Motocross Musical chairs!

Words by Jeff Perrett – Feature Image courtesy of Revo ACU British Motocross Championship

I’m genuinely excited about getting back to the Nationals and catching up with everyone, starting with the Bridgestone Masters on the 17/18th April. Then not long after that I’ll be attending the first round of the Revo British ACU championship at Culham as Gareth Hockey and his RHL Activities team set about revamping the championship to their vision. Only last week Gareth put out a press release and video announcing the dates and venues for both the Revo adult British championship and also the British Youth Championship, 10 weekend dates in total. Good news and positivity as finally the British national mx calendar started to nearly fall into shape, with only the Michelin MX Nationals remaining to finalise their dates of most of the major championships. Like many I’m sure I updated my calendar again waiting to fill in the blanks with the MX Nationals dates…until tonight. No, I’m not writing in the remaining five rounds of the Michelin MX Nationals. Instead I’m amending all the MXGP dates as another Covid crippled revised calendar comes out, and with it some good news (which let’s be honest we’ve been a bit starved of over the past year), there’s a British GP at Matterley back on the calendar for June 26/27th. Awesome, or at least I thought so right up to the point where I go to write it on my calendar and already written on that date is round four of the Revo British championship at Desertmartin!

What is going on eh? Now don’t get me wrong. I appreciate how difficult of a situation we’re all in as we navigate the road map out of lockdown but only last week Gareth was telling us he had reassurances from the powers that run the world motocross championship that his dates for the Revo British championship were good to go. Now before any of you get on my case and try and bust my balls that this is a Gareth Hockey, RHL or ACU bashing, wind your neck in right now because it’s not. I’ve always got on alright with Gareth, Margaret and the team and have had open and candid conversations about all aspects of the sport. I want Gareth and the ACU to knock it right out of the ball park and wish them nothing but success as they look to get the ACU British championship back on track…literally, but right now their job hasn’t been made any easier but 19 rounds of GP action as the priority of the FIM. And that my friends, is just the way it is now and is going to be. Whether that’s right to wrong is subject for another debate and maybe one we’ll have on the Dirty Torque show soon. MXGP rules the roost in European MX as the top of the FIM pyramid.

Why doesn’t the Revo British ACU championship just run on the same weekend as a round of the world championship? Well, if you’re quite new to this game you may not know that the ACU are affiliated to the FIM and traditionally never run a British national event on the same weekend so our top U.K riders can race in the world championship and still go after a domestic British title. The question has been asked more and more over the past few years, but now is it seriously time to consider the ACU British championship doing it’s own thing and running on MXGP weekends? British Superbike went up against World Superbike several years back to good effect if I remember correctly. Or should Gareth and the team look to shorten the series and go for quality or quantity? Or run more rounds earlier before the GP’s start like the Italian championship? Whatever the answer it’s all a bit square peg, round hole.

Stop Press! Since I put the full stop on the last paragraph Gareth has just popped up on social media and done another video outlining new dates and has maybe gone someway in answering some of the questions above. You can clearly see his frustration. I feel it too, and I’d like to think many of you will too. Take a watch. Hopefully these dates will stick and the Michelin MX Nationals can get their finalised dates out soon too.

This pandemic has changed a lot of things, and in some cases a way of life for people. It looks like it may have changed the landscape for British MX too. Let’s see what happens eh? Probably best to hold fire a bit longer on finalising your calendar. Whatever the outcome, get yourself out to the races as much as you can either as a racer or fan and support as many events as you can and let’s try and make it year worth remembering after one we’d probably all sooner forget.