Sport7, Jake Miller and the World Trials Championship...
By John Dickinson on 8th Mar 17
The 2017 FIM Trial World Championship is going to see the biggest changes in its 43-year history.
These changes will of course hopefully be very much for the better.
And while in general no one likes change, the overall view within the sport is that this overhaul of what is supposed to be the Blue Riband event of motorcycle trials is long overdue.
Other motorcycle sports have (albeit sometimes reluctantly) moved with the times and adapted to a rapidly changing world.
So we have the likes of MXGP and MotoGP (plus World Superbike, British Superbike and even Grand Prix Speedway) forging onwards in what is an ever increasingly competitive International sporting arena with private promoters at the helm.
In contrast the FIM TWC, which in all honesty is always going to be a minority sport, has literally just plugged away, effectively dying a slow death, with any changes made to date merely the equivalent of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
However, 2017 sees the FIM finally facing up to what has been staring it in the face for years and the TWC has been placed in the hands of Sport7, an organisation run by British entrepreneur Jake Miller and which will run alongside its well-known sister company G2F Media.
Sport7 has been awarded a five-year agreement to manage the series in order to offer continuity and give time for the changes to be inaugurated and fine-tuned, with the intention of leaving a strong, settled series, capable of moving confidently into the future.
Not that Sport7 intend to waste any time implementing change. This is the whole point, there is no getting stuck in the mud, slowly dunking half-thought-out ideas into a lethargic, self-serving committee where they will be kicked into the long grass while everyone goes of to lunch for several years before forgetting what they were discussing anyway.
There IS going to be change.
The management is going to be dynamic, the people involved are used to results, not excuses, and the Trial World Championship WILL be given the chance to be great again.
So, what changes are we going to see in 2017?
While Rome wasn't built in a day, there will be several very important changes implemented immediately in 2017. The first is that the Trial2 series becomes a capacity-based class with machines of not greater than 250cc (300cc for four-strokes) and that its World Cup status has been upgraded to full World Championship.
This is significant because it offers parity with its FIM siblings MotoGP and MXGP which run Moto2 and MX2 as World Championships in their own right.
The winner gets appropriate recognition and being capacity based is open to all riders not just younger riders.
Veteran factory riders like Albert Cabestany or Takahisa Fujinami for example would be welcomed into Trial2. They would/ will offer the younger riders something to aim at and of course give the series added status.
At the same time the Manufacturers' Championship, which the factories take seriously, would get a real boost as the factories must name their designated rider in both TrialGP and Trial2.
At the moment they just utilise the score of the best two riders in the top class. The designated part is an important change especially in Trial2, this is to prevent the manufacturers riding on the backs of privateers. With designated riders necessary it brings a real competitive edge to the Manufacturers' competition.
Next, the European rounds of the series will return to just a single day's competition with the first day given over to a whole new programme which includes practise, rider autograph sessions and a brand new inclusion – Qualifying. Again this is utilising a proven formula used in both road racing and motocross.
The Qualifying will take place over a single section which will be observed and timed and will be used to determine starting order on race day.
The Qualifying accent is on observation so all riders who ‘clean' the section will be graded in timed order, the fastest will start last on Sunday.
Those who lost ones will then follow those who went clean and so on down to those who failed the Qualifying section and they will of course start first on Sunday.
The aim is to drastically even the playing field because at the moment the current championship leader or last year's champion ALWAYS starts last. To even out that playing field even more, riders will ballot for Qualifying starting order – so the World Champ may even have to go first.
And to make even THAT as fair as possible all riders will have the chance to ride the Qualifying section once during the official practise session.
The flyaway (none European) rounds will continue as full Two Day scoring events with the Qualifying etc taking place on the Friday.
All trials will take place over two laps of 15 sections set over a compact course. There will be no remotely positioned sections, the inclusion of which have caused serious problems in recent years.
Another major change will be that the sections themselves will become the responsibility of the FIM and their man on the spot, former WTC rider Jordi Pascuet.
The organisers in each country will put in section tapes, i.e. where they want the individual sections set but Pascuet will put in the section flags.
The idea is to ensure that all the trials will be set to a similar standard and possibly more to the point, suitable to whatever rules of obsevation are in use. At the moment the plan is to stay with no-stop, but with the sections set to suit, something that has not always been the case up to now.
This will also take into account the plan for each rider to have only one assisitant (minder) so there must only be one big step or major obstacle where a minder may be needed.
You can see by now that an awful lot of thought has gone into the changes, one change often necessitating other aspects to be taken into account.
