Big shake-up for MMX series
By TMX Archives on 9th Nov 07
THE British MMX Championship is set to recieve a significant shake-up for 2008 after the ACU's motocross committee elected to replace the long running but outdated British Four-stroke championship class with an Open championship eligible to both two-stroke and four-stroke machines, and the almost complete severance of the British Sidecar-cross Championship from the MMX banner.
The ACU's new motocross manager, Roy Barton,detailed the changes to the championship in the following pressrelease, issued on Tuesday morning:
As part of the new look British MMX Championship a new class will be created for 2008.
In place of the long standing and very popularfour-stroke series will be a new Open class. The British Open MotocrossChampionship will cater for all machines from 125cc up to 650cc eithertwo-stroke or four-stroke.
This decision has led to a number of other changestaking place, mainly the fact that the sidecar fraternity has made themove to run the majority of the British Sidecar-cross Championshipoutside of the MMX series, with the exception of one round at Frome onEaster Monday. Under the new system, the Sidecar Motocross Associationis positive about the future of the class and expects to be able toincrease the number of championship rounds considerably.
With the sidecar class now not part of the MMXseries, registrations for the British Open and British Under 21 classeswill be increased to a maximum of 60. A total of 40 riders will qualifyfor the main race from timed qualification with the remainder goinginto a support race.
This bold move will hopefully allow thechampionship to cater for the large number of competitors that arealways looking for a registration at the start of the year as well asmaking the event more financially attractive to organisers. Eachorganiser will also have the option to fill up the support race withlocal riders, space permitting.
The British Quadcross Championship will remain aspart of the MMX series and will run at most of the events unless thereis a date clash with the new European championship which has increasedto nine rounds for 2008. To make up the number of rounds, the quadswill have a number of stand alone events including one that will runwith the inaugural British Youth Quad Championship.
On the dates when the Quad class is not available it is the intention to include rounds of the British Ladies Motocross Cham-
pionship that got off to a flying start atPontrilas this year. It expected that the series will be contested overa minimum of two rounds and will continue as an MX2 class.
The provisional dates for the ACU British MMX Championships are as follows:-
February 24 - Solo and Quad
March 24 - Solo and Sidecar
April 6 - Solo and Quad
May 18 - Solo and Ladies
June 1 - Quad and Youth Quad
June 29 - Solo and Ladies
July 20 - Solo and Quad
August 31 - Solo and Quad
September 21 - Quad
October 12 - Solo and Quad
These dates and classes may be subject to change.The solo classes will run over seven rounds with a final decision yetto be made on the March and August dates.