VOL. 51 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 28, 2014
who can just quit work and hop on a
plane to Europe, your options to fame
and fortune when you turn 16 is the
AMA National Road Racing Series.
There are currently five of those
scheduled for the coming season.
And your friends aren't going to watch
you because chances are none of the
races will be on TV. But you carry on
because you've seen it happen and
this is your dream, damn it. You've
watched the likes of other Americans
like Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden
make it to MotoGP… wait a second.
No you haven't. You were barely born
when they made it to MotoGP. In fact,
those guys are as old as your dad.
There is no one to relate to because
no one since Ben Spies has made it
to MotoGP from here. You hear your
dad talk about Wayne Rainey, Kevin
Schwantz… even this really old guy
named Kenny Roberts. But those were
the glory days, he always says.
That was then, this is now. So now
what do you do? The best guy in MotoGP is 20 years old. At 16 you're four
years removed from 20. He's been
a World Champion in 125cc GP and
Moto2… and at 20 he's the MotoGP
World Champion. And he has a younger brother on the same path. And
there're hordes of others following suit.
You're racing around on a virtually
stock 600cc sportbike with treaded
tires, trying to figure out a way to get
from here to there. You're learning
your way around Daytona, New Jersey
Motorsports Park... They had their first
race at Valencia when they were 12 on
a kitted little race bike not too much
different from a Moto3 bike.
This dream sucks. That Supercross
dream is way better.
CN
LOOKING BACK
40 Years Ago
February 5, 1974
Our cover story dealt with the energy crisis
when gas prices skyrocketed to 49 cents a
gallon – we recommended getting scooters... We asked the question: would there
ever be another off-road race in Baja? Issues between the Mexican government and
U.S. promoters had us wondering, but a new
organization – SCORE, headed by Mickey
Thompson – would later step in and save the day.
30 Years Ago
February 8, 1984
We test rode the latest CR250R motocrosser from Honda and a photo of the bike was
featured on the cover with test rider "Mr.
Bill" Jewell... More than 70,000 spectators filled Anaheim Stadium for the opening
round of the Insport/Wrangler Supercross
Series. Johnny O'Mara took the win over
Jeff Ward and Rick Johnson.
20 Years Ago
February 2, 1994
We featured photos from the Houston Supercross on the cover 20 years ago. Jeremy McGrath won the race. He came from
behind for his 13th career win. Ezra Lusk
won the 125cc main… We reported that the
Northridge earthquake caused $4 million of
damage to Anaheim Stadium, but the Anaheim Supercross was still set to run a few
weeks later.
10 Years Ago
February 4, 2004
Ivan Tedesco made front-page news for winning his fourth straight 125 Supercross main,
his latest victory coming at the San Diego
Supercross. Chad Reed outdueled Kevin
Windham for the 250-class victory… Points
leader Josh Demuth broke his leg at the Baltimore National Arenacross and was out for
the season.
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