WINDHAM_H

THE SPORT

 

Ernest Hemingway once said, "There are only three sports: bull fighting, mountain climbing and motor racing. All the rest are games." Judged on those grounds, it's safe to say Papa would have ranked professional motocross among the toughest sports in the world. The mental and physical demands are as relentless and divergent as the 28-round, nine-month race season itself: everything from clearing a tricky set of triple jumps that sling bike and rider more than 75 feet through the air at California's Anaheim Stadium in January, to hammering through knee-deep sand whoops for over an hour at Motocross 338 in Southwick, Massachusetts, ... in triple-digit June heat. Wherever the race happens to be, one factor remains constant: Bravado alone wins you an ambulance ride in this game. Reaching the top of this sport takes world-class dedication to the racer's art, and a hefty dose of strength, stamina, quick wits and iron-clad concentration.

 

MOTOCROSS ORIGINS

 

Though motocross came to this country as a European import nearly 30 years ago, American riders mastered the sport in the early 1980s, subsequently establishing a dynasty of world domination that extends to the present day. In the '70s, the few Americans who were good enough traveled to Europe to measure themselves against the best in the world. Then, in 1981, America's Honda-powered 250cc Trophee des Nations and 500cc Motocross des Nations squad of Donnie Hansen, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O'Mara and Chuck Sun brought the two most coveted titles in international motocross back home. From then on, the best boots have been on American feet.

 

AMERICAN MOTOCROSS HISTORY

 

Team Honda's own Sebastien Tortelli was crowned 125 World Motocross Champion as a 16-year-old in 1996, then won the 250 World Championship in 1998. Where does a double World Champion come to find tougher competition? He comes to America. When Europe's best motocrossers came to Budds Creek, Maryland, for the 1999 United States 250cc Grand Prix, Team Honda's Kevin Windham qualified faster than anyone else in the world. Once the racing started, Windham proceeded to put the Stars and Stripes in its customary international finishing position--first.

 

The history of professional motocross in America began when the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) first sanctioned National Championship classifications for 250cc and 500cc motorcycles in 1972. Last contested in 1993, the 500cc class was subsequently disbanded in America. In 1974, Marty Smith won the AMA's inaugural 125cc National Championship on a Honda CR125.

 

With the extinction of the 500 class, professional motocross is presently contested on 125cc and 250cc motorcycles. At its highest level, American motocross is divided into four AMA championships that are settled in two distinctly different types of venues. The most well attended is the indoor 250 Supercross series, which is held along with the 125 Supercross support class. More traditional outdoor motocross is likewise divided into the 125 and 250 National series.

 

SUPERCROSS, AN AMERICAN INVENTION

 

The roots of modern Supercross stretch back to the first Superbowl of Motocross, held in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1972. Marty Smith won the second event the following year on a Honda CR250R. Over the ensuing years, Supercross has grown faster than any other spectator sport in America, posting more sellout crowds in major stadiums across the country this past season than ever before. With more than 50,000 fans packing the stands at each event in 1999, total series attendance was nearly one million people. Beyond that, ABC TV's national broadcast of last year's Houston Supercross beamed the sport into an estimated 3.6 million homes across the nation. That's more than 10 percent of everyone watching television in the U.S. And millions more tuned into coverage of the series on ESPN2.

 

The AMA National motocross series consists of 12 outdoor events sprinkled across the country, each taking advantage of up to 2 miles of the most challenging local terrain. Supercross races run inside the nation's most prestigious sports stadiums on diabolically challenging tracks sculpted from thousands of tons of trucked-in dirt. Whereas outdoor Nationals are decided by the best aggregate finish over two motos consisting of 30 minutes plus two laps, Supercross racing is based on a heat system that qualifies riders for a single main event.

 

Comprised of everything from long stretches of hip-deep bumps (affectionately known as whoops), to jumps capable of launching bike and rider three stories high, tight turns and just about everything else a creative track designer can conjure up, the season's 16 Supercross tracks put world-class racing within full view of every seat in the house. Snaking their way over a grab bag of natural terrain, motocross tracks subject riders to everything from fast, wide-open straightaways to deep sand, mud, rocks, ruts, and dust, not to mention torrential rains, bitter cold and 100-degree heat with stifling humidity.

 

Supercross and motocross offer a unique set of challenges to which racers must adapt. Riding style, strategy, conditioning and bike setup all differ drastically between the two disciplines.

 

MOTOCROSS AND SUPERCROSS, THE RIDER'S PERSPECTIVE

 

According to Team Honda's Kevin Windham, "Motocross is more about stamina. You want to be just as fast on the last lap as you were on the first, if not faster. Lines are important outdoors because the tracks change lap to lap. They'll beat you to death if you're riding in the wrong place. In Supercross, the tracks are tighter and the races are only 20 laps long, so everything happens faster. It's all about timing, concentration and experience. We know by walking the track what lines will be faster or slower. Once you're racing, judging the distance between jumps comes down to instinct," Windham says.

 

Indoors or out, every rider plays to his strengths and his competition's weaknesses. "I go to every race hoping for a big set of whoops," says Team Honda's Ezra Lusk. "My bike works best there and I do too, so the whoops are going to be one of my attack points this year."

 

"Strength and endurance are the keys to training for motocross," Lusk says. "Supercross training aims at building total focus and quick reflexes."

 

THE WINNING SET-UP

 

Though they may look outwardly identical, the team's CR250R race bikes are set up differently for an outdoor motocross National than for an indoor Supercross event. Start with the suspension. "For Supercross," Ezra says, "I want the front real stiff so it holds up through the whoops. The rear is set slow and stiffer to absorb really big landings. Outdoors the rear is set up a lot looser and softer to be easier on the rider for the whole race, and the front fork is softer as well."

 

Power characteristics are equally incongruous. "There's a little more in a motocross engine," says Team Manager Cliff White, "but overall output is still around 50 horsepower. Supercross demands a very aggressive, instantaneous power delivery and a shorter power spread, because of the jumps. Rougher terrain means outdoor power has to be smoother."

 

The only thing more demanding than the racing itself is holding on to your focus, sanity, motivation and physical conditioning for a 28-race season that stretches from January to September and puts more than 40,000 miles on team's 18-wheel home away from home. "The 2000 Supercross season starts January 8th in Anaheim and ends May 6th in Las Vegas with only two free weekends in between," says Cliff White. "A week after the last Supercross in Las Vegas, we're in San Bernardino for the first motocross National."

 

Though motocross superstars still aren't as highly compensated as their counterparts in old guard stick-and-ball sports, annual take-home pay for the best riders in this sport tops the million-dollar mark. With bonuses, contingencies and endorsements from outside sponsors currently flooding into the sport, today's top athletes can make millions for a single championship season.

 

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