McGrath and Langston react to supercross format changes
Seven-time supercross champion Jeremy McGrath and former East coast 250 champion Grant Langston feel the new 20 minute plus one lap main events in supercross for 2017 is a good move.
Speaking on the Action sports show Langston said: “I feel it is long overdue, when I watched supercross in the 90s a lot of laptimes were around a minute and now the tracks have changed, they have got quicker and quicker and quicker, so the races have got shorter.”
McGrath too was upbeat about the changes: “In my opinion is it’s definitely needed, the 450 now is so good that it’s sort outgrown the floor size of the stadium, you can quad and do anything out of these corners, so having these few more laps is good.”
But McGrath did warn of a few potential problems. “We have such great TV packages now, everything is live, but they don’t have enough time to do track maintenance between the 250 race and the 450 race. So my opinion is those three or four extra laps, the track is going to be even more deteriorated, so the element of danger is going to go up a little higher towards the end of the races.” explained McGrath. “But as fans it’s going to be cool at the end of the race to see what happens.”
Langston feels the extra laps will make the main events more exciting, especially at the end. “I am really curious to see how the last two or three laps changes the outcome of the main events,” admitted Langston. “As Jeremy said, the tracks will be deteriorated so it’s that risk/reward factor, do you go for the win or sit back and take the podium. I think the last three laps will add another notch, another level of excitement because you have the fitter guys coming through, more mental fatigue, mistakes. I think you are going to see the smarter riders changing their lines up at the end of the races.”
McGrath also brought up another potential change, suggesting that for two or three rounds of the season they should have the Monster Cup format with three main events. “As a fan I think it would be cool to test the format, so we do two to three rounds (of three moto format) and then the level of importance goes up for those three rounds. We would get to see the riders ride more.”
Whether McGrath’s idea would ever be tried is another question, but the changes for 2017 seem to excite the former champions of the sport, so let’s hope they are proved right over the coming months and the racing is more exciting!
