In 2010, SuperMoto in the States took a bit of a knock; that was until Dennis Anderson set about rectifying the situation. Dennis has graciously taken some time from his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us and give us a little Christmas present.
SMMA: Firstly, can you tell the readers who you are, and what you’re about?
DA: I have been involved in the world of motorcycle racing really since I was a kid….(of course, like most racer-types, I’m still a kid at 53, almost 54 years old). I grew up, and still live, in Northern California, which was a real hub of motorcycle racing in the 60′s and 70′s. Local racing heroes like Kenny Roberts and Randy Mammola and the whole motorcycle racing world had an immediate attraction for me, and it really WAS a pretty “golden” era to grow up in; not the least of which, and one of my very first exposures to racing, was going to see the original motorcycle racing movie “On Any Sunday” when it came out with one of the movies main character’s…..(Jim Rice) cousin, who I went to school with. When I could afford a bike I gravitated to roadracing and did that from ’77 – 2005.
SMMA: What is your background?
DA: The aforementioned lifelong racing involvement led to the retail end of the bike world, and I was a salesman and manager at a number of motorcycle dealerships for almost 20 years here in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California. After a bit of a career burn-out in the retail world, I ventured into photography and I was fortunate enough to have a very professional “Pro-Am” Supermoto racing series here in the Nor-Cal area, SupermotoUSA, whom I began doing “event” photos for. I fell in love with the style, action, and the familiar environment that is/was SupermotoUSA. From that I decided to check out one of the AMA Supermoto series rounds as some of the local pros wanted me to shoot photos for them…..(and it was only a 12 hour drive). I’d seen Supermoto in person when the very first RedBull backed Pro event took place here in the USA in 2003 at Laguna Seca Raceway, in conjunction with the World Superbike event there, but hadn’t been around the “Pro” series for a few years outside of some TV broadcasts. I shot photos at the 2007 event which was at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah….(where we will be for our Round #2 at the end of June) and noticed that there was a real lack of media so right after that race I started http://supermotoonline.com/ and the new media/promotions career began! I also helped out the last team to win a “Pro” series title here in the USA, the CHM Exhaust Supermoto team, that featured Micky Dymond, Jason Conlon, and the man who won that last title, Frenchman, and now four-time French Champion, Sylvain Bidart.
SMMA: What is the USA Pro SuperMoto Series?
DA: The USA Pro Supermoto Series is being developed as the top level of Professional Supermoto racing in the USA. The major league level of racing.
SMMA: How did it come about?
DA: After the sale of the sanctioning body that had run the professional end of Supermoto here in the USA, the AMA, in 2008, Pro Supermoto was handed off to a company that tried to make a go of a series but ultimately had to let it go in 2009. I saw an incredible, “diamond-in-the-rough” entertainment product that should be the basis for the ultimate “show” that was dying due to a lack of anyone wanting to go out on a limb to make it happen…..(of course, that limb is made of lots of work and even more financial risk). After that I began working on a million scenarios that could be molded into a viable show that could be marketed as a new Pro Supermoto series. Luckily, I have been fortunate enough to have been personally involved with what is actually the longest running, and the most professional end of Supermoto racing here in the USA in the form of that Pro-Am series that I began shooting photos for, SupermotoUSA. The gentleman who runs SupermotoUSA, Brok McAllister, has been putting on successful events since 1999 and actually facilitated some of the final races for the AMA in 2008 and 2009. While Brok has been keeping Supermoto alive with SupermotoUSA, I was been working on the more “National” end of things in the forming of USA Pro Supermoto. A trip to Belgium in 2010 for the Mettet Superbikers event helped move ideas forward and after many many concepts were considered, the current six race over six months, karting track based series was formed.
SMMA: What has been the hardest thing in organising the series?
DA: Having so many pieces of the racing pie spread out and scattered all over the globe in a sense. We’re definitely not starting from total scratch in a sense since there HAS been professional racing here in the USA, but many of the teams that were major players are gone or involved in other forms of racing and many of the racers have had to further their careers in other disciplines. Assembling those far flung components, and getting sponsors and investors to see the vision in this challenging economic time is a work in progress.
SMMA: Who have you got signed up? Who are you expecting?
DA: We have a number of name riders from recent USA racing who are ready to come back to Supermoto. Micky Dymond, Chris Fillmore….(he was the teammate of Aussie, Troy Herfoss, who won the title here in 2008 for the HMC/KTM team), possibly Mark Burkhart….(XGames Gold, 2007 AMA Champion). A number of up and coming world class talents in the form of Joey Pascarella who rode for TroyLee alongside Jeff Ward in 2009, Ryan Kearns who rode for the French Championship winning Luc1 team for part of the season over there this year, Johnny Lewis who was the youngest rider to win a Pro main event back in 2007. From Europe we have almost too many names to list right now but we’ll start with the current world champion, Adrien Chareyre and the Fast Wheels Aprilia team who are looking to make some of the events, 2010/2011 German/DM Supermoto Champion, Mauno Hermunen, Matt Winstanley, Jan Dietenbach, Merton Haggeman, Davide Gozzini, Thierry Van den Bosch…… all have contacted us on racing here in 2012.
SMMA: I understand that you have a TV series lined up, using 3D. How does that work?
DA: We were fortunate enough to have been introduced to a fantastic film company, Digital Revolution Studios, who specialize in 3D production and they shot a “sizzle” reel…(industry name for a demo reel) that has been pitched to the networks. Many of the big broadcasting networks here in the USA are gearing up to produce 3D content much as they expanded from the analog to HD format over the last 3 or 4 years. Whether the show is broadcast entirely in 3D or is also shown in 2D is yet to be determined along with which network as there are two different materials that have been pitched. A documentary/reality show along with a traditional race broadcast.
SMMA: Who are your major sponsors at the moment?
DA: Alpina Wheels just came on board, we are talking with Dunlop as a possible spec tire supplier, Supermoto Engineering, CHM Exhaust…. a number of sponsors that have been involved with Supermoto in the USA in the past, as well as numerous new companies inside and outside of the motorcycle world.
SMMA: What are your plans for the series, and the sport, in the future?
DA: We see virtually unlimited opportunities for producing a “show” that will rival Supercross as a motorsports entertainment product. With the flexibility that Supermoto can be presented as, we see an expansion of the series in the number of venues and locations as well as the type of venues. Baby steps are certainly the prudent way forward but with the ever expanding and exploding capability for promotion and presentation through traditional and evolving avenues like the internet, and it’s mainstream integration into everyones home, we see Supermoto as the next BIG THING!
SMMA: Any final words?
DA: Keep your eyes on USAPROSUPERMOTO.COM for all that is happening over here….. and who knows???? The “USA” Pro Supermoto Series may be a “Worldwide” Pro Supermoto series and come to OzzieLand before long! Thanks for keeping Supermoto rockin’ and in the public’s eye down under! And one more thing…….. tell Adam Cini he needs to get his arse back over here to race! 
Sincerely, Dennis Anderson/USA Pro Supermoto
SuperMoto Magazine – Australia would like to thank Dennis for his time, and look forward to the coming season of SuperMoto racing. You can follow Dennis on Twitter with @supermotoD50, read more about the the USA Pro Series at www.usaprosupermoto.com and follow them on Facebook.
