MXGP INSIDER #27: YANKS SET TO RACE MXGP

Transmoto’s weekly web-exclusive column, the MXGP Insider, penned by David Bulmer, presented by KTM Australia. 

So the news has finally come out that Justin Barcia, Cooper Webb and Jeremy Martin will officially be on the start line for the USGP next month and to be honest, it’s about time. This petty side of the sport with constant bickering between the two series has to end, and the first step is for American riders to show up at GP events when they are in their backyard. Now, obviously I’m not a rider and I don’t have to cope with the demands of Supercross and motocross seasons back-to-back, but surely SX training can wait a couple of weeks so they can showcase their skills against the best that the world championship has to offer.

It gets a bit frustrating hearing how SX training HAS to begin in October, so they can be ready for A1 and yet they get precisely one week of Outdoor motocross training before Hangtown begins. Anyway, good news on that front and perhaps we’ll see some more team tactics as the Yamaha duo try to help out Valentin Guillod win the MX2 title.

Enough whinging from me though, because we are now entering the best part of the season as teams start getting announced for the MXoN. It is my favourite event of the year and this year marks a nice anniversary for me as the 2005 MXoN in Ernée was my first ever motocross race. I often think that if perhaps I’d gone to a crappy event as my first ever time, whether I’d have got as hooked on this sport as I have done now, because as motocross races go, Ernée was pretty special.

I’ve spoken to quite a few people about this very subject and they all agree that this was the race that really started the current run of “super” MXoNs we are currently experiencing. The crowd, the atmosphere, the racing and just the general importance of the race all seem to have gone up a notch since 2005 and it is fitting that we return back there 10 years on.

This week was the Team France presentation (with Benoit Paturel subbing in for Musquin) and I have to say that it makes me even more excited for the race now. They’ve changed the track up a little (which I think was needed), but without overdoing the changes and messing with the whole flow and spectacle of the venue. It should be an awesome weekend and if there’s one race you should spend $2000 on flights for, this is it.

In other news, and one that came as a bit of a shock to me initially, was that KTM has announced the appointment of Joel Smets as their new KTM Motocross Factory Racing Sports Director (whatever that means). The rumours of Stefan Everts going the opposite way have become concrete for some time now, and all that we’re waiting for is the ‘official’ word in that respect. So while it was a surprise when I saw the PR, it does make a lot of sense. Smets and Everts aren’t known to get along too well and KTM obviously feel that they need an extra position in their structure to act as a buffer between the MXGP/MX2 teams and upper management. Time will tell how this all works out.