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FEATURE STORY

NATIONAL NUMBER ONE
Seems like forever ago this shot was taken. JT delivered my pants for the first national at Hangtown with NATL#ONE on them. Yeah it was the first national, but there was another meaning to them. It seems like we perform better when the expectations are higher from those around us. Having that on my pants made me aware I had to deliver! So I did.

The nationals are the backbone. I hear about SX only contracts and cringe. Outdoor motocross is the foundation. That’s where it started. SX was simply a “Motocross” track in a stadium. Then the X-games/extreme sport mentality came along with some greed and derailed it. Now the outdoors aren’t as desirable as SX. Supercross is hurting the sport! All the SX stuff that made it’s way to the outdoors, practice tracks worldwide and amateur racing has ruined motocross and quite a few careers! The reason riders don’t want to go to the outdoors in my opinion is because of the inconvenience. It’s a journey getting to some of those remote places for sure, but the return is very rewarding. The spoiled attitudes of today have riders wanting to just fly to a major city, travel 15 or 20 minutes to a nice hotel and then walk across the street from the hotel to the track a lot of times where everything is level, paved and clean. To me that is an easy road. For a rider to make a boatload of money to ride 16 times a year in a sterile environment on a cookie cutter track with an easy entry and exit from the venue for their convenience is a shame. The heat race lasts 7 minutes, the main last 18 minutes and the fans get ripped off.

So to the riders who are racing in this year’s GREAT OUTDOORS, good job! I wish them all an adventurous and successful summer.

db