This year the Summer X-Games are adding Rallying to the competition, featuring multi-time WRC champion Colin McRae and multi-time Moto-X champion Travis Pastrana, both driving Subarus.

Other notables include Nicky Grist (Colin's WRC champion co-driver) and several regulars from the Rally America series such as Lauchlin O'Sullivan, Tanner Foust (D1 Drift driver too I believe), and Rhys Millen (also a D1 driver).

Unfortunately this year's Supermoto race conflicts with AMA Superbike so none of the AMASBK riders could compete this year, which is a shame because both of the previous the lone road racer did well* This year Alex Hoffman from the D'Antin Ducati Moto GP team will be the only road racer competing.

X-Games Rally: Saturday, August 5th @ 3 pm on ABC
X-Games Supermoto: Sunday, August 6th @ 3 pm on ABC

*Ben Bostrom won the first X-Games Supermoto on a Honda CRF450. His brother Eric finished 4th last year after running 2nd for most of the race (KTM450SMR).

 

come on marm. enter as a solo rider

 

Im suprised that John Hopkins Suzuki MotoGP, isnt doing the supermoto. Guess Suzuki said no you cant.

 

how is rallying an x game? people have been driving on dirt long than they have paved roads

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BDiddy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Im suprised that John Hopkins Suzuki MotoGP, isnt doing the supermoto. Guess Suzuki said no you cant.</TD></TR></TABLE>

his ears have been ruled a distraction to the other riders...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how is rallying an x game? people have been driving on dirt long than they have paved roads</TD></TR></TABLE>

its called travis probably couldnt be passed physically to ride bikes anymore so now he is trying to promote rally here in america. too bad it is just a setup event. pastrana will win. i was watching a qualifier for the xgames and the rally was a joke. there are only like 2 or 3 legit factory rides and they are all scoobys. it is a joke.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BDiddy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Im suprised that John Hopkins Suzuki MotoGP, isnt doing the supermoto. Guess Suzuki said no you cant.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Could be a lot of reasons. Could be he wants to focus on GP, afraid of getting hurt, didn't have enough time to test/tune a bike for the event, who knows. Just a shame it conflicts with AMASBK because we would've seen both Bostroms and Jake Zemke at the very least.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D Day &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its called travis probably couldnt be passed physically to ride bikes anymore so now he is trying to promote rally here in america. too bad it is just a setup event. pastrana will win. i was watching a qualifier for the xgames and the rally was a joke. there are only like 2 or 3 legit factory rides and they are all scoobys. it is a joke.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well for one Travis is doing Moto-X as well as Rally this year.

As for the quality of competition, most of the drivers are from the Rally America championship. What did you expect, Sebastien Loeb and Marcus Gronholm to bring their factory cars out?

Rallying in general is weak in America so of course there aren't that many factory entries yet.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EngineNoO9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">his ears have been ruled a distraction to the other riders...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nice

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMU R1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Could be a lot of reasons. Could be he wants to focus on GP, afraid of getting hurt, didn't have enough time to test/tune a bike for the event, who knows. Just a shame it conflicts with AMASBK because we would've seen both Bostroms and Jake Zemke at the very least.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh I agree. Im sure there is more to it. I dont expect Nicky Hayden to be there competing, but Hopkins has that more laid abck attitude.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMU R1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Well for one Travis is doing Moto-X as well as Rally this year.</TD></TR></TABLE>

He is doing FMX. Im pretty sure he means that Trav cant pass the test for racing SX and NX anymore. He was supposed to be the next golden boy, but got caught up in the FMX thing and his racing got put in the back. In my opinion, he and Jeff Emig are 2 of the biggest wasted talents in MX/SX. Both of which are their own makings. Emig's excessive partying and smoking weed and Travis of his desire to push FMX all the time. There is a reason why the guys in FMX are former racer that were never really good to begin with.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BDiddy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oh I agree. Im sure there is more to it. I dont expect Nicky Hayden to be there competing, but Hopkins has that more laid abck attitude.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I dunno, he might still be fuming from getting shown up at the USGP by his teammate.

