I’m not sure

Published: 18th January 2008

Author: Sean Lawless

if it’s human nature or just a stinking attitude peculiar to us Brits but the news that this year’s Motocross des Nations will be held at Donington Park – the second time mainland Britain’s hosted the biggest race on the global MX calendar in the last three years – hasn’t exactly been greeted with the joy, rapture and public displays of nakedness that it deserves.

Internet forums are a great measure of public opinion – everyone has their say whether their opinions are educated and informed or just downright dumbass and, to be fair, it’s the bottom-feeders who provide most of the online entertainment. But the debate the decision to switch the MXdN from Moneyglass in Northern Ireland to Donington has kicked off has mystified me.

Sure, last year’s British GP wasn’t the best. Getting away from the minibike menaces and lack of portapotties, the viewing at Donington was pretty woeful – especially compared to old-school circuits like Foxhill and Hawkstone. But for fecks sake get real! Foxhill and Hawkstone will NEVER, EVER be suitable for an event the size of the MXdN again. The sport has moved on but the infrastructure of these two awesome venues – not to mention the access roads – hasn’t. And never will.

The fact of the matter is that Donington Park has the infrastructure and the access roads. What it hasn’t got – at the moment – is the track. But what’s easiest to do – widen a few miles of B road to take two semis going in opposite directions and lay some serious hard-standing or erect a grandstand or two and rework a track to give better spectator viewing? It’s a total no-brainer.

Don’t get me wrong, a GP at Foxhill in its heyday was unbeatable. Despite the uber crappy conditions at the Foxhill des Nats in ’98 – and having to spend three nights sleeping in the boot of a Nissan Prairie – it’s right up there with my very bestest motocross experiences. But that was before Youthstream raised the bar. Whether they were right to or not, there’s no getting away from the fact that they have and no amount of moaning will change this.

Moving swiftly on, off-road sport is hardly a mainstream affair so outside factors that affect major sporting events such as the World Cup and Olympic Games have never touched us before – until now. The news that the Dakar Rally has been cancelled because of the very real threat of a terrorist attack is truly shocking but, sadly, as well as showing just how big the event has become it also reflects the troubled times we live in.

Over on page 21 Jonty Edmunds says that he thinks the event will survive and even thrive as a result of the terrorist threat but I’m afraid I can’t just see it. In fact, unless the organisers can find a safe route through to the Senegalese capital it could quite easily be the end of the Dakar Rally as we know it. There’s no way ASO can risk the murder of its competitors so unless the political climate alters dramatically we could be looking at the Outback Rally, Mongolian Rally or even the Alaskan Rally in years to come…

Finally this month, it appears that a bunch of bad-ass freestylers (okay, plus one very switched on promoter) have – to borrow one of my dear papa’s phrases – sh*t a miracle and managed to more or less sell-out a major indoor tour of the UK! And the secret of the Crusty Demons Unleash Hell success? Promotion. Lots and lots of the stuff! We all know that there simply ain’t enough MX and SX fans to go around and if you want to, say, fill Wembley Arena for a couple of nights you have to target a mainstream audience and sell events on the back of the entertainment value to Joe Public and his family. Obviously, having plenty of moolah to cover promotional costs helps but ticket sales – not entry fees - should be the way of making these things pay.

And although the Crusty show actually has very little in common with a supercross, its UK success can only be good for the sport. Anything that raises public awareness of men on bikes in a positive way has got to be applauded and the ball’s now in the court of SX promoters - and even the team behind the MXdN - to take advantage of the trail blazed by Crusty…