Kickstart | Racing Is Racing, No Matter Where It’s At

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www.hoosierarenacross.com
INSTAGRAM | @hoosierarenacross

This is one of my favorite times of the year for the exact reasons that you might expect. The holidays and hype of the upcoming race season gives us all something to look forward, the occasional trip to a practice track shows how hard everyone is “grinding,” and a few key weekends are spent traveling internationally with an assortment of riders-team staff-media guys to the big offseason Supercross events. It’s a hectic time, made even more suspenseful by the usual “X rider is going fast/struggling/suffered an injury” talk that circulates through the inner circle.

It’s no secret that I really, really look forward to Europe’s offseason races. I know how fortunate I am to see the sights of foreign countries and all that comes with it, but watching the action on-track and spending time around people that are all equally as excited are the real reasons for going. Paris and Geneva are quite a bit different than the Monster Energy Supercross Series, thanks to the size-design-prep of the tracks and the unique vibe that each promoter creates for their event, and a mix of US invitees and European SX Tour regulars puts some parity in the results.

Although you probably don’t follow the SX Tour, it’s worth keeping an eye on, especially during normal years when there’s no major US racing going on from November to December. The French take pride in their Supercross skills and the entry lists of both classes feature names you’ve already heard or will before too long. Cedric Soubeyras, Fabien Izoird, Thomas Ramette, Charles Lefrancois, Adrien Escoffier, Maxime Desprey, Brian Hsu, Thomas Do, Yannis Irsuti, Calvin Fonvieille, Julien Roussaly, and many others are all excellent riders, have support from dedicated teams, and will fight to the very last lap for any position. What more could you ask for?

I’d just now be getting over jet lag from the the Swiss trip if things had gone to plan this year, but obvious reasons have prevented that from happening. Fortunately, I’ve managed to find a fix for the racing urge through the Hoosier Tire Arenacross Nationals, an “outlaw” series that plans to grow in the coming months and years.

Run by Jay Reynolds, a promoter with a background in dirt track racing, the nineteen-race tour is set to run at venues in Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, and Mississippi from now until February. Much of the program is setup like your average local race, with classes for first-time mini bike riders to experienced Vet Class warriors, but the 250 Pro and 450 Pro divisions always get top-billing and are boosted by hefty purse payouts. A racer can end the weekend with anything from a few hundred bucks for mixed finishes to 2000-dollars for a clean sweep of all four Main Events. That sort of money is enough to get the attention of a Nationally-ranked Supercross rider.

The entry list for the Hoosier Arenacross are dotted with emerging young riders, established full-time pro racers looking to get gate drops in before SX, and some determined regional heroes. Block passes are plentiful, standard for AX, but usually as a last-ditch effort when other crafty moves are rebuked. The opening rounds at the Claremore Expo Center had Kevin Moranz, Grant Harlan, Michael Hicks, Chase Marquier, Cheyenne Harmon, Kaeden Amerine, Preston Taylor, Branden Walther, Hunter Angell, Brandon Yates, Dustin Winter, Jesse Flock and others fighting hard and close for the money. Some of those names might be unfamiliar, but trust me, someone somewhere can confirm these guys haul ass and you’ll see some of them in Supercross next year.

What’s the word after four rounds? Well, there have been four different winners in eight Main Events (Moranz with four, Harlan with two, Marquier and Hicks with one each), a front-runner sidelined by a crash (Moranz sat out most of last weekend after a crash), and swings in the results. Hicks, the defending champion, has reclaimed the top spot in the 450 Class points with consistent finishes, but he’s currently tied with Harlan in the 250 Class. They’ll resume their duel over New Years in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which you can watch live on FloRacing.com’s streaming platform or in a TBC slot on MAVTV.

Reynolds and I recently spoke at length in a FLY Racing Swapmoto Podcast about his vision for the Hoosier Arenacross series. The Missouri promoter has high expectations and confidence that the program offers something to riders of all sorts, particularly the Pros. He hopes they utilize things like live internet-TV coverage and a dedicated following as a way to intrigue prospective sponsors. This isn’t any sort of attempt to go head-to-head with Supercross; just another way for racers to go racing and for everyone to hang out.

A chance to watch “racers race” is exactly why I’ve hopped in the car and drove across Missouri four times now (six hours behind the wheel is much less taxing than six hours in a coach class seat, go figure). The moves that Moranz and Harlan put on each other for the Main Event wins in the opening weekend in Oklahoma were just as daring anything Barcia and Stewart have done in Geneva, and the Midwesterner fans get just as excited as the Swiss spectators. 

European races are known for pom-pom girls and over the top pyrotechnics. The excitement of American Arenacross comes from the excellent Pro races and fireworks of the C and B Classes. Either way, you’re in for a show…