Motocross and trials
By TMX Archives on 17th Mar 10
On the National scene, Championship motocross is currently flying while trials is struggling to take-off..
IT'S all happening in Britain on the motocross front at the moment. Following the winter recess the Championship scene has exploded into action and in just three weeks we've had the opening round of the ACU Maxxis Champs, the Hawkstone International, followed by the ‘clashing' AMCA Wulfsport British Masters and Red Bull Pro Nationals last weekend. And both were cracking events. This Sunday the ACU Maxxis series is back at Mallory Park with what should be a real crowd-puller with the return of the awesome teenager, Ken Roczen, who recently lit-up Hawkstone with his smooth style and sheer speed.
Stir in the surprise return of former World Champ Mickael Pichon and suddenly Mallory becomes a must-see event. Pichon won the gruelling Le Touquet beach race earlier this year so there's no doubting the French star's fitness. But the new-style three-race British Champs format is a long way from the slow-burn Le Touquet and it will be interesting to see how Pichon's outright speed has held-up since his World Championship winning days. Roczen of course will have no worries on that front having shown at Hawkstone that his starting is razor sharp and his speed more than impressive.
The recent competition at the sharp end of motocross with the ACU, AMCA and MCF all vying to be top-dog, as far as the Championships is concerned, has certainly benefitted the sport as the two older bodies have noticeably upped their game since the introduction of the noisy new upstart – the MCF. All of which proves, so far anyway, that there's nothing wrong with good healthy competition.
Meanwhile over on the Trials Championship front all is not quite so rosy with both the ACU Adult and Youth series coming in for criticism for being too hard. Nothing new there then, you could say, and 11-times British Champ Sammy Miller has his say in the letters column this week. Is there an easy solution? Personally, given the current observing rules I don't think so. Given a genuine return to no-stop – and it would take time for all riders to adapt to such a system – I think it could be achieved. I've always subscribed to the view that you can't actually de-invent something and once you have ‘moved-on' you are stuck with it forever and there is no ‘going back.'
However, in the rarefied atmosphere of Formula 1 cars and MotoGP they are currently in the throes of doing just that. Electronics are being restricted along with a host of other ‘money-saving' features. OK, trials isn't exactly in need of money-saving measures but the basic principle is that you can actually ‘go backwards' if it serves the overall interest of the sport. And if anyone currently thinks that there is nothing wrong with World Championship Trials as it stands then I am genuinely happy for them – because for the vast majority, it just isn't working and if it wasn't for the dads of the Youths and Juniors keeping it alive there would simply be no World Championship at the moment.
Having said all that it is of course possible to get it right in trials, at a lower level. Last weekend's double-header representing the ACU Normandale Traditional Trials was a perfect lesson in how to run trials for the good of the majority of riders and still produce worthy winners. The Lancs County club catered for no fewer than 160 riders and managed to produce a 20-section course that resulted in NO queueing. How? Because the sections, while challenging, were not stoppers and kept everyone moving. It is a long time since I have heard so many riders universally praising an event but that is just what they were doing at the following day's Bootle club round.
And the Bootle course-plotters did just as good a job. The sections were tricky but basically straightforward and kept the 125 strong entry on the move.
Sure, this is not trials at its peak (or is it?) but the basics remain the same, or at least they should do, at whatever level you are aiming. Those two trials provided a brilliant weekend's sport for an awful lot of participants. Isn't that what it is all supposed to be about?
Anyway, my moles tell me that there could just be an all-new National trials series on the cards, not just for the oldies or those who cling to their Pre-65s and Twin-shocks either but for modern bikes, although run on traditional grounds.
John Shirt Sr once told me many years ago that most riders don't actually want to ride Pre-65 or Twin-shock, they just want to ride the types of trial put on for those classes. I confessed I laughed at the time, as I was then ironically enjoying riding my own John Shirt-built Majesty, but the fact that by far most Over 40s and Over 50s who rode the Normandale events last weekend chose to ride their modern monos rather than the old stuff proves that John was absolutely right...