Yeah! We went retro for Anaheim 2 and it was pretty cool. A track that closely (key word in there is closely) copied Anaheim 1 from 2001, we had every supecross champion there, we had a hot lap with Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael, Kevin Windham jumped a huge transfer, and all in all, it was a pretty satisfying night of supercross. With that in mind, I present to you guys the top 10 things I saw at A2.

Image: Simon Cudby.

Champion collection
Feld Motorsports getting all the supercross champions together in one spot to sign autographs and be brought out to the crowd was pretty sweet. Even the mighty Jean Michel Bayle was there! What a cool idea and it’s unfortunate that many in the Southern California crowd didn’t seem to appreciate what a feat this was. Unofficially, McGrath got by far the greatest applause (no shock there) and believe it or not, Chad Reed was second. Oh, how the far Reedy has come from the days of getting boos rained down on him.

Retro track, kind of
Copying a retro track was a great idea and the 2001 Anaheim 1 track is pretty cool. Two sets of whoops, a floater double jump and a tricky on/off section made for entertainment. Unfortunately the track designers gave us a tame version of the real thing. Not sure why that was but with better riders, better bikes a tamer track was not called for. What happened to when men were men?

Rock on
Rock River Yamaha’s went full-retro with a red/white combo that harkens back to the mid-80s here in the USA (or every year of our life if you were from Canada, Europe or Australia) and it was a good look. Unfortunately, team riders Kyle Chisholm and Les Smith both wore very modern looking gear which clashed with the bikes and as well, neither rider qualified which is a double ouch.

Old school tunes
Opening ceremonies music was on point. Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Great White, AC/DC and more blared through the speakers when the riders were introduced and we were spared the rap and techno from the usual introductions. Except for Wil Hahn, he came out to Styx and that should never, ever be played at a supercross. Ever.

Monster fashion
In the pits there was a fashion show put on by Monster that featured all the past outfits that the Monster girls had ever worn. Yeah, the series has only been sponsored by Monster for about six years or so, but so what, it was hot girls modeling clothes bro.

Image: Simon Cudby.

The King
Jeremy McGrath went out for a hot lap and he did a nac-nac over the triple. Enough said.

Respect
The opening ceremonies film that they shot to bring out the old champions was awesome. Lots of effort put into it and with the music and narration, it sent chills down the spine of a super fan of the sport like me. Bonus points for putting the bad ass known as Damon Bradshaw into it even though he never won a supercross title.

JGR’s retro Yamaha
Like Rock River, JGR Yamaha went full retro with all yellow and black bikes like the 1970s Yamahas. It was really good, (gold hubs topped off the look) and props to those guys for making it look awesome. Justin Brayton even had some retro O’Neal gear to go with the bike but closer inspection revealed a skull on the front of it. No one did skulls in the 70s Justin. Still, golf claps for the Yamaha guys.

Simply red
Honda pulled out all the stops in coming out with a retro bike for Justin Barcia. And it blew all the other bikes out of the water with its blood-red plastic, 1986-inspired ‘CR’ on the seat, gold rims and even fork boots were put on for the photos. The other teams and riders tried but they were blown out of the water by the Honda guys.

Retro rivalry!
What better race to have on retro night than a battle for the lead between Chad Reed and James Stewart? What a race and forget all the ‘kids’ and up and comers, the two vets of the class showed that they weren’t done just yet. No one who was there will forget Reed coming out of top and showing that once and for all, he’s the man until further notice.