Motocross
and the Two Wheel Racerchick
 February
3rd, 2001 was an awesome day for
racing. The
NHRA Winter Nationals Drag races were held in
Pomona, the Rolex 24 hour road race was held
in Daytona and racerchicks.com – where were
we? Giving
respect to the two wheel racerchicks out there
by being at the Anaheim Supercross race.
Now if you are not familiar with
motocross/supercross – too bad since it’s much more
than dirt bikes that sound like bumblebees on
steroids.
This youth generated sport – attracts
a wide range of fans but the majority is
pre-puberty and certainly pre-401K deductions.
Now some say with youth comes ego –
but I saw with youth comes free spirit and
fun. Look
at Jeremy McGrath – seven-time champion, is
he arrogant or is he confident? --- lets
differentiate the two.
He is just one reason why this Anaheim
race has been sold out all three times this
year.
SFX Motorsports Group just
had it’s most successful January –
breaking attendance records at its’ first
five rounds.
What is the draw of “Moto-X /
Super-X"?
Generation X-treme Marketer’s Dream
Sponsorship
in Moto-X /
Super-X can be summed up in a few words –
it has to be hip and cool.
Power drinks and Extreme sports
clothing seemed to rule.
With the fast pace, entertaining
supercross set up – how can you not become
addicted.
In fact this sport is one of the
fastest growing.
Although the USA seems dominant many
other country’s stars are starting to catch
up. Girl
MXers are becoming a force to recon with.
Women
in the sport.
The Women’s Motocross League
www.wml-mx.com
The Women's
Motocross League began in 1992 as the United
States Women's Motocross Team, a four woman
team representing the US in the La Femme
International Motocross Championships in
Faenza, Italy. The success of this team lead
by such talented riders as Tami Rice, Nadine
Holbert, Kristy Shealy and Dee Ann Wood was so
outstanding that recognition was soon to
follow. Today,
WML offers training programs to for female
riders and since 1996 the WML-AMA Outdoor
National Series of competitions held in
conjunction with several of the AMA  Outdoor
National Events.
Sarah and Lisa - Two
big Mx fans and riders from Birmingham
England, made their way to Anaheim with their
family. Competitive in their home
country we hope to see more girls get involved
at even earlier ages.
I
spoke with a few of the male riders at Anaheim
asking them their thoughts on why women
weren’t competing in main stadium events –
offering them full anonymity to get their
honest feedback.
Never did one say lack of talent but
what it boiled down to is physical strength.
Upsetting as this may sound – we are
built differently and upper body strength or
lack of it was what was mentioned the most. Speaking
with a few girls involved with the sport --
the jury was split down the middle.
Opportunity, or lack of was mentioned but the
high physical demand of the sport was agreed
upon by both genders.
 Two
stroke, Four stroke, rah rah rah!!
For now we will
watch the 6 different bike manufacturers and
their riders fight it out on motocross/supercross
weekends across the country. We will
continue to be entertained by the rivalries
amongst the close knit clique involved.
For what is truly an
American sport, we fail to see any American brand
of bike - the Japanese I've been told
dominate.
Entertaining, fast paced and fun
- this can become addicting.
Stay
tuned while we in the future look deeper into
the art and excitement of two wheel
racerchicks and the Motocross/Supercross scene. |
