2014 Monster Energy Australian MX Nationals this weekend

KEY:

JF: Jay Foreman – Team Motul Suzuki
RT: Rob Twyerould – KTM Motocross Racing
CD: Craig Dack – CDR Yamaha
TC: Troy Carroll – National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki
ML: Mike Landman – Penrite Oil Honda Racing
CA: Craig Anderson – Husqvarna Motocross Racing

Question: Do you think that we currently have a better crop of young super stars, or seasoned campaigners?

JF: Probably seasoned campaigners. There are a couple of good young guys there, but the season guys seem to be pretty strong right now.

TC: I think the young kids are really the ones coming through. I’m looking at them now and the pace they’re riding at is unbelievable. I enjoy watching those guys coming through and enjoy watching the fight they’ve got on their hands to beat the older guys.

CA: Right now, I think we have a few more guys that can win races than we have had in the past. I think the middle aged guys are a bit stale at the moment, they’ve been around for a while and they have sort of just been hanging in there and they haven’t really got to the top yet. Then there’s the young guys coming through, like Nathan Crawford, Egan Mastin and Jack Simpson – they seem like they’re hungrier and they want it a bit more. But every generation is different. I think we need to have guys working towards their goals a bit more, the guys that have been there and haven’t sort of cracked the top end yet. They’re still there and they need to work out what is holding them back and move forward from there.

ML: I think there’s a fairly even balance at the moment. There are some good young kids coming through both on the two strokes and the four strokes in the lites class. But there are some solid performers like the Moss boys, Adam Monea, Cody Cooper is nearly 30, and Billy Mackenzie is still in the mix. So it’s good to see the older guys still being competitive. It’s a match of enthusiasm and smarts and I think it’s an exciting blend of the guys who are really smooth and tidy with their riding and the other guys that are wide open. I think it’s a good mix at the moment. There is a new wave in that Open class with the likes of Adam Monea, the Moss boys, Kade Mosig and those sort of kids coming through, they’re going to be the next generation of top guys, but it’s nice to see the older guys still being competitive with them.

CD: I don’t know how to answer that question – I haven’t got an opinion really.

Do you think riders lose something when it comes to statuses with girlfriends, or settling down and having kids and that family side of racing? Do you think it takes an edge off them as a rider?

JF: No I don’t. I think the transition from being with mum and dad at 16 to finding girls, and finding alcohol through that stage. Once they get into a stable relationship or married, I think that is when they’re at their best. It’s the stage in between – that’s the hard part, to try and get them through that, and stay focused and keep wanting to win, not wanting to go and party.

TC: Yeah I could talk about myself. It changed me when I was racing. You know I had one child, and I guess I saw that as getting to an end. I went on to win a couple of championships, but when I had the second one, that’s when it completely changed. It does change you, and you get these young guys now coming through and they’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. So I think it does slow you down a little bit.

CA: I don’t think girls/wives are distractions. It can be if it’s not the right support network. I think when you’re a privateer and mum and dad are there to help and dad is the mechanic it can work really well, but for example when you get a team ride, mum and dad sort of need to sit back and just be supportive, instead of being right in their kids face. I think you have to let the team do their job, because everyone has a different way of doing things, so mum and dad’s role really needs to be to offer support. As for girlfriends, you get to 16 – 19 and it’s a tough one, and it’s a very make or break sort of section of their life. But you just need to be there to help and support, and guide them through it.

RT: Oh look, I think it certainly can do. Mum and dad are more the often your biggest sponsor for most of your years, and at some stage they have to say ‘that’s enough, we need to do some things on our own’. Basically then you’re at an age where you’re working, or trying to support part-time work with riding, and it sort of coincides with you developing into a man. There are certainly distractions such as girls, cars, alcohol, and it’s how each individual handles those things as to whether their racing is impacted. A lot of it is the group of people that he’s with, the support that he has, the outside influences he may have steering him in a direction, be it good or bad.

ML: Yes I think it does. But it’s totally up to the individual. If they’re focused enough to put that aside then that’s great, but boys will be boys and girls will be girls, you’re never going to change that. If a girl wants to succeed at ballet or whatever she chooses to do, she’s got to put her head down and bum up and work hard – the same as motocross. And I don’t think it’s different for a boy or a girl who wants to compete at this level. There are distractions, but that’s life. That’s something that each individual will deal with in their own way. They may take the attitude of ‘I’m going to be totally focused, and try not to look at the opposite sex’ and then you might get one whose attitude is ‘this is good times’ so it’s up to the individual.