You're right though, seems like the kind of thing he'd do. To be honest him and Vermeulen should've done the Suzuka 8 hour, the two of them might have been able to break Honda's win streak (10). Maybe we should all get on his myspace and ask him why he's not doing X-Games. Especially since his buddy Hoffman is doing it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMU R1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I dunno, he might still be fuming from getting shown up at the USGP by his teammate. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Whoofa!!!! Agreed. That was pretty bad.

[quoteYou're right though, seems like the kind of thing he'd do. To be honest him and Vermeulen should've done the Suzuka 8 hour, the two of them might have been able to break Honda's win streak (10). Maybe we should all get on his myspace and ask him why he's not doing X-Games. Especially since his buddy Hoffman is doing it.[/QUOTE]

Thats a damn good idea. Im on it. Maybe he is working Hoff's pit or something.

To be honest Im really starting to wonder if Hopper is as good as people seem to think he is. Obviously he is a great rider, but people are constantly putting him ahead of Hayden and alot of the MotoGP field in talant, but Im really starting to question that. Especially considering how he is getting shown up by CV all the time. Hop may lead CV in the points, but CV is always getting the attention.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMU R1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well for one Travis is doing Moto-X as well as Rally this year.

As for the quality of competition, most of the drivers are from the Rally America championship. What did you expect, Sebastien Loeb and Marcus Gronholm to bring their factory cars out?

Rallying in general is weak in America so of course there aren't that many factory entries yet. </TD></TR></TABLE>well if you have seen pastrana on a bike in the last year or so he is less about riding the bike and more about doing something wild that nobody has seen. i mean the gyro neck bike last year was a waste of time. it was a cool concept but a large bunch of media hype none the less. i mean the whole focus of the big air comp was them talking about some trick bike he had, that broke after what, 2 jumps. dont get me wrong i am a huge fan of travis, but i liked him more when he was wheelie-ing through large whoop sections and crashing like a rag doll from excessive speed.

of course rally is weak in america, but thats the point. the whole event is based on the fact that travis is getting into the sport, he is bring some large sponsors to his own team and trav is a huge star in the X games. unfortunately, if you have seen any of the qualifiers most of his competition is weekend racers. sorry, but to me seeing weekend racers get waxed by purpose built race cars isnt that exciting. actually is is very predictable. i know the reason for rally in the xgames is to get more interest in the sport but unfortunately america isnt into rally much and this shooting fish in a barrel event that has been created for the xgames wont peak the general publics interest any more.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BDiddy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To be honest Im really starting to wonder if Hopper is as good as people seem to think he is. Obviously he is a great rider, but people are constantly putting him ahead of Hayden and alot of the MotoGP field in talant, but Im really starting to question that. Especially considering how he is getting shown up by CV all the time. Hop may lead CV in the points, but CV is always getting the attention.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well Chris the V is a great rider and I think he would've easily won the WSBK championship last year if Ten Kate had gotten the development of the bike started on time in the preseason. Having a strong teammate should ultimately raise Hopper's game. I think that Hopper is being held back by his bike though, especially looking at how KRJR left the team and got on the podium. Then again KRJR got on the podium last year too in the rain... Its kind of ironic but in DTK Hopper was kinda talking trash about Nicky, saying he should've won by now. Well the spotlight is turning to him now, its time for him to produce.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">of course rally is weak in america, but thats the point. the whole event is based on the fact that travis is getting into the sport, he is bring some large sponsors to his own team and trav is a huge star in the X games. unfortunately, if you have seen any of the qualifiers most of his competition is weekend racers. sorry, but to me seeing weekend racers get waxed by purpose built race cars isnt that exciting. actually is is very predictable. i know the reason for rally in the xgames is to get more interest in the sport but unfortunately america isnt into rally much and this shooting fish in a barrel event that has been created for the xgames wont peak the general publics interest any more.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The thing about a lot of motorsports is that it takes star power to get a lot of things going. If there weren't any Americans in Moto GP the USGP probably never would've happened. With NASCAR, part of the reason its so successful is they've built the marketing around personalities. So if it takes a Travis Pastrana to give it a little kickstart I'm all for it.

