The Sport, Inside and Out

The AMA's premier racing season is comprised of two different series: Supercross and Motocross. Most riders compete in both series, and for that reason the Supercross season dovetails into the Motocross season. The 17-round AMA Supercross series, an FIM World Championship, starts in January and ends in early May, followed immediately by the 12-round AMA Motocross Championship, which runs through early September.

Supercross is characterized by indoor man-made racecourses built on baseball/football-stadium floors. The tracks are designed with big jumps, whoops, tabletops and other obstacles, and they place an emphasis on acrobatic skill, timing and all-out courage. Motocross, the original embodiment of this style of competition, is conducted on outdoor tracks of approximately one mile or more in length. The courses utilize the natural topography of the land, but with built-up jumps and obstacles added, and winning here requires a staggering level of fitness and blazing outright speed.

Supercross features two classes and displacement ranges. In Supercross Lites, racers may run a two-stroke engine displacing no more than 125cc or a four-stroke engine no larger than 250cc in displacement. The Supercross class allows two-stroke engines up to 250cc and four-stroke engines no larger than 450cc. Motocross also has two classes; the 250 class and the 450 class.

As in years past, the Supercross Lites season is divided into two regional series, East and West. At the series finale held in Las Vegas, Lites competitors from both regions face off in a Supercross Lites East/West Shootout. There are no regional competitions in Motocross; both classes run the entire 12-round series, with each round consisting of two motos per class to produce an overall score.

The Team