Comment
By TMX Archives on 4th Jun 04
been a subscriber to Roy Embo's Rule Britannia, gawd bless the Queen Mum school of thought, preferring instead to believe it's not where you're from but where you're at. I'VE NEVER been a subscriber to Roy Embo's Rule Britannia, gawd bless the Queen Mum school of thought, preferring instead to believe it's not where you're from but where you're at. But at the same time I've always been passionate when it comes to British MX. That we've not had a GP since Y2K is a Bad Thing - right up there with arm-pump, kick-starting hot four-strokes and waking up with a horrible hangover next to Percy Perrett (it's a long story)!Well, we've got a GP again and it's a very, very Good Thing. I could quite easily fill the next 10 pages with a tribute to Rob, Julie, Jeff, Jonny and all the other heroes who rolled up their sleeves and mucked in but there's no need - the facts speak for themselves.First up, from a motocross purist point of view, the track was absolutely awesome - designed by racers for racing - and little touches like putting bales out in practice to make sure more lines developed showed the amount of love that went into designing it. Proof of the pudding was the second MX1 moto where Josh Coppins and Mickael Pichon banged bars for lap-after-lap in what's surely got to be the FIM's Race of the Year. Didn't go and don't believe me? Well how about this... "The track's one of the best - simple as that - it's amazing what they've done in 12 months. They've done everything right. Smart, smart people." And that's straight from the Lizzard's mouth - so well done Jeff and Jonny, stick that one on your CV.We didn't get a British rider on top of the podium - Swordy gave it everything but Townley and Rattray just woke up a little bit faster on the day - but Josh winning was definitely the next best thing. And there were lots of other heart-swelling moments, most notably mad, bad Brad Anderson - elbows seemingly welded to his sides - absolutely wringing the nuts off his KTM in the first MX2 moto and leaving Chiodi chewing on his roost for nearly the full race distance.In this day and age though, GPs aren't just about the racing - they're also about the green folding stuff and, like it or not, money really does make the MX world go round. Which is why we haven't had a world championship round for the last four years. So a Sunday attendance of 23,000 - the biggest GP crowd since the season kicked off - was more important than the number of toilets, the quality of the track, the standard of the racing and everything else. It means that the '05 British GP is a goer...Loads of banners to collect, the dbr stand and freestyle arena to tear down, riders to interview and a freshly-burned disc of photos to pick up meant that we booked our return ferry crossing for 11pm. It also meant that I didn't finish the 300-mile return journey until the sun was almost up and only had the chance to snatch a couple of hours sleep before I had to roll into work and fire head-long into deadline week.Which is why, three days later, I still feel jet-lagged and could fit a full set of riding kit in the bags under my eyes. But who cares? I was there along with 22,999 other MX fans and I'll do the same next year...and the next...and the next...