Moving forward, Sport7 hope to be able to set and stick to a set calendar. Once again this is something done very successfully by MotoGP and MXGP so that everyone knows where they stand and not running in April one year and September the next. It all adds to stability of the series.
Trial125 will stay as a class for younger contenders but their series will be restricted to fewer events, in order to encourage more riders – not just those with rich parents or sponsors.
This year Trial125 does include one flyaway but Sport7 are looking the possibility of making it a European only series in future if that looks
like it would make for a better attended and more competitive series.
All changes are being made with the intention of moving the sport forward.
The Women's series will also be afforded the same kind of close scrutiny taking into consideration that this is an expanding and increasingly important part of the sport, and now sees a second class – Trial2 Women to mirror its male equivalent – added to address with the wide range of abilities.
Interestingly the Ladies will be taking part in their first ever TWC event outside Europe when they visit the United States of America in 2017 – something that has come about with their own input.
Ladies trials is very much a new and exciting arm of the sport with a great future, building on the excellent platform encouraged hugely by multi-champion Laia Sanz and carried forward by Britain's own triple World Champ and excellent role model and ambassador Emma Bristow.
World Trials Championship
May 13/14: Camprodon, Girona, SPAIN
May 27/28: Twin Ring Motegi, JAPAN
June 17/18: Sant Julia, ANDORRA
June 24/25: Lourdes, South West, FRANCE
July 8/9: Tong, nr Bradford, BRITAIN
July 29/30: Kingman, Mohave County, Arizona, USA
September 9/10: Sokolov, CZECH REPUBLIC
September 16/17: Pietramurata, Trentino, ITALY
World Trial125
May 13: Camprodon, Girona, SPAIN
May 27: Twin Ring Motegi, JAPAN
June 17: Sant Julia, ANDORRA
June 24: Lourdes, South West, FRANCE
July 8: Tong, nr Bradford, BRITAIN
Trial des Nations
Sep 23/24: Baiona, Pontevedra, SPAIN
World Ladies Trials Championship
July 29: Kingman, Mohave County, Arizona, USA
September 10: Sokolov, CZECH REPUBLIC
September 17: Pietramurata, Trentino, ITALY
All about Jake: man behind the mission!
AS stated, Sport7 is very much all about Jake Miller and the team that he is putting in place to ensure the smooth running of the 2017 WTC, given the thorough shake-up it has been given.
So, who is Jake Miller, where has he come from, what is his background and how has he come to be at the forefront of the biggest shake-up World Championship trials has ever seen?
Well, a good many of you will know Jake for his work with G2F Media, Dougie Lampkin's manager, the promoter (with Martin Lampkin) of successful World Championship trials at Hawkstone Park and Fort William, of the Red Bull Manchester City Trials, of many Red Bull Dougie Lampkin projects including managing the epic Isle of Man TT course wheelie last year which was a stupendous interweb hit for Red Bull.
Jake's involvement in motorcycle sport goes back to his childhood, as the son of Reg Miller who was a well-known motorcycle dealer in Colchester, Essex.
Not exactly the epicentre of trials but Jake was involved with sidecar trials and sidecarcross as a teenager, including sorties abroad with Sidecarcross ace Perry Miller – no relation – trips that would germinate the seeds of his future growth and direction.
Jake then took up a trials career that was certainly notable if not entirely successful in terms of results.
He had no interest in joining the Eastern centre circuit but pitched straight into Nationals and even World Championships where his riding could most definitely be described as enthusiastic as he threw both himself and his immaculately self-prepped Beta at whatever they were confronted with.
He made a much bigger impression in the paddock where, in his Renault Master van, Jake ran on professional lines that quite frankly made most of the the factories' efforts at the time look rank amateur.
Jake's whole pit area was always, but always, spotlessly clean and 100% organised and efficient.
His van sported more spares, meticulously organised and presented, than any factory rider, and while by no means claiming to be an engineer or tuner, his machine and personal preparation was meticulous and ran to a set order.
In short, in terms of organisation and presentation he was simply years ahead of his time in the trials world.
Jake's limited youth and adult riding career ended in 1989 before John Lampkin noticed the Beta rider's organisational skills and signed him up to look after 17 year-old protege Rob Crawford on the Screenart Beta in 1990.
The Ulsterman was just 17 years old and Jake still only 19 when they went off to take on the world.
And take on the world they did with Rob finishing the season an amazing seventh.
As Jake rightly says, "As two teenagers in a little van I don't think we did too bad.”
While Rob landed a factory Montesa ride for 1991 on the back of that result Jake stayed with Johnboy and the Screenart Beta team with Steve Colley the rider.
