WOW! I thought things were BAD here in the States! I HAVE seen the type of racing you described - Just once on a cable channel and rememebr them having outrageous speeds on some sections of the track.

I loved the old motocross 'in the day'. As you know it originated in Europe and then made it to the States. All the good MX bikes were made in Europe back then - Maico, Husqvarna, CZ, Bultaco, etc. After it became bigger in the US the Japaneseicon started making (inferior) MX bikes but they finally caught up and were competitive by the late 70's. The original concept of Motocross was just to mark out a track in the countryside and follow the natural terrain. There were some awesome tracks across Europe and European riders usually won the world Championships every year. Then the stadium races became the 'rage' here and I thought it ruined motocross. It was all about 'jumps' and tricks to please the audiences. I guess it made a lot of money that way but it wasn't real motocross anymore. Even the local outdoor MX tracks are filled with one after another giant man-made jumps to please the spectators and kill the riders.