Do you like numbers or motocross?

As soon as the news of Dungey’s injury was announced the comment/message boards lit up with comments like “I’m not even watching Daytona”, “Guess I’ll wait until the outdoors to tune in”, etc… I don’t understand this thought at all. Sure, I’m as bummed as the next guy that the race for the championship isn’t tighter than your prom date’s browneye but that hardly dampens my excitement to watch motocross.

When I first started racing there was virtually no TV coverage of any sort for motocross. We lived out in the country and barely got 3 channels. The first time that I ever saw motocross on a TV was a “how-to” video by Steve Wise. The school was conducted at Millville and there were several example sections which had clips from the previous national at that track. (I don’t remember which one, early 80’s) I watched that more then than I’d watch a homemade porn of Christina Hendricks today.

After a year of that I was lucky enough to receive a VHS recording of the American Sports Cavalcade’s coverage of the 1987 CMC race at Carlsbad. (found it on YouTube here) While the local pros here were always fast I literally thought someone had sped the video up the first time I watched it. Needless to say I watched that until it wouldn’t play any more. I was so into watching those guys ride I had no problem ignoring the douchebag announcers with their mispronunciations and completely made up facts and statistics. Hell I probably turned the sound down and cranked up some Cinderella or something.

In all the time since then I still look forward to every race on TV with the same amount of excitement and, while I’m first and foremost a motocross fan, if they had the same kind of coverage of off-road or flattrack/TT I’d watch that as well. So if tonight most of the top riders go on strike and the coverage consists of simply watching Jason Thomas ride the track by himself for a few hours… I’m pretty sure I’ll watch every minute of it. If you “sports fans” just have to watch something where the numbers are closer at the end of the event in order for it to be exciting then I suggest you tune in to soccer. …and try to avoid the resulting desire to perform an Alabama Milkshake with another man.