As ever, they were the squeakiest clean team on the block with a well-oiled routine, the parc ferme work like a Swiss watch.
Steve finished 13th in a very competitive field with Rob just ahead in 12th.
For 1992 Jake was persuaded to join Rob again in the factory Montesa team on the then new 311 model.
But all did not go to plan and after a troubled Scottish Six Days Jake opted out, seeing no way forward.
So, a whole new career beckoned and he took up a sales job for Gary Harthern at The Awming Company. Jake was to stay with Gary, who was a motocrosser at heart, and saw the busines grow from just four people to 35.
Said Jake: "I learned a lot from Gary, mainly that you only get out what you put in and if you work hard enough you can achieve your goals.
Gary, whom I have much to thank him for, worked himself hard, he ran The Awning Company by day and a successful restaurant at night, donning chef's whites to run the kitchen.
"And then one day I just left, leaving behind a good salary and a nice company car, determined to work for myself.
"I started writing articles and reports for the motorcycle press, including DBR and MXUK, imported Amigo motorcycles with help from Roy Carey and ran successful trips to events like the Bercy Indoor trial in Paris.
"I had also noticed that Dougie Lampkin, having won the Trial World Championship, was desperately under promoted and not making the most of his success from a business point of view.
"Doug and I got together and I started work on the promotion side, talking to sponsors, setting up and running a fan club and communicating Doug's achievements to the world.
"It's a funny thing but six months into our collaboration Doug said that he pretty much wanted out and we arranged a meeting, to which I took along all the paperwork on our business so far and offered to hand it over.
"After we chatted things through Doug changed his mind, told me to just ignore him and carry on – and we've been together now for 19 years.
Jake's first real collaboration with Red Bull was in 2002 when he promoted the ‘Moonwalker' city trial on the canal in Manchester.
He went on to deliver three super successful Red Bull City Trials in Manchester City Centre in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and then the Red Bull Breakers MX spectacular in Rotherham in 2016.
Then came the ground-breaking Isle of Man TT wheelie with Dougie – presented on air live! He first became involved with the FIM, being commissioned to provide communications for the TWC via the forward thinking Ignacio Verneda and Jake reinvented himself once again as a photo-journalist providing previews, pictures and reports for the FIM as well as for Doug and Honda/ Montesa plus other clients.
Jake is proud of the fact that he and his team has helped deliver seven FIM Gala events to date, even on one memorable, heart-stopping occasion, rehearsing having to present the whole show single handed when it looked like Suzi Perry was going to be snowbound at Gatwick.
"It is quite a feeling looking out at 36 World Champions and dozens of prestigious guests knowing that you are responsible for much of the event,” said Miller.
"I'm now involved with the FIM on some level on a daily basis.”
Further credentials to the new job of promoting the World Championship come from the fact that Jake, along with partner Martin Lampkin, promoted three iconic British World Rounds at Hawkstone Park in 2005, '06 and '07.
Jake added: "Ignacio Verneda said that it was a crime that there was no World Round in the home of trials so I contacted Martin and we decided to give it a go. They were successful events and drew good crowds but we decided three years in a row was enough.”
I had been to several World Championship Mountain Bike events in Fort William and been very impressed. So myself and Martin went ahead and promoted two back to back World Rounds in 2010 and 2011. The setting, organisation and sections were all fantastic but the timing was wrong. The country was in recession, there wasn't the will to travel and funding dried up so unfortunately we had to pull out of the Trial des Nations. It would have been an amazing event.”
"There is a totally different attitude on the Continent, local councils and regions are 100% behind major sporting events because they see the value in the events and the money generated.”
JAKE ON MART
WHEN Martin Lampkin passed away last year it left a huge whole in my life.
We had been business partners and more importantly friends for several years.
No one is more aware than myself that it was an unlikely partnership, a shandy-drinking southern softie and a straight talking Yorkshireman.
What a contrast.
"I had total trust in Maproject rtin and as a sounding board for ideas he was unrivalled.
"If I was being overtaken by my own enthusiasm for an unlikely Mart would bring me back down to earth with a thump.
"He was a massive part of my life, an almost father figure as you have to remember I left ‘home' as a teenager although I have a great relationship with my mum and dad and still talk to them almost daily.
"I just had no interest in taking over the shop from Reg and he has always been right behind whatever I have done in life.
"The Isle of Man wheelie was the first major project for myself and for Doug without Martin and it was huge.
"Just like Dougie's 2016 Scottish Six Days win, they were both definitely for Martin.”
