Knowles leads champs revolt
By TMX Archives on 9th Apr 08
KIK ATV owner and team manager, Keith Knowles, has written a strongly worded letter of complaint to the ACU following the first round of the CCM MMX British QuadX Championship in Devon at the weekend. Knowles certainly isn't the only concerned party, because we had the same complaints from a large number of riders and team managers.
Knowles letter to the ACU reads:–
Having just returned from the first round of the British QX Championship I feel very sad to have to sit down and write this letter regarding the appalling venue this weekend.
I know a lot of people put a lot of time into running a race meeting and without these people racing simply wouldn't happen. Firstly, when we arrived at the track on Saturday morning we were all very surprised to see just how dry the track was and also that a machine had only just started to work on the circuit.
We walked all the track to find that in places soil (and I use that word very lightly), had been brought in to lift the track in places. This infill was more like landfill as we found bricks, bottle necks, bottle bottoms, door handles, drain pipes, lumps of tarmac the size of a football, roof slates and the list of rubbish goes on and on. Then only a small attempt was made to water the track on Saturday night and Sunday morning, giving it no time to soak in before practice and qualifying. It was very plain to see in practice and qualifying that the track was cutting up and more and more rocks were appearing from within the landfill areas.
I, as well as many others, take great pride in preparing our team race quads which cost the thick end of £20,000 each. So when we have four quads to build and maintain, this is becoming more and more expensive to finance. Then when we turn up and race on so-called British Championship tracks like this weekend and are faced with repair bills of upward of £1,000 per machine for things like radiators, plastics, buckled wheels, discs, sprockets, chains etc., it makes me very annoyed that this is all stone and brick damage!
Then finally to cap pit all, to suffer another £500 worth of damage to the transporter getting out of the venue, this weekend has cost me over £5,000 in what I think is unnecessary damage!
I have spoken to other teams and they all feel just the same. It just can't go on with this sort of track being used. At this level, the rider and sponsors deserve better. This is not just about money, but also track safety and rider safety. Someone will get badly hurt on this type of track if we continue.
Keith Knowles,
Team KIK ATV Racing.