Craig and McAdoo | Sand Sufferfest

Craig and McAdoo | Sand Sufferfest

It’s the Monday after the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series finale in Las Vegas, and there are only 13 days left until the gate drops on at Hangtown to kick off the summertime Motocross Nationals. GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig missed the majority of the Supercross series with a broken thumb that required two surgeries to repair, and he is chomping at the bit to get back to racing. His friend Cameron McAdoo, meanwhile, is fresh off his career-best Supercross finish with a third in the 250 main at Vegas, but he finds himself with no ride for the summer. The Supercross fill-in rider for the GEICO Honda team has decided to keep his skills sharp and wait patiently for another opportunity to arise with a high-level team, rather than sink his own money into building a privateer effort. 

Though there are several public tracks to choose from to ride on today – Milestone MX in Riverside and Cahuilla Creek in Anza – Craig and McAdoo chose instead to head for a sand track in the hills of Nuevo, on land owned by a farmer who doesn’t always mind when guys ride there…as long as they stay out of his fields. It’s a track we’ve been to on several previous occasions, most notably to shoot Shane McElrath for a cover of TransWorld Motocross a couple of years ago at sunset with studio lights. In the dark, it was easy to tell how treacherous the circuit was, but in today’s broad daylight under overcast skies, it looked downright brutal.
“There’s nothing like this place to whip you into racing shape,” said Craig as he suited up and mentally prepared for the pair of 40-minute motos he and McAdoo committed to. “Nothing is as gnarly as this place.”

“None of the public tracks will humble you like this place,” added McAdoo, who rode Craig’s GEICO Honda CRF450R practice bike. “I don’t even like riding here, but it makes you tough.”

The super sandy track has multiple layouts, as evidenced by the deep berms and whooped-out straights that crisscrossed and cut through the soft hillside, but the course that the duo chose to ride today was the most challenging and unforgiving. In fact, both riders parted ways with their bikes in both motos. “I like to look at it as good race practice,” said Craig with a chuckle. “In a race when you fall, you get back into your bike as quickly as you can and get your heart rate up. Same goes for motos here.”

Though it has rained plenty of SoCal this year, it’s been dry for weeks now and the soft surface of the track in Nuevo doesn’t feel that different from the beach. Lots of throttle, plenty of momentum, and strong legs are the three key ingredients, and you can forget about staying clean. This sand is the kind that catches up to you in the corners.

Long, hot, sticky motos. The Nationals are upon us. Supercross is for celebrities. Motocross is for men.