Struggling Times

The other day I was listening to a pod cast with the legendary Supercross & Motocross Champion, James Stewart. He was talking about his time off from the Lucas Oil Motocross Championship and how a few years ago it was unheard for a team to only sign a rider with a Supercross only contract. Sure some riders get a bit burned out and need some time off so the one aspect deal may be perfect for them but for James “Bubba” Stewart that was not the case at hand. Stewart is the defending Outdoor National Champion and was fresh off of a highly touted Supercross title so as he said “I really wanted to do the Outdoor thing.” Sadly the decision was not up to him but up to his team. James went on to discuss the tough economic times and how in a year or so he is expecting to see the factory teams such as Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha may be focusing their racing budget on the satellite teams like Troy lee Designs Honda, and the newly formed Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha. He then went on to mention that a lot of spectators and fans are taking the great sport of Motocross racing for granted. In a few year James believes that if things do not turn around the sport may be fighting for it’s life. James has a good point. Davey Coombs, Tim Cotter and the crew at Racer Productions (Just down the road from my house) have already done great things for the sport. They have formed a stellar TV package that lets both motocross veterans and new viewers alike to check out the racing action on a weekly basis. Better yet they can check out the 450cc class LIVE every Saturday. Who knows, James Stewart may be looking at things in a negative since but then again he could be hitting the nail right on the head. All we can do is hope that the moto promoters like Racer Productions can pull us back to the promise land and blow the sport back up to a main stream level. After not even a full outdoor season they have made HUGE leaps and bounds so I would say it is looking up! Keep those finger crossed moto fans…
Until next time.
Stay Strong and Ride Hard

Luke Nesler.




Photo Credit: Luke Nesler