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The Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship features the world’s fastest outdoor motocross racers, racing aboard the best bikes each factory offers, on the roughest, toughest tracks in the world. Motocross racing is survival of the fittest as well as the fastest every weekend; it’s where legends like Ricky Carmichael, Jeremy McGrath, James Stewart, and Ryan Villopoto were built.
The newest member of the Alli family of action sports, Motocross is the original extreme action sport, and the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship is the pinnacle of pure motocross. The 12-rounds series, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, begins in California on Memorial Day weekend in May and ends in Pennsylvania on Labor Day weekend in September. It includes stops at the premier motocross racing facilities in America, with events in Colorado, Texas, Massachusetts, Washington, New York, Maryland and Michigan. The pro riders meet up on Saturday afternoon, with competition divided into two classes: one for 250cc bikes, and one for 450cc machines. Also, eight of the rounds feature the rapidly-growing Pro Women’s Motocross Championship, and the final round features Pro ATV Motocross.
Each track presents its own unique blend of jumps, hills, corners and whoops, but all the races run under the same format: two thirty-minute-plus-two lap motos (races) per class, with the scores from each race combined to determine the overall winner. The competition also tests fitness, as motocross at this speed is arguably the most physically demanding sport in the world.
The AMA Pro Motocross Championship began in 1972. Back then, American riders were still learning the ropes from their European counterparts who invented the sport. They learned soon, though, and ultra-competitive riders like Bob Hannah, Marty Smith, Jimmy Weinert, Tony DiStefano, and Kent Howerton pushed the sport to new heights.
By the early-1980s, American stars were leading the way, as the likes of Rick Johnson, Broc Glover, Mark Barnett, Jeff Ward, Johnny O’Mara, and David Bailey met to battle at every round, surpassing the European masters in speed and technique.
Those men paved the way for modern legends like Jeff Stanton and Damon Bradshaw, Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emig, and of course Ricky Carmichael, who became known as “the GOAT,” which stands for “Greatest Of All-Time,” after his amazing run at the top landed him ten consecutive AMA Pro Motocross Championships.
Motocross fans are a unique breed of action sport consumer – edgy, energetic, enthusiastic, and athletic. Motocross is a lifestyle sport, and for 12 weekends each summer, the best athletes on the planet do battle on the toughest tracks in the land. The real winners are the thousands of fans who get a spot at the fence and cheer for their heroes through every second of the action. 2011 will mark the historic 40th season of American Motocross.
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