Supercross Takes an Inside Track

Arenacross, a scaled-down version of supercross, will squeeze its way into the crowded Southern California sports schedule this week with the BooKoo Arenacross on Friday and Saturday nights at Long Beach Arena.

This will be the first Southland appearance of the highly popular motorcycle sport inside an arena, as opposed to the outdoor stadiums used for supercross.

The bikes are the same, 450cc and 250cc, the riders are professional, the racing format is the same, the rules are the same and the course includes the usual 70-foot double and triple jumps, sand pits and kidney-jarring whoops. The big differences are that the spectators are closer to the action and the track is much shorter.

“We call it the Roller Derby of Motocross,” said Mike Kidd, AMA Grand National flat track champion in 1981, who founded the Arenacross concept in 1985 with an event in his hometown of Fort Worth. When it sold out, Kidd moved into other venues and created the Bud Lite Texas Series. It evolved into a national championship series, sanctioned by the AMA. In 1997, Kidd sold his interest to what is now Clear Channel, operators of supercross and AMA arenacross.

“Now, with BooKoo as sponsor of our new series, we are competing against my old series,” Kidd said as the Long Beach Arena was being groomed for Friday night’s opener. “Why am I starting a new series? Because I believe there are enough professional motocross riders to warrant two arenacross, plus a supercross, series. As an example, we have more than 80 riders pre-entered in each class this week.

“Southern California is where most of the motorcycle industry people are located, so we felt this was where we needed to come.”

Stadiums in Anaheim and San Diego annually have sellout crowds for four races in January and February.

Another difference from supercross is that the top riders compete in both the 250cc and 450cc events each night, with the championship coming from a combination of points. After four rounds, Josh Woods, of Flint, Mich., holds a three-point lead over two-time national champion Josh Demuth, of Keller, Texas. Woods, on a Suzuki, swept both the 250 and 450 events last week in West Valley City, Utah.

Shane Bess of Oxnard was the 250 winner in Utah by inches over Woods in a battle of Suzukis.

On Sunday, the Long Beach track will be open to amateur riders. Kidd said that between 400 and 500 riders were expected in 21 classes. Heats start at 8 a.m. with championship races beginning at 4 p.m.