Win 20 tickets to the UK Supercross series

We’re supporting the supercross shows at the NEC this weekend and throughout the event, now we’re offering you the chance to see the third round of the UK Supercross series, free.

You can win one of 10 pairs of tickets we have to give away. And if you aren’t lucky enough to win we’ve got an offer to save you cash on the tickets.

Entrance to the event at the NEC Arena, Birmingham, on Saturday November 17, costs £25 per adults and £16.50 per child (under 12). But MCN users get a special family rate. Two adults and two children get in for £66.50, if you order by calling 0870-909-4133 and quote MCN family ticket offer (it’s a saving of £16.50).

Doors open at 5.30pm and the action starts at 7pm.

It’s the third round of the UK Supercross series, UK. Britain’s top motocrossers thrash round an outrageously narrow dirt track littered with massive jumps. And because it’s indoors you get to see every audacious move.

MCN has got behind series organisers Clear Channel Entertainment to back the championship.

Supercross, unlike junk food and ‘light’ beer, is one of those imports we should thank America for. It all started back in 1972 when a rock concert promoter by the name of Mike Goodwin persuaded city officials and Olympia beer to back his idea of having a motocross race in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Today the sport is massive. All 16 rounds of the Clear Channel entertainment-owned U.S. national series sell out with 55,000 fans per race!

Supercross in the UK is not new. Various promoters have dabbled in bringing US riders to the UK for one-off events. The problem is that having spent their life honing supercross skills the Yanks always dominate and the racing is, well, predictable.

And that’s why Matt Bates, the driving force behind UK SX, has worked so hard to develop a full series of six rounds in the UK. With all the Brits starting on equal terms. Predictable, UK SX is not!

It’s now the biggest and richest series in Europe – and boasts 125 world champion Jamie Dobb, 250 world number two Gordon Crockard and Europe’s top supercrosser Warren Edwards in the line-up.

Not only that, the series is being screened on Channel Four in January with six episodes taking a Saturday morning slot.

The UK SX series features two main classes, one for 250cc machines and one for 125cc. Apart from differences in bike capacities the action remains the same. Sensational.

There’s also a chance to see the tomorrow’s stars in action with different age groups of youth races. The youngest competitors are aged just seven and you’ll be amazed just how skilful they are.

The programme flows so fast you barely have time to take breath. And what little down time there is gets jammed full of brain-rattling rock music, firework displays and chic chicks dishing out freebies. Plus there’s the Red Bull Freestyle Jump competition – a supercross sub-culture where the daring riders perform extreme stunts on motocross bikes in a series of high-flying passes off the dirt ramps.

Of course, to the purist supercross at the NEC Arena means much more. Like newly-crowned 125cc World motocross champion Jamie Dobb making his first UK appearance on the 250cc factory KTM he’ll racing in 2002. It means our top 250GP rider Gordon Crockard defending his championship lead against Kawasaki’s Mark Hucklebridge. It means one of our best 125 GP prospects Stephen Sword taking on Yamaha’s teenage hotshot Billy Mackenzie.

And it means young upstarts like Gary Taylor and Chris Brock trying to out-extreme each other in the Red Bull Freestyle Jump Tour. Chris Brock in Britain’s most outrageous freestyle competitor.

He strikes as many interesting poses off his bike as he does on it. He loves to stand there, dreadlocks flowing, taunting the crowd to cheer him on. He’ll lay on the track in the path of his rival competitors while they are making jumps. He’ll ride bare-chested with no race shirt. And what’s more, when he’s completed his repertoire he’ll bare his arse to the crowd.

You can see the organiser’s wincing with embarrassment, but they always invite him back. Brock has attitude. Bucket loads of it. Brock’s party piece is a ” No Handed Airwalk ” . He lets go of his bike in mid air, places his feet both sides of the bike and then shuffles his hands and feet back before jumping off the back of the bike. All this 90 feet in the air. And then he had to get back on to land the thing and land!

He also performs a ” Super Tweaked Hart Attack ” where he holds the seat with one hand, pushes his body up vertically so he is practically upside down, with his head on the seat.

Sounds mad. Looks mad. Is mad. JOIN HIM FOR A LIVE WEBCHAT ON THIS SITE ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2001.

To be in with a chance of winning one of the 10 pairs of tickets for the NEC Supercross answer the following question correctly and e-mail your entry to david.cushman@emap.com by 3.30pm Thursday, November 15. To qualify for entry you MUST include ” Supercross ” in the subject line of your e-mail, as well as your motorcyclenews.com user name. That’s the name you choose when you register. If you haven’t already registered, it’s quick, free and easy to do. Simply click on LOG IN at the top, right, of the screen and fill in the on-line forms.

Your e-mail should include the following: Your answer to this question Who is the current 125cc world motocross champion? Your real name and address as well as your motorcyclenews.com user name and a telephone number.

The winning entries will be chosen at random and the editor’s decision in this matter is final. Entries from employees (and their families) of EMAP, the NEC, and Clear Channel Entertainment, can not be accepted.

Tickets will be mailed to winners on Thursday afternoon. We can take no responsibility for late delivery.