Behind The Lens With James Lissimore- East Opener

Hey everyone, after six weeks of Supercross action, we’ve got a new batch of 250 racers hitting the track this weekend. With the Minneapolis round off and on the schedule over the years, I’ve actually never been to the Minnesota stop of the series, so I thought I’d take a look through my images from previous 250 East opening rounds to find something for this weeks Behind the Lens. 

With the East Coast riders having six weeks to watch their West brethren battle it out, they show up revved up and ready to go for their opening round. Sometimes two revved up, as was the case in the image I selected for this week’s column. 

I was looking through my images from the previous 250 East Openers and I came across this unique situation from the 2015 Arlington round. You don’t see a staggered start very often, so I thought it would be a cool image to share. I couldn’t remember much about this race, other than the staggered start, so I had to go back and watch it. Marvin Musquin had grabbed the early lead and looked to be cruising to the first win of the 250 East season when on lap 9, Kyle Cunningham crashed hard and was laid out on the lip of a jump. The red flag was thrown, and because the race was more than 3 laps completed, but less than 90% done, a staggered start was set up for the race restart. 

It’s not a situation that happens often, but I’ve seen a few over the years. Luckily, Cunningham was able to walk off, and Musquin wasted no time pulling out another lead and taking the win. He would go on to take the 250 East title that season. It made for a unique photo and treated the fans to even more close racing. A pretty basic shot, technical wise: Shot with my 300mm lens, 1/1250 sec @F4 iso 8000