Comment

Published: 09th October 2006

Author: Sean Lawless

So, was it 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 or 50,000 or even 60,000? Estimates as to exactly how many people turned up at Matterley Basin for the MX des Nations vary a little wildly and as I have to take my socks off to count to 20 I'm not really qualified to comment. But one thing's for sure - it was a hell of a lot!

    In fact, judging by some of the emails and calls we've received over the last few weeks complaining about the organisation, toilets and security plus the absolute nightmare leaving the track on Sunday evening it seems like Steve Dixon and Bike-It Promotions were almost victims of their own success.
    Putting on an event the size of the MXdN takes huge hairy boys. It's a massive financial risk and the logistics of setting the whole shooting match up give me a headache just thinking about them. There's also massive uncertainty - with so much money on the line what happens if it p****s down for the week leading up to the event and everyone decides to give it a miss?
    But saying that, the MXdN is the single biggest event on the global motocross calendar so it's a bit of a no-brainer that you need plenty of security and s**tloads (sorry!) of toilets. The temptation to save a little here and a little there just in case of a rainy day must be immense but do that and you're on a hiding to nothing - as Steve's no doubt found out.
    Okay, so the DBR budget ran to a double room for three of us (mmmm, male bonding) so I didn't get the full campsite experience but this is a major, major motocross meeting in Britain in September and you go expecting loads of mud. Anyone else remember the Foxhill des Nations in '98? I spent three days plastered (in mud) from my arse to my beak and I didn't even have the luxury of a tent. Instead I spent two nights in the boot of a Nissan Prairie. Didn't even bother taking my boots off...
    Torrential rain on the Friday didn't help the cause much (nor did a road accident on the Sunday morning that closed down the main route in) but, again, this is a major, major motocross meeting in Britain in September. It's not a road race with loads of hard-standing and well established access roads. There were always going to be delays getting in. The same with getting out. We sat in the car park quietly fuming (actually, I was oddly relaxed - cheers Mr Lee!) for two-and-a-half hours before some fences got pulled down and we did a bit of off-roading to find a queue that was actually moving.
    As for Saturday night's festivities which resulted in a big police presence and the beer tent being prematurely closed. Sad to say that this sort of thing happens at major events the world over - whether you're into football, music festivals or motocross, you can never fully prepare for the knobhead element who would rather start throwing cans, kick off or kick over toilets. How many GPs at Foxhill saw similar disturbances? Sometimes human nature sucks!
    Hopefully that's the negative side covered. So let's be all lovely, fluffy and positive now! Despite all the problems the event, for me at least, was a huge success as far as the racing went. I've got no idea of facts and figures but I hope it was a success financially as well because if we run out of promoters prepared to take a risk on big events like this then we're stuffed! How much did it suck that we were without a GP from Foxhill in Y2K up until the Isle of Wight in '04? As Sutty would say, mahoosively!
    And wasn't the racing fan-fecking-tastic? And what about Billy leading the last race - even if was only for a few corners? Okay, so I'm gutted that the Yanks won and I've stayed away from the US-based MX message boards because I can't hack the crowing. But did they get a race win? Nope! In fact, Everts and Cairoli handed Uncle Sam's boys their arses each time out and as fast as James Stewart undoubtedly is, who really believes his 'riding for the team' rubbish in the post-race press conference? He wanted to beat Stefan badly and couldn't stay with him. It may have been different if RC had been fit but we'll never know the answer to that one.
    So a big fat cheers to Steve, Martin Mansbridge and the rest of the team who helped bring the MXdN to Britain again - I'd gladly put up with mud, morons and motionless queues for more of the same...