The Supercross 7-Round Stand Is Anything but Typical

Salt Lake City (June 12, 2020) Spectators discovering the fast-paced racing of Monster Energy Supercross have likely noticed that although the venue is locked for the final seven rounds, each biweekly race presents racers and fans with a unique racetrack.

Transitioning from a race series that travels the United States to a different NFL or MLB stadium each week, Feld Entertainment and its partners, including the Utah Sports Commission, found a path to a Responsible Return to Racing plan to complete the full-season; that plan required the final seven races to take place inside one stadium.

On a typical weekend from January through May, the DIRT WURX track crew covers a different stadium floor with dirt, race management structures, tuff blox, and pyrotechnics stations to create seventeen unique tracks at sixteen different venues. Major obstacles, such as triple jumps and finish line jumps, have become engineered with a consistency to make racing safer for the athletes, but soil types, whoop design, and overall layouts always change.

With a 7-Round stand inside Rice-Eccles Stadium, home of the University of Utah Utes, viewers new to the sport might have expected a familiar battleground for each race. But the track designers and builders had other plans, and even Mother Nature has stepped in with a twist of her own.

Round 11, the first of the ‘magnificent seven’ in Salt Lake City, was the return to racing after an 85-day break. As such, the track was engineered to not be overly technical in an effort to not overtax the competitors. Run as an early-day race, very rare in Supercross but mandated by the live-TV schedule, the dirt dried early under the sun. The packed dirt robbed traction from the dirt bikes’ tall knobby tires and the simplified track took on challenges of its own.

Round two, run closer to the traditional evening race time, provided near ideal conditions on a new and more challenging track layout. But the design presented a wicked obstacle – a treacherous 15-whoop section with a very short run-up; the section offered one of the biggest risk verses reward race scenarios this year for the athletes.

Round three was run under mostly clear skies, but on a track that had been soaked from an overnight downpour. The clouds and high winds did appear during the Eastern Regional 250SX Class Main Event, but it was a day of slick dirt and extremely deep ruts in the corners and at the jump transitions. Racers had to find the balance of approach speed and throttle control, as often the ruts would catch the bike’s frame and pegs.

Round four, raced on Wednesday, reversed the track from the previous round. Not only did this create a left-turn-heavy track, but it changed the approach to the whoops, allowing riders more time to set up – and gain speed – before entering. The live TV schedule put the racing in the late afternoon, so riders now had to adapt to a low sun that affected visibility, the many stadium shadows, and varying wet and dry track sections due to the shady/sunny sections of the track.

And to challenge the racers further, no Supercross track ever remains the same lap to lap. As the motorcycles accelerate and brake berms rut up, corners develop braking and acceleration chop, whoop faces cup-out, and landings develop curb-like square edges.

The riders never know what they’ll face until they get their first good look at each track, and only experience can tell them what that track condition might be like when their race drops the starting gate. And as if the track wasn’t enough to contend with, they also need to deal with the other 21 world-class racers lined up next to them.

Only three more rounds of Supercross racing remain in 2020. The accelerated calendar means the final three races will be held on June 14, 17, and 21. In the premiere 450SX Class, Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac is in a good position to secure his first 450SX Class championship. The 250SX divisions, the Eastern Regional class and Western Regional class, will each run one more standard race before the season-climax mash-up East/West Showdown, where it looks likely that two titles will be determined in a single race that pays points to riders in each division.

The next two rounds will air live on NBCSN at 7:00 PM ET and the final will air live and complete, though split in its broadcast with the first half of the racing airing on NBCSN at 3:00 PM ET and the second half being picked up with live coverage at 4:30 PM ET on NBC. All races, in their entirety and including qualifying coverage, are available on the NBC Gold app.

450SX Class Championship Standings

1. Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Kawasaki (322)

2. Cooper Webb, Clermont, Fla., KTM (295)

3. Ken Roczen, Clermont, Fla., Honda (293)

4. Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.M., Husqvarna (245)

5. Justin Barcia, Greenville, Fla., Yamaha (241)

6. Malcolm Stewart, Haines City, Fla., Honda (199)

7. Dean Wilson, Murrieta, Calif., Husqvarna (191)

8. Zach Osborne, Abingdon, Va., Husqvarna (186)

9. Justin Brayton, Charlotte, N.C., Honda (184)

10. Justin Hill, Yoncalla, Ore., Honda (179)

Western Regional 250SX Class Championship Standings

1. Dylan Ferrandis, Lake Elsinore, Calif., Yamaha (158)

2. Austin Forkner, Richards, Mo., Kawasaki (148)

3. Justin Cooper, Menifee, Calif., Yamaha (147)

4. Brandon Hartranft, Corona, Calif., KTM (126)

5. Alex Martin, Clermont, Fla., Suzuki (115)

6. Michael Mosiman, Menifee, Calif., Husqvarna (100)

7. Luke Clout, Hemet, Calif., Honda (94)

8. Derek Drake, Corona, Calif., KTM (92)

9. Jacob Hayes, Lodi, Calif., Husqvarna (89)

10. Mitchell Oldenburg, Godly, Tex., Honda (85)

Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship Standings

1. Chase Sexton, Clermont, Fla., Honda (166)

2. Shane McElrath, Murrieta, Calif., Yamaha (163)

3. Garrett Marchbanks, Coalville, Utah, Kawasaki (119)

4. Jeremy Martin, Rochester, Minn., Honda (105)

5. Jalek Swoll, Belleview, Fla., Husqvarna (91)

6. Jo Shimoda, Irvine, Calif., Honda (89)

7. Enzo Lopes, Huntersville, N.C., Yamaha (81)

8. RJ Hampshire, Minneola, Fla., Husqvarna (80)

9. Pierce Brown, Sandy, Utah, KTM (73)

10. Kyle Peters, Greensboro, N.C., Honda (69)