Nations date after Matterley success
By Sean Lawless on 24th Jun 16
The 2016 Fullback MXGP of Great Britain last weekend was a huge success with a big spectator turn-out safeguarding the spectacular Matterley Basin circuits position on the world championship calendar.
For event promoter Steve Dixon, who launched the track 10 years ago, the popularity of this year's event - the seventh GP at the Hampshire venue - was validation after a decade of hard work.
"The future of the event is secure," he said. "Pre-sales already covered the costs - all of the hard work over the last few years is paying off.
"The British are getting more confident in the event and taking advantage of online deals. It's the sixth year in a row now and it was always my aim to get continuity so it makes it a lot easier to manage."
The weekend didn't run entirely smoothly and pictures on social media showed overturned toilets, flattened fences and excessive litter although these posts were greatly outnumbered by positive comments.
"Then you get 10 grand's worth of fencing damage and toilets being burned and showers set on fire but that's just a small mindless element," continued Steve.
"We had a bit of problem with litter on the Saturday night and Sunday because the litter team were let down by about 15 people which disappointed me but by then there's not really a lot you can do.
"Obviously, what I did wrong was pay them daily!
"Each year there's always improvements and that's the main thing. I think I've now run the most British GPs in the last 25 years."
The same year as Matterley Basin's debut British GP in 2006, the circuit was the venue for the Motocross of Nations and it looks increasingly likely that the World Cup of MX will return within the next three years.
"I'm happy that it's continuing in the right direction and, obviously, the Motocross of Nations will be where I'd actually start to make some money.
"Giuseppe [Luongo] told me in about 2018 or 2019 - maybe Assen in '18 and us in '19 - but until then we'll just concentrate on improving to run the best GPs we can."
