MotoOnline.com.au’s Alex Gobert writes in from the U.S. following Pala’s AMA season finale.

Australia's Chad Reed and all of his countrymen did us proud as the AMA outdoors reached its finish line to close season 2011. Image: Alex Gobert.

Another AMA Pro Motocross season is in the books following yesterday’s season finale at Pala Raceway in Southern California, where Ryan Villopoto, Dean Wilson and Ashley Fiolek ultimately won the wars in their respective categories.

Contested mostly during the U.S. summer, AMA Motocross is the pinnacle of the sport. It’s where you require the best of everything in moto, including equipment, team, fitness and desire. That right there is why so many people turn up on race day to support the world’s best.

Pala is a fun race to be at, with the pressure off for most, and California’s finest females providing plenty of eye candy to ensure we have an off-season worth of Fan of the Week images!

What’s also unique about Pala is that it’s like a supercross track on steroids, high speed and really rough by the time the motos come around. It creates good racing and plenty of challenges, which is what the sport is all about, right?

It’s difficult to describe the feeling of attending an outdoor national in the U.S. It’s big, entertaining and well structured, but not all that different to what we see at home in the MX Nationals (largely thanks to Kevin Williams’ foresight in creating a strong domestic series).

One thing that made me well and truly realise the importance of Australian motocross yesterday was when I asked former world and AMA champion Ben Townley if he’d prefer to race in Europe or America next year. To my surprise, he said to include Australia in his options because he rates it as world class.

That’s a big thing for the local industry to be proud of, including WEM, MA, the teams and even the domestic media. Australian motocross is larger on the map than ever before in the history of the sport.

Personally, I believe the internet has drawn all the series closer together. Whether you’re in Australia, the U.S. or Europe, you can gather all the information you could possibly wish for on the World Wide Web, and that’s why we here at MotoOnline continue to strive for the best content in the country.

If we do our job, exposure should be at its maximum on an international scale – especially when so many of the American industry are aware of our efforts and quality coverage when it comes to covering the Aussie races. It’s still a project in the works, but eventually we’ll be on par with the best of the best in America all going to plan.

Overall it was a great weekend of racing, not perfect for the Australian contingent, but promising nonetheless. One thing that sticks in my mind strongly 24 hours later was when I was standing at the TwoTwo semi and Brett Metcalfe made his way over, congratulating Chad on his season and declaring their confidence in Team Australia for the Motocross of Nations.

The Australian and American seasons may be over with, but a podium may very well be just around the corner as Reedy, Metty and Matt Moss head to France this week for the MXoN. All the best boys, you guys deserve all the success in the world this Sunday!

It’s a great time to be an Aussie in the world of motocross.

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