When a boy became a man
December 12, 2007
Way back in 1989 myself, my girlfriend at the time and my cousin decided to head to Birmingham for the 1989 World Masters of Supercross.
I was spannering for my cousin and it was my birthday present so we had to go, to that point in time the only SX I’ve seen was on the TV and I couldn’t wait.
Why because you had some of the greatest American riders ever taking part for the first time in the UK, Johnny O’Mara, Broc Glover and Ricky “Bad Boy” Johnson. There was no other reason to go even for the Brits on show.
I remember getting there and thinking this is mega, vert ramps entertained the crowds all through the day and the stars of Supercross all lined up for their afternoon autograph session, for some strange reason we managed to blag our way in for the afternoon practise session – we sat there wide eyed and in sheer disbelief as riders were dialling in the track for the main event which was a few hours away, as far as I can remember there couldn’t have been more than twenty people in the arena.
The two or three hours wait for the evenings session seemed to take an eternity – at 7pm sharp the main doors opened and we rushed to our seats not knowing what to expect. I can remember they had a youth 125 race on which was pretty gnarly for that time as the kids never ever tried anything like it before.
Halfway through the night I found myself with a severe headache and had to go to the first aid room, apparently suffering with carbon monoxide poisoning from the fumes.
No matter what the problem was nothing was keeping me away from the main event, I returned to my seat and waited for the action, eyes blurry with the pain of a mad headache.
The riders lined up including Mark Eastwood, Warren Edwards and Julian Rawson, alongside them were a few Euros and then came the Americans all bright and flash and looking the business – what happened next has gone down in British motocross/supercross history and this video tells the story of a young Brit who became a national hero over night – man it was fun…Chussy
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