Swizcorner – “Straight Scrubbin’”

How did it take nearly 30 years for someone to think, “hmmm, what happens if we straighten out a Supercross track?”

Video Clips Available from redbull.tv

Supercross has been around since the 70’s when it was funded, ironically, by tobacco and alcohol, yet here we are about 3 decades later and Red Bull assembles a truly innovative racing format. I guess there actually IS something new under the sun!

The Straight Rhythm got plenty of comparisons to Excitebike over the past few weeks but lets not kid ourselves, dropping “Excitebike” is just playing into that cool guy “old school, I was around back when…” game. The Straight Rhythm was spurred to reality from the addiction that is known as Mad Skills MX. I was the first MSM for iOS beta tester and I heard rumblings of the possibility of this event long ago. I’m not claiming without the game we wouldn’t have a Red Bull Straight Rhythm but there was certainly some “idea-bouncing” between parties.

Am I the only one who feels that a Red Bull sponsored event has a bit more of a distinct patina to it than one brought to us by Monster? The Supercross production is handled by Feld with Monster as the title sponsor, whereas this Straight Rhythm was all Red Bull top to bottom; but the singular vision of the Straight Rhythm was obvious and made the full production feel much more polished and cohesive. The on-screen graphics are distinct, the shooting feels more “involved” if you will and this Red Bull “sheen” could literally be simply a result of the brighter Red Bull brand’s color palette. The green and black of Monster doesn’t really “pop” in comparison you know? Red Bull clearly fancies itself as a truly unique and distinguished brand and with their Signature Series, the app on both smartphones and AppleTV/Samsung Wifi TV’s, they are pulling it off. It’s just all so polished, their effort is prevalent and at the forefront for those of us who are inspired by and compelled to follow the events in the Series. From a production stand point, I couldn’t imagine too many changes that would have made the presentation any better than it was. Let’s get on to the new racing format, the action and the event as a whole.

Justin Brayton dominated the whoops to overtake Dean Wilson. Even though he only won by .02 in their prior race, the come from behind win at the end of this race made it more intense.

When I first discovered that this inaugural Straight Rhythm would not be live on TV, only via the web or Red Bull’s content delivery vehicles, I was like “HUH?!” How does Red Bull not make sure they have Live broadcast real estate for this fresh idea in the world of horsepower? It still didn’t make sense to me as it was kicking off and I saw the production vignette’s and effort they put into making this look slick. But pretty soon after that I realized, they made the right choice. Make the debut of Straight Rhythm as easily accessible to the core fans who want to see it as possible, which they did (apps or internet with no cable subscriber-hoops to jump through) but don’t risk the “turn-off” possibilities of a first run event where there would be plenty of downtime and possibly some program snafu’s. Before seeing the qualifying format, I wondered how they would fill more than 1.5hrs with the event of less than 1 minute passes amongst a couple dozen athletes. In the end, they managed to fill just under 4hrs with the Live event. A Live Supercross fills about 3hrs and 10mins tops and it’s action is spread out over longer periods whereas the Straight Rhythm is numerous quick intense bursts of action with more downtime in comparison (unless it’s the mid 90’s with MC making snoozers for years on end).

The action, during the head to head matches was great. Competitors who are separated by seconds over the course of a 20 lap Supercross, are much more evenly matched when it’s a run-n-gun affair where an immaculate individual burst, is all that is needed. In a sport like Supercross where the focus is 20 perfect laps, every guy has a chance to make an error or capitalize on another error and they can and often do average out to give us the best of the best. In Straight Rhythm though, each guy gets at most, a one mistake allowance because the likelihood that their opponent will falter more than once in a single run, is minimized. I love the format but it needs to be compacted.

The Stewart Brothers put on the most intense head to head race of the event.

In the first round of competition where the qualifying times see a greater separation, it’s really unnecessary to have a best of 3 runs format. It puts a greater value on qualifying and also makes a one-n-done first round even more intense to kick the event off. Most importantly though, it keeps things moving along and progressing into the higher stakes rounds with more evenly matched duels. Even more importantly, it keeps the viewers from contemplating a change of the channel when Joe Schmoe is matched up against The Fastest Man on the Planet for a best of 3 runs.

I think they need to employ a penalty against any rider who comes in contact with the white dividing line between competitors. Not just a time penalty which would likely be the same as a disqualification with times being so close but something more intriguing. Say, a point penalty if it were to advance into a week to week or multi-round series of some sort. I really enjoyed it and definitely see a future for the Red Bull Straight Rhythm. I hope it doesn’t turn into a rare one-off gathering.

One thing I definitely took away from the event as a major strength over Supercross is giving a greater cross-section of racers a chance to be under the spotlight. Every rider who lines up has a chance to be on TV and at the very least will have their name and primary sponsor at the forefront. That is HUGE for these guys and something that Supercross really doesn’t have the time for, no matter how they spin the program or try. This fact alone will assure that the competitors will be all about trying to get a foothold in the action. They can put these things on at any drag-strip in the country too and though it doesn’t look to draw the “butts in the seats” like Supercross does, this could be a benefit and lead them more toward setting their goals on making this a huge TV draw instead of fan-attendance.

As far as the results are concerned, its gotta be the least surprising result in the history of sport. James Stewart, the “Fastest Man on the Planet”, the guy who everyone who knows a damn thing about MX/SX agrees is a lock to put down the single fastest lap anywhere and any day, took the win. But holy shnike’s did lil’ Bro give him a monumental fight! Mookie was fastest all day and if it weren’t for two tiny errors, He would have walked away the victor. Still, as predictable as it was, it was pretty damn exciting. Justin Brayton has become known for digging in like a bulldog and not giving anything to anyone and even though Mookie was a better battle, Brayton was pretty awesome.

Travis Pastrana gives the fans the goods.

Just as expected, Travis Pastrana was the story of the day. He’s the ultimate showman in the world of motorsports. No one could be more respected and appreciated in this sport after being irrelevant as far as championships and accolades go, for so many years, than TP. I know a lot of people were super disappointed when he left full-time competition for his other pursuits but I don’t think anyone truthfully regrets “what could have been”. His accomplishments, inspiration and story are so much bigger than this sport and if he would have remained solely in this sport, the audience that has been able to enjoy it, would have been a fraction and THAT would be the true tragedy. I hope everyone appreciates the risks Travis takes in the pursuit of giving people the enjoyment of the spectacular triumph of will and determination over personal injury or loss.

Bring it back Red Bull! “We want Straight Rhythm!”