The "O'Show" Raised The Fitness Bar

Too High For The Sport of Motocross

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Look to professional outdoor motocross for a history lesson, where the success of athletes

like the great Johnny O'Mara, who was equally comfortable participating in marathons or

triathlons or motocross, elevated endurance into greater importance than talent. This is not

to imply that "Johnny O" was lacking in skill himself, as he won the '84 Stadium "Supercross"

Season Title as well as outdoor titles during his reign early in the '80's. Hey, the guy is in

the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame for a reason. But once he came into his own, quickly

the outdoor motocross riders found themselves spending more time working on fitness than

they did on honing skills. And conservation of energy became an important ingredient of

any winning rider's strategy.

And far more importantly, the entertainment value of motocross suffered as it became more

endurance oriented. I could write a book on this topic, but the short version is that passing

the rider ahead requires both skill and energy, whereas simply sitting on the riders back tire

(waiting for him to make a mistake) puts a great deal of stress on the leading rider, but for

the pursuing rider it requires very little talent, plus it requires no additional energy. The

bottom line is that far fewer passing attempts resulted in far less entertaining motocross.

The end result: The rules of professional outdoor motocross were changed to provide for

considerably shorter races, thereby balancing the requirements for skill and fitness, which

encouraged the riders to be more aggressive. That means more fun for both the riders

and the fans.

Mike "I surely do miss my '85 Yamaha YZ-250" Kimbro

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PS-Read about those incredible 1981 Motocross des Nations and Trophee des Nations victories which started the O'Show legend.

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