CCM: MXGPs here we come
By TMX Archives on 11th Jun 08
There's more excitement to come in the motocross world with the news that Dave Thorpe has agreed to join CCM as Sporting Director and JD gives his views on motorcycle sales... FOLLOWING the exciting build-up to the British MXGP at Mallory, and the event itself, which in no
way was an anti-climax, I thought the event exceeded all expectations all weekend. Will it happen again? Watch this space!
So as the year gallops towards the half-way stage, we've had a couple of first class BIG events in GB. Firstly, the World Trials GP in Bangor, Ulster, which will definitely be voted one of the best events of the World Championship season and then of course the Mallory MXGP, which showed that the job can be done properly in GB, maybe not to turn a profit, but at least grab the fans' attention and allow them to concentrate on the
positives. This year T+MX received a nice, complimentary post-GP post-bag, with the accent very much on the positive, not the negative. There'll be more, much more, to come regarding the future of the event but until then, it's time to move on...
So, what else is new? No doubt there were a few surprised readers last week when we announced that none other than four times World Champion David Thorpe had agreed to join the revived British Bulldog that is CCM, as Sporting Director.
Well, I spent a fair amount of time at Mallory (yes, I know, we were going to move on!) with CCM's enthusiastic bossman Gary Harthern in the paddock and, not only is Gary really enthusiastic about a full-time return to MXGP, he is going to make it happen! Gary knows what he wants, how he is going to get it and Mallory allowed him to snap some pretty important pieces of the jigsaw into place. And having a hugely influential person like Dave Thorpe as figurehead for a GP return is the biggest piece of the lot. CCM is going to need some pretty heavyweight sponsorship if it is to cut a dash in the Grand Prix paddock and having Thorpey in the camp is a tremendous coupe. David clearly has a positive gut-feeling about what CCM is about and this is something that we should all be getting excited about.
It was amazing to see the crowd getting behind Greg Hanson as he chased-down – ironically – Thorpey himself in the opening MXGP. It was great to re-discover that we are all Union Jack wavers deep-down and when CCM does make its GP comeback there will be no shortage of fan support!
The 2008 CCM team has had way more than its share of bad luck with Oliver Sandiford Smith and Richard Worrall out injured and then at Mallory, Christian Whatley, who gave the team a real winning lift with his exciting rides at Dean Moor, broke his wrist – without actually crashing – at Mallory.
The bikes are fast, as proven by Greg before he himself was sidelined by a freak occurrence when the rear tyre burst off the rim. None of this has dented Gary Harthern's enthusiasm – and even Youthstream's Giuseppe Luongo is keen to get the CCM Team on board, as I can confirm having eaves-dropped a conversation he had with Gary. I know, shocking of me wasn't it!
I can assure you that T+MX will be right on top of the CCM GP return exactly as it unfolds...
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THE Motor Cycle Industry Association has just released figures stating that new bike sales crashed 13% in May but put on a brave face, stating how much more economical motorcycles are than cars. To which I say "Cobblers!” In reality most bikes can't touch my 2.2 litre turbo-diesel family car for fuel economy or tyre wear (nor can they carry five people). More to the point, even if they did, the motorcycle press only believes in 1000cc sports bikes that they only ever appear to test on (foreign) race tracks "getting their knee down” – because someone else – those manufacturers – is paying for it of course.
Surely in this day and age it is not beyond the manufacturers to come up with a bike that will do 100mph and/ or 100mpg without going through a back tyre every 3000 miles! Or is it? With diesel through the 130p a litre barrier, motorcycles ought to be making the mother of all ‘going-to-work' comebacks. It's pretty obvious to me why they aren't...
Meanwhile, back at the batcave, I can't believe that the big F1 story this week is apparently (I gave up watching it years ago) that Driver A ran into the back of Driver B at a red light – in the car park. Now that's entertainment well worth hundreds of millions of dollars – not!