Motocross

EVENTS If L.A.'s bike revival seems a little, well, precious to your higher-octane taste, the Red Bull X-Fighters would like to up the ante. The popular motocross event sends dozens of riders down a gravity-defying course, where speed and agility make for an eye-popping aerial race. Glen Helen Raceway, 3018 Glen Helen Road, San Bernardino. 2 p.m. Sat. $20-$400. redbullxfighters.com

Top-level motocross racing holds its series finale Saturday at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Riverside County. Pro motocross, which takes place between May and September, is outdoor motorcycle racing on courses with numerous hills, jumps and tight turns. The stadium version of the sport, called supercross, occurs earlier in the year. Ryan Dungey of the Red Bull KTM team has dominated the premier 450 class of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship series this year. He's won the last nine consecutive races and already clinched his second series title.

Top-level motocross racing holds its series finale Saturday at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Riverside County. Pro motocross, which takes place between May and September, is outdoor motorcycle racing on courses with numerous hills, jumps and tight turns. The stadium version of the sport, called supercross, occurs earlier in the year. Ryan Dungey of the Red Bull KTM team has dominated the premier 450 class of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship series this year. He's won the last nine consecutive races and already clinched his second series title.

SANTA BARBARA — Sue Fish disappears on a morning motorcycle ride over the mountain passes and fire roads in the foothills of Santa Barbara. She escapes for hours into what has been her favorite spot for decades, available to no one. Lights remain off at her house. Phone calls go straight to her voicemail. Fish, 53, lives life on the edge. Always has. Five neck surgeries haven't slowed her down, nor have various head injuries and broken bones. She makes her friends nervous.

The recent Azusa Planning Committee meeting was asked to consider public nuisance charges against the Eagles Lodge motocross, which included noise, pollution and sanitation violations. In defense of the (motocross), a former mayor of Azusa implied that because the neighbors are of the "Johnny-come-lately" variety, they had no right to complain. This from a person one would expect to head a welcoming committee for new citizens. First there was a denial of violations of time limitations.

Shaun White is out, but James Stewart is in. White, a longtime skateboarding star of the action-sports festival, will attend but will not compete at X Games 15 this week because he is preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, where he'll try to win a second gold medal in the snowboarding halfpipe competition.

The competitior lands on his back while attempting a trick and lies motionless on the course for several minutes. He is taken to a hospital for X-rays; his manager says Rosen was able to move his toes. The near-absence of noise was the telling sign, just what you didn't want to hear at the X Games. Rarely had it been so quiet at Staples Center. Motocross rider Paris Rosen was motionless on the course and was staying that way as the minutes ticked off. He went for it in the best-trick competition Friday night, attempting a front flip, but he landed hard on his back.

World 500cc motocross champion Andre Malherbe of Belgium and defending champion Broc Glover of El Cajon head an international cast of riders entered in the 13th annual Nissan U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway. The Carlsbad race has developed into an annual grudge match between European riders, who dominated the first seven years, and Americans competitors, who have won four of the last five. It is Round 8 in this year's 12-motocross world championship series.

If you think supercross is exciting -- motorcycles chattering over road bumps, around twisting high-speed corners and then flying over triple jumps -- how about the same thing on water? That is what jet skiers are doing for the next three weekends at Oceanside, where the International Jet Sports Boating Assn. is holding its abbreviated Motosurf Nationals.

For the fifth time in six years, one of America's Whiz Kid motocrossers frustrated Europe's best riders at their own game. This time it was slender David Bailey, 24, of Axton, Va., who rode his factory-backed Honda to victory in two 45-minute 500cc motos to win the 13th annual Nissan U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross on a hot and dusty Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway. This was Round 8 in the 12-event world championship series, but the only one in which most American riders compete.

The SoCal indie "Bro" sends its college-age protagonist, Johnny (Will Chavez), tumbling into seductive illegality with the efficiency of those Direct TV commercials that paint exaggerated worst-case scenarios for cable customers. In this case, it'd be, "When you ask out the cute girl at the gym, you go to her tattooed brother's motocross practice. When you go to motocross practice, you party with gang members who ply you with easy women and drugs. When you cavort with easy women and take drugs …" and before you can blink, Johnny is a straight-up hoodlum.

