Sparkplug 20

It's the Motocross Des Nations weekend, so the first thing I want to do is say “Go U.S.A.!” However, this week's Sparkplug is not about the most important single day race of the year; I will let others tackle that assignment for now. This week I want to revisit an idea I have mentioned before on this site: how to improve the outdoor Nationals.

In particular, I want to propose, again, a total revamping of the way the series works, just for the heck of it. Some may say “if it ain't broke, don't go trying to fix it”, but I'm of the opinion that it's safe to muse about seemingly ridiculous ideas... sometimes they turn out to be sheer genius.

Do any of you remember High School Motocross? (Steve Bauer remembers here!) I remember back in the late '70s while I still lived on the East Coast, one of the many things that made me jealous of California was the fact that some of their public high schools had actual motocross teams, and they actually held a championship race at the L.A. Coliseum! To an Atlantic Coast racer the concept was mind-boggling back in the day; even now, it seems too surreal to be true. What ever happened to those teams? I'm pretty sure that our modern, litigious society and the correspondingly high insurance rates had something to do with demise of this extra-curricular activity, but the truth is I don't know for sure. But wouldn't it be cool if we could get it to happen again? And in more high schools around the country?

Here's the thing I fantasize about (when I'm not daydreaming about playing footsie at dinner with LeeAnn Tweeden): amateur motocross competition fashioned after amateur football competition in this country. Imagine high school motocross leagues featuring Saturday afternoon, multi-school race meets; city and state high school motocross champions; college motocross scholarships and college motocross leagues racing on Friday nights, all feeding the big show: a Professional Motocross Racing League that holds weekly regional team races on Sunday afternoons from Spring to late Summer, with a big, Fall playoff series and a final, championship race in October. How awesome would that be?

I'm talking about a significant, exponential increase in the amount of PARTICIPATION in our sport, while everyone else with ideas for improving the Nationals seems to be concerned primarily with increasing spectator attendance. Which approach do you think the manufacturers will most likely support? The one that holds the highest potential for improving their revenues, of course.

I also realize that this dream of mine is far from reality. There are many obstacles, some financial, some political, some institutional that stand in the way. But the one challenge that we cannot afford to hinder us is our own ability to DREAM BIG. Ridicule my idea if you like, but you have to admit that it is a bigger vision than any that have been recently floated by the powers-that-be. Some people don't want to see motocross get any bigger; I think they are constrained by poor insight. I think they can only see our current headaches increasing in size along with the sport. But I believe that exponential growth in PARTICIPATION will help to mitigate many of the problems we face, problems like track closures and shrinking, overcrowded riding areas. There's strength in numbers, folks! If more taxpaying, wage-earning voters are riding dirtbikes, there will be more reasons for the politicians to work in our favor, and more market incentive to open more tracks. Legitimizing motocross competition as an amateur athletic endeavor to be pursued in conjunction with academic achievement will also go a long way towards reducing public antagonism towards the sport.

I may have forgot to mention that the minimum age for a professional racer in the Professional Racing League would be 18, and that some college course work would be mandatory as well, unless “hardship” could be proven for those rare cases. Why? To give these kids a better shot at a longer, more fulfilling career. It is pretty clear that while a young man or woman may be physically capable of racing at a professional level, two more years makes a big difference in their ability to make mature adult decisions, both on and off the race track. This year's Josh Grant/Josh Hansen/Mike Alessi antics are just some of the stories that give weight to my assertion.

There's a lot more to this idea of mine, and I will not be surprised to see some version of it implemented before I'm gone. Actually, I take that back... it would surprise the heck out of me! But that's what Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals are all about.

And in closing, I would just like to say... “Go U.S.A.!!!!”