RaceFX owner Paul Irwin has always been there for the sport. From sponsoring riders, teams and events, to running his own series the MX Nationals. Irwin also has his own Grand Prix team. We gave him a call and asked about business in these tough times and what his plans are for the MX Nationals and his GP team.

MXlarge: Firstly, obviously you have a bunch of things going, first your business RaceFX, your Grand Prix team, and the MX Nationals. What is the latest with the MX Nationals?

Irwin: We cancelled round one and we will also cancel round two. For round one we couldn’t get medical cover, so we pulled the plug on that. Round three will go ahead at the moment, but that is up in the air. As it is now, it is hard to know when round one will be. We just move them back as we go and wait for a green light, or when we are out the other side.

MXlarge: When it will end is a question, we all ask and there is clearly no answer yet. Not only when we can go racing again, but when can get back to normal living again. All business is struggling at the moment. How is it at RaceFX at the moment?

Irwin: There is a definite decline, most of our shops are closed today and it is a shame, we were having one of our best months ever halfway through the month and it is like somebody has turned the tap off.

MXlarge: I was speaking to Rasmus Jorgensen from Husqvarna this morning and that was one of his concerns, because the industry is what keeps the sport running. Racing will return, but in what form that is, we don’t know. Is that a concern you might have?

Irwin: I guess there is several parts to it. As a company, we have 2021 product ordered, and we placed those orders before this happened, and we don’t know if we need the 2021 when it is releases, will we still have a lot of 2020 product on our shelves, there are a lot of question marks. Nobody is riding and when they do start riding, will they have money to want to buy product and it will be way down their list of priorities. At the moment a lot of orders are getting backed up to China and when do we start again. Will anyone have money to come back and ride, will we go straight back into racing. We don’t know.

MXLarge: Most of us haven’t lived through something like this. Many too young to have lived through the World wars, which were obviously a lot worse than this, but it is still a horrible period. How are you doing with it and I feel like lockdown is very important. How are you doing with that with such a big company?

Irwin: We have sent 90% of our staff home. We are operating on five people today and we have some delivers due in and we need to be here to collect those, because I have no idea where they would go and if we would have to pay massive amounts of storage. I don’t want to make the problem any worse and we have the minimal people travelling and we will take it day by day.

MXlarge: Millions of business will go broke because of this, that is 100%. I understand in England the government is supporting a lot of companies.

Irwin: Yes, they are, we have been following the rules and they support companies and there are interest free loans, nothing to pay for 12 months, to help companies keep going. You have to ask for it and like a lot of these things, you still have to pay it back and it will be interesting to see who survives this.

MXlarge: You have a Grand Prix team, where does that stand for now?

Irwin: Right now, they are back into winter training, no riding, and in the gym. The bikes are parked up, no point in putting a lot of hours on the bikes and for now it is winter training and hopefully the season starts up in a few months.

MXLarge: Obviously it would only be a guess, but do you have an opinion when you think we might be back up and running again?

Irwin: I think we will be four months before we see a decline where they let mass gatherings, so July or August. I would love to see it sooner than that, but I can’t see it.

MXlarge: How are you doing with the lock out?

Irwin: I am going to spend a lot more time at home. I am usually gone on weekends and I am looking forward to spending more weekends at home with my wife and walking the dogs.

MXLarge: Have the government made decisions about your business yet?

Irwin: Right now, there is a debate on BBC about mail order business being open and we have stayed open in a limited capacity and it seems like most of our competitors are still open. The government said at first key workers only, then updated it to if you can’t work from home go to work. We took the decision to supply while we still can.