MXGP - Onward and Upward
It is an issue that always rises eyebrows, the running of the FIM Motocross World championship. Some old school people, wanting the sport to be like it was in the 1970s, 1980s or 1990’s. I myself started following motocross in the 1970s and I remember driving down an old dirt road and coming across a beautiful piece of land, and the sounds of motorcycles racing. For a 10-year-old, it was the ultimate adventure and spending time with my brothers and father, well, it was in many ways the perfect weekend.
The sport has changed a lot over the years, and I also remember when Dorna arrived in 2001 at Bellpuig in Spain, big security fences, and a much more professional feel about motocross. I had the feeling like the soul had been ripped out of the sport. It didn’t feel better, but in hindsight, it actually was.
We see now, 25 years later, we have many more factory teams and riders in the paddock, more than 30 in total and a record number for Grand Prix motocross. It means big dollars spent in the sport, from Ducati, Triumph, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, KTM, Husqvarna, Fantic and Beta.
We see the new fishbowl team structures, which might not be as popular for the fans, but make the sport look a lot more professional and attract clients that also want to spend their money in our sport and Infront have catered for the public with their Saturday paddock show and numerous rider presentations throughout the weekend. Not to mention, all the teams have times put aside throughout the day for rider signings, so the fans can get up close to the riders. The fans get a much better look at the riders than probably any other motor sporting event.
It is a common sight in the MXGP paddock to see the factory teams offering catering services to teams, sponsors, and suppliers of the Championship. The hospitality facilities are now a common feature of the races, although their presence has become more widespread over the last two decades. The first ones arose to provide service to the teams themselves but sponsors soon understood that offering their clients and guests a meal in the paddock is a resource that is widely recognized and appreciated by all.
Giuseppe Luongo the President of Infront Motorsport department is also old school, also grew up eating trackside hotdogs or enjoying the nature the circles a motocross tracks back in the 1980s. He also loved that era, but he also knows, that, that era would not survive in the current World of sport.
“I really understand what you mean,” Luongo told me once in a conversation, and this is the feeling of the people who are now between 60 and 70 years of age, and I understand completely; missing the BBQ in the paddock, the smell of sausages and French fries around the track, but the world has changed drastically over the last 20 years, and if we don’t follow the world’s development we would lose everything.
“Whether we like it or not the world and the sport continues to grow, and for sure now we have many rules concerning the safety which are right to be enforced due to the speed of the bikes now, the most important for us is the safety of the riders and the public around the track, the sport needs to become popular for the value of the sport not for the accidents.
“My vision is always to look towards the future, it would be selfish and not constructive if I were to try to keep things as they were. If we had not made all these developments, for sure Motocross would still exist but the riders would not earn the money they earn today because we would not have the media coverage we have today and automatically not the sponsors and general interest.
Nestaan Husqvarna Factory team owner, Kay Henekkens is a very professional Dutch businessman, and he too feels the sport is in good hands and that Infront do as good as job as anyone in our sport. He does have concerns for the end of season fly-aways to China, Australia and finally the MXoN in USA. Its a big load for the riders and teams, but also an exciting one, travelling to countries we all want our sport to be seen.
“You know,” Henekkens said. “There will always be a group of people who want to complain that the old days was always better, they will complain that there are only 25 riders on the gate, but even in the USA, where there are 40 riders, they still lap up to 10th place or 15th place, so for me, at the end of the day, just to get 15 more riders on the gate, to fill it up and have more lapped riders getting in the way of the fast guys, does that make for me any sense. In general, I think Infront, do a very good, decent job. Can they do better, sometimes maybe, I don’t know. It is a big job. They did give us a big challenge for the end of the season, going from Turkey, to China, to Australia and then the United States, which is a big job, at the end of the season, when everyone is tired, I don’t know. We will see.”
As we have mentioned a few time here now on MXlarge, Monster Energy Yamaha MXGP factory team owner, Hans Corvers also feels it is the structor of the MXGP championship that is the reason so many factory riders are turning up to invest their Yen, euro or pounds into the MXGP World championship. He would like to see a more structures calendar but also knows that putting a World championship calendar together isn’t an easy task.
“I think because it is more global (that the Japanese factories want to expend with MX2 and more factory rider), and the Japanese continue to be there, and they support the series. I understand it isn’t easy for Infront, to organize the calendar, but it is too long unclear for everybody, especially for the privateer teams. They do their best, I don’t want to talk badly about Infront, because they do their best, but it isn’t easy when you don’t know which races are happening and which are not happening.”
So, maybe the numbers of negative people around the MXGP paddock are dwindling and the positive people are taking command. I sure hope so, because the sport of motocross is a very small one and we are at least able to survive and prosper.