( 35 didn’t have too qualify ) but actually got a lot of track time between two practices, two qualifiers, and two mains, I had arm pump in half lap lol.

But if you can do it you should for sure.

Houston was slightly tamed down, still very technical. During practice they carted a lot of riders off.

There were a ton of guys that had no technical skills or training and thought they were going to be Ricky Carmichael. It didn't take long for the track to eat their lunch.

At the championship in Las Vegas the track WASNT tamed down at all. Only joker lane was removed.

Track was technical AF. Very unforgiving, kid in my son's class had a fatal accident.

Here are a couple of GoPro videos, had a rough go in Las Vegas, two broken clutch levers and a rock locking the front brake.

He was doubling into the sand section at 60mph

Houston was good, at the end you can kind of see me tackle my boy after he qualified for the championship

https://youtu.be/3-9iolhItLI


https://youtu.be/t9revMNrAA4

I raced Anaheim 2 last year, and am doing it again this year. Here are my thoughts.

1. Make sure you register early! Your heat race gate pick is based on the order you registered. Starts are super important in supercross because it's tough to pass, so you'll want to have a good gate pick.

2. You only get 3-4 laps of practice per class in the morning. Make sure you pay attention to the track during track walk and visualize/plan out your lines. 3-4 laps is not nearly enough time, so you'll need to be jumping stuff right away. You better have all the jumps down within your 3-4 lap practice.

3. If you can afford it, do more than 1 class. Otherwise, you will literally sit at the stadium all day long for 3-4 laps of practice, 4 lap heat, 3 lap lcq (if needed), and the main which is 6-8laps. Two classes will give you double the track time within the same timeframe.

4. Practice before you get there! Anaheim 2 track layout was only slightly tamed down from the pro layout. It was way gnarlier than what I had been practicing leading up to it.

5. If you can afford it, get your suspension set up a little stiffer than your normal motocross setup. I ran a stiff motocross valving and was bottoming out in the transitions in the rhythm sections and such.

Has it actually been confirmed that it happened on track? I was in his class as well and don’t remember there being any major injuries like that in practice, but I could never confirm whether it was due to an on-track incident or not.

For the OP, just go for it and have fun. Ride within your comfort zone and avoid guys who are clearly in over their head you’ll have a ton of fun trying a new discipline. I did Oakland and the national championships in Vegas this year and they were two of the most fun moto races I’ve done, highly recommended. I love bmx so for me it was like being able to ride dirt jumps on my moto bike, tons of fun and a new challenge!

Do it.

We had a good time. Wish there was another one closer this year then Atlanta. Early morning, long day but had a blast.

1st practice Sunday morning, Dragon's back

I m waiting for Jett Reynolds.

Try to find an amateur SX track and ride it first. It’s a lot more chaotic than motocross

I raced Phoenix last year and they tamed down the whoops and triples. The rhythm sections were pretty much the same. I’ve never seen so many crashes in one day. Lots of hospital trips haha It was the first round last year so maybe it was more gnarly than other rounds. If you need a place to practice Arizona Cycle park has a legit track. It’s a few steps up from what you’ll see at futures.

Having raced ridden a lot of arenacross stuff locally the one thing not being mentioned here. Is even though the laps are shorter vs a mx track. Being shorter those obstacles come up quicker more often so there's less chance to rest between them. They will start to wear you out faster than you realize and you'll start holding on tighter and before you know it you'll your arms will be pumped up.

Plus also take into consideration that your going to be sitting around in a cold stadium all day. Do some warm up exercises before your moto's. Like jumping jacks or a short jog. Something to get blood flowing and warm up your body.

I found that when i was warned up vs just going out cold i could ride better especially during the beginning of the moto. If i went out cold i wouldn't get warmed up until the end of the moto when it was too late.

I raced the first Futures in A2 in 2018. It was my first AMA race i ever did. Crashed in my heat while in 4th, climbed back up to 12th, had to got to the LCQ and go the last spot. In the main, started in 21st and got back to 8th.

In 2019, I raced again but this year i did two classes which I highly recommend. there is a lot of sitting around a waiting to do your short sprint of a race. Although the races do go fast, there is about 30 some-odd classes that have to go throughout the day, not considering if they have two separate heat races or not. I ended up have a big get off in my heat in my 250C class, but won the LCQ to make the main. The open C class I did I pulled a 7th after missing my original heat race (that i would've had 1st gate pick for). The AMA luckily let me slid with last gate[ pick. So another tip is its better to be early to staging and wait then miss your race. In my mains I got 6th and 13th after some carnage, but man I had so much fun!

Somehow i got alternate positions into the national championship in Vegas. I was not expecting that beefy of a track. I was in the same division where that rider had his fatal crash. He collapsed a lung and was conscious when he left the stadium, but did not make it to the hospital. I qualified 3rd and 5th respectably going into race day. I was so pumped with my riding especially with a much gnarlier track. I had an weird feeling going into racing. If you guys watch the deegans youtube, they have video of another rider endo-ing in the razorback, and the second kid to crash was me. i tried to bail, feet got caught in the bars, and it was lighs out for me. I finished the race and went straight to my dad and asked him "was that practice?" I was pretty bummed, I felt like I couldve gotten on the podium, but I was just happy that racing a motorcycle was able to get me to go out there.

Some major tips for anyone interested in signing up,

1. If you have a local amateur SX track, utilize it. I live in socal, but work a fulltime job to support my racing the best i can. i still have not ridden a supercross track outside of these futures races and that is where I feel I lacked the most.

2. STARTS ARE VITAL. The pros stress this for a reason. Especially in sx, where the track are so much tighter. There is not a lot of room for error, especially with multiple riding flying around you.

3.Try to get some sort of a SX suspension setup, Although the track is tamed down, it will help tremendously. I had stock suspension on my bike and you can tell from the film my friends that I was fighting that bike like a bucking bronco.

4. GET THERE EARLY. Year 1 I missed track walk due to the massive line to get in for parking.

5. HAVE FUN! I saw so many families especially at these races leaving unhappy, but completely ignore the fact the you as a racer get to race in the same setting as a professional. I feel like this is due to the high intensity atmosphere, and everyone feels they have something to prove rather than living i the moment. Live it up, we ride dirtbikes for fun right?

Hope this was helpful to some of you. Ill be back in Anaheim racing the open C and college-boy classes. Look for #311 on the Kawi! See you guys at the races!