Sports highlights: 2015 AMA Endurocross season opener

IMO Endurocross is one of the most exciting form of motorcycle racing. Riding a motorbike across the difficult surfaces (with rocks, logs, tires and all those obstacles you can't think of!) is a feat in itself. Let alone riding as fast as you can to beat other riders! I followed it for a few seasons on NBCSN prior to 2013. All those seasons were dominated by the great Polish Taddy Blazusiak. He was simply better than his competitors. Even when he made mistakes (which were rare), he could recover from them like no one else. He won 5 straight titles 'til 2013. Too bad I missed the 2014 season completely as he finally had a challenger in Cody Webb who narrowly beat him to win the 2014 championship. And Blazusiak decided not to race in the 2015 AMA Endurocross season so it's really a changing of the guard. I'm glad that this season is broadcasted by CBS Sports Network. Comcast's TV guide mentions Endurocross explicitly (in info section) under the title 'Motorcycle Racing' for CBSSN unlike what it was with NBCSN (it was lumped into the "general purpose" Motorsports Hour program. I record every episode and won't know what it was until I watch! I really have 0 interest in many of the recorded races, like the tractor pull championship and drag boat racing. On the other hand, the late-modified and sprint car racing on dirt tracks are kinda cool) The most memorable moment of the 2015 Endurocross season opener doesn't have anything to do with the eventual winner though. Before I go into the details, let me explain the usual format of auto racing in US: there's a main event at the end of the day, which determine the winner of the race. (Some motorcross races have 2 main events, moto1 and moto2, and the combined points determine the overall winner.) And racers need to qualify to the main event. (Even for NASCAR with 43 cars racing in the main events, some of those spots are determined by the qualifying race results. Of course there are guaranteed spots reserved for the big names in NASCAR) For motorcross (supercross and endurocross), the first round of qualifying races are called Heat races (heat1 and heat2). Sometimes there's a 2nd round called Semi. And the last round is LCQ (last chance qualifier) So basically if a rider failed to reach the Top N, he will try again in the next round and finally LCQ. For the 2015 AMA Endurocross races, there are heat races then LCQ. Two of the participants are father and son: Destry Abbott (42) and Cooper Abbott (17). Both of them happened to be in the same heat and ran near the top of the qualifying position. When it was near the end of the heat race, Destry got the last qualifying position and was about to cross the line, but he stopped and looked back, saw his son Cooper and let him passed! I guess Destry didn't want his son to take the risk of not qualifying via the LCQ. And perhaps he's very confident that he could qualify for the main from the LCQ and indeed he did. Classic example of the older generation looking after the next one! Oh BTW, the race was won by Cody Webb. Taddy has successfully passed his baton to Cody, figuratively speaking.