IOW RIP!
By TMX Archives on 16th Nov 05
With the '06 MX1 championship dates finally released from the FIM HQ in Geneva it looks as though the final nail has been hammered into the coffin of the Gore Basin grand prix circuit - even though it was originally anticipated the event would With the '06 MX1 championship dates finally released from the FIM HQ in Geneva it looks as though the final nail has been hammered into the coffin of the Gore Basin grand prix circuit - even though it was originally anticipated the event would run again on the August Bank Holiday.This year's promoter - Motovision's Mark Chamberlain - is understandably disappointed with the outcome after being the main-man behind one of the most enjoyable GPs of '05. "Running the GP gave me as much satisfaction as anything else I've done in the last five or 10 years," says Mark. "The event was massive this year and a couple of weeks ago it was on the cards (that the GP would run again] but Youthstream have agreed to drop to 15 rounds for the teams and the event wasn't financially viable so the bottom line is that it's a mutual thing - for everyone - that we stopped."With the date now seemingly struck from the calendar it's unlikely we'll see GP motocross on the Isle of Wight in the near future. "The biggest problem is the track and for motocross in general to lose a track like that," adds Mark. "We've done our best and we can't really do anymore on that front."But it's a double blow for Mark and the Motovision team as unavoidable cutbacks have also culled the squad's GP race efforts. "At the start of this year I decided that this would be the last year I would put the majority of the money up for running the team," laments Mark. "I basically had to say 'right, that's it'. We'll go back GP racing if we can get the budget together to do it properly because we don't do it by halves and this year we skimped a little bit. You can't do that at world championship level and it was frustrating."It's difficult to walk away from running the team at GP level, that's really hard for me personally. I've got to be realistic rather than letting the passion override it like it has been doing for the past two years. Now I've got to bring it back in a little bit but I feel we've still got a lot to offer to British motocross."There is some good news on the Motovision horizon though as Mark's able to confirm that Finnish charger Jussi Vehvilainen will be back in Britain in '06 for a full-throttle assault on the MX1 British title. "Jussi wants to do the British championship as well as the GNCC and we feel that we could offer him a good deal just to do the British then help him do the GNCC and selected races for Suzuki worldwide - it'll be good for the Suzuki brand if he can do well at different disciplines. He's a bit wild but at least it will be good fun for next year."And backing up Jussi will be a pair of young guns who are sure to shake up some of the UK regulars. "We'll be running Jake Nicholls in British MX2 and the under 21s and Neville Bradshaw again in MX1 and the British four-stroke championships as well as at selected GPs."