An ambitious—and compromised—plan to finish the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship created champions and side effects. Not all were expected.

WORDS: JASON WEIGANDT & STEVE MATTHES
PHOTOS: ALIGN MEDIA

This wasn’t supposed to be perfect. Seven races in one stadium, with the industry stuck in the same place for three weeks, was compromise at its best, people desperate to get back to work and settle a competitive series—other consequences (family, boredom, logistics, health) be damned. Get in, get out, get done.

Only now that it’s over, some would like parts of the plan to stick. Teams and riders would never have agreed to this plan if the world hadn’t forced it, but now that they tried it, many like it. In fact, the first supercross residency, in Salt Lake City, Utah, leaves a trail of ideas that could be used for the future but might be too radical to try in a normal environment (if such a thing ever returns).

Regardless, the changes served only as window dressing. The Salt Lake Seven delivered on its core mission, which was to offer integrity to the championship, with real racing and real racers on real tracks. The pits and stands were weird, but down on the stadium floor, it was nearly business as usual. There will be no asterisk on the 2020 titles. That’s all that matters.