The shape of things to come
By TMX Archives on 4th Jun 08
IT IS almost certain that there will be 40 riders at the gate in MX1 and MX2 GPs next year!That was the astounding news to leak out at Mallory over the GP weekend and FIM MX president, Wolfgang Srb,confirmed that the world governing body is keen to ratify a far-reaching proposal which has come forward from series promoter Youthstream.
When asked about the moves, Srb replied: ‘‘We are optimistic that the proposals can be carried through. Motocross is a global sport and we need more races overseas''
Prior to the implementation of triple and double headers at the turn of the millennium, there had been a regulatory 40 starters in motocross GPs for nearly two decades, and the figure had been a rough guide for another 20 years prior to that.
The restriction to 30 had arrived with the onset of TV marketing, first in the 250s and later in all classes, in the late 90s, but the bombshell was dropped by Youthstream president Giuseppe Luongo in an open letter to the leading teams:
‘‘Dear Friends, after a meeting with FIM and manufacturers and to avoid any mis-understanding and/ or manipulation I want to explain to you the goal for the bright future of our sport. After some years of work together, we see that we have made some great improvements in all aspects (TV, infrastructure, circuit, media, sponsors, etc) over the last few years. We take note of what works well and what needs attention. This is a good start but we still need to make a lot of improvement.
Overall goals:
* Improve the quality of the show.
* Take the GPs world wide to gain more sponsors.
* Help small teams.
* Improve the structures a the GPs.
* Improve the media and world wide TV coverage.
We still need to improve the respect and position of the small teams, today we have 30 riders going home every Saturday evening and this clearly creates problems to the smaller teams as they are not in condition to guarantee their participation and TV coverage to their sponsors. For this reason, starting from next year, we want to be able to enter 40 riders per class and all 40 will be able to race on Sunday, in this way all teams can assure their sponsors that their team will participate at every Grand Prix.
‘‘We need to deliver a better show for our TV audience and GP spectators.''
The 40 riders, who would all be guaranteed a start, would comprise 24 riders entered through the teams/ manufacturers and 16 wild cards (14 nominated by Youthstream, two by the national federation of each race).''
Further moves indicated in the letter concerned a standardisation of wash bay areas to 40 units and a second tier on the boxes in the pit lane which would be available to team guests.
The question of overseas GPs – the aim for 2009 is three in USA, Africa and Asia – was introduced as a commercial aspect: ‘‘As you have surely seen, there are more and more big sponsors coming in from outside and more and more TV coverage, therefore we need more overseas events to create bigger interest, to touch the main markets and to gain global companies such as Red Bull, DHL, Monster, Teka, Toyota, etc, and to be able to have more overseas events we need more support from the manufacturers.''
Clearly all these aims must be financed, and Luongo was quite clear about the source: ‘‘Youthstream's position is very clear; these services must be paid by the manufacturers. Youthstream offers to each manufacturer support and a huge visibility for their brands and manufacturers have to support their respective team or rider.''
The envisaged cost would be 10,000 euros for a season, 1,000 euros for single races.
The cost of the top 15 riders in each class attending overseas GPs has been the responsibility of the series promoter since the rights were sold off by the FIM, but here too Luongo envisages change, the expenses for at least 20 riders per class being subsidised: ‘‘It's clear all the financial support for the overseas events and for the teams/ riders services (pit-lane, bike washing, TV programme, passes, etc) have to be paid by the manufacturers and not by the teams or riders. This is the clear position of Youthstream. As you know it's easy to create rumours in the paddock and it's easy to manipulate the reality, but over the last years we have demonstrated a very high level of professionalism and we have delivered even more than what was promised and this will continue into the future. It is in our interest to help the teams and riders to become stronger and more professional with the guarantee of their participation, with better revenue, more exposure and bigger support from manufacturers and sponsors. As you know, Youthstream has already made huge investments in the television production, media, time keeping, infrastructure, paddock, pit-lane and circuit and Youthstream has to continue with these investments. An overseas Grand Prix, (aside from the normal costs of a GP and aside from the freight and the contribution to the riders and teams) costs us more than 15,000kg of freight, more than 50 airplane tickets, and the TV production, time keeping for overseas costs from three to four times more than Europe due to the transport of all the material and the rental on site of all the rest and, on top of all of this, we have the costs of the normal services we supply for a GP in Europe. So Youthstream must continue to invest in all these areas to provide the manufacturers, teams and riders a great stage where all of you can participate and promote yourselves.''
There was a guarded response from the paddock to the proposals.
Teka Suzuki team owner Sylvain Geboers remarked: ‘‘I did not see a positive response from any of the manufacturers except KTM.'' He went on to express concern over the strain on the services of the tyre companies, which is already straining the limits of the current crews.
KTM race team manager Stefan Everts also expressed a concern voiced from all of the leading contenders: ‘‘I have nothing against a return to 40 riders in principle, but tracks have become smaller and shorter. Even under normal race circumstances the leaders could be encountering lappers within a few laps of the start of the race.''
A desire to replace the flying lap qualification system by races is still on the table and is expected to be implemented to make the Saturday programme more attractive for
promoters, but a controversial proposal to award points on a minor scale (5-4-3-2-1) – a common practice in touring car racing – has apparently been rejected by the
manufacturers.