Mr Motivator!
By TMX Archives on 8th Apr 04
VISION AND enterprise are two buzzwords when it comes to business but when you're born in the depths of Cornwall then three others come into play - and they're location, location and location."We thought it was great when we were VISION AND enterprise are two buzzwords when it comes to business but when you're born in the depths of Cornwall then three others come into play - and they're location, location and location."We thought it was great when we were younger because there was plenty of motocross but that's died off as well now and it's difficult to earn a living down there. It's just so far to get anywhere else."And having been down there on holiday I know what Mark Chamberlain means. At 25 years old Mark's the front man at Motovision products, importing One Industries and Tag bars, grips and sprockets as well as distributing Troy Lee gear and Maxima Oils.Mark's the youngest of three brothers and he left Cornwall 13 years ago when father Eric - a multiple British champion in sidecar trials as a passenger to Collin Dommett - decided his sons would need a career base."We wanted to do something in motocross so dad started Motovision because he wanted to give us a profession," explains Mark. "So the family left Cornwall when we started to make the videos in '91. We first moved close to Horsham where we were editing everything and then we moved to Belgium in '92."The initial product was a monthly video magazine majoring on the British MX scene that soon also incorporated GP action whenever possible. Mark and elder brothers Gareth and Justin were the cameramen along with their mates who were always more than happy to come along for the ride.But it wasn't an easy ride and the boys were eased out of British championship coverage. Then the demise of the first attempt to market the GPs on TV in the early '90s left an opening for Motovision which would eventually see them producing the images for Action Group International - the late '90s marketing firm of Youthstream supremo Giuseppe Luongo.This was the age of single class GPs, often three in a weekend in all corners of Europe - so getting images back to the editing studio in time to meet the deadline for Monday evening broadcast could be a nightmare. There were sleepless nights all round for the teenage trio - like the time I dropped Mark off at the motorway services near Nuremberg on the way home from Czecho where he waited patiently until the wee small hours for dad to come past on his way home from the Austrian 125.But just as the magazine eventually become unviable - "it was good for a while but it reached a point where motocross was so much on TV that it became a non-goer" - so did the GP coverage as larger firms with access to satellite technology got the contracts to film.And so Motovision Products was born. "It was my thing initially. Gareth and Justin stayed with the videos at first and came on board later on. Although the youngest, I suppose I've always showed the most business acumen. I was the one who was caught in school with the watches up my arms and I started importing in '98 with One Industries when the videos started slowing down."One Industries is still the core product of the business, then Tag handlebars and grips and sprockets were the next thing to be added and for three years we had O'Neal. We did good with that for a time but it was difficult at the end."We had supply problems and Americans can be difficult to deal with. You have to be doing big volume if you want them to take you seriously. Their home market is 10 times bigger than Britain and if we are doing 10 per cent or more of what the US companies are doing on domestic sales, then we're doing very good. Americans find that difficult to understand - that's where One Industries and Tag are so good. The guy who owns it, Ludo, is French and he understands the situation in Europe with smaller markets."But for racing fans Motovision now means much more since the Chambo gang moved successfully into team management. "We sponsored Stephen Sword with clothing for three years but it was 2002 before we actually set up a team with Kim Ashkenazi. He'd been riding for O'Neal in Australia and they asked us if we could help him out - even arranging some budget from America. But it didn't work out for him in the 125 GPs and the team where we were sponsoring him were not interested in running him on a 250."So it was back to sleepless nights and long haul travel across Europe. "Ashcan and me just hit the road with one bike in a van and he scored points. That's what really gave me the buzz. He's definitely a better SX rider than MX - but it was fun."Then in 2003 we had Ben 'Weaver' Taylor and Jason Dougan. Jason's awesome and was running second in the British championship until he broke his foot at the last round and got passed by Jeff Dement and Tom Church."We've still got a good relationship. The main reason for us going our separate ways was the fact that RTT could offer him a definite GP entry, added to which we were not confirmed on what bike we were going to race. We didn't sign the deal with Suzuki until the week between Christmas and New Year. Suzuki GB supply all the material but they can only get production bikes and we've worked on them with after-market parts."By Alex HodgkinsonFor full feature check out the May issue of dbr