It was 28 years ago that the Bercy Supercross sprung into life and they were also the first to bring in huge prizemoney. With riders now demanding around 250,000euro to race International events and budgets suffering from the World crisis it isn’t anyone’s surprise that the Bercy Supercross lost some of its magic, although with the help of Audouard the biggest Supercross in Europe has been reborn several times. Now in the midst of a new birth we decided to talk to Mr.Audouard.

MXLarge: Xavier thanks for your time. Can you tell me what the future holds for Bercy?

Audouard: It is early to speak about Bercy, but we want to do things early this year. We had those years of James Stewart being at Bercy and the promotion was basically around one guy. Of course there was competition, but nobody could compete with him. I think it is an end of an era, we are not planning on getting James back to Bercy this year and I think what happened to him last year I don’t think he won’t want to come overseas anymore. He wants to be in his comfort zone and that isn’t being bad or anything that is just a fact.

MXlarge: With James Stewart and I guess Chad Reed not being on the shopping list what does that do for the promotion of Bercy?

Audouard: Now it is what life is like at Bercy after James Stewart. Well the good news there are new faces and what happened with guys like James and Chad Reed it opening up the door for new faces in the Supercross World. We are also seeing in the Grand Prix the emergence of the new faces that are opening claiming they want to ride Supercross, eventually going to America to race Supercross.

MXlarge: So you want the new era riders in Bercy?

Audouard: Obviously some of them can’t go to America for a couple of years because of the age limit and I am speaking about of course Roczen and Herlings. I think Bercy would be a good chance for these kids to get their feet wet at Supercross and see what it is and be in an incredible atmosphere with some serious American competition. I am working on that, we want the champ and the best guys around there. We will have a new era with new faces and some exciting racing. We want to bring back some of the flavor that we have lost along the way.

MXlarge: Bercy seems to have had many changes in the last ten years. What exciting change do you have for 2010?

Audouard: At some point we were down to just America versus France, but if we can have Roczen and Herlings coming, and we are working on that right now, that would be incredible for the fans and for the riders it would be a good strategy to do that. While they can’t go to America they can keep on track with what Supercross is and in a good atmosphere. The track in Bercy is somewhere between what we see in Europe and the real deal in America. It also keeps the riders in mind; we don’t want the riders to get hurt.

MXlarge: The changes and riders you talk about make it a pretty exciting race in 2010 if you can get even some of them?

Audouard: It is exciting and that is what I am working on. I am going to the Grand Prix’s to talk to the young riders and trying to get them to commit to the racing.

MXlarge: Do you have a dream plan, something you really would love to see happen?

Audouard: We definitely want Dungey, because we didn’t have a Supercross rookie AMA Supercross Champion in Bercy since McGrath in 1993. He is a nice guy, clean image; he would fit perfectly into the Bercy feel. Obviously there are some guys in America that would be a good choice. I mean Josh Hill won a race last year in Bercy, maybe he comes, Millsaps was meant to come in 2009 and didn’t, so I am shooting for him. They would probably be on the 450, but Marvin showed last year you can podium on the 250cc, and the new generation of Roczen, Herlings and some of the young French guys also from MX2.

MXlarge: It sounds exciting if you can get those young kids involved.

Audouard: If we also brought something like Justin Barcia, or Austin Stroupe, then we have the new generation in America and also the new generation in Europe, mixing it up with the 450cc guys. Obviously I would also like Christophe Pourcel, but he is his own character, and I am not saying it is easy to come to terms with him, in fact it is difficult. I would love Christophe to be there, but we can’t have him and all these other kids, but we will have a big show anyway. It’s too early to say about Christophe coming.

MXlarge: What about Antonio Cairoli racing in Bercy?

Audouard: We had Cairoli and also Philippaerts once in Bercy a few years ago. I told them you will be one of the top guys in Europe and the best place to do Supercross in Europe in Bercy. It’s a three day event and you have time to get better and that is what they did, both of them. Cairoli went from not qualifying the first day, to getting better and better. In the whoops he was slow at first, but slowly he got better, everywhere else he was fast. Now I hear that Toni is mentioning about racing some Supercross in America next year, so if he does that then Bercy would be an obvious step on the way to America. There are also budget issues we need to work out for this type of talent. I mean if we talk about Musquin, Dungey, Cairoli, Pourcel, Roczen, Barcia, Herlings and these types of guys, you need a good budget. That is a lot of good guys. The dream team would be Dungey, Cairoli, Pourcel, Musquin, Barcia, Roczen, Herlings that is a lot of guys and very exciting.

MXlarge: Of course you always have the Freestyle, which I might add my kids loved?

Audouard: The Freestyle event is like insurance, the people love that anyway, if the racing isn’t great, then the Freestyle makes up for that.

MXlarge: Obviously you are very passionate about Bercy that has always been something that has made this such a special race. How do you keep up your passion?

Audouard: I love it, it will be the 28^th time and I get excited just speaking about it. We don’t care about changing the format, we do the fast lap and the elimination and the main event and everything else, the crowd has a chance to see the top guys a lot. We can’t run three motos, for three nights. But you can see the three sprints of three laps and what is exciting is the start. We have a lot of exciting starts and that man on man thing that was based on the Fastcross from a long time ago.

MXlarge: How would you describe Bercy?

Audouard: Bercy is a race, it’s a prestigious race and it’s a show and we need to keep it that way, but we need the talent and this year is very exciting and when you have an exciting crew to work with I can’t get bored with this. It’s my job and I like it as much as the first year.