The St. Louis Supercross has a few astonishing facts associated with it. First, James Stewart has never won there on a big bike. Second, Travis Pastrana not only designed this year’s track, but he’s racing this year’s event as well.
For those more very familiar with Travis Pastrana as a freestyle rider and all-around numbskull rather than a racer, let us fill you in. In his rookie season of AMA Supercross and Motocross (2000), he actually won the AMA 125cc National Motocross Championship, and followed that up the next year with a 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Championship before moving up to the 250cc class (now the 450cc class).
Pastrana never struggled with speed in the big-bike class. He was always fast, but he was almost always hurt, too. Eventually, injuries -- and the alluring world of freestyle fame and fortune -- drew him away from motocross and supercross racing. Now, he’s a champion rally driver and the star of new MTV show “The Nitro Circus.”
But he still follows the AMA Supercross Championship, and in 2006 he even raced Daytona on a production RM-Z450 and gave Suzuki team rider (at the time) Ivan Tedesco fits until -- as many predicted -- he ended up on his head in the whoops.
