Ryan Villopoto wasn't even born yet. Ricky Carmichael was just some kid tooling
around on a dirt bike. Timmy Ferry was five years away from turning pro.
Twenty years have passed since the Red Bull Motocross of Nations - an event the
three will contest for the USA at Budds Creek (Md.) Motocross Park this weekend
- was last held stateside.
"There might be a little pressure racing in front of the home crowd," Ferry says.
"The advantage Ricky, Ryan and I have is that we know the track. We get to race
there every year. It's not like we don't know what to expect. I'm pretty confident
we can win this thing."
Team USA usually played the role of favorite as the event wound through Europe
- with one stop in Brazil - since New Berlin, N.Y., hosted the MX of Nations in
1987. The USA has claimed 10 of the last 19 events.
This year's race will attract three-rider teams from 35 nations to the circuit south
of Washington. Teams will have a different rider in the three classes (MX1, MX2
and Open) and will have to advance out of Saturday's qualifying sessions to make
it into Sunday's final.
Each class will run twice on Sunday and each team will get to toss out its worst
result among its six races. The championship is decided much like a golf
tournament where the lowest score wins. (The winner of each race will get one
point, the second-place finisher gets two points, etc.)
"The way the point system works, you have to have a lot of things go your way,"
says Carmichael, who has been on two winning USA efforts (2000 and 2005). "At
the same time, this is what makes it fun. It's so much different than your standard
race." click on ozzy go to the full story on usatoday.com – picture from
tedescophoto.com