Sandbox MX

So we went to check out Sandbox MX last Saturday 4-22-06. The experience was good and we do expect to go back out. The track was a little larger than I expected based on the photos on their website. Not bigger as in how much land it takes up ala Baja but bigger than I expected for the relatively little land it does take up. It's almost more like a Stadium track in size but somehow they designed so that it doesn't feel or look like a back and forth "lane" thing. On that note, Todd, the owner says his real goal is to have the whole place lit up really bright for night riding. Due to its Stadium design it would be good for that.

The biggest difference is their current philosophy, told to me by "the gatekeeper" Dale, which is that the Sandbox it is intended to be a place to just come out and relax with your family and enjoy yourself out riding. As opposed to the competive atmospere of race intended tracks. You'll always still be competitve to a degree though, in my opinion.

One thing I did like, especially since we didn't get there until 4:00 is that the track is enter and exit as you please. No waiting for your turn and/or losing half of your turn because you're too tired to stay on the track for your whole alloted session. There is not a breakup of classes. Now at a track like Freelin that could be a bad thing but here it is not. The track can accomodate way more than were there at the time I attended, the track is quite wide at almost all points, and the jumps are not really dangerous as to whether you are clearing them or the other guy is not. It's pretty easy to see and ride around slower riders. They even allow four wheelers or trail bikes on the track.

They did have concessions, some toys for the kids, and they had a "learning" kids track in progress that will be complete by their next public practice date. So if you want to just go hang out and relax, and it's within your driving distance, go try them out.

Detroit Supercross 2006 - Editor's experience

This was the first year of the Detroit Supercross. I'll start with what was really the only negative of the event...

Attendance was light compared to what we'd typically see at the Silverdome. If Ford Field holds about 40,000, which is what some friends have told me, I'd estimate the attendance at only 25,000 to 30,000. The sides were pretty full and the ends were pretty empty. I never heard them say the official attendance but I know the Silverdome usually pulled 50,000+ because they would often announce the attendance there.

These are the factors, in my opinion...

One is that the date was moved up 2-3 weeks from it's usual date in our area. Honestly I almost missed it myself. The only reason I realized it was coming is because they mentioned it during the previous race telecast the weekend before.

Two, and I think this is a big one, is a lack of advertising. I personally only heard 2 radio ads and that's it. I guess there were some commercials ran because a couple of friends mentioned it to me but I never saw even one. In the past I used to see them several times leading up to the event. I used to see some sort of news clip about it, too but I never saw that either. Maybe I just missed it. I don't know.

Three, the ticket prices were double what they've been at the Silverdome for the lower level. $40 a piece. That's getting a little pricey for people who aren't sure about going.

Four, it was downtown. People were probably unwilling to go downtown, deal with parking, etc.

On that note, let's get to the positives. I was in the #4 group, but surprisingly my experience with going to Ford Field was quite good. The downtown area around the stadiums was much nicer than I expected. Everything seemed new or upgraded. Having assigned seats was kind of nice because I didn't feel like I needed to get there early to claim a seat and didn't feel like I needed to protect my coveted seat or be afraid to leave my seat. Parking I was unsure of. The first lot we pulled into wanted $25. Ugh, way too much, so we made a u-turn out of there. We drove around for about 10 mins and ended up finding a lot for free a few blocks from the stadium. The lot we found had an easy out, too, and we completely avoided any congestion while leaving. Literally just drove right out with no traffic. The parking a little closer to the stadium was congested like exiting the Silverdome lot could be. Getting out of the parking garages didn't look like much fun, but again we didn't have to deal with any of it. The stadium itself was quite pleasant. Everything was new of course. The concourse had light foot traffic although that may have been in part due to the light attendance. Lines for the many concessions areas were pretty short and quick. Bathrooms were clean, stocked, and not overpopulated. Staff walked up and down the stairs with items for sale like in the old days. Security people and staff seemed present and paying attention to help people and/or keep order.

Overall I have to say the experience was actually quite a bit nicer than the Silverdome races in the past. Except for those ticket prices.

Did anybody else see Supercross the Movie?

Bleh! Ugh! It was every bit as bad as I was afraid it would be and as bad as the TV trailers made it look to be. You'd think that with Clear Channel producing it and them having a vested interest in the sport that they would have seen to it that it was well done. Sometimes I feel our sport does as well as it does in spite of those guys instead of because of those guys. Does anybody there in charge of this thing even race?

Here's the good points of the movie....
The action shots of the riding were well done and well filmed. The actors/actresses surprisingly did a mostly better job than the trailer showed. That's as far as good gets, and as I read in somebody else's review somewhere, the riding was overdone and too much of anything is bad even if it is cool.

The bad...
Ugh! You were not pulled into anything in this movie. You weren't pulled into the characters. You weren't pulled into the racing. The storyline and especially the way it was put together was practically like a movie made by high school audio/visual kids. It was choppy, nothing flowed, and it was just dumb.

The Movie did nothing to promote our sport. It didn't show how hard the sport is. It didn't show how much skill it takes. It didn't show how hard it is to actually make it anywhere professionally. It didn't show how much fitness it takes or how hard these guys train. It showed nothing of starting out on the local tracks and the amateur ranks. It showed no drama and excitement in the racing. And on top of that it showed the second guy on a factory squad as a blocker instead of a racer. As my wife put it, it made the sport look more like Roller Derby than racing!

When one of the stars and the hot girl go out on a lovey-dovey fast trail ride I was ready to throw up. And then when she just casually goes off and hits a back flip on some dirt mound near her barn like it's no big deal I was ready to leave the theater in disgust.

All I can say is unbelievable and I hope the rumors that Tom Cruise is producing a movie about the life of James Stewart is true because that movie I'm sure will be well done and not only tell an accurate story but actually tell a story at all.

Test

This is a test of new blogger software. The last software had become overgrown and out of control with weeds of spam. Hopefully this one will not have the same issue.

Test looks good

Ok so far so good. I like it.