International fun and games
By TMX Archives on 14th Apr 10
It's all happening on the World Championship front now the season is underway - but is everything in the garden rosy?
THERE was an advertising slogan that read: "The future is orange.” Don't know about that but the present sure is orange. KTM orange. If you disagree then I can only point you to the MXGP results from last Sunday – and the Sunday before that.
The Austrian factory is caught in the same economic maelstrom as everyone else these days but has responded not by drawing in its horns but by storming out of the start-gate all guns blazing. There were plenty in the sport who thought that it was a huge mistake them announcing their all new 350 – or rather their all-new linkage chassis – so early in the season and mounting all their factory riders on the new bike. But the reality is, whether the chassis is being run as a 250, 350 or 450 it is now trouncing all before it in the white hot world of MXGP.
Riders are talking of little else and dealers are falling over themselves to take orders for 2011 models – and it's only April 2010! KTM itself has announced what is really an absurdly early launch date (for press tests at least – June!) and the fact is that the factory's only problem will be producing enough actual bikes to meet demand. That's the way to handle an economic depression. Ride an off-road bike right through it.
There's a little more to it than just the bike of course, signing the right riders has more than a little to do with it. You'd back Cairoli to be up there mounted on a (insert comedy bike of your choice) while Musquin and Herlings would be a choice pick for any squad. Argue that however you like but the fact is they are currently in KTMs team which has built huge momentum.
Contrast this to the tail end of last year when the whole off-road world world was going ape about the revolutionary new Yamaha 450. Here was a bike that certainly looks the part, is technically advanced and all who were lucky enough to be invited to test it at the tail-end of 2010 reckoned it was light years ahead of the opposition. The bottom line is that so far in 2010 the Yamaha has virtually disappeared off the radar, lost in a blizzard of orange dots...
The obvious bad news on the 2010 MXGP front is the lack of Brits to cheer on the podium. Shaun Simpson is clearly not 100% from his early-season crashes and the Scot has yet to really break into his stride. He'll get there, but this is a long way from the start to 2010 he was hoping for. Jake Nicholls has been giving us something to cheer about but after that there's an almost total dearth with that likeable ‘vet' Tom Church a lone runner in MX1 on the CCM.
This is, for us British fans, a pretty dreadful state of affairs. But with the ‘British' teams all packed with foreign riders you better get used to it. I've mentioned this before, and I get castigated by the teams, who all have their reasons for employing non-British riders. Argue it how you like, and they are your teams to do with as you will, it translates into a lack of British spectator interest in both world – and domestic – events.
MEANWHILE, the British Trials Championship enjoyed a balmy day in Scotland last Sunday when the usual suspects battled it out on the banks of Loch leven. James Dabill has now established himself as the undisputed British number one and now heads into the 2010 World Championships full of confidence and ready to break into the top six – something that has been a closed shop for years!
Dibs joins his pal Michael Brown, Dougie Lampkin and Alexz Wigg, making four Brits in the 15-man World Championship entry. Not a bad percentage that – Brits making up just short of 25 per cent of the field!
The big problem that the organisers have is coming-up with a format for World Champs that is good for both riders and spectators. The problem with the World Champs is that over the years the trials have become totally divorced from reality. Everyone can see this – especially the spectators who don't go to World Rounds any more.
A return to full no-stop marking has been mooted for years but as yet the FIM has not dared to actually press the green button. Instead, this year they have tinkered with the system, jiggled some things around, etc, etc. Whether any of this will have any effect on spectator numbers I honestly haven't a clue. Maybe banning riders from looking at sections on the day of the trial will bring spectators flocking back. It will probably mean a few extra factory minders lurking in what crowd there is, pointing out this, that and the other but beyond that we will just have to wait and see.
Everyone points to the fact that the cost of minders adds greatly to the financial burden of anyone wishing to contest the World series. It is easy to say "ban them” but not so easy to do so in practise. Minders originated with riders helping each other outuare one with the minders entering the trial.
Whatever, all will eventually emerge as 2010 unfolds...watch this space!