It’s no secret we live in a world where if you have a lot of money you get a life of luxury handed to you. Which continues with motorsport. In Formula 1, money and marketing can get you into a team over talent. In Motocross, money can get you into a team and pay for better suspension, engine, pipe, wheels etc bringing better performance.
Myself having a brain that’s still stuck in history and a passion for sharing clips and educating people of the glory days has got me thinking. What would make racing better today?
Well here’s my few bob;
What if the bikes at a professional level had to run these simple rules;
Standard engines on all machinery
A minimum and maximum weight.
A maximum horse power ratio
1 tyre manufacturer, so you just select the compound.
Suspension that’s available to everybody. (A Kit for example)
This would encourage riders to be on equal machinery and use their skills. It would also stop the keyboard warriors finding excuses as to why their favourite rider didn’t win.
Another subject which is regularly thrown around is how fair and unfair the AMA vs GP’s schedule is and the debate on who is better and why USA haven’t won the MXoN since 2011.
The Supercross series is 19 rounds long followed by a 12 round outdoor series which sounds reasonable, until the MXoN arrives.
The MXGP series is 19 rounds long which is an entire weekend of riding.
The GP riders also ride their home country Championship rounds and International events building up to the GP season.
There’s talks from some AMA riders that there is not enough preparation for the des nations because Supercross is more important, yet, history shows riders used to do more events a year than they do today.
Bare in mind there are 52 weeks in a year.
So what would make the perfect series or yearly schedule?
A schedule where Supercross & Motocross doesn’t clash, but also enough space in between for other events to attract new sponsors and keep the sport exciting.
How about..
14 round SX series
12 outdoor nationals
(26 weekends with 3 weekends of breaks so let’s round that to 30 weekends)
14 MXGP rounds which doesn’t sound much but when you are travelling around the entire world it’s not bad.
So bearing in mind there’s 26 weekends left over, so why not create some new events such as;
A European Supercross series
Can be 10 rounds across Europe or even visit places like Australia and Japan. Of course it will never replace the AMA Supercross series, but at least it gives riders outside America to do a healthy, competitve Supercross series.
A ‘Ryder Cup’ style event called the ‘Rider Cup’. Running every 2 years that doesn’t clash nor replace the Motocross of Nations.
The best of 20 riders from AMA vs 20 riders from MXGP.
1 year in America, then Europe, back to America, then Europe again and so on alternating. Even though we have the MXoN we are never satisfied or happy whatever the result. We always hear some say “If (rider) was racing, he’d of beaten (rider) and team “” would have won”.
A manufacturers cup
KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha, TM Gas Gas, Sherco still make 2 strokes and 2 strokes are a huge crowd pleaser. Why not a event which the pros get to race for their contracted manufacturer and at the same time earn some prize money?
Invitational events
This is something done by PGA golf and each ones got a different sponsor. Why not one off events to attract big crowds, new sponsors and mix the sport up a bit? The Jeremy Mcgrath Supercross invitational back in 2006 was superb and is still talked about today.
Des Nations every 2 years
It’s the olympics of Motocross with great difficulty for smaller teams to find funding in just 1 year. Give it a gap and the year it’s not on, fill it with the Riders Cup idea.
Sprint races.
Some events have ran head to head races before and they are hands down the most entertaining. So instead of 30 minute + 2 laps motos why not run some 10 minute races? Could you imagine the action it would cause if a rider gets a bad, even a average start?
Then there’s another ‘what it?’
What if the GP’s shift the entire calendar, very similar to Football. The series can start in September and finish in May, the same time the AMA Supercross series finishes!
That may encourage GP riders to compete at AMA Nationals, various unique events in between, and 1 week after the final Outdoor round, everybody get to compete at the MXoN fairer.
When the weathers bad in Europe, go to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, USA etc. Then when it improves return to Europe.
When its winter in the UK, it is warm and sunny in Australia & New Zealand for example.
It happens in literally every sport, water sports, athletics, football, rugby etc etc. Motocross is incredibly niche in comparison, but the promoters want to expand the sport to a much larger scale. So why aren’t we all working together on this?
Now this is completely made up, but if any investors like the sound of these events, then lets get it done!
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