Really, there's several race series in the US that aren't popular simply because people aren't exposed to it. Supermoto is one of them, Superbike is another, and World Challenge is yet another. I think a large part of the problem is just that they don't have awareness in the public, not so much that Americans would not watch those kinds of racing. After all, if they're willing to watch cars go in circles for 500 laps...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMU R1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">After all, if they're willing to watch cars go in circles for 500 laps...</TD></TR></TABLE>i think you hit a large portion of the problem right on the head. i think that for the majority of the american public (which we can assume most people here arent part of the majority, rather the minority) is more consumed with sports that they started and grew up with. nascar is popular because it is the down home, backwoods race series that many of the hicks who watch it, grew up with. either watching short track racing at their local speedway, or watching its early stars on TV. this concept has also started to work against nascar. because of the nationalization of nascar the original southern fan base has dropped off in the last 5 years. but that is neither here nor there is this convo.

also there are no american drivers in F1 but the USGP of F1 has no problems filling every seat made available at any price asked. i agree that if it werent for little nicky the USGP wouldnt not be as successful as it has been the last 2 years, but even so, there is no way that motoGP will hit the real mainstream here. likewise with rally, supermoto and soccer. american public as a majority just doesnt care about european and asian based motorsports or other sports for that matter. there are the hardcore guys like many of us here, where if it has a motor and some wheels we will watch people battle each other on them. but the rest of them will never really attach themselves to it unless it registers with their daily lives.

but really, if you really think about it, do you want to see your motoGP race filled with squids who are all acting a fool in front of the "real" fans? or riding wheelies when they are leaving or turning the exit roads into their own private stunt shows? or more drunk unruley and overly ignorant people wandering onto the rally course and causing problems. this already happens in europe and we know that as americans BAC goes up the IQ goes exponentially down. i can already say with experience that since MX has blown up because of FMX and the xgames, it is not nearly as enjoyable to go to MX events as it used to be. there are more young loud ignorant "fans" than there ever used to be. people who are just there to party and cause problems because MX is a newly popular sport among the youth. sadly the fame and popularity that we all want for our sports is how many of our sporting events become unenjoyable to attend.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MSchu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how is rallying an x game? people have been driving on dirt long than they have paved roads</TD></TR></TABLE>

Whats up with the X-games lately? They completely went a whole new direction with it.... I remember back when i started watching it.. back in the mid-late 90s, They had Rollerblading, Skateboarding, Street Looge, sky surfing, Eco Challenge...

Then all of a sudden. they canned 90% of the orginal events.... and now im reading from HT that they added Rallying????? man.. they def. lost their roots..

i always had thought that Xgames were about pushing your body to the most Xtreme... not your Machine.... now with all these nonsense events.... im sure in a few years, if Xgames is still around... Drifting will be part of the competition too....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by genetsang &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> im sure in a few years, if Xgames is still around... Drifting will be part of the competition too.... </TD></TR></TABLE>already slated for its debut next year. that is part of the reason they are tryin to get some names like millen into it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BDiddy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">In my opinion, he and Jeff Emig are 2 of the biggest wasted talents in MX/SX. Both of which are their own makings. Emig's excessive partying and smoking weed and Travis of his desire to push FMX all the time. There is a reason why the guys in FMX are former racer that were never really good to begin with.</TD></TR></TABLE>

FWIW, Emig suffered a "career ending" injury and cashed in an insurance policy that he had out on himself for just such and occasion. He can't race professionally unless he wants to get sued by the insurance company.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by racerxadam &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">FWIW, Emig suffered a "career ending" injury and cashed in an insurance policy that he had out on himself for just such and occasion. He can't race professionally unless he wants to get sued by the insurance company. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Scott Russell did the same thing unfortunately

I suppose it sucks for the original fans of X-Games that its getting away from its roots but as a motorsports fan it couldn't make me happier. I don't particularly care for drifting but if supermoto and rallying get a boost I'm all for it. Especially supermoto because the more popular it is the more likely it is we'll see more street legal motards.

