The State of Supermoto in the USA......And Beyond

('08.....What has transpired.......And what you can look forward to!)

Here we are at the start of the Professional Supermoto racing season in the USA and it got going with a major "show"…..(the ESPN produced Navy Moto-X World Championships three weeks ago) and now we’re in a bit of a “lull” awaiting the start of the AMA Supermoto Championship series in July.  Of course the same weekend that the Moto-X action was taking place, the FIM World Supermoto Championship kicked off their first round of the year in Torino, Italy as well as the French National Championship series which kicked off in Chenevieres.

Moto-X/AMA:  It was a weekend of making the most out of a last minute change of programs as the Navy Moto-X World Championship was to have a full AMA Supermoto program run alongside it, but the AMA event was scrapped just a few weeks prior due to an inability for the promoters involved to get all the details….(legal or otherwise) ironed out so close to the show. Fortunately, a decent compromise was arranged for a number of the “non” invitees, which was many of the regular AMA competitors, to get an opportunity to race their way into the big money of the Moto-X show. Friday featured a set of heats and an LCQ that added 12 more riders to the “show”. Saturday was a really exciting day of 4 Heat races and 2 LCQ’s that filled out the starting grid for the Main. Lots of very very exciting racing transpired with Herfoss/Conlon and Pingree/Ward being two of the memorable ones, not to mention Yamaha Factory pilot Brandon Currie having to go through the LCQ after crashing out in his heat race start……(the start to first turn “straight” was so short the numerous tangles were inevitable). The main event was a great show with Mark Burkhart coming from the aforementioned turn 1 melee induced 7^th place on the first lap to methodically pickoff racer after racer, and then finally putting on a start finish double jump pass on none other than last years arch nemesis, Jeff Ward, to take the race lead and then pull out a slight margin on the way to the Gold and checkers, while Troy Herfoss battled with Ward to take the second step on the podium. A great “show” to kick off the U.S. Supermoto season.

FIM: Across the Atlantic “Pond”, in Torino, Italy, it was Thierry Van den Bosch on his factory DRC Aprilia taking the S1…(450) race with KTM’s Bernd Heimer 2cnd and Husqvarna’s Thomas Chareyre, taking home the 3^rd place hardware. The S2….(550/Unlimited) races were barnburners with TM’s David Gozzini edging out the CH Azzalin Husqvarna of Adrien Chareyre and KTM’s Attilio Pignotti.  In France it was Cross 2R Husqvarna teammates Kevin Berthome and our man Sylvain Bidart battling for the win with Berthome taking the win in the S1/Prestige class with Stephane Blot getting the final step on the podium.

What is Happening??  The season has begun, and the excitement is ramping up worldwide! With the racing getting underway worldwide, here in the USA it has been a whirlwind of developments in front and behind the scenes.

Without a doubt the biggest shakeup in recent memory in ANY racing series began shaping up in the middle of the 2007 season as the AMA sent out RFP’s…..(request for proposal) to a number of possibly interested and capable parties, including yours truly, to start the process of removing themselves from the increasingly unmanageable combination of being BOTH a legislative body and a racing sanctioning body. In a series of negotiations and submissions from a who’s who in motorsports marketing and promotion, the AMA finally granted/entered into an agreement/sold/ their full slate of racing series, everything under the AMA umbrella from Roadracing to Flat Track to Supermoto, basically everything except Supercross…..(which is rumored to be possibly available next year and is currently under the Live Nation management) to the Daytona, Florida based Daytona Motorsports Group, based in Daytona Beach, Florida. While 2008 will certainly be an ongoing period of adjustment and development, it also bodes as the dawn of an exciting new and wide open period in two-wheel motorsports in the USA, and especially for Supermoto. And speaking of the Supermoto series and the AMA.....just a few weeks after the announcement that the Daytona Motorsports Group had secured their "agreement in principle" to purchase all the different series from the AMA, it was announced that Xbux, the online marketing, promotion and contingency company along with Troy Lee Designs had become the promoter of the 2008 AMA Supermoto Series. Xbux in partnership with promoter extraordinaire Gavin Trippe and TLD should be a powerful force in enabling the continuity and foundation from which the sport here in the USA can grow and expand exponentially!

Much is evolving as we speak…..negotiations to add an AMA round into the X-Games program, possible new and additional venues to the current six race schedule……the expansion of marketing and promotional avenues, not the least of which is this medium of the internet, and the exploding video technology and capabilities that we here at SuperMotoOnline.com in partnership with two state of the art entities are working to take to the sport of Supermoto to a whole new video broadcast quality product level not seen in the two-wheel world currently.

 I was watching the Speed broadcast of the Galveston AMA round today that aired this past December, and the video quality is fine, the Brian Drebber commentary is pleasant and informed….but “I”…..(and I’m sure anyone reading this right now) want to see the most exciting sport on the planet LIVE…….not months later after the season is over……in high quality HD……..AND downloadable for viewing anytime…….AND.....with a passionate “inside” commentary.....(I can think of a few "personalities").....and MORE!!! 

Now, to do this with ESPN…(or SPEED for that matter) would COST the AMA/Xbux/TLD……HUGE dollars that the series and it’s sponsors aren’t going to/can't afford. What SMO will provide is income to Xbux and MORE!!!  And not JUST raw race video footage...(like some other online two-wheel motorsports entities currently produce), but also behind the scenes stories, rider interviews, helmet cams, sponsor commercials……a whole Supermoto Network!  We here at SuperMotoOnline.com and our partners are ready for Beta testing, and passionately excited about the product that we can bring to the sport of Supermoto while helping to take IT and the SERIES to a new level of exposure and success!!  Stay tuned to SMO for hopefully an announcement regarding the best two-wheel’d video online experience available and it’s progress soon!

Well, that’s pretty much it for right now but the future looks very exciting and there certainly will be much to write about and expand on very soon as the series here in the USA continues to provide plenty to communicate about, and the FIM series nears round 2 in less than three weeks! 

Dennis Anderson/SuperMotoOnline.com