It seemed a star-studded marriage: James Stewart, a three-time champion of off-road motorcycle racing, signed a multiyear contract with the Yamaha motorcycle team of Joe Gibbs Racing of NASCAR fame. The plan also was for Gibbs to provide a path for Stewart to pursue his goal of becoming a NASCAR stock car driver when his motorcycle days were over. But only seven months after announcing their union, Stewart and Gibbs recently parted ways and Stewart has signed with a new team, Yoshimura Suzuki, for both motocross and supercross.

EVENTS If L.A.'s bike revival seems a little, well, precious to your higher-octane taste, the Red Bull X-Fighters would like to up the ante. The popular motocross event sends dozens of riders down a gravity-defying course, where speed and agility make for an eye-popping aerial race. Glen Helen Raceway, 3018 Glen Helen Road, San Bernardino. 2 p.m. Sat. $20-$400. redbullxfighters.com

EVENTS At the TransWorld Motocross SLAM Festival enjoy a full day of high-octane, revved-up fun, including a pro rider race in the afternoon, vendor row with all the latest in motocross gear, clothing, bikes and more, a Miss TransWorld Motocross Model search, and open track riding to all participants, including a kids learn-to-ride track. Milestone Ranch MX Park, 12685 Holly St., Riverside. 8 a.m. -8 p.m. Sat. Free. (951) 686-4669.

Freestyle motocross racer Jeff 'Ox' Kargola of San Clemente died Friday from injuries sustained during a punishing, 1,300-mile adventure ride through Mexico's Baja Peninsula, according to event sponsors. Kargola was 27. Kargola crashed during the second day of the Desert Assassins' 2011 Rip to the Tip desert motocross event -- an eight-day contest among 30 dirt-bike racers who cross mountains, beaches and desert between the border city of Mexicali and Cabo San Lucas. "Jeff was attended to by medical personnel on site and was transported via helicopter to the San Felipe hospital where he passed away due to his injuries," read an event statement.

The competitior lands on his back while attempting a trick and lies motionless on the course for several minutes. He is taken to a hospital for X-rays; his manager says Rosen was able to move his toes. The near-absence of noise was the telling sign, just what you didn't want to hear at the X Games. Rarely had it been so quiet at Staples Center. Motocross rider Paris Rosen was motionless on the course and was staying that way as the minutes ticked off. He went for it in the best-trick competition Friday night, attempting a front flip, but he landed hard on his back.

Defending champion Johnny O'Mara of Simi heads the field for the Miller High Life Supercross race at 8 tonight before an anticipated capacity crowd at Anaheim Stadium. The playing field of the Rams and Angels has been converted into a stadium motocross track, complete with jumps, pits, berms, whoop-de-doos and a catapult jump capable of sending riders 60 feet into the air.

Motocross, the fastest growing motorized sport in America, may have become the victim of its own popularity, at least in Southern California. The closing of Saddleback Park last year and Indian Dunes last month leaves the metropolitan Los Angeles area without a major riding park--either for competitors or recreational riders. The problem was the same, increasing insurance costs caused by endless suits filed by parents of injured play riders.

Ask motocross and rally racing veteran Travis Pastrana, 26, about the craziest thing he has done and he won't hesitate to answer. At last summer's X Games he attempted a two-full-rotations back flip on a 220-pound motorcycle. "I lost a trick and went for it anyway," Pastrana said of the jump, dubbed a rodeo 720. "I had it down [in practice] maybe one out of 10 times." With ample hype, Pastrana took off in the moto X best-trick competition but lost control of the bike during the jump and landed with a thud.

When motocross trainer Cole Seeley started teaching "High School Musical's" Corbin Bleu how to ride for the new motocross movie "Free Style," he put him on a Kawasaki 110, the perfect size for an 11- or 12-year-old child. If Bleu felt embarrassed by his diminutive wheels, he could always remind himself that Seeley started on smaller ones. "I've been riding since I was about 4," Seeley said. "My first bike was a PW50. If I remember right, my parents hid it in my next-door neighbor's garage, and I did a scavenger hunt to find it. It was a very exciting day for me."