History
Supermoto has its origins in the 1970s where ABC’s Wide World of Sports was the highest-rated sports show in the United States. In 1979, ABC commissioned a made-for-TV event called "Superbikers," created by motorcycling journalist and promoter Gavin Trippe, intended to find the ultimate all-around motorcycle racer by putting all star riders from different genres of racing on a single track that combined three genres of racing: flat track racing, motocross and road racing. Superbikers was then manifested as a yearly event run at southern California's Carlsbad Raceway. The show's tarmac-and-dirt courses were intended to draw on talent from the world's of off-road, flat track and road racing. World and National Championship-winning motorcycling greats such as Kenny Roberts and Jeff Ward, whose respective sports at the time were road-racing and motocross, participated in the races. The Superbikers quickly became a huge Nielsen ratings contender, running until 1985, at which point ABC was forced to cancel the show due to new management and cuts; its cancellation also initiated a long sabbatical of the sport in the USA. The European racers who participated in the sport at Carlsbad, however, brought it back to Europe with them, where it quickly gained popularity in countries such as France.
2003 signaled the resurrection of the sport in the United States with the birth of the AMA Supermoto championship and with the ESPN X-Games Supermoto championship.
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