Fresh off his recent feature story on motocross superstar Jeremy McGrath, The Mag's Chris Palmer caught up with his subject in Anaheim.

I was hanging out at the first round of the EA Sports Supercross Series at Edison Field in Anaheim last weekend to see how seven-time Supercross champ Jeremy McGrath would fare in his title defense. He cruised to victory by half a track. One down, 15 to go.

McGrath is considered the greatest motocross rider ever. He has a massive cult following. From kids to celebrities, they come out in force -- Edison sold out 45,050 seats -- to see the man they call SuperMac. Ken Griffey Jr. and rocker Tommy Lee were on hand to see MC get his 84th career win. "He's great," said Griffey. "I respect anyone at the top of their game."

After the race, in the pit area, under the canopy of the spanking new 18-wheeler that McGrath's team works out of, he signed autographs and took pictures with hundreds of fans. Loveline's Adam Corolla and actor Vince Vaughn dropped by to give MC congrats and to check out the digs. "I've been a big Jeremy fan for a long time," he said.

MC spots me. "You coming tonight, right?," he asks me about the premiere of his motocross video Steel Roots II at the Sun Theatre. "You know I can't miss that, dog," I reply. Neither can anyone else in the MX community, it seems. The crowd is a who's who of motocross royalty: Travis Pastrana, Mike Cinqmars, Seth Enslow and Tommy Clowers.

But the party almost went off without the man of the hour. Some Rent-A-Cop working the door wouldn't let McGrath into his own premiere party because he didn't have proper I.D. Jeremy's girlfriend, Kim Maddox, was steamed. But MC, true to his laid-back, SoCal personality, stayed cool. The mob standing behind us was about to go ballistic at the injustice until the doorman came to his senses and showed MC to the V.I.P. area.

Inside, beautiful girls and cool cats bobbed heads to the alt-rock band Pennywise as Steel Roots played on three big screens. 'Til the wee hours of the morning people came by to give McGrath props of one kind or another.

Despite the security, it was a great day to be Jeremy McGrath.

C-Palm writes hoop and motor sports for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at christopher.palmer@espnmag.com.