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Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Sport Of Motocross In America

By Simon Scott


Since coming to America in the late sixties and early seventies, motocross has become an extremely popular motor sport. It started throughout English country side and has become a way for families to bond as well as a high paying career for many professional racers.

There is a debate about the date of origin of motocross, most believe it to be around 1920. However, is began a "scramble" race which was an off road cross country motorcycle race where the fastest rider was the winner. There were other forms of motorcycle races where the most technically correct racer was awarded with the win. The term motocross is a combination of the French word motocyclette, which is motorcycle, and cross for cross-country. Moto-x evolved into a closed course race with many hazards including bumps, jumps and turns. The sport began to spread throughout Europe during the nineteen forties; it was not until the late nineteen fifties before the first mx race was held in America. By the seventies, the sport had exploded throughout the US.

Local races have become the sight for many families to spend weekends bonding; many will arrive a day early with camping gear in order to be prepared for the next day's race.

Families attending race weekend have begun to need bigger and bigger haulers for the trek to the race course. This is because more bikes are needed as there may be an opportunity for nearly every member of the family to race. Nowadays, there is a class for men and women of every age and every size of motorcycle. Children can start to race around the age of four; there is a class for every age group all the way up to the forty plus class and beyond. All family members may race over a weekend.

Two separate races called motos are ran on race day for each individual class. In each moto, the rider's finish is averaged together to determine the overall class winner for the day. The motos are generally run for a certain amount of time like twenty or thirty minutes as opposed to a set amount of laps.

Professional motocross has grown tremendously over the past twenty years. With such racers as Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart becoming house hold names, mx has gained a main stream appeal. Pro races now can be watched live on certain cable channels or may be taped delayed to the next day on network television. This has been credited to making today's stars household names.

Two of the off spring to moto-x racing are supercross and freestyle motocross. Supercross is raced inside a stadium on an area about the size of a football field; many of the jumps are bigger and more spectacular than the original version. Freestyle mx is a show of stunts like back flips and whips; the winner is the rider who is awarded the most style points.

In order to understand the popularity of moto-x, one only has to watch television on a Saturday or Sunday; the professionals can be seen performing daring antics. There are also many local tracks all over the world; a track may not be far away at all. For a small admission fee, a person could take in a local race; it may involve friends, neighbors and co-workers. Many lasting friendships are made at the local tracks amongst the racers.




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