CD: I think the answer to this question could be a bit ambiguous. For sure I have seen it before, some wives and girlfriends can have a negative effect on some riders. But equally I’ve seen so many wives and girlfriends have a positive effect on riders. So it’s a question I can’t answer categorically because I’ve seen it both ways. But at the end of the day, and I think it’s fair to say the ones that I have seen work (and this is not me trying to show any chauvinism here), the ones that seem to work the best understand that any top level athlete has to be very selfish during that period. So I think they need a very supporting and understanding wife or partner during that stage. I’m not saying that in a chauvinistic way, I’m saying that in a factual way. It would be the same with the prime minister of Australia. He happens to be a man at the moment, he’s hardly ever home, his wife is there by his side when he needs her. Unfortunately we’re trying to balance that societal thing up a bit, and we’re trying to give women a bit more. But I think as an athlete goes, I think successful the wife, or partner or spouse needs to be very supportive of the athlete.

Do you think this series does enough for, and supports the privateers in this championship??

JF: It a really tough economic climate right now, and everyone is hurting whether it’s manufacturers, sponsors or whatever, it’s a tough time for everybody and we just have to get through that and things will eventually pick up again. Manufacturers will benefit more, privateers will benefit more, but it is a tough climate right now.

CA: It is tough for everyone all round. Even for the race teams, and every race team that is at the end of the day. Everyone has different sized budgets. I think there should be more prize money for the riders, from the top to the bottom, whether that can happen is another story. I definitely think there should be a bit more, just as incentive. Whether it’s a set of tyres, some oil, some handle bars, grips, or something so it’s not always directly out of their pockets each race. Even a fuel card or whatever comes up, so it’s not just prize money but it’s helping them get to the next round.

RT: As far as the championship supporting the privateers, that’s a tough one. Is it Kevin’s duty to? Well I suppose it’s his idea to make it more affordable for the privateers, but really I suppose it’s from a manufacturers point of view how far can we spread the support? KTM have certainly scaled back our main team to two riders, and then are supporting a lot of guys, especially in MX2. We have our fingers in the pie across two brands now really with Husqvarna and KTM. So by reducing our main team, we have certainly been able to support a lot more privateers.

ML: My biggest concern in terms of the MX Nationals offering support to privateers is not getting any prize money on the day is hard. You constantly have your hand in your pocket all year. You virtually have to wait until the end of the year, and you could put in 8 or 9 rounds and be just inside the top ten, have an injury or a mechanical issue, miss out on a top ten and get nothing in prize money. That’s my concern. Whereas, if a privateer got two or three hundred dollars a week or a round, that’s fuel money for the next round. So I think that’s really important that they get that sort of help. Even we as a team struggle in that area, it’s just all on a bigger scale so it’s all relative.

CD: Yes.

Obviously there are far more privateers than team based riders, do you feel that being a big team that there is a bit of a target on the ‘factory riders’ from the rest of the paddock?

CD: It would be to their detriment if they had that attitude, because we’re putting this on display for them to come to one day. So they would want to see it as a very positive, that we’re at the top end of the sport in a national championship where we’re trying to keep the profile high and bright and strong. I think if we were running around in these pits at a national championship in Hi-Ace vans, trailers, milk crates and jerry cans, I don’t think we would have been taken as seriously as we have like the rest of the people in the world like Europe and America. This has given riders such as Chad Reed, Michael Byrne and now Todd Waters the opportunity to go and race those other championships and they have made themselves lots and lots of money by doing it. So by us having this infrastructure here, I think it shows the rest of the world that we’re pretty serious. There are a lot of positives aspects to the privateers and everybody that is in this team or has gone through this team has been a privateer at one point, including me.

RT: I would like to think that everyone out there racing is aiming to be on our team, and wanting to be on our team. So I would also like to think that all the top teams are setting the standard and that for any privateer his aspiration is to make it to a team.

Thoughts on the MX Nationals, and how it stacks up as an Australian Championship?

JF: It’s an awesome championship for us because it is such a stable championship. We know where we are going every year, Kevin Williams does a good job, we’ve got the venues, and it’s easy for us. Kevin works really hard on his side of things and that makes it easier for us.

