Daytona 5: AMA Supercross 1998

It's rare to see sports excellence in person. In 1998 I was able to watch the 2 best Supercross racers ever, Jeremy McGrath in the 250 class (7 AMA SX 250 Class Championships: 1993-1996, 1998-2000) and Ricky Carmichael (5 AMA SX 250 Class Championships: 2001-2003, 2005-2006). This would be like watching Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in a double header live.

4 friends and I drove down from Jacksonville to Daytona to watch the race. We arrived at Daytona International Speedway mid-morning, without tickets. This was 1998 and the internet was still expanding so none of us thought to look for tickets online ahead of time. We walked up to the ticket booth and asked to buy 5 tickets. As we did not buy in advance we had to pick from what was still available. We got 5 seats next to each other on the first row of the grandstands, nearest the track. The employee at the ticket booth advised the view from these seats could be partially obstructed but the wall and fence. We figured we could stand by the fence for a better view so we bought them and made our way to our seats.

The obstructed view was a complete non-issue. Because the supercross track is built on the grass infield at the Daytona track we could see everything with no problems. Our seats were positioned close to centered on the track.

The races were all very fun to watch. They had the heat races, last chance qualifiers then the main races. We snacked on funnel cakes and other assorted healthy food items as we watch the qualifying races then settled in the main races.

Ricky Carmichael won the 125 Main with ease. He was in his prime and rode with no mistakes. Jeremy McGrath, the King of Supercross, won the 250 Main. Jeremy was so far ahead of the pack it seemed as if he was in a completely different race than the other riders. If I had to guess, I'd say he had AT LEAST a 15 second lead on 2nd place.

It was an amazing day with great friends...definitely a good run.