Which motocross championship reigns supreme?
Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 1:11PM Red Bull Presents
AMA Motocross and MXGP have plenty of differences. They’re held mainly on opposite sides of the globe, feature different athletes and are run by very different people. Heck, even the fans are totally different and both have arguments for why their series is the best in existence. They're worlds apart.
Or are they? This is motocross after all, and some things remain the same no matter what language is spoken. For every signature obstacle, style of track, or unique athlete in MXGP, there is an equivalent in AMA Motocross.
Join us as we take a look at some of these counterparts that make two very different championships look, well, not so different after all.
AMA: LaRocco’s Leap
If you want to talk about big jumps in America, look no further than LaRocco’s Leap at the RedBud National in Michigan. In fact, at roughly 40m in length, it’d be hard to look farther anyway! It’s no longer the biggest jump in the AMA, thanks to some ridiculous booters recently built at Hangtown and Glen Helen, but it’s still huge and is definitely one of the oldest and most iconic signature obstacles of the AMA. And as you might expect, it’s named after former AMA racer Mike LaRocco, who now manages the mighty GEICO Honda team.
About 20 years ago, LaRocco, a Michigan native, came up with the idea of recreating a massive jump at his personal practice track, nicknamed Kong, at RedBud. Track co-owner Tim Ritchie agreed, and LaRocco’s Leap was born. Fittingly, LaRocco was the first rider to clear the massive launch, although he had to go home and get his factory bike just to make it.
More than two decades later, the huge jump is still intimidating, although most riders will tell you it’s not that The Leap is technically difficult, it just takes a massive set of balls to get the job done.
If you’ve ever seen the jump in person, you can relate. Standing at the base and staring up at the jump face, which from this vantage looks more like a wall than a launch ramp, is enough to cause the faint of heart to immediately load back up and drive home. Now imagine having to hit it wide open like James Stewart, praying you’re going fast enough to clear the uphill landing.
Fortunately, those who choose to complete The Leap generally know what they’re doing, and when they do, hundreds of screaming fans reward them with air horns, yelling, and saluting, beer-soaked fists thrust high in the air. As for LaRocco himself, he says he no longer wants anything to do with jumping it, but is pretty sure he still could if he had to.
MXGP: The Lommel quad
There are a few huge – and we mean huge – jumps on the MXGP calendar, but two really stand out if we’re looking at sheer guts required to make them.
The uphill quad at Matterley Basin, in the UK, is not one for the faint-hearted at all, and when you’re an eight-times world champion like Tony Cairoli you can even throw in a cheeky overtake on this one, but we’d probably advise against doing that.
When MXGP went to Thailand for the first time in 2013, there was a gigantic tabletop to single-leap that Russian rider Evgeny Bobryshev – he only man to clear it in one go, and almost touch the heavens as he did so – stated you needed "huge coconuts” to conquer.
But the crowning jump on the MXGP scene, for our money, is in Europe, at Lommel. A quad into the rhythm section at the famous Belgian track requires supreme skill, and only the very best tackle it.
Gautier Paulin showed his rivals (and awestruck fans) how to do it in style in 2014 when he nailed it. The Frenchman doesn’t mess around when it comes to making his way around!
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