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Supercross in Australia and New Zealand: halfway around the world to have fun with the same old friends
“Three weeks?” my neighbor asked. “You can get that much time off of work?” Yes, because this was for work. Barely. Yeah, I was covering and announcing the Monster Energy S-X Open in New Zealand and AUS-X Open in Australia, the biggest supercross races Down Under, but I also packed my wife and two kids. We took in beautiful scenery and fantastic cultures. Yet I had the most fun seeing the least. For instance, my daughter came down with a stomach virus, so we skipped a day of hiking and watched movies all day in a hotel room. It was a blast. We should have days like that at home more often. That was the theme of these races, too. On the other side of the world, racers hung out in ways they don’t at home. The more serious stuff? Save that for American life. |
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Supercross in Australia and New Zealand: halfway around the world to have fun with the same old friends
“Three weeks?” my neighbor asked. “You can get that much time off of work?” Yes, because this was for work Barely. Yeah, I was covering and announcing the Monster Energy S-X Open in New Zealand and AUS-X Open in Australia, the biggest supercross races Down Under, but I also packed my wife and two kids. We took in beautiful scenery and fantastic cultures. Yet I had the most fun seeing the least. For instance, my daughter came down with a stomach virus, so we skipped a day of hiking and watched movies all day in a hotel room. It was a blast. We should have days like that at home more often. That was the theme of these races, too. On the other side of the world, racers hung out in ways they don’t at home. The more serious stuff? Save that for American life. |
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Supercross in Australia and New Zealand: halfway around the world to have fun with the same old friends
“Three weeks?” my neighbor asked. “You can get that much time off of work?” Yes, because this was for work. Barely. Yeah, I was covering and announcing the Monster Energy S-X Open in New Zealand and AUS-X Open in Australia, the biggest supercross races Down Under, but I also packed my wife and two kids. We took in beautiful scenery and fantastic cultures. Yet I had the most fun seeing the least. For instance, my daughter came down with a stomach virus, so we skipped a day of hiking and watched movies all day in a hotel room. It was a blast. We should have days like that at home more often. That was the theme of these races, too. On the other side of the world, racers hung out in ways they don’t at home. The more serious stuff? Save that for American life. |
his is the conundrum off-season races have created for decades now. Overseas, the American contingent almost always travels together, eats together, and stays together. Back home, on the other hand, hanging out means short conversations at track walk and head nods at the airport.
“It’s not going to be like this in January,” JGR/Yoshimura Suzuki’s Joey Savatgy said during the press conference in Auckland. “It’s been a minute since I’ve hung out with Jason [Anderson]. We used to be teammates. I forgot how fun it is.”
“It’s cool to hang out and see the camaraderie between the riders,” Anderson said. “When you’re cruising around here and hanging out with these guys, which is extremely rare in our sport, and then seeing all these other cultures, you really can’t get better than that.”
You can multiply that for these particular races. Adam Bailey and Ryan Sanderson, the AUS-X Open founders at AME Management, say 30 percent of the budget comes from sponsorship and tourism dollars. The tourism divisions expect international publicity in return, so it creates Thursday hangouts in key locations. In New Zealand, we visited Sheep World, an interactive zoo dedicated to the nation’s most common animal. Justin Brayton learned to sort sheep based on ear shape; Anderson learned to shear. Our host explained that sheep shearing is the most physically demanding task on earth, equal to running two marathons a day. And we thought dirt bike racing was underrated!
Then came a brewery tour in downtown Auckland for lunch and an ice cream shop for dessert. Riders don’t do dessert, but this was more arts than eats, complete with $45 ice cream novelties that looked like masks. Melbourne’s Thursday tour started at the Museum of Modern Art to look at an installation by the famous artist KAWS. Then a local stand-up comic took us on a tour of the city’s famous alleyway graffiti murals, ending with a brand new Chad Reed piece, which Chad signed himself in spray paint.
