They call it the fun era.
It was also a war.
As the ’90s began, motocross was losing its pulse. The factories controlled the riders, the message and the money. The murder of top Supercross promoter Mickey Thompson shocked the industry, and the loss of Rick Johnson robbed the sport of its biggest star. With its heroes disappearing and PR disasters piling up, motocross was sliding toward irrelevance.
Then Jeremy “Showtime” McGrath came in and blew the doors off.
McGrath didn’t just win. He made everyone else look obsolete. He scrubbed jumps, threw tricks during races and made one of the hardest sports in the world look “fun.” His charm was infectious. Stadiums filled. Kids copied him. Girls wanted him. Outside sponsors smelled money. McGrath became bigger than the factories. He was the undisputed King of Supercross.
Jeff “Fro” Emig was the one racer who refused to live in the king’s shadow.
Emig and McGrath came out of the same Southern California riding ecosystem, a tight circle of friends that included Ryan Hughes, Jimmy Button, Phil Lawrence, Denny Stephenson and Buddy Antunez. They shared tracks, friends, girls and parties. Now Emig and McGrath were also fighting for the same crown, and it got bitter fast. In 1996, Emig stopped McGrath’s momentum and took the Outdoor championship. Then McGrath walked away from Factory Honda, exposing the throne and giving Emig a shot at the crown McGrath had owned outright: Supercross. Their rivalry spilled beyond racing into contracts, factory teams, nightlife and the emerging world of VHS moto videos.
Inspired by the wild-ass energy of ’90s snowboard films, early moto videos showed factory pros outside the corporate setting, hucking huge jumps in the desert, screwing around with friends, doing skits and partying. They turned riders into relatable characters and dirt bikes into something anyone could “go big” on. Disgruntled racers and new fans flooded the scene, and almost overnight, a wild new sport was being born. Dirt bikes were selling, cameras were rolling, and everyone headed into the hills to huck jumps and raise hell. The corporate racing world wasn’t amused, and it wasn’t ready to lose control of the sport. The slingshot was pulled back, and…
1997 became one of the craziest years in the history of professional sports.
The McGrath and Emig war turned Supercross into a sold-out rock show. McGrath proved a rider could become bigger than his factory. Emig proved the king could bleed. At the same time, freestyle exploded out of the videos and went to war with the establishment. Mike Metzger, Mad Mike Jones, Tommy Clowers and Edgar Torronteras were a few of the names that led the first wave of racers turned freestylers. Young Travis Pastrana became the golden child. Brian Deegan became the face of the rebellion. Carey Hart bet his life on a backflip the industry feared could destroy the sport. The factories still thought they controlled motocross, but the riders had become the show, and it was all one bad landing away from total anarchy.
MOTO NINETIES is the inside story of McGrath versus Emig, the rivalry that shattered the factory-controlled world as a freestyle revolution erupted around them. The two racers went to war over who would rule the sport. Freestyle tore down the kingdom. Together, the NINETIES era changed the way people look at dirt bikes forever.
