Ten years ago, a Western-style motocross race in Moscow would have been an impossibility. The interest was here, but the rally sport subculture wasn't; there was no heavy metal, a scarcity of good tattoos, and even if the spectators had had jeans, they probably wouldn't have had them long enough to have faded them properly.
The successful running of Russia's fifth "Camel Trophy Supermotocross" at Moscow's Krylatskoye Stadium on Saturday was enough to extinguish any remaining doubts about the future of motorcycle and rally sports in this country.
The motocross, which originated as a professional sport in Los Angeles in 1973, is a series of tortuous dirt-bike races run over an elaborate obstacle track. This one was well-funded, professionally run, and attended by over 1,500 people -- a large number of whom were tattooed, in leather, and obviously hard-core fans of the sport.
The race, with $10,000 in prize money, was won by Maxim Lebedev of Tula, who had the best showing in the two final 15-minute rounds.
Sergei Yevdokimov of Tula was second and Andrei Ledovskoy of St. Petersburg was third, topping off a field of 60 riders of 250cc bikes that included Piro Sani, the Finnish champion, and several athletes from the Baltics.
As they would in the West, the crowd cheered each appearance of the ambulance -- one member of a medical crew estimated that nine bones were broken over the course of the day -- and spectators were still banging heads after the 15th playing of the ZZ Top song "Burger Man," which along with a few other heavy metal standards continually boomed over the seats through giant speakers during the races.
"As you can see," said Sergei Trifemenko, spokesman for Camel Trophy, the chief sponsor, "there is definitely a solid fan base for the sport here."
Motocross arrived in Russia in the late 1980s. The commercial nature of the sport -- like auto racing, it relies heavily on sponsors who count on a specific consumer audience -- as well as the high cost of the sport's equipment and track maintenance, made its appearance in pre-perestroika Russia an impossibility.
But about five years ago, joint-ventures like Tais, an automotive products firm, and Western companies like RJR Reynolds (which makes Camel cigarettes), began to fund motorcycle and jeep races in Russia. Before long, they found that there was tremendous fan interest and no shortage of athletes ready to compete.
"There were always adventurous people here," Borislav Kazankin, a member of Camel's Russian Jeep racing team, said Saturday. "People here love to drive, to hunt, to take risks. The difference is that in the past there were only amateurs, using homemade or Soviet equipment, driving on their own outside of any organized context."
Kazankin came to the race in a khaki "Camel Trophy" uniform, with an English setter, his hunting dog, trailing behind him on a leash. He fit in well in a crowd distinguished by the loud individualism of the spectators.
Unlike basketball or soccer, sports which try to keep the focus on the action on the field, motocross and rally sports are really about producing an atmosphere for a certain type of crowd -- a crowd which dresses outlandishly, likes to drive fast machines, and, hopefully, buys a lot of what the sponsors are selling, in this case Camel cigarettes.
"Motocross isn't a money maker for these companies," said Trifemenko. "There's not much ticket revenue. It's strictly an advertisement. Camel and the other sponsors are counting on a consumer base being here in the future."
For all this, the actual races were exciting and acrobatic. The course featured jumps that sent the motorcycles flying five to six meters in the air and for distances up to 15 meters.
At the end of Saturday's motocross action, at least one hardcore fan was satisfied.
"This is it," said Igor Karpenko, a young, long-haired Muscovite with biker regalia and tatoos. "We have arrived."
The successful running of Russia's fifth "Camel Trophy Supermotocross" at Moscow's Krylatskoye Stadium on Saturday was enough to extinguish any remaining doubts about the future of motorcycle and rally sports in this country.
The motocross, which originated as a professional sport in Los Angeles in 1973, is a series of tortuous dirt-bike races run over an elaborate obstacle track. This one was well-funded, professionally run, and attended by over 1,500 people -- a large number of whom were tattooed, in leather, and obviously hard-core fans of the sport.
The race, with $10,000 in prize money, was won by Maxim Lebedev of Tula, who had the best showing in the two final 15-minute rounds.
Sergei Yevdokimov of Tula was second and Andrei Ledovskoy of St. Petersburg was third, topping off a field of 60 riders of 250cc bikes that included Piro Sani, the Finnish champion, and several athletes from the Baltics.
As they would in the West, the crowd cheered each appearance of the ambulance -- one member of a medical crew estimated that nine bones were broken over the course of the day -- and spectators were still banging heads after the 15th playing of the ZZ Top song "Burger Man," which along with a few other heavy metal standards continually boomed over the seats through giant speakers during the races.
"As you can see," said Sergei Trifemenko, spokesman for Camel Trophy, the chief sponsor, "there is definitely a solid fan base for the sport here."
Motocross arrived in Russia in the late 1980s. The commercial nature of the sport -- like auto racing, it relies heavily on sponsors who count on a specific consumer audience -- as well as the high cost of the sport's equipment and track maintenance, made its appearance in pre-perestroika Russia an impossibility.
But about five years ago, joint-ventures like Tais, an automotive products firm, and Western companies like RJR Reynolds (which makes Camel cigarettes), began to fund motorcycle and jeep races in Russia. Before long, they found that there was tremendous fan interest and no shortage of athletes ready to compete.
"There were always adventurous people here," Borislav Kazankin, a member of Camel's Russian Jeep racing team, said Saturday. "People here love to drive, to hunt, to take risks. The difference is that in the past there were only amateurs, using homemade or Soviet equipment, driving on their own outside of any organized context."
Kazankin came to the race in a khaki "Camel Trophy" uniform, with an English setter, his hunting dog, trailing behind him on a leash. He fit in well in a crowd distinguished by the loud individualism of the spectators.
Unlike basketball or soccer, sports which try to keep the focus on the action on the field, motocross and rally sports are really about producing an atmosphere for a certain type of crowd -- a crowd which dresses outlandishly, likes to drive fast machines, and, hopefully, buys a lot of what the sponsors are selling, in this case Camel cigarettes.
"Motocross isn't a money maker for these companies," said Trifemenko. "There's not much ticket revenue. It's strictly an advertisement. Camel and the other sponsors are counting on a consumer base being here in the future."
For all this, the actual races were exciting and acrobatic. The course featured jumps that sent the motorcycles flying five to six meters in the air and for distances up to 15 meters.
At the end of Saturday's motocross action, at least one hardcore fan was satisfied.
"This is it," said Igor Karpenko, a young, long-haired Muscovite with biker regalia and tatoos. "We have arrived."
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