In the world of supercross, the term "mainstream" is as ever present as "potential" in a preschool.
The buzz is constant that this year we're going to make it to the big time, this year we're going to be a household name, this year we'll awake from nap time, shed our Monster Truck blanket and graduate into the minds and homes of every beer-dispensing-helmet-wearing American motorsports fan as well as their accountant neighbors.
But when will it actually happen? It's frustrating to hear it every year, and since I'm as sick of NASCAR references as you are of being asked if you can do a backflip, I tend to ignore the marketing greed-machines that pollute the pits. But suddenly my pessimism is waning.
Might we not be the paste-eating kid after all? There is hope.
By the time you read this you'll have seen a nationwide television commercial featuring the Geico Powersports Honda A-team of Trey Canard (West Coast Lites) and the ever-classic Kevin Windham in super-slow-mo gooey moto goodness. There will be no lizards. There will be no cavemen. There will be no eye-popping stacks of cash. But if the playback feed I saw from the viewing truck is any indication, there will be plenty of real-and I mean real-supecross-style excitement.
Geico's Eric Vaden is the man behind the commercial and the one responsible for banking on the Geico Powersports Honda racing team to deliver some returns for the huge insurance company.
Canard and Windham also both expressed how jazzed they were for this commercial to be produced and come out. Not in a vain, I-want-to-see-myself-on-TV sort of way, but in a real ambassador-for-the-sport way. "I'm excited to see what this can do for our sport. It's going to be big and it's going to put supercross in front of a lot of people," K-Dub said. "I don't think any company has given our sport a chance like this and I'm happy Geico is finally doing it."
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at what we hope will be the best mainstream supercross commercial ever.
The first thing I heard when I ejected from my truck onto Rynoland soil was Kevin Windham belly-laughing over the sound of a Honda 450 and the director's directions. "They like it dusty," he chuckled after Canard and he teamed up in delivering the production team an early dust lunch. The fact that they knew, as motocross riders, the pain and agony of dealing with that much roost was apparent in their amusement.