Jessica Longname “Works” Her First AMA Supercross in Seattle and Tells the Tale

Jessica Longname “Works” Her First AMA Supercross in Seattle and Tells the Tale

By Jessica Longname from Tree Three Media

The 58,261 people in attendance for Round 11 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series in Seattle this past Saturday got their money’s worth with the evening of great racing. 

Thinking it was a massive long shot, I reached out to Billy about a possible Media Pass for Seattle. For some reason Billy said yes and had it arranged for me with Feld. I will be forever grateful to him for giving me this opportunity and giving me a chance. While I never want this to be my career or a main source of income, this part of my life is what I enjoy most and never want to ruin it by adding the “job” title to it. I get excited to go to the track and shoot and want to keep it that way. For him to put me in a stadium with my camera in front of the best riders in the world is a life highlight and will never be forgotten.

This being my first credentialed Supercross, it is hard for me to explain how I was feeling going into it. 

For those who don’t know me, I’ve been racing since I was 7 on the east coast. Growing up, we were the classic Eastern Canadian amateur moto family. We did Florida in the winter, raced Walton a few times, and raced the Women’s Nationals when, in my opinion, Women’s Moto was in its prime. Moto was everything to us and still is to this day. When we are together chances are a heated “discussion” will occur about the last race or who was faster between my brother and me (For the record, he never passed me. Haha He’s going to be pissed when he reads this). It’s something that brought our family together and that is the exact answer I give to people when they say, “but it’s so dangerous.”

Like most in our sport, eventually I realized that 99% of the industry (more like 100% of women) will not make it to a Supercross main event, so if I wanted dirt bikes to be a part of my life I would need to do it somehow off the bike, which is where the camera comes in. I started shooting moto as a youngster between my own motos. 

Which brings us to today, living on the other side of the country in Calgary spending most of my free time at dirt bike tracks shooting video for basically whoever wants it! I think it’s actually kind of funny because now living here a lot of people don’t even know I race/raced, they just think I am Tree Three the video girl, when in reality riding is my true love, the camera comes second.  

Now that we are caught up with my life story, let’s get into it! 

There was so much to take away from this weekend. Honestly, I had no idea how this particular media pass even worked or what to expect. I texted Billy so many stupid questions leading up to the race that I am sure he was wondering if he made a mistake getting me in. I think when I asked if I could bring my drone he started to get nervous (I did not bring it).

Editor’s note: I jokingly dared her to fly that thing inside the stadium to see what would happen.

During the second 250 Heat as most of you probably have seen Jett Lawrence and Cameron McAdoo come together. I’ll keep my opinion to myself on whose fault I think it was, but I happened to be standing directly in front of it and my camera was ready.

I got the shot. This is what every kid that picks up a camera dreams about – standing in the right place, at the right time, with the camera setting right and the shutter snapping. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wipe a tear from my face after that one.

To make it all even sweeter, I also happened to be standing at the whoops during Stilez Robertson‘s crash.

The 450 main hadn’t even started and I got what I think are two shots of a lifetime. The emotions going through me at that point were wild. I’m sure someone in the crowd saw me drop down for a minute and fist pump like I just won a 450 title. I acknowledge how bad it is that I was excited to get a photo of a rider crashing, but all the riders were okay and as a rider myself, if I fall I hope at least someone gets the shot!

Something I found very interesting, as I am sure some of you have seen on TV or in photos, was a lot of photographers/videographers are wearing those black Alpinestars vests. I now know that those are kind of a badge of respect earned. As a rookie I was given a blue bib and stuck out like a sore thumb. As much as I hated it, I also loved it. The competitive side of me came out and made me want to get the shot to prove I deserve a vest someday! The vest gets you into a few more places which is fair because moto can be sketchy. I understand they don’t want a bunch of people with cameras in places they don’t belong. It’s actually a really well thought out system and worked great from what I saw.

I can’t thank Direct Motocross and Billy enough for making this happen, I have no words that could express my gratitude. I really hope I get to do it again in the future. I have to be honest, I looked at flights to Glendale on the flight back from Seattle! 

Thank you so much for reading this and don’t forget, support the companies that support the sport. If you see a poster or a sign at the track with a logo on it, buy what they are selling when you need it, that is what keeps our sport alive.