Could midweek British Motocross Championship races be the way forward?
By Anthony Sutton on 29th Mar 18
They say that theres no such thing as a free lunch but thats exactly what the FIM are offering to any protection manufacturers who wish to join their Trial, Technical and Medical Commissions in discussing how best to implement the use of back and chest protection in trials, at a meeting planned for May 2 at FIM HQ in Switzerland.
Its sure to be a fairly interesting project to be a part of as the riders will no doubt want something thats very different to what the FIM envisage and the manufacturers can actually produce.Itd be easy to enforce a suit of armour-style solution but thatll ultimately hinder the riders in doing their thing which makes it unworkable.
But I expect that well eventually see some kind of smart material solution that remains flexible until the point of impact when it becomes totally rigid and protects the squishy human inside. Such a material already exists its called D30 and was developed right here in the UK and as well as being used in clothing for sports like American Football and Snowboarding is implemented by high-end off-road racewear producer Klim.
So I have no doubts that the right manufacturer will be able to create a CE-certified product that ticks all the boxes which means we dont need to worry about seeing Toni Bou rocking up to an X-Trial round looking like a pots and pans robot any time soon.
In fact, we dont need to worry about seeing him rocking up at any X-Trial round soon as I believe hes pulled his entry for the season finale in Budapest due to a re-occurrence of his back injury aka it still hurts and Im already champion so screw this
No doubt youll remember that just the other week I was having a good old whinge about how the early season weather was affecting the start of the domestic motocross season and how it was pretty much all Youthstreams fault.
Well, theyve now chucked in an extra GP date that means the Hawkstone round of the series now runs two weeks earlier August 12 if you wanna pencil it into your diaries.
Its that sort of dicketry that makes me adamant that the Maxxis series management ought to just go right ahead and concentrate on whats right for the riders and fans that actually support the British Championship rather than pussyfoot around Giuseppe Luongo and his continental circus.
Admittedly itd suck if the UKs GP and EMX championship riders couldnt race their home series due to a clash with the world series so its not really an option to just sack it off but what can we do to avoid clashes other than starting our season in January?
Well, since were not blessed with a bunch of midweek public holidays like our overseas neighbours why not run a couple of Wednesday nighters in the summer months?
I mean, wouldnt it be cool to have a midweek Maxxis at a central-ish and easy to get to circuit like Foxhill? Itd probably make it easier to keep a little moisture in the circuit there too if the sun wasnt beating down directly on the track surface. Milton Park would be another good venue for these sorts of shenanigans as that too is quite midlandy and serviced by more than a few trunk roads.
While Ive sold myself on the idea what do you fans think? Would you rather sneak off from work a little early to watch Britains best MXers do battle for a few hours on a Wednesday night or stay home and watch Emmerdale, Coronation Street and then Little Women: Atlanta with the missus?
Ha! I know, right? Still, I want to know your thoughts on this so drop me an email anthony.sutton@dirtbikerider.co.uk.
And finally, how good a dad is bazillion-time British Sidecarcross Champion Stuart Brown? Apparently he went out with mousse problems yeah, like were gonna fall for that one Stu during the first race in Oss which ultimately elevated #1 son Jake into a point-scoring position in what was his first ever Grand Prix.
Seriously though congrats to the third generation sidecar ace and his passenger Zac Snell for not only qualifying in the first instance but then putting themselves in the FIM history books. And well done for bouncing back so strongly in moto two, Stoo!
Finally Id like to say keep on keeping on Norman and Jean because you guys are just frickin awesome!
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