Officials Say Rain Won’t Stop Supercross From Running

Despite heavy showers that drenched Angel Stadium on Friday, and forecasts for more today, officials of AMA Pro Racing and Clear Channel Entertainment insisted that tonight’s THQ AMA supercross would go on.

“There will be racing, but the program may be shortened,” Todd Jendro, supercross senior director said. “The AMA plans to make an announcement at 10 a.m., regarding the probable shortening of practice and race distances, but the show will go on at 7:30 p.m. as scheduled.”

The forecast today is for a 100% chance of rain.

There are 168 entries for the 250cc main event and 125cc support class, and the AMA probably will cut that number to allow as few cycles on the track as possible.

Construction of the obstacle course, consisting of 500 truckloads of dirt covering the baseball diamond, was completed Thursday when the rains subsided. The entire zigzag racing surface has been covered with plastic.

All 45,050 seats have been sold out for a month, and there is no available rain date. The supercross series is scheduled for Vancouver next Saturday night and the two remaining Anaheim races, Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, are nearly sold out.

There is precedent for holding a race in similar circumstances. In a THQ world championship race Dec. 6, 2003, at Seville, Spain, because of rain, practice was eliminated, heats shortened and the 20-lap main event was cut to eight laps. Daryl Hurley, a little-known rider from New Zealand, won the muddy mess, in which it was almost impossible to keep the bikes upright and running.

“I would not have been able to go one more lap, I was so exhausted,” said third-place finisher Tyler Evans of Salinas after the race. “It’s so hard to crash and pick your bike up six times in this mud.”

-- Shav Glick