Dixon is close to being one of the most important members of the British Motocross fraternity.

A person who has put his neck on the line more than once to improve the sport in Great Britain, be it via his UTAG Yamaha team, or trying to promote the British GP or Motocross of Nations.

There can be no better team manager than Dixon and we just had to catch up with him and ask him what it means to him to be in this position. He was also part of the 1994 winning team, and has some idea's to bring Team Great Britain to the podium in Italy.

Q: Steve, congratulations. How did it come about being team manager of Team Great Britain?

Dixon: I actually called the ACU up and asked them about dates for the British Championship in 2010, just trying to work out my travel plans for next year. We got talking and I asked them about the British team for the MXoN. They told me they hadn’t worked out yet the new rider or Team manager and I mentioned that I would be willing to help out if they need it. They told me they would think about it and call me back and the next day they called back and told me it’s on, I would be the team manager.

Q: And the next step was to do what?

Dixon: They gave me the budget, hotel are booked, and I have talked to Carl and need to get in contact with Tommy. Tommy will arrive on the Thursday I think and Carl is really busy with his training. It would have been nice to get together before that and build some team moral. The third rider I can’t mention yet, but it should be mentioned today. I have spoken to him and his team and they are 100% into it. He is somebody who can race at the front and that is important.

Q: You have been around for a while and involved in a lot of MXoN events. Can you give me a run down on which riders you have been involved with in this event?

Dixon: The riders I have been involved in the Motocross of Nations. Paul Malin many times, in 1994 we won with him, I can't remember how we did in 95, 96, and 97, and all those were with Maler. In 1998 we had Carl Nunn and Paul Malin, which was the one at Foxhills, which was horrific, in 1999 we had Nunny, and in 2000 we had Nunny again for Great Britain and Jorgensen for Denmark.

In 2001 we had Jorgy for Denmark, 2002 nobody, 2004 we had Andrew McFarlane for Australia. In 2005 we had Billy Mackenzie for Great Britain, in 2006 at Matterly Basin, we had Billy again and obviously I ran that event. Billy did great when he got into the lead, didn’t that liven the crowd up, and we also had Julien Bill for Switzerland that year. In 2007 we had Martin Barr for Ireland and Carlos for Spain. 

In 2008 we had just about everybody, we had Zach and the whole Puerto Rican team, Martin for Ireland, and then we had Carlos riding for Spain and we provided bikes for all the Venezuelans, so we had about eight riders in 2008. In 2009 Puerto Rico has asked can we do the same with Zach riding and their riders.

Q: You were involved in the 1994 winning team as mechanic for Paul Malin. How did the system go there for rider selection?

Dixon: In 1994 we had trials of like 16 riders and cut it down to the top three. Paul was riding terrible on the 250cc machine; it was my decision to put him on the 125cc in the trials because he didn’t have a chance of being picked on the 250cc bike. Obviously people like Paul Cooper and Kelly Swanson were riding good on the 125cc, so he had a chance there. The thing about the MXoN is you need to ride with your heart, it’s like a Cup Final, and you need to rise to the occasion. I think they need that this year, forget about the results of the past, we need our best riders in there and pull together.

Q: What about the 2008 effort, can you better that?

Dixon: Billy, Tommy and Shaun, it was a good team. Shaun on the smaller bike, whether that was a good or a bad thing I don’t know. Maybe we didn’t have a better rider for the other 450cc spot. A lot of it is down to the start and a little lucky. We are going to be a wild card, but getting a little luck you can sometimes pull it out of the hat, as we have seen from riders in the past.