Well it’s that time of year again. The Australian Super X series starts this weekend with the opening round in Melbourne. The series is lacking the usual promise of top US riders taking on some of the best in Australia. No mention of the main draw card of the previous series with Chad Reed nowhere to be seen.

Broken Promises

I’ve been to the Brisbane rounds each year for the last three and been disappointed because the first year the head to head battle between James Stewart and Chad Reed never happened. The second year saw an influx of US talent with Davy Milllsaps, Josh Grant and Jeremy McGrath. The third year the promised visit by Ryan Villipoto never eventuated. It was good to see Kevin Windham in the series last year but unfortunately he didn’t race in the Brisbane round.

The Venues

Some of the venues have moved away from the major city centers and there are no rounds outside of main land Australia. Not that I’d be traveling to New Zealand anyway but it seems the promise of a high profile supercross series in Australia is not going to be.

Television Coverage

There will be no live television coverage as the rounds will be aired on Speed TV a week after each event.

Outdated Conent

The web site at superx.com.au has information on it that was put up in 2009. In the Race formats section it refers to “In 2009″ and later in the same text block “this year”. I just clicked on a link to the TV coverage and its broken too…

Super Xweb site UR

So what’s there to look forward to this year?

Well there are still some talented riders based in Australia that will be lining up to race.

Daniel Reardon and Ryan Marmont – 450 KTM
Jay Marmont and Jake Moss – 450 Yamaha
Daniel MCoy and Cody Cooper – 450 Suzuki
Todd Waters, Cheyne Boyd, Craig Anderson and Cody Mackie – 450 Honda
Matt Moss – 250 KTM

When’s it all happen

Don’t blink cause you might miss it. The 2011 race schedule is over and done in just 5 weeks.
October 22nd – Melbourne, VIC
October 29th – Wollongong, NSW
November 5th – Campbelltown, NSW
November 12th – Maitland, NSW
November 19th – Ipswich, QLD

Round 1 – 16 October – Newcastle, NSW
Round 2 – 23 October – Melbourne, VIC
Round 3 – 30 October – Canberra, ACT
Round 4 – 13 November – Auckland, NZ
Round 5 – 20 November – Dunedin, NZ
Round 6 – 27 November – Sydney, NSW
Round 7 – 4 December – Brisbane, QLD

Reed fell in the first heat but had a big enough gap back to his competition which gave him enough time to get back on the bike and stay in the lead. Jeremy McGrath seemed to be in control in his first heat and took the win convincingly showing a cool head and smooth riding.

With the first 8 riders knocked out of the competition the riders paired up again to challenge. Unfortunately for the CDR Rockstart Yamaha team of Jay Marmont and Cheyne Boyd the where matched up together which meant one of them had to go. It was Marmont which took the win in a close race.

Reed won hist heat which had him matched with Ryan Marmont in the semi finals. Marmont while lined up on the start line next to Reed said “We’ll see if we can take down the Big Dog”. Which he did after staying in front of Reed. Chad tried to sneak an inside line and suffered front end washout and maybe even a little of Jay Marmonts rear tyre and went down again.

The next two in the semi finals to line up was Jeremy McGrath against Daniel McCoy. McGrath had come up short on the triple again and managed to stall his bike in one of the corners. MC didn’t seem to be putting in too much effort as if he had given up in the slippery conditions. McGrath commented earlier when he came up short on the triple earlier that it had been a heavy blow.

So the battle for third ended up being between the King of Supercross Jeremy McGrath and the current AMA supercross champion Chad Reed. McGrath looked confident at the start but dropped back soon after. By this stage MC had given up on the triple and was no where near Reed after the first couple of turns. Just before the last couple of turns Reed got thrown of the side of the bike and tried to regain hist footing on the pegs but couldn’t and so landed badly and crashed after the jump. He again recovered quickly and continued on to take 3rd place by winning the final.

The battle for the win was again close bar to bar action between McCoy and Marmont. With Marmont riding to a convincing win in terrible conditions.

Jeremy McGrath, or MC as he is known, is one of the sports most successful competitors dominating the sport for almost a decade. MC will don the number #2 jersey one more time to challenge Reed at the Townsville (22 November) and Brisbane (29 November) events. The new man on man format will see these two do battle with no distractions, other riders or excuses.

The final two rounds in Queensland are in large open stadiums on full size supercross tracks and the world will be watching as the event will be telecast in the US, Europe and Asia. Although the focus will be on Reed and MC, it will be good to see if other contenders in the championship including Dan Reardon and Jay Marmont can step it up and take on the champions.

This will give some of the other riders a chance to beat Reed, who is leading the championship. You will be sure to see some exciting moments, unfortunately maybe even some crashes, as riders push themselves beyond their normal ability. With only a 2 minute break between races this format will test the fitness of the riders and their ability to recover quickly from some hard racing.

In the lites class, the series leader Jake Moss has been ruled out for the season after suffering from an injury earlier this week. This puts several of the lites riders in contention for the title with Matt Moss, Ryan Marmont & Luke George looking in strong form coming up to the event.

Gates will open at 3.00pm on Saturday 8 November with tickets still available for purchase online at www.superx.com.au. Qualifying starts at 3.55pm and heats will commence at 5.55pm followed by the finals starting at 8.15pm.

The partnership is promising big things including new race formats, entertainment, larger venues and tracks and television coverage. The series will take place in October and November 2008 over 7 races and will add an additional 3 rounds to the series by 2010.

Chad recently organised a publicity event in Sydney and bought in 40 trucks delivered 1000 tonnes of dirt to the top of the Overseas Passenger Terminal so that the jump could be built with a view across Circular Quay to the Opera House for the event. Expect to see more publicity throughout the year. Hopefully, as well as the existing talent pool of Australian riders, some well known international riders will be attracted to the supercross series down under in oz.