 

Everyone seems to think that hicks are the reason NASCAR is popular and indeed that is where the majority of the fanbase is but there's a lot more to it than that. NASCAR did plenty of things to strategically build the series over the years that has turned it into a powerhouse that competes with the big 3 stick and ball sports.

For one, they heavily market the drivers so that the fans can identify with and follow the personalities of the sport. When fans follow people there's a lot to talk about and it gives people a personal connection to the sport.

Then look at the merchandising. Search froogle for "Valentino Rossi hat". Then do the same for "Jeff Gordon hat". NASCAR puts out copious amounts of merchandise so that fans can advertise the sport for them. The amount of merchandise available for even Moto GP and Formula 1 (outside of Ferrari stuff) is absolutely pathetic. I mean damn, I can't even buy a Fortuna or LCR Honda shirt.

NASCAR has also successfully held costs down, relative to their success and level of competition. A lot of the NASCAR teams can actually break even or profit with sponsor revenue and race winning money. I can tell you straight up that very, very few teams in American motorsports can do this. Another benefit to the relatively low cost is that there's always a full grid of cars and the racing tends to be pretty close.

The sanctioning body also artificially legislates parity so no one manufacturer starts dominating. While this is a bit unfair, again it makes the racing close and unpredictable.

Speaking of rules, the rules in NASCAR are extremely stable. Rules instability has wrecked plenty of motorsports series in the past and is one of the big reasons that Yamaha and Kawasaki dropped out of Superbike. Not saying everyone should be stuck in the 70's with their rules but a measure of stability has certainly helped.

Then look at the venues. NASCAR comes to the very same venues year after year and at every track you can see the entire race. While not all of the tracks are near major metro areas a lot of them are (Charlotte, Atlanta, Daytona, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas).

So now, when people say motorcycle racing (or open wheeled, sportscar, touring car, etc) can never be very popular here I have to say that I don't think that's true. None of the other motorsports series are doing all of the things correctly that NASCAR used to fill its empire.

Granted, Formula 1 can't very well have 10 races in the US nor can AMASBK force everyone to go back to using carbs. But the plain fact is that just about every motorsports series in the US other than NASCAR gets a D or a F for marketing. And when I say marketing, I'm not just talking about magazine ads and TV commercials. I'm talking about everything you can do for your series that puts butts in seats. The only notable exception is Supercross.

Now, if you want to talk about whether or not it would be a good thing if our beloved motorsports got more popular, that's arguable. Personally I'd rather suffer a little more inconvenience so that there are more sponsors, better funded teams, better TV time, and more products geared towards us enthusiasts. If road racing were more popular there'd be more quality racetracks for us to do club racing and track days at.

 

nascar today is its biggest enemy with its original roots fans. nascar has more than peaked with its popularity. there is no disputing how big nascar currently is but its trend of mainstream is currently starting to hurt the sport. nascar was traditionally a sunday early afternoon race series where all the drivers were southern born and raised and most of the fans could connect with the drivers of the series. in the last 10 or so years the series has moved more to a full national sport and has even started to move internationally. nascar got big becuase the series and the drivers mimiced the southern and south eastern life style. fords and chevys, carburators and southern drawls. people watched their local short tracks on saturday night woke up went to church and then watched nascar for the rest of their sunday afternoon. no more do you see the major southern sponsors like years past. most sponsors today are of larger companies and many of them are of northern and western focused sponsorship. this is partly because the serie now has multiple races on the western area of the united states. 10 years ago there were no west coast races. because of nascars west coast expansion, races now start later in the day, and many of the bigger races have been moved to night races. to market the excitement of "racing under the lights".

