Quiet afternoon at home this arvo so I was surfing the channels on AUSTAR. Found the X Games XIV broadcast on ESPN. Great entertainment for a couple of hours.
The skateboard guys in the pit were amazing; how many years you’d have to practise in order to be able to do that is anybody’s guess.
But the Rally Special Stage was super entertainment. One-on-one racing on a combined dirt/tar course that required some pretty amazing skills. In the end it was a Final that featured drift specialist Tanner Faust against the former multiple Motocross, Supercross and Freestyle Motocross champion, Travis Pastrana.
Since a run of injuries has sidelined Pastrana from two wheeled competition, he has concentrated on rallying instead and is featuring well in the American Rally Championship.
The Final was superb entertainment with Pastrana reversing the result from X Games XIII where he also faced Faust but was disqualified for an indiscretion at the finishing line. Faust bit the wall early after the first jump and was hampered from there on. Pastrana got a bit ragged in the closing stage, but was really show-boating as he knew by then that he had the race.
I confess to getting pretty involved, but, then again, if it’s got a motor and there’s competition involved, then I’ll usually be pretty hooked from the get-go.
What it did illustrate to me, aside from the entertainment value, was that a true champion will be a champion in whatever form of motorsports that they might choose to try. And a good motorcycle racer will always end up being a great car racer should they choose to switch to four wheels because the skill and the discipline required for motorcycling will provide an excellent basis for any other sort of racing.
The classic example is John Surtees, the British winner of 7 World Motorcycle champonships and the 1964 World Formula One championship. Surtees proved that motorcycling was the very best foundation for success on four wheels. Many other riders have also done the same.
