Awesome Anaheim Supercross

The highlight of this winter has to be my visit to last week’s Anaheim Californian Supercross.  I’ve followed this spectacular series on Motors TV but the atmosphere while watching the action live is something else. Forty five Yankee dollars gets you a good seat high in the stadium, with practice starting at 12.30pm and the main event kicking off at 7.30pm. If you are making a day of it however, I’d recommend buying a pit pass then you can get in full anorak mode to hassle the teams and riders for autographs and photos.  We conveniently made some new friends allowing us to do some pre event ‘tail gating’, a great concept which is basically barbecuing and downing beer around your vehicle in the surrounding car parks. 

The evening race schedule is four hours of nonstop action starting with the capacity crowd standing for the American national anthem sung by a stunning blonde with a huge voice.  Then comes a big bucks firework display before all the major riders are introduced amid an amazing laser show.  This brilliant build up is topped off with the hottest ’ Monster’ girls firing T shirts into every corner of the venue with mini cannons.  These events are also never short of motorcycling ‘A’ listers and Anaheim was no exception with names like Hayden, Biaggi, Block and Crutchlow occupying some of the VIP seats.

The 250 and 450 classes have two heat races each where nine of the twenty riders go through to the final, then there is two ‘last chance qualifier’ sprints where the first two home also get to race in the main event.  The programme runs like clockwork with MX legends Ricky Carmichael and Jeff Emig talking you through the action while big screens replay any excitement you might have missed.  Extra spice is added to the starts as there is a fat cheque for the rider that gets the holeshot.  Surprisingly there were very few incidents here especially as turn one was a proper 180 degree funnel job.

My heroes in the 450 class are James Stewart, Chad Reed, Ryan Dungey and Ryan Villopoto but sadly they were all denied victory by an on form David Millsaps who was followed home closely by Trey Canard.  Eli Tomac won the 250 class on a Honda and looked immaculate in the process, surely a man with a long Supercross career ahead.  I took along a few American friends that were SX virgins and now they are totally hooked.  The next round is in Arizona and my buddies are already stocking up with Coors and burgers for the parking lot.  The USA may have a few issues that need sorting out at the moment but their Supercross Series is just perfect.           

By Niall Mackenzie