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We also had the introduction of USA Pro Supermoto. Don’t know what Supermoto is? Supermoto, or Supermotard for my European friends, is actually kind of simple on the surface: take the same asphalt to dirt transition course that the Stadium Super Trucks do and add dirt bikes with treaded street tires and you get the gist of it. It’s nothing new as Supermoto has been around since the 1970s and has been very popular in Europe. It gained a bit of fame here in the US with the X-Games having the event for some time, but it was dropped in 2010. USA Pro Supermoto are trying to bring back a professional series and have a great start using Stadium Super Trucks Round 5 as their second stop for 2013. The two organizations will partner up for three more races in 2013 as well.
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| The racing is a pretty simple formula, but so are the bikes. Basically, just add some road tires to your 450cc motocross bike and you're off racing Supermoto. |
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| On tracks that are tacky or primarily asphalt the competitors will even use full race slicks. One rider tried it, but ended up dislocating his shoulder before really getting on it. From what I remember, it wasn't because he slid out. It was because he landed wrong on one of the jumps. |
Finally, the Monster Trucks took their racing to a new challenge. Instead of going out and doing the typical Chicago Style race, it was now the individual times of each driver that would determine who would move on. So, the drivers were not only racing each other, but also the clock autocross style. This may seem quite boring on the outside, but it was quite exciting as you watched to see who got bumped out and who would move on to the Main Event for First Place.
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| Bounty Hunter Monster Truck driver, Darren Minges was looking to better his result from Qualcomm 1 where he failed to make the finals. |
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| The Trophy Karts were back in action for Qualcomm 2. These guys had also competed in the Lucas Oil Off Road Series and most came in late Friday night and very early Saturday morning. So, they were given a combined practice/qualifying session on Saturday. |
Well, that’s enough of the back stories for this round, now on to the Main Events of each category, starting with Monster Trucks!
MONSTER TRUCKS
As mentioned before, this would be a race for the top four spots, very similar to Formula Drift. The First Place race would be between Larry Swim in the Speed Energy Bigfoot #19 and The Bounty Hunter Monster Truck of Darren Minges. What should have ended up as an easy win for Minges after Swim hit the wall before the asphalt whoops section, ended up giving Swim the victory after the Bounty Hunter shut down and diverted before hitting the Super Jump. This gave the win to Larry Swim and team Bigfoot.
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| It should have been a loss for Larry Swim after hitting the walls twice on his way to his finish spot, but with Darren Minges shutting down, Larry had the “easy” win. You'll probably notice that many of my pictures are not on the track when I do Stadium Super Truck coverage and this is exactly why. Even thought I was several rows up, I was ready to run the hell back up to the press box when I saw that Swim was going to possibly climb over the wall. Thankfully, he got the truck back under control and, well, hit another wall. |
