The British world supercross Grand Prix is over and it was a blur of fast-paced excitement that had Ken Roczen show the fans just why he is the star of the series and the British riders doing their bit to keep the home fans on their feet. Here are some thoughts on the weekend.
The turn-out: With WSB at Donington and British MX on four hours away on the Sunday, it wasn’t the best weekend to have the race but despite that, there were more fans there than I probably expected and the noise they made was excellent for their favourite riders. Roczen, Anstie and Wilson got big cheers and maybe the biggest was for the stricken Mike Alessi as he got carted off. Having a race at a Premier league stadium was a bonus as well and the fact the stands were so close to the track meant the fans were close to the action, and when you are on the stadium floor it felt like the stands were on top of you.
Rider quality: The depth of quality in the 450 class was an improvement than 2022, the likes of Nichols, Seely and Justin Hill added along with Wilson, Friese, Savatgy. Josh Hill and Brayton who were already in the class last year gave good quality through the top ten with Greg Aranda also impressive on the Yamaha in amongst it too. The only thing that was missing and will probably be needed going forward to get more fans in is top tier riders to challenge Roczen and add name value, if the likes of Musquin, Webb and even a Tomac can be enticed in 2024, this championship will go to another level, the foundations are there and more.
The racing and format: The fans get good value for money with four racees and a superpole competition that saw Justin Hill beat Ken Roczen by 0.1 of a second! While Roczen was fastest all day the three back to back starts gave everyone else a chance when Ken started mid-pack in all three motos. There is no doubt if this was a 20 minute main the racing wouldn’t have been as exciting. It kept Roczen at full focus and the fans got to see the skills of Roczen in all their glory as he tore through the field.
For new fans, the short races keep their attention, but maybe the two shorter mains could be a lap longer?
Another option would be to have two short mains back to back for both classes then after the SX1 class is over build the hype for the longer SX2 final moto, have the podium for them then straight into the SX1 longer final main, building up the conclusion to the night. But even as it is, it is nice to see a totally different formant to AMA working and bringing some new ideas and new ways to engage fans, especially new ones.
Ken Roczen: Roczen was the star of the show, his queue for his autograph was absolutely mammoth, with fans queuing during the SX2 rider signing session just to get in line when Roczen would come up for the SX1 signing session, it shows the importance of having elite riders and, on a global level Roczen was perfect to get with his association with GP’s and his ability to talk to anyone, from media to fans he was superb with the fans as were all the riders. Ken even stopped on the way back from the main events and press conference to sign more autographs as he made his way back to the pits. Class act on and off the bike. The other riders were fantastic as well, this makes a difference for the fans and a great impressions on the sport.
Bringing the sport to new fans: Twitter is awash with people from Saturday night who really enjoyed the experience and didn’t know about the sport before hand. That is the great thing about supercross, it brings dirt bikes to a new audience and WSX is taking that around the world to different cities, we know it has it’s challenges against the US right now, but for the sport as a whole, it is imperative WSX succeeds. To underline that opportunity, the head of Ducati there to watch, it is a vision that could bring another manufacturer to market their new dirt bike around the globe and into the cities, it’s an absolutely perfect and unique platform to reach areas that even MXGP and AMA SX can’t reach. If manufacturer’s support all three series they have an opportunity to reach a truly global audience from people who ride, existing fans and new fans in cities across the world. It’s the perfect combination.
The Brits: Max Anstie and Dean Wilson both performed really well and had the crowd following their every more. Anstie was one pass away from winning the GP, unfortunately for Max the pass attempt on McElrath (who looks so much better on a 250 than 450) didn’t work and he actually lost a place to Enzo Lopes who raced despite dislocating his shoulder! But Anstie delivered for the fans and was up front all day with huge fan support. Dean Wilson rode very well in the 450 class too, moving forward in all three motos with a third in the final main, just coming up short of a podium, but Dean was quick and if he gets starts a podium isn’t far away. These boys had a lot of pressure but both delivered in front of the home fans as did Dylan Woodcock and Jack Brunell who were in the mix with the SX regulars all day.
What could be improved? There was a seemingly random 15-20 minute delay between the 250 heats and 450 heats, the 450 riders were on the gate all that time and started doing warm-up exercises to stay loose before the gate eventually dropped. It wasn’t clearly explained what was going on by the commentators either.
The commentary was very loud in the stadium but kept switching between, Ralph Shaheen, Emig and Reed to the British commentators.
The biggest red flag though was the lack of one in the Mike Alessi incident. Mike was lying on the track unconscious immediately but was the leaders came round they were unaware and went to jump into the rhythm section that Mike was lying on, the flaggers just about getting the leaders rolling the jumps before they got to Mike. Unbelievably, the riders raced another four laps before the red flags came out, even some of the riders admitted after, including McElrath and Anstie that it was a weird situation.
We understand Adam Bailey has an interview with Lewis Phillips to explain the situation but being there, it was very scary and mind blowing to watch the most obvious thing in the world, not happen. Everyone in the media area was shouting the same thing – where is the red flag? Thankfully Mike suffered nothing worse than a concussion but that could have been really bad especially if another rider had hit him.
The penalty for Friese and Roczen was not communicated well either and left everyone a bit confused, nothing happening until after the third moto when the overall was being calculated, could it not have been sorted after the second main?
Justin Bogle and Dylan Woodcock told us on track walk the track would be hard to pass just like in Cardiff with everyone going tight in the corners and they were both proven right, Josh Hill wasn’t enthused with the track design in terms of passing opportunities after the race either, only Ken Roczen really made multipipe passes, so maybe more passing opportunities could be something to work on as well.
Conclusion
Aside from those couple of issues, the event was a resounding success, as Adam Bailey said in the opening press conference, they are trying to build a plane and fly it at the same time, so teething problems will happen but the core product is there and it should only get better from here. The idea and format is excellent, the racing was exciting in both classes. They have Chad