From Dirt Bike, June 1999 issue, page 8.

They say the economy is great. They say that supercross has never been healthier. They say these are the best of times.

Okay. I'll go along with it. But before we get too smug and proud of ourselves and before we break our arms trying to pat ourselves on the backs, let's take a second or two to look down the road. Where are tomorrow's riders coming from? Excuse me for noticing, but there's a true shortage of riders who can win a 125 main event in supercross, and that's supposed to be the class that produces the 250 winners of the future. When the current crop of 250 guys retire, are we going to be left with a total of two or three riders who have a shot at winning?

At the local level, the biggest segment of racers is the vet class. We're certainly not getting any future champions from that crowd. The regular local pro and intermediate ranks are a little thin. You have to go all the way down to the 50 class before you see a healthy spike in attendance. And I can't help but wonder if those are just the sons and daughters of the vet racers. Will they carry on into the mainstream after dad stops hauling them out to the track? Only time will tell.

"I'm not just searching for a black lining around our current cloud 9. But if there's something wrong, let's figure it out now. In the U.S., for example, things have become very specialized and that might be hurting us. All the supercross tracks are constructed of the same assortment of obstacles, just arranged in a different sequence every week. Specialization has helped some racers build careers, but in the long run, it doesn't produce very well-rounded riders. Every now and then we encounter different circumstances (like rain), and that generally will help Euro riders. Riders could benefit from exposing themselves to different types of riding; trials, enduros or whatever. I know, there are greater pressures on riders than ever before when it comes to making appearances and doing PR work. Where are they going to find time to ride trials? But I think it can be done. With the importance of supercross in today's scene, some riders feel that if they do well enough there, they can take it easy for the other eight months of the year. Face it, it takes a smaller portfolio of skill to do supercross than it does to win outdoors. So to concentrate on outdoor racing would be more work for less return.

Still, there must be more reasons. Maybe riders give up early if they aren't rewarded with immediate success. Maybe without the attraction of having real factory works bikes, there are fewer young riders who are drawn by the carrot of getting a factory ride. Maybe riders have discovered that they can make more money racing at local events - Michael Brandes made less by finishing third at Anaheim than he did the following week by winning a local CMC race. Supporting local racing with big manufacturer contingency programs is fine, right up to the point where it keeps riders away from big races. Suzuki, at least, is starting to offer hard cash only in real pro races and do more scholarship type activities. Maybe it's a combination of all these things.

Perhaps we should look at what the French are doing. After all, the current world 250 champion is French, and so is half of Team Honda. In my days on the GPs, we never took the French seriously, except when it came to cooking or wines. Certainly not as motocrossers. but in the mid-'80s, the president of the FFM (Federation Francaise Motocycliste) took an aggressive policy aimed at improving the quality of their riders. He went looking for advice overseas, he sent riders to the U.S. to train in our local races (CMC Trans-Cal series and such) and he designated a coach for training up-and-coming young talent. It was all set up in conjunction with a national program that offered flexible school hours. The program gives a chance to young people who show talent in sports to not only develop their sport talents faster under professional guidance, but to get a good education at the same time. The first return on this effort showed up in 1986 when Jacky Vimond won the 250cc World Championship. Then there was Jean-Michel Bayle, who did it on both sides of the Atlantic. Currently, Sebastien Tortelli is a shining product of that program.

More ideas? Well, perhaps supercross promoters might start thinking about opening their tracks to amateurs on Sundays after the main events. It would be easy to tone down the jumps to make the tracks safer, and it would give local riders a chance to get supercross experience. It was thought that arenacross would do this, but so far we seem to have just developed an even more specialized form of racing with very little crossover to the mainstream.

I certainly don't think I have all the answers. But the important part right now is to at least ask the questions. Sure, we could sit around just basking in our current success. But if we start thinking about solutions right now while things are hot, then maybe things might stay hot for a long time to come.