New Zealand and Australia
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The letter z is pronounced “zed.” That means Yamaha makes “why-zed” motocross bikes. New Zealand websites end with .nz, which radio commercials pronounce as “dot n-zed.” |
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New Zealand consists of two islands, connected only via ferry boat or flight. The North Island, featuring the city of Auckland, is typical hustle, bustle, and traffic. The South Island is much more remote. You’ll drive hours and see nothing but amazing natural views, and there’s not a fast-food joint anywhere (though McDonald’s has reached the North Island). |
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You’ll find coffee shops and cafes all over Australia and New Zealand, but serving coffee in to-go cups is rare. You’re supposed to sit down, relax, and enjoy things. Locals will tell you that the relaxed pace leads to higher-quality food and drink. Australia covers a similar landmass as the U.S., but a population of just 26 million people removes the constant need for speed in mass quantities. |
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They know nothing of the American Thanksgiving holiday, but stores have pushed the Black Friday shopping concept on them anyway, much to everyone’s confusion. |
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You know they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right, but did you know they flip the turn-signal stalk from the left to the right side of the steering wheel? Enjoy turning your windshield wipers on every time you need to use the blinkers! |
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When school gets out near an Australian beach, you’ll see the shore flood with kids taking surf lessons. Forget soccer moms—they’ve got surf moms. |
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You can’t play a DVD you purchased in Australia in a DVD player from the U.S. |
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Australia’s Mad Max rep makes it seem like you can ride anywhere, but that’s changed. Locals say it’s harder to find tracks and land than in the U.S. Regulation, development, and noise complaints have piled up Down Under, too. The FMX stars operate compounds way in the Outback, but in the areas where most Australians live, riding is getting much more difficult. 
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The letter z is pronounced “zed.” That means Yamaha makes “why-zed” motocross bikes. New Zealand websites end with .nz, which radio commercials pronounce as “dot n-zed.” |
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New Zealand consists of two islands, connected only via ferry boat or flight. The North Island, featuring the city of Auckland, is typical hustle, bustle, and traffic. The South Island is much more remote. You’ll drive hours and see nothing but amazing natural views, and there’s not a fast-food joint anywhere (though McDonald’s has reached the North Island). |
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You’ll find coffee shops and cafes all over Australia and New Zealand, but serving coffee in to-go cups is rare. You’re supposed to sit down, relax, and enjoy things. Locals will tell you that the relaxed pace leads to higher-quality food and drink. Australia covers a similar landmass as the U.S., but a population of just 26 million people removes the constant need for speed in mass quantities. |
|
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They know nothing of the American Thanksgiving holiday, but stores have pushed the Black Friday shopping concept on them anyway, much to everyone’s confusion. |
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|
You know they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right, but did you know they flip the turn-signal stalk from the left to the right side of the steering wheel? Enjoy turning your windshield wipers on every time you need to use the blinkers! |
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When school gets out near an Australian beach, you’ll see the shore flood with kids taking surf lessons. Forget soccer moms—they’ve got surf moms. |
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You can’t play a DVD you purchased in Australia in a DVD player from the U.S. |
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Australia’s Mad Max rep makes it seem like you can ride anywhere, but that’s changed. Locals say it’s harder to find tracks and land than in the U.S. Regulation, development, and noise complaints have piled up Down Under, too. The FMX stars operate compounds way in the Outback, but in the areas where most Australians live, riding is getting much more difficult.
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This might not be the case by Anaheim, when Anderson will be fighting for everyone’s lunch instead of joining them for it. To his peers, though, it’s clear this Jason Anderson is much more mature than the one who used to make passes with contact. #TeamFried has softened his image. Perspective made it possible in the first place.
While the tourism board dictated our Thursday hangouts by day, there was also some nightlife to enjoy. We attended a poker tournament at Auckland’s Sky Casino, and Anderson got candid in a conversation, telling me he was possibly headed to an early retirement a few years ago. Somewhere along the way, he learned to take the pressure off by doing his own thing. While the old playbook said extra activities and extra races lead to burnout, the perception is starting to change.
“When we go to Anaheim, these guys know, we’ll see each other at track walk and just be, ‘Hey, dude, what’s up?’ And that’s it,” Carmichael continued. “I don’t know why that is. So these events are a good chance to get to know these guys.”