the marketing of the sport is a huge plus for nascar over many other motorsports but again this has began to hurt nascar in its own way. many of the new young drivers in nascar do not come from the old school of nascar and most of them are not southern born and bred. in the past the successful drivers were always the most popular and as a result had the most hats and shirts in the stands. well the most successful drivers in the last 5 or so years are not the most popular anymore. newman, johnson, gordon, kenseth, stewart, busch, kahne and others. they are drivers who came from california and indiana and wisconsin and other northern and western states. even though over the past 5 years these are by far the most successful drivers, they are not as popular as drivers like dale jr(partly because of his father but also because he represents the old school of nascar) mark martin, dale jarrett and other southern born drivers. because of the nationalization and the coming of the internationalization with companies like toyota (and soon honda) and drivers like montoya much of the original fan base is getting further and further detached from their sport.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D Day &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
...
also there are no american drivers in F1
...
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually there is one: Scott Speed. Not that he's done much of anything yet, but he's in there, somewhere.

 

No doubt NASCAR is getting away from its roots but that's not really a bad thing. Its much bigger than it could have ever hoped to be by staying in the South. You could draw the same parallel with Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

Way back before the Japanese manufacturers were born GP motorcycle racing was a strictly European affair. There were races that boasted several hundred spectators on circuits that were decidedly primitive and dangerous but charming nonetheless. Then Honda bursted onto the scene and started dominating the 125, 250, and 350cc championships. The GP calendar eventually expanded into other countries and you started to see riders from outside of Europe. Then in the late seventies the American rider onslaught began.

Concurrently, Honda and later Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki went on to dominate production motorcycle sales as well, to the point that they drove a lot of the European companies either out of business or marginalized them into obscurity.

Still, today the Grand Prix circuit is huge and is an international affair with riders from all over the world. Now I hope NASCAR doesn't get to be international juggernaut but they'll certainly only get bigger and stronger by expanding all over North America. Sure, it'll alienate some of the Southern fan base but overall they'll come out waaaayyyyy ahead.

 

i see the parallel you are trying to make with GP racing and nascar but it is slightly flawed in the example. obviously when Soichiro began taking his motorcycles to europe and dominating the motorcycle races there the world of motorcycles changed forever. but thats because he brought new ideas to a sport that was very similar. most european bikes even today are very similar. Honda came in with new ideas and new developments and put them to use. this being part of the originating thought of honda, translated to better bikes and sales in the showrooms. this is a key aspect. the manufacturers in nascar are not directly taking what they learn in the cars and putting that into the cars me or you could go and buy at the dealer. the rules of nascar actually restrict development of new technologies. this a major problem with the sport. name a car you can go buy that isnt fuel injected these days. that is a key on why nascar has hit its peak. it will never get to an international level as long as they stay in the stone age of the automobile. every top level series in europe and japan are drivin on advancing technology and finding new ways to get around the rules for that small advantage. nascar actually penalizes teams who try and think of creative ways around the rules. chad knaus is a perfect example. what he has done is not outlawed in the rule books but because he was working in the grey area he was suspended. in F1 engineers get paid millions for this. same with rally and GP bikes and nearly every other form of racing i have ever experienced. nascar is actually backwards. when toyota gets into nascar next year, the average camry you can buy at your local dealer will be 10-15 years more advanced than the nascar they will be racing that sunday. where as with all other forms of motorsport the race car(or bike) is far more advanced than the machine you can buy in its likeness.

i dont really know where i am going with this anymore and we are way off your original topic. there are just so many points to nascars current popularity that are going to become negative aspects of the sport in the near and not so near future.