I was flipping through the channels last night and came across a guy soaring in the air on his dirt bike doing an acrobatic jump that I cannot do in my imagination. The tag line was this weekend is the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships.
This caught my interest. I knew there was a championship(s) in this sports but it got be to wondering how many divisions there were along with a few other questions, so I went and looked. The first thing I learned is that the championships are not this weekend; it is now just past the halfway point of the season.
I knew that there are several different bodies supporting different motocross or derivative events but the Lucas Oil one is sanctioned by the AMA Pro Racing and that is what I am looking at here. There is a 12 race season that started in Hangtown in early May and the final is in Lake Elsinore in September.
Two heats or motos for each event and three categories, the first two broken down by engine type and the third for women. These are the 450 Motocross, the 250 Motocross and the WMV Motocross. The AMA has been holding sanctioned races since 1972.
On top of the leaderboard for the 450 Motocross is Ryan Dungey with a total of 286 points followed by Mike Alessi at 214, Jacob Weimer at 202, Andrew Short at 178 and Broc Tickle in the number five post with 162 points.
In the 250 Motocross class Blake Baggett is the leader at 273 points closely followed by Justin Barcia at 253 and then Eli Tomac at 236 and Ken Roczen at 235 with Marvin Musquin filling out the top five at 189 points. In the WMX Motocross Jessica Patterson is the current leader with 201 points then Tarah Gieger at 192, Ashley Fiolek at 175, Mariana Balbi at 155 and finally Jacqueline Strong at 144.
Broadcasts
This week the racers will compete at Spring Creek MX Park near Rochester, Minn. The course has 250 feet of elevation. There are several broadcast options for viewers including live streaming of the events. The first motos will be run at each track between 1 pm and 3 pm local time and are live on Fuel TV as well as streamed at allisports.com. The second WMX motos will also be live streamed.
The second motos will be broadcast on either NBC or NBC Sports Network and there is also a highlights program as well on NBC Sports Network.
Spring Creek
Sat 7/14 FUELTV 2:00-4:00pm 1st Motos
Sat 7/14 NBC Sports Network 4:00-6:00pm 2nd Motos
Mon 7/23 NBC Sports Network 2:00-4:00pm 2nd Moto Re-Air
Sat 7/21 NBC Sports Network 4:30-5:30pm Highlight Series
If you attend one of these events or have YouTube video of one we would be happy to look at it and possibly share it in a future piece on the sport. This is a new area for us and we are certainly not proclaiming any expertise, but have a growing interest and would be happy to hear from fans.
