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SUNDAY, JUNE 4 – LIVE US PRO MOTOCROSS/
SUGO ALL JAPAN NATIONAL
What do motocross journalists do on the other
side of the world when live Lucas Oil Pro Moto-
cross is on from Thunder Valley? Set our alarm
clocks and watch it at 4:00 a.m., obviously. A
crew of us all huddled around a laptop on Sunday
morning—Saturday afternoon in Colorado—to see
the first motos unfold on the live web stream be-
fore grabbing our bags, breakfast, and train tick-
ets to head to Sendai. It was funny to think that we
all collectively preferred watching live coverage
of the racing back home over sleeping—a telltale
sign we are all a bit addicted to the sport.
On to the first official stop of our trip’s itiner-
ary: Sportsland Sugo! Getting to this race via the
bullet train was almost as fun as the action on the
track. Cruising north out of Tokyo aboard a train
that averages around 160 mph is something to
experience. From there, we hopped onto our
official Suzuki PR tour bus and we arrived at the
famed circuit just as IA2 (250 Class) moto one was
going down. The word I would use to describe my
day at Sugo as a photographer is “confusion.” Not
to say I didn’t understand the format in which they
would be racing, but I was out of tune with their
time schedule, class names, and only knew a few
racers. I felt like it was the first time I had ever shot
a motocross race. The colors were beautiful, the
track was an insane mix of natural elevation and
rugged, untamed ruts, and I truly enjoyed shoot-
ing these talented riders go at it, Japanese-style.
When the final checkered flag flew, the winners
of the day were Yosuke Watanabe in the IA2 class
and Makoto Ogata in the IA1 (450) class.
The highlight of the day for the Japanese fans
was the presence of Ricky Carmichael, a guy
whose legendary status is present everywhere he
goes. Ricky was the main attraction at intermis-
sion, and he spun a couple laps aboard his own
2017 RM-Z450 before hopping on the works RM-
Z450WS model for another couple fast laps. What
struck me at the end of the day is the fact that hu-
man emotion and facial expressions are the uni-
versal language, and without understanding a sin-
gle lick of Japanese, I snapped a few photos that
tell the whole story without one word. That’s what
I love about photography. A bus ride into Sendai
to our next hotel was next, and a 10-course meal
that offered a full journey through the flavors of
Japan was washed down with red wine and all-
time bench racing and conversation between the
group. We were feeling it, and this was only the
beginning—the big day tomorrow!