Meet me on the sand, at the motorcycle art-filled crossroads between hooligan carnage and Red Bull supercross. Nestled between the race pits and the ocean, riders are catching waves sculpted in the dirt, finding their flow in the Straight Rhythm dream event on Huntington Beach, California.
This year, Red Bull’s best supercross racers were amidst the Moto Beach Classic’s masterful custom bike builders, live artisans, a host of great vendors, and the nation’s only Super Hooligan flat-track racing on the sand.
It’s hard to believe what they actually built out there on the beach, from the pristine dirt flat track (their best ever), surrounded by a small city of food trucks, vendors, art installations, custom motorcycles, to the insane half-mile supercross track made from 229,500 cubic feet of dirt with 53 individual jumps. The combination of the Moto Beach Classic and the Red Bull Straight Rhythm was an extremely well-suited pairing, like fragrant premix in the autumn.
Straight Rhythm
Finding your rhythm is what it’s all about on this gnarly track full of whoops, jumps, tabletops, and more. Redlining two-strokes in battle, striving to scrub just enough speed to stay low, with the added obstacles of many of the riders not racing nor riding two-strokes in quite some years and the game-changing precipitation toward the end of the race. The intimidating tabletop jump was built over the bathrooms resulting in the massive jump that riders soared above, affectionately called the “baños.” The track was built with a long corridor of race pits to the east and bleachers full of cheering fans on the other side. Motocross without turns is all about precision with no room for the slightest mistake and each race lasting under 40 seconds.
Excitement built as the lead changed hands many times working toward the best two out of three with the rain increasing in the semi-finals. With the track broken in and saturated, riders reported the nerve-racking qualities of climbing the glassy-wet ramp and much of the track, but particularly the whoops, becoming super slick. As a crew worked to dry the starting platform with rags and leaf blowers, the racers did their best to keep their rear wheels from spinning and bikes from doing endos out of the gate before sending the impressive starting drop.
Marvin Musquin seemed to be aggressively pushing the bike down to the ground to stay low, remaining undefeated in each of his matchups. Musquin also took home Red Bull Straight Rhythm wins in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Previous 2019 winner Ken Roczen killed it in the whoops and took the lead from Justin Barcia with a huge whip on the tabletop, landing him in second place. Third place podium position went to Barcia after a rainy duel into their third run with Josh Hansen after his mistake in the quad quad, despite Barcia’s slippery loop-out on the starting platform.
Carson Brown consistently looked fantastic right out of the gate, beating Josh Varize for first place in the 125 Class with Derek Kelley coming in third place.
Motorcycle Art
Immersive free-standing paintings lined the packed walkways of the art and motorcycle show. The individual walls stood as backdrops for an array of custom motorcycles like an ornate mirage in the sand. Steve Fawley’s illusive portal of red, black, and white pulled you in as the MahaloBrah Yamaha R3 seemed to move out toward you. Melany Meza-Dierk’s “v-twin ecstasy” was a stunning centerpiece with Trev Dogg’s regal golden Dyna sitting pretty in front.
Renowned surfboard shaper and conceptual artist Peter Schroff painstakingly displayed The Pink Whale, his Jetson-esque board sculpture with integrated keg tap, fish aquarium, radio, computer, lava lamp, and V-8 exhaust pipes. He later theatrically shaped a “made in China” surfboard with a chain saw.
Interactive pieces involved Nick Sawyer’s dreamlike “shark twin” painting, with cutouts for faces, as was art director Brad Parker’s Evel Knievel painting, which was torched to give an antiquated patina effect. Smoke was sent out from the Yahama photographed in Joe Hitzelberger’s “Yami Smoke Show” on the backside of Mikey Zeller’s epic Smokey the Bear piece titled “Smoke ‘em.”
Flat Track
It’s easy to share common ground when you bring your own dirt. A wide variety of riders and types of bikes took to the track at the Mission Foods Moto Beach Classic, from baggers to ebikes. There was no shortage of family fun, with Stacyc Kids’ races and father-son hooligan race duos such as Frank and Frankie Garcia and Randy and Tyler Bereman. Andy DiBrino won the dash for cash and was the only rider to race both the Straight Rhythm and the Super Hooligan track.
The super hooligan main class was brimming with talent on the track, with AJ Kirkpatrick, Robbie Maddison, Andy DiBrino, and Fast J to name a few. Stacked with racers banging bars, this thrilling 20-lap race was interrupted by multiple red flag events building suspense with Brad Spencer winning the race after keeping Tony Alves at bay in second place and Sam Cover with third.
Dream It, Build It
Overall this two-wheeled beach party was all about fun and motorcycles, with 20,000 fans coming out to enjoy the day. It’s incredible to see what can happen when dreams are realized and teams conquer the chaos to make visions tangible. Efforts by the Roland Sands Design and Red Bull crews were laudable and we can’t wait to see what they pull off next year.
For all Moto Beach flat-track results: speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/2065997
Watch the live streamed Moto Beach Classic 2022 event that took place on Spot Network here:
watch.spotnetwork.tv/play/moto-beach-classic-live-2022/0_2ejvn0po
Watch the full Red Bull Straight Rhythm event: youtube.com/watch?v=cI15hTksjlI&t=3469s
Source: MotorCyclistOnline.com