Shot yourself in the foot?
By TMX Archives on 5th Nov 10
Part two of our look at the World and British MX scenes - and how they have unwittingly encouraged rival domestic series...
LAST week's column, in which I discussed why ACU British Championship MX was being squeezed into the early and latter part of the year (to avoid clashing with MXGPs which greedily bag all the plum summer dates) elicited a number of replies, depressingly many of which did not want their names printing or even hinting who they may be, but who all wished to see a summer-based British National MX series – just like there used to be. I sometimes understand the reticence for not wanting to be seen to ‘rock the boat' but if no-one doesn't don't expect any kind of change!
There were even a few who went further and said that on the trials front why are there not more winter World Championship events – also just how it used to be. Good point and another argument for another day – although once again I could conduct the discussion single-handedly. To indulge the subject for a minute, on several counts it makes sense – not least in that when conditions aren't perfect, let's guess they may well be wet, you don't have to put on crazy sections in order to take marks.
It's amazing how a few slippery streams and bankings would see scores rocket. However, I don't expect this will change any more than I expect Youthstream to run MXGP in early spring and late autumn.
Back to the British MX series. The problem with the ACU going along with the FIM on the Championship front – and I'm not saying whether this is right or wrong in this instance – is that it leaves the scene wide-open for someone else to nip-in and fill the void. And if these other parties do this with relish and enthusiasm and provide what the riders – and public – want then I suggest that you have just shot yourself in the foot, scored an own goal and whatever other pet metaphor you wish to appy.
And this, to either a fanfare of trumpets, or a hearty raspberry, depending on which camp you are in, is exactly what has happened. I'm sure no-one will need reminding of the MC Federation's impressively high profile MX championship or the popular AMCA Wulfsport series. If the ACU champs had been providing the right events at the right time of year these other series would have found it much harder to get off the ground.
I'm not standing-up for any or either – just stating the obvious. Would the ACU have done things differently if they weren't trying to avoid 18 World Championship dates in the calendar? I have no idea – but I'd like to think that it would.
I'm not knocking what Youthstream and the FIM has done for the World MX Championship but we have to remember one thing here. And that is, the World Championship is all it is interested in. It has no interest whatsoever in our National series – except to make sure it has no impact on its series! Having the best ever televised MXGPs is all very well, for them, for their contracted teams and the contracted riders. But that isn't doing anything at all for those involved in the domestic series.
Which is exactly what the ACU actually decided was happening in British Superbikes – and did something about it. And this is why the BSB is, as I said, now the biggest and best series of its kind in the world outside of the actual World series itself – achieved by ignoring the World series and doing its own thing.
I know I can only say this so many times before it gets boring – and that limit is probably now – but it doesn't make it any less pertinent.
I have no personal axe to grind here whatsoever – just stating things as I see it. If everyone is happy with the situation that's fine.
One interesting thing did come out of last week's piece. One ACU competition committee member agreed wholeheartedly with my comment about the Federations not being able to compile their next-year's comp calendar until November – with the year virtually over, after the FIM agree all their dates and countries etc., at the Autumn Congress. He proposed that the FIM actually release a list of dates that they definitely want/ need – for each sporting discipline – earlier in the year, which would at least allow the individual countries a chance to plan a provisional domestic calendar. The ACU management agreed and, fair play to them, a proposal was submitted to the FIM – which, I am told, agreed not to put it on the agenda for discussion, threw it out to the individual Feds for ‘discussion' and thus of course effectively buried the proposal...
Of course, this doesn't come as any kind of surprise to us long-standing observers of the ‘system' which works in exactly the same way as all political ‘systems'. Those in power run the show for the benefit of those in power. There's lots of back-scratching and "I'll vote for you if you vote for me” and anyone who shows signs of thinking outside the collective box soon finds they have no friends, or votes, at all. The whispered mantra is a constant: "Don't rock the boat.”
I don't actually expect anything I write to have any effect whatsoever in the halls of power – it won't – but it doesn't do any harm to occasionally show that not everyone has given-up...