I’m in the middle of an article examining the two principle issues that seem to be hot in MXGP: the 23 age rule for the MX2 class that Youthstream President Giuseppe Luongo has already vehemently stated in his column for the official MXGP magazine is going nowhere. The other is the apparent ‘ailing’ health of the championship, with the declining gate numbers a heavily visual stick that critics like to beat the sport with. They have a point, but as I never cease to tell people…there are two sides to every story.

I digress. The text will pop up in OTOR #83. The central strand of the piece so far is the cost factor involved with racing, and perhaps this is something that doesn’t apply specifically to MXGP with a range of motorcycle championships suffering also or desperately trying to change their respective landscapes to make the whole show more economically viable.

Motocross took steps to limit financial ‘abandon’, even if most manufacturers have been looking at ways to trim competition budgets since 2008 anyway. The FIM wisely retained the prototype status and technical freedom of MXGP but also imposed some limitations, chiefly those involving electronics. There are minor restrictions in the technical rulebook but could more be done?

I’m talking about a one day Grand Prix. It might be wasted debate as Giuseppe Luongo was very firm in denouncing this suggestion at an informal media gathering last year, insisting this was one area of a GP tradition he wanted to preserve. I’ve already heard from at least two senior figures in the MXGP paddock that running one-day would help with cost-cutting in terms of overall travel expenses through a season and even down to elements such as engine wear and mileage. Some riders as well have also grumbled of the drawn-out GP timetable with relatively little track time on a Saturday.

Would a single day make sense? Youthstream naturally want to maintain the two day format for two reasons: it allows clubs and circuits a double shot at revenue generation and it keeps the fans wanting to make a weekend of a Grand Prix. There is also a 48 hour window to fit all the European support classes that make each round of the world championship a non-stop barrage of track action.

This last point is one of the strong arguments for switching to one-day for MXGP. It would be ideal for Grand Prix riders to arrive on Saturday, interact with fans, perform PR activities, media duties, check out the track and be a part of the event. All the while the European classes would be going through their qualification and races and churning up the terrain into the nice, tough and technical terrain that is one of the wonderful traits of MXGP. Fans could still have their weekend fill of MX (with EMX carrying potential for fast local riders) and have even more access to their heroes on Saturday, clubs can still charge for two days and teams could afford to arrive in an MXGP ‘paddock’ late on Friday as opposed to Thursday.

TV schedules would be unaffected, GP riders tend to know 90% of the tracks, the timetable suddenly eases and there is a natural build-up to the ‘main events’ on Sunday. It is hard to find many arguments against implementing this modification to MXGP that might carry some important consequences for teams assessing the budget for a seventeen-eighteen GP campaign and therefore existence inside the sport.

Photo by Ray Archer