Time to look at the American model - shorter and more intense motos for future stars
By Anthony Sutton on 20th Apr 18
I was really impressed by more than a few things I saw at the weekend but it was mostly the things that I saw at the first round of the Judd KTM British Youth Nationals that impressed the most.
For starters it was impressive that the event ran at all as rain in the run up to the weekend meant things were pretty damn soft underfoot.Fortunately an intelligent parking plan and revised race order meant the show could go on and it was a cracking show at that!
Its definitely fair to say that there are some really talented nippers racing in the UK right now but at the same time its a shame that theyre diluted across so many different national championships. It was encouraging to see so many riders in the 125cc two-stroke class (31) while at the same time there were only 13 in the Open class.
There were healthy line-ups in the Autos, 65 and 85cc classes though but notable absentees in many. I was quite surprised by the length of the races too. When I started racing in 1989, the ACU Handbook stated that the Inter Open class should race for 12-minutes plus a lap whereas its the 65s that run at that length now four minutes longer than they did in the days of yore.
In the 65s first race at Preston the leader must have passed the line at around 10 minutes 45 or something as his winning time ended being just short of 17 minutes his lap times were around 2:40!
One of the kids raced for almost 20 minutes in the end which might possibly a tad much for an eight to 10-year- old especially in the gruelling sand of Preston Docks! While building endurance in our young athletes is never a bad thing I wonder if mixing things up a tad might be an idea.
The Americans tend to run four lap sprints at all amateur events bar Loretta Lynns and with both Stock and Modified classes.So theyll typically spend as much time on the track over a weekend but do twice as many starts and race at a higher pace as theyre sprint motos.
Id argue that this is probably better for their intensity and speed than racing fewer and longer motos although Im sure there are plenty whod argue we need to be preparing the youth of today for the longer motos theyll be racing as adults.
Theres no definitive answer and perhaps the answer is to have both types of race over the course of the weekend a mixture of sprints and more traditional length motos.
I also wonder if two-minute plus circuits are necessary at youth level.
Would a more intense short-course style layout work? But then I also wonder if that would work in the Maxxis also have a mixture of traditional length circuits and races mixed up with shorter sprint motos over shortened tracks.
With the total revamp that Preston Docks is undergoing ahead of the next round of the MX Nationals maybe now is as good a time as any to test the theory and build-in variable layouts that offer various options.
Of course, thats not my decision to make and its up to Lee McGarry and the team at PDMX to do what works for them
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