By: Juliana Coe-McNamara
Staff Writer
All racers and fans of racers welcome! Monster Energy held an AMA Supercross Championship race at Angel Stadium in Anaheim over the weekend on January 18th, 2020. AMA supercross is an American motorcycle racing series.
The race was thrilling, with well-known racers, an unpredictable track, and an almost sold-out stadium. The race featured some of the best dirt bike racers known to AMA, and gave some rookies a chance to claim the title. Not to mention, the race featured mini segments of racers under ten years old which captured the hearts of the audience.
Angel Stadium housed 43,106 fans for the AMA Supercross Championship on January 18th, all anxious to see their favorite racers claim the win! The race is the second in the FIM World Championship season of 2020, which explains the anxiousness and excitement of fans.
The FIM World Championship season began on January 4th, 2020, also at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Despite being up against the best in the business, rookie Justin Cooper, takes his first Supercross win. On January 18th, 2020, the newbie Cooper maintained his podium status with winning second place in the 250SX.
The night began with three individual 250SX qualifying races, which each lasted around 5 minutes. Following the 250SX came the main event, the 450SX. After the track keepers changed the track to make it more difficult for the racers, the 450SX lasted around 20 minutes.
Eli Tomac, a Monster Energy Kawasaki rider, took first place following an extremely difficult 450SX race. Starting off in 10th place, Tomac proved the phrase ‘slow and steady wins the race,’ by keeping a low profile until the main event. During the main event, Tomac showed his true colors by turning the fastest laps and coming comfortably in first.
Luckily, since the track was spread out around all available space on the field, every seating section could enjoy some action! With different sections of the track spread out around the field, every spot in the arena got a panoramic view of each section within the track, making for an exciting championship.
The race intermittently featured child racers, starting out with 7-10 years old, going down all the way to under 3 years old! It was a refreshing twist to focus on adorable tiny racers and hear their testimonies on how excited they were to race. The children ranged from living locally in Anaheim to international racers from Spain.
The track itself set in motion several unexpected falls and changes to the podium last minute. Eli Tomac, who came in first in 450SX, took several brutal falls naively showing off his tricks after the track was adjusted to throw off the racers.
The one downside to the race was the parking situation. After taking about an hour just to get into the parking lot, it took around 30 minutes to actually find a spot in the unorganized parking lot. There were no parking attendants organizing the extremely long line of cars attempting to find a spot, so it could have been a safety hazard.
Overall, the Monster Energy Supercross race on January 18th was an extremely thrilling and enjoyable event that would be great to go with some buddies, a date or even the whole family! The element of wanting your racer to win envelopes everybody in the stadium, creating an extremely strong community feeling.
The AMA Supercross Championship continues to Arizona for round two the weekend of January 24th, 2020. Tickets are available on Stubhub and Ticketmaster, ranging from $31-191 per ticket.
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