When I heard that the 2005 AMA Supermoto championship would only stop in six cities this year (the third year of the series), and later found out that Round One (scheduled for Costa Mesa, California) had to be cancelled because someone forgot to obtain a State permit, I couldn’t help but think that supermoto has not come nearly as far as we had hoped a couple of years ago.
Supermoto looked like the “next big thing” when the AMA stepped up to sanction a formal championship series a couple of years ago. Last year, the series seemed to gain a little momentum, and Jeff Ward (now with eight National championships) emerged as the champion and star.
For some reason, the energy seems to be gone this year. With only five cities hosting the series at this point (there is an effort to re-schedule the Costa Mesa event), a continued lack of significant prize money and major sponsorship, we have to wonder if there is a better way to promote supermoto here in the United States. The racing really is exciting enough to warrant “next big thing” status.
Supermoto should be in the middle of a strong growth phase, but appears to be flattening out here in the U.S. There is clearly an opening for other promoters/sanctioning bodies to take this great sport to another level. The AMA is currently in a position to have the dominant supermoto series, but it needs to step up the promotion of this exciting form of racing, and generate the buzz it deserves. If not, a rival promoter could emerge to take this sport to the next level here in the U.S.
