2020 AMA SX: Champs Already Decided?

Two weeks ago – on Friday, March 13 – literally on the eve of Round 11 of the 2020 AMA Supercross at Indianapolis, Feld Entertainment announced that Rounds 11 through 15 of the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship has been postponed until further notice, but that the final two rounds – in late April (Round 16 in Las Vegas) and early May (Round 17 in Salt Lake City) – would both go ahead as originally scheduled.

This week, Feld Entertainment updated their statement about the season, saying that, “The 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, is now scheduled to complete Rounds 11-17 later this year. The race locations and dates have not been finalized”. Feld also said that the final two rounds in Vegas and SLC had now been cancelled altogether.
Admittedly, we are living in times of unprecedented uncertainty, but saying that Rounds 11-17 are now scheduled for “later in the year” is pretty vague language from the promoters of what is the world’s biggest, richest and highest-profile dirt bike series. No doubt, Feld is under enormous financial pressure to find a viable window, and venues, in which to stage the final seven rounds – assumedly some time after the AMA MX Championship in September-October.

By to our mind, with the trajectory of this pandemic – around the world, and particularly in America – “later in the year” sounds more like Trump-style wishful thinking than a more likely outcome; that the series’ final seven rounds will not go ahead at all.
If that is the case, will the current red plate holders simply be awarded the titles? Admittedly, that’s merely a hypothetical question; but it’s also one worth asking, given the potential for the rest of the 2020 AMA SX series’ rounds to be cancelled.

According to both Feld Entertainment and the AMA, there is no stipulation in the rulebook about the minimum number (or proportion) of rounds that need to take place to constitute a championship. So, if that’s true:

• After 10 rounds of the 17-round 450SX series, Eli Tomac will be crowned 2020 champion, just three points clear of Ken Roczen;
• After six rounds of the 10-round 250SX West series, Dylan Ferrandis will be crowned 2020 champion; and
• After four rounds of the nine-round 250SX East series, Chase Sexton will be crowned 2020 champion.

There are obviously much bigger things at stake for human beings at the moment, but if the 2020 AMA SX series does play out like this, spare a thought for these champions elect, whose title wins will forever have an asterisk next to them. That’s especially the case for Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen – both of whom are yet to win a premier-class SX title, and whose battle this year was shaping up to deliver one of the all-time best back-ends to the season.
Fingers crossed it doesn’t come to this because no one – fans, teams and riders alike – would like the idea of AMA and World titles to be decided by a severely abbreviated season.

For real-time updates, check out supercrosslive.com