After the Shanghai Grand Prix of the Motocross World Championship I started to investigate more about the sport’s scene in China. First I found some images without much context, until I found the surprise that only a year ago China had for the first time in history a supercross event.
The historic event took place in Schenzhen, the third largest city in China, more precisely at the Schenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. There were four nights of racing from Thursday, July 13 to Sunday, July 16, 2023.
The overall winner was the Australian Matt Moss after winning three of the four Main Events riders from Russia, America, and of course, China
Addison Emory was one of the American riders involved. He was kind enough to answer some of my questions when I contacted him:
“There were six teams with two riders each, although all the bikes were stock. The opportunity came to me from Chase Marquier [AMA SX rider] who put me in touch with the people at Lexin Moto Hong Kong [Chinese motorcycle accessories company]. The mx culture is fairly new although I got the impression that they love the sport and everything about it.”
Another rider who was kind enough to explain a few things to me was Australian Jaxon Hadlow who finished second overall. He also competed in some rounds of the Chinese National Motocross Championship. Hadlow also told me that this year they hope to repeat the race with a possible date for November 1, 2 and 3.
“They are trying to establish the mx scene in China. The Lexin moto team hand picked riders they thought would be right for this event, it was a 4 day program racing a heat and a main every night. The team and track crew had never built anything like this so to see it all come together the way it did was pretty cool!“
As for his relationship with the Chinese Lexin team, Hadlow explains:
“I actually just received a DM one day off of a guy I’d never heard of asking me if I’d be interested in going over and doing a race, I had no idea what to expect and through translation I really wasn’t even sure what bike I was riding or much of anything, but racing in Australia was in the off season so I said sure and just kind of Guinea pigged it with no expectation. I landed in Beijing and had no phone service so I was kindve on edge a bit ahah but I cleared customs and there was a man there holding up a sign with my last name on it. I ended up winning that round of the mx championship and built is good relationship with that team and the owner and the rest since then is history.”
Watch the 4 Main Events:
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
