It was year three for Red Bull’s Madskills MX brought to life and the event continues to deliver on intensity 40 seconds at a time, while also suffering the same criticism as year one: too long!
It was year three for Red Bull’s Madskills MX brought to life and the event continues to deliver on intensity 40 seconds at a time, while also suffering the same criticism as year one: too long!
Lead Photo: James Lissimore
Conceptually, Straight Rhythm has always promised crazy excitement and the most intense action you could imagine on a motocross bike. Head to head races where even a single finite error could mean you’re eliminated or you just became the underdog in the best of 3 series. It sounds amazing but just like the Major League Baseball schedule having too many games, in the Straight Rhythm, there are just too many damn races.
Think of your typical Saturday night Supercross event. In the seats or on the couch by 7:30 and wrapping up by 10:30. Three hours of nonstop action, points on the line, series momentum and careers hanging in the balance. Straight Rhythm is a one-off event that offers the intensity with none of the consequences and it covers the same time span but personally, I find myself checking the clock far more often while watching the Straight Rhythm. Again, too many races. I realize with racing this tight, any individual tiny mistake can mean the race is over but something needs to be done to tighten up the program and keep the eyeballs on the screen, not the clock.
The elevated start on this years track was a cool addition. It made sense. Just like a car drag race, seeing the racers get the jump is a key part of the overall action and with the racers starting elevated, the start is that much more appealing to fans, especially those on hand. After RJ Hampshire’s incredibly scary crash in the whoops at last years Straight Rhythm, I was really glad to see the whoops mellowed out a bit. It’s true that these guys will always be riding the razor edge of danger and testing the limits of reckless speeds regardless of obstacles but that may be all the more reason to save them from themselves by mellowing out some aspects of the track.
You would think that with no turns for guys to make up time, the quickes tway down the MX drag-lane would be to mega scrub your way down the track on all those speed checks; it looked to me like Josh Hansen was toying with his own method on those speed checks. Hanny is never one to shy away from a whip, scrub or slippery style but he was braking crazy hard at the lip of the speed scrub walls and then instead of actually scrubbing, he was remaining pretty straight up and down which in my mind resulted in a more truly vertical axis for the rear wheel and that meant better traction when he came back in contact with the track surface. For sure Hanny is a crazy talent and super fast all over the track but it was really apparent as he made up a lot of time when behind, on those speed check walls.
Josh Hill on his Alta Motors electirc machine was a really cool thing to see. Josh put in a few hard years of work following the broken femur and perpetually hindered leg in that backflip attempt and although he had a few shining moments of pride, I think this effort at the Straight Rhythm, when he eliminated Kyle Cunningham was the real punctuation of Josh Hill’s legacy. His exuberance was pure joy and I couldn’t help but share that huge smile on his face following the win. The Alta bike without question opened the eyes of the major OEM’s Saturday. To hear about the potential of the “niche” electric bike is one thing but to see it perform and actually prove itself victorious was something I bet none of the big five had considered. At LEAST, I’d bet those 5 OEM’s are putting in an order for an Alta with delivery pinpointed for their R&D departments with any eye on some 2020-something debut for their own testing of the waters in the electric world.
In my mind the most bizarre thing about the event was, 1: James Stewart’s absence from the event but even more bizarre was Red Bull’s obvious ignorance to what James’ plans were or where he was. I’ve stopped thinking about the James Stewart plans for 2017. He should have been fully prepared for 2016 and wasn’t. He should have been a staple at Red Bull’s biggest Moto event held and they had no idea where he was or if he was even preparing for anything on two-wheels. I mean, they were pushing the documentary video of James preparing for last years Straight Rhythm during the show which made it even more confusing that he wasn’t even a part of this years racing.
Good job Red Bull. Bring it back in 2017 but lets tighten up the schedule and fit it in 2 hrs or even an hour and a half. Maybe we even go all Royal Rumble style and get four lanes of dudes all battling at the same time!