Nowhere is this more apparent than between Carmichael and Australia’s favorite racer, Chad Reed. Once the bitterest of enemies, the duo have struck up a friendship, and it’s about to go next-level. In exhibition roles at overseas races, Carmichael has had fun banging bars with Ronnie Mac, Josh Hill on an Alta, and his old training partner Ben Townley. But Reed/RC resonates in a special way. (Can anyone get James Stewart on the phone ever again?) At Melbourne’s AUS-X Open, the “Australia versus USA” team race saw Carmichael leading, only for Reed to blow by in the whoops and make a block pass. Staged? Maybe.
Expect more of these hijinks. Carmichael says he’s just waiting for Reed to finally retire—and slow down—so they can set up a match race world tour. In Melbourne, Reed and company helped celebrate Carmichael’s 40th birthday. Everyone is feeling the love these days.
The inexhaustible Reed, though, can still throw a real elbow. Despite coming into the race sporting sore ribs from a crash three weeks earlier in Paris, very little overall prep time, and an unfamiliar new motorcycle (one that barely ran on press day and in practice), Reed dug back into his bottomless well of tricks in the real races. On the first lap of the first main, he executed the same pass he used on Carmichael, only on Anderson! He blasted through the whoops, got to the inside, put Anderson on the ground, and took the lead. The fans exploded. It’s the most Chad Reed of Chad Reed things to be counted out and then challenge the best in the world.
“Chad, he can still go really fast,” said Anderson, who again rolled with it all. “A younger me would have probably gotten fired up about it,” he said of the drop pass. “I’m 26 now, and I feel like a lot has changed for me over the past year, going from winning a championship and then having an injury. For me, win or lose, get a tire tap or something, I just enjoy racing.”
“Because I love it,” he said, fighting back tears while shooting a video deep in the recesses of Marvel Stadium.
While this message was specific to Reed, it applied to everyone else. The champion in Australia is Justin Brayton, who, at 34, will inherit the old-guy torch from Reed.
“Jason [Anderson] and I were just talking, and he says he wants to race as long as he can,” Brayton said. “And Jason has probably made enough money by 26 where he actually can retire. But it’s just the passion thing. And if you retire at 26, then what? Here’s what I think about: if I could do anything in the world next week, I’d like to put my gear on and go ride. So why not do it at the highest level, make good money, and get to travel around the world?”
Flanking Brayton and Reed in the AUS-X press conference were Monster Energy/Craig Dack Racing Yamaha riders Josh Hill and Dan Reardon. Both were retired at one point, but both decided to come back, realizing nothing in life gives them the same feeling as racing.
The same for Kiwi land. A generation ago, New Zealand had a grand moment on the world stage with Ben Townley and Josh Coppins ascending in MXGP. Townley then moved to America and scored the 2007 AMA SX Lites East Supercross Championship. In American motocross, Cody Cooper put together a few strong seasons, even famously stalking James Stewart for a muddy moto win at Unadilla during JS7’s perfect 24-0 season. Coppins and Townley are retired, and Cooper’s time is winding down. Townley, sensing the importance of this event for New Zealand, built a supercross track at his house for the locals to prepare. Cooper got in some laps, too, and, while not a supercross specialist, chose to participate in the race anyway. Cooper even beat Anderson in the ANZAC-versus-USA match race. (Surely that one was staged.) Townley squared off against Carmichael, with some block passes planned. For the New Zealand scene, the S-X Open was a chance to promote dirt bike racing to an audience not very familiar with the sport. Townley and Cooper felt the need to compete, just to help promote.
When the New Zealand race was over, Anderson checked with the AME Management folks to make sure they didn’t have any other needs. Any other press engagements? Fan interactions? In America, racing is strictly business. At these races, the riders are more willing to do the other stuff. Plus, Anderson has learned to put the sport on his shoulders as a promoter in his own right. It just takes time to get there.
Same for me. The trip seemed like everything, but the real thing was simply getting to spend three straight weeks with my kids. I’d never get the chance to do that 24/7 for three weeks at home, so even sitting in a hotel watching movies all day was an unforgettable experience. Once we arrived back home, the hustle of everyday life returned quickly. The riders were back to training, test tracks, and basic head nods in place of hangouts.
But all of us mates will forever remember: we’ll always have that time Down Under. 
