“Where do you work?”
“In motocross…”
“What’s that then?”
Above is a frequent refrain I’ve endured over the years. Alternate versions involve a range of responses from slight recognition that motocross is a motorsport, to derision from the general motorcycling world.

For well over a decade I’ve been trying to convey how exciting this sport can be and have seized any small opportunity to preach the word to a larger audience whether through books, DVDs or the slim chance of any mainstream media taking any copy, stories or notice at all. The truth is that motocross is David to the vast Goliath that is football/rugby/cricket in the British national press and despite the promising presence of people like Herring, Malin, Dobb, Sword, Mackenzie, Nunn and Searle over the last twenty-five years the sling has always felt empty. Contact and attempts with newspapers and TV shows have gone ignored and calls unreturned. One renowned broadsheet editor (reached through a respected colleague) had the good grace to offer a four-word repost to the offer for MX world championship content: ‘no thanks, nice try’. Even a supposed bastion of British motorcycling, MCN, don’t even have the courtesy to reply to emails championing the case of Searle and the increased spectacle of MX1. Getting to the point of shaking hands is hard enough without then having to twist the arm.

I may not have a glorious and historic appreciation of motocross through the eras – I’ll freely admit that I was weaned on road racing thanks to a family residence close to Brands Hatch and a passionate and loving father that didn’t leave a young son at home when he wanted to go to the track – so the imminent changes that Grand Prix MX is facing might not strike my heart quite as much as those long-enamoured with the dirt. I have the upmost respect for the ideals and traditions of motocross and I’m the first to bristle with any notion of revolution, particularly when something doesn’t appear to be particularly ‘broken’.

Here’s the ‘but’…I do want the sport to be bigger. I want to see wider coverage (and be lucky enough to make some of it). I want people to marvel at motocross in the same way that I still do, even though I’ve lost count of how many Grands Prix I’ve reported on. Manufacturers might agree to one class, a Superfinal or the elevation of MX1 in a new one-hour TV format that appears to be set in stone in order to sell more bikes. I want it to happen just so Youthstream can hone a decent TV representation of GPs and as many people around the world get ‘turned on’; to use a Lennonism. People will still get their fill at the tracks themselves thanks to the various European support categories and MX2 might become even more of a feeder class, but if the sport has to shape-shift to boost its chances then, personally, I find it hard to turn away from that or to charge into a new landscape with a negative mindset. Inside the paddock the general feeling is ‘keep MX2, keep two motos’. And I think this will happen, but MX1 and the second moto, could become the centrepiece, the ‘Main Event’ for Grand Prix racing.

Everyone has their own reasons for wanting ‘more’ for motocross; more sales, more sponsors, more coverage, more possibilities. The important factor that many might have overlooked is that this surge to do so means there are plenty out there that care where motocross will be in the future and how it has to evolve.