Tomac vs 1980s – MXoN
There is no doubt the current schedule in America is a busy one, and it’s a reason Eli Tomac says he isn’t racing the MXoN. It really doesn’t have much to do with the single USGP appearance, or the fact it costs his team money to go there, he feels burnt out.
With a schedule that runs from January, until September, running a majority of the weekends in that period it isn’t surprised AMA riders are tired, but please, this isn’t something that is new. The AMA series has been like this for decades. All those years Team USA dominated, and they sent their best riders, the AMA guys were still doing more than 30 races, with very little time for rest at the end of the season.
Not to mention both supercross and motocross series back in the day were more taxing. They rode more races, and raced more days in both series, and the competition was super tough in that golden era of AMA racing.
Riders like Ricky Johnson, Jeff Ward, David Bailey and Johnny O’mara did pre-season races in California, the Golden State series to name one, Kawasaki riders would race the Kawasaki race of champions, many would do the Superbiker event, and a bunch of major International races throughout the world.
Many would race more than one motocross class, winning a couple of classes in a single year. Ricky Johnson won two AMA titles (500cc and 250cc) outdoors in 1987 and then led Team USA to victory in the MXoN at Unadilla. Remember when AMA motocross was two days, two days of tough battle in an era when riders were maybe just that little bit tougher?
That same year, the AMA Motocross season, which was 13 rounds, started in March 4 and ended on October 14. We had 31 races, pretty similar to this year’s series right, and we also had another 12 or so races these guys did.
Riders like Damon Bradshow, Jeff Ward, Jeff Stanton, Johnny O’Mara and many others also races a bunch of International Supercross events in Japan, and Europe. In total many did as many as 50 races in the season. I can even remember Ricky Johnson once telling me he did 52 races on year.
Please, while I respect that Eli Tomac needs a break, let’s stop making the tough series the problem, because the old school boys like Johnson, Ward and O’Mara sure didn’t use it as an excuse to not represent their country in the most important motocross race in the world. In fact, they couldn’t get to Europe quick enough to kick some euro ass.
All those years Team USA dominated, and they sent their best riders, the AMA guys were still doing more than 30 races, with very little time for rest at the end of the season.
Many would race more than one motocross class, winning a couple of classes in a single year. We had 31 races, pretty similar to this year’s series right, and we also had another 12 or so races these guys did.
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