We recently caught up with the British MXGP organiser and this year with Matterley Basin hosting the MXoN, Steve Dixon is the man behind organising the biggest outdoor race of the year.
He was kind enough to give us an update on the track changes that have already been made ahead of the event in October as well as an update on ticket sales.
On the track changes ahead of the 2024 MXoN…
“We’ve changed it from the pit lane. Instead of coming, looping back up again and then back down, it sort of cuts across the valley where the old tree that got blown down cut across there. So, it’s taken out one loop there and then we don’t loop around the tree anymore because it makes no sense because there’s only one tree. We’ve changed the approach coming up to the next, what was a double, that’s now sort of a dragon back single type thing. It was really because, you know, if you got a bad start, it was so that the good guys can get up to the front quickly. You know, rather than have to sort of wait, go and loop after loop. It just makes it a bit more open. I’ve been sort of, you know, I study all tracks and all types of passing in AMA, Canada and Australia. I want it nice open races and I want people to continue to come and enjoy the track”.
“You know, we’ll shift in a load more dirt for it. And then after the quad, which I measured the other day, it’s actually bigger than Larocco’s leap at RedBud. Then that will, instead of going around the loop where the crowd is, we’ve allowed more to the crowd to come in… Then it will be a jump into the rhythm section. And then the rest is, you know, it’s the same. We’ll just work with the dirt and put more dirt on it and rotate it. Lee McGarry will do that and Preston Cox. We have a lot of help from the crew up there. Jake Nichols from True Plant, they’ve given us a lot of help. So that’s good”.
On how ticket sales are progressing…
Ticket sales are going fine. It’s a touchy subject because people say, oh, it’s expensive. You know, Ernee was like €150 for the weekend and, OK, this is €160. But a festival is expensive, and people don’t realise how expensive things are. You know, like insurances and things like that. At our level, you know, the police and the council, they’re looking to, you know, that you’re responsible for a lot of people’s lives. And it’s not like just that, we’re above the sort of level of normal motocross. If that had to rise to a level that we have to do, Motocross would be out of the window. You know, because you can’t have deaths and casualties and stuff like that at this level. We’ve seen now Foxhills have had to sort of up their game and be a bit more stricter because they had something happen, you know, a year ago.
On Matterley Basin hosting an MXGP in 2025…
Yeah, I mean, I’ve got three or four years left of my contract. I mean, we’ve done some changes also to the second European paddock area, which, you know, we’ve been flattening that out and making that ready for the future as well. And SWP, you know, a sponsor team, they’ve extended the bridge to make it better for marshals and stuff like that. So, yeah, each time there’s a nations we try and do quite a lot to the dirt and everything just so it lasts for the next few years.
