with ... Steve Dixon

Steve Dixon is one of the most interesting guys in the Grand Prix paddock. Having formed his own team a couple of decades ago, the British Motocross of Nations team manager and promoter of the Grand Prix of Great Britain knows all the ins and outs of the sport. We caught up with him and asked him how he feels the sport is at the moment.

Steve, you have been around a long time,  how much experience do you have?

I think I have come from a solid motocross background and I appreciate all the angles of the sport. Having raced in the 1980’s at club level in the AMCA and the ACU, I used to go to the British GP and the Grand Prix at Namur. Apart from that, it was the report in the British Motocross paper TMX News where I got to read about our peers in the Motocross World. I was not a factory racer, I was just a welder from a council estate who loved to ride bikes across the field and then fix them to be better.

How has the FIM World Motocross Championships changed?

For me the FIM World Motocross Championship scene has moved on tremendously for the good, and whilst there are
grumbles here and there, nothing is perfect, times have changed and we, as a sport, have had to move with the times or die. Yes everyone goes on about the good old days, but it is not like that anymore, life is not like that.

It seems like the paddock is much more professional now.

The fact of the matter is more people are making a living from the sport than before and rider’s profiles are higher. When I was fully supported in the early 1990’s as a mechanic to Jeremy Whatley, we had nothing in the van, no toilet, no shower just spares! It took me all day at the first Grand Prix to make a flat bit of ground to put the bike on and then that got full of water when someone power washed their bikes near me.

Would it be possible to still work like that in this era?

We, as teams, could still operate in the old style ways, the passion is there but we have all realized that to be at the top of a sport at World level, you need to be professional when it’s someone else’s brand and money that is being promoted. So I believe we are heading in the right direction for the sport and for the future with what is on offer.

What about the tracks in the series?

There are a good variety of tracks and countries in the Grand Prix’s at the moment; it is good we are back in the USA.
Also the racing is very good and there is some solid depth. The tracks in general are all pretty good.

We seem to have a lot of major sponsors in the sport now.

No longer is it just motocross manufacturer appealing to motocross fans, we are dealing with companies like Monster Energy and Red Bull who are used to the professionalism of F1, Indy car and other top sports.

Photo: Steve Dixon.  Meyer image.