Supermotard racing-a sick hybrid of road racing and motocross-has gained mainstream acceptance much faster than streetbike freestyle and has even already landed a spot as part of the vaunted X Games, no doubt due to high-profile support from X Game regulars like Mike Metzger, Travis Pastrana and Jeremy McGarth. After attending an event like Troy Lee's "Duel at the Docks" AMA Supermoto Championship that took place this past November at the Queen Mary hotel complex in Long Beach, California, we can see why this has become such a popular spectator event in such a short time.
Helped along by perfect weather and a star-studded grid featuring names like McGrath, Metzger, Jeff Ward, Doug Henry and even Troy Lee himself, the racing action promised to be top-notch. But it wasn't only bar-to-bar action on one of the craziest race courses ever designed (including a tunnel, plenty of dirt jumps and whoops and, of course, the Supermoto-signature "Urban Cross" steel ramps) that brought the spectators streaming through the gates-there were plenty of other entertainment options worked into the weekend program, including a street stunt exhibition by Jason Britton and his No Limit teammate Eric Hoenshell, complete with a special guest appearance by Ryan Moore riding his one-of-a-kind CRF450 Supermoto stuntbike.
Moore is not only the manufacturer of stunt-related parts under 50 Stunt (www.50stunt.com) for minibikes and ESD Manufacturing (www.esd-mfg.com) for sportbikes, he is an avid streetbike, motocross, mini and stunt rider. Britton had the fans screaming with a stunt routine as flawless as his Suzuki GSX-R stuntbike (now with Performance Machine Judge Wheels, hlins Forks and Brembo brakes!). Hoenshell kept it a bit rawer with standstill burnouts spinning so slow the teeth could be counted on his signature-edition rear sprocket. When Moore wasn't hitting no-hander jumps off the start-finish ramp, he was busy doing combo circles and 180 endos.
s soon as the next stunt competition can come close to matching Duel at the Docks for the sheer entertainment value and variety, maybe then we'll be looking at X Games success. Oh, yeah, and it was Jeff Ward who won the premier championship at Long Beach!