TC: It’s come a long way in the last 15 years, and it’s still climbing forward. One thing I do think we need to do at this point is get TV. I do believe in the social media side of it, and the live feed, but TV is still TV. I think that’s a step we should be looking at from a manufacturer point of view, as well as a promoter so actually getting it on TV.

CA: The overall look and everything is better than it was a few years ago. I think this year crowd-wise has been a bit better than previous years. The number of riders – there’s lots in U19’s and lots in the Lites class but no one wants to go into the Open class. Whether that is that there are less riders able to ride the 450 or they think they’re never going to win, so why step up? But at the end of the day, if you don’t get in there and give it a go, you’re never going to win anyway. I think that a lot of riders stay in the U19’s too long, I think if you want to go anywhere and you want to get better then you can’t stay there for too long. The main focus is the MX1 class, but less and less want to take that step and have a shot at it.

RT: I think it’s a consistent format, and we know what we are going to get every weekend. Kevin has got it down to a fine art. We know what time practice is, we can go by a clock for the next race so in regards to being organised it is really great. We go to the best selection of tracks, so we get to ride all the best venues. And it’s almost like each club tries to outdo itself, so the pit areas improve, the track preparation is amazing, the look of the track is exceptional and this year I think because we have been quite consistent with the dates, the crowds seem to be up compared with other years. So again, the atmosphere now is really good.

ML: It has stood the test of time. A lot of the tracks we are going to now are great and I think the crowds this year are up a bit more than what they have been in the past and that’s nice to see. Really I’d love this sport to get a bit more mainstream coverage – be in the local papers prior and after the races. You can go and pick up the paper and see who won the grey hound races somewhere, who did well in the lawn bowls, but you can’t see who won the Australian Motocross Championship at Wanneroo, Wonthaggi or Murray Bridge so that concerns me. I’m not sure if that falls at the feet of MA or Kevin Williams. I would like to see MA have a full time PR guy, that’s responsible for promoting trials, road racing, motocross, all the disciplines. I think gathering up the information needs to happen so that papers will publish it. I’m not entirely sure whose responsibility all of this is but to me at the moment, it looks like MA should be doing a lot more.   The sport has plateaued in the last 10 years, and sure the trucks and everything look great, but I don’t think the advertising and promotion of the sport has rose to that professional level. For the sport to grow it has to be introduced into mainstream.

CD: I see the championship as pretty good, it’s very solid. I think the focus still needs to be on increasing the crowd attendance, which Kevin has been doing a good job on – I have seen a noticeable improvement this year. I would like to see things move towards television in the future, that’s the part of the puzzle that would complete it all. I think Australia is more of a motocross country, than a supercross country at the moment, so I think seeing the MX nationals increase to maybe 13 or 15 rounds would be a very positive thing. Only because of the insecurities of supercross and the lack of plans for supercross in the pipeline moving forward. Motocross is a really solid product and it has been solid for a number of years now.

And now let’s look at the officials – the forgotten volunteers who without them, we cannot hold a race a meeting. Are there any officials operating here that you can think of that stand out to you as a favorite?

JF: Not really, they’re all here to do a job and all we ask is that they be fair. They all seem to be pretty fair here.

TC: Cameron Schueber. I get along with him really well, and he’s a guy that I can approach and talk to and sort things out pretty quickly with him. If I have an issue he tries to resolve it for us so it’s probably Cameron I look to if I need his help with something.

RT: It would be hard to single anyone out; they are all good at what they do. Again, with the MX Nationals the advantage is the consistency. It’s the same people we’re working with every week, we get to build relationships with them and they are very reasonable. They have got the formula just right, they understand the sport, they get to know everyone and it’s like the Racesafe guys. To have the Racesafe team with the same doctors and staff there each weekend who understand the riders. They all do a fantastic job.

CD: All of the officials within WEM, have all been pretty much the same people over the course of time. There haven’t been a lot of people who have come and gone, there has groups of people who have stayed over a long period of time. The current bunch we have which you would say is Cameron, Mark (Hancock), and Steve (Cachia). I get along with them really well. We have to give each other a sideways look every now and then but we definitely wouldn’t let that get in the way of a nice cold beer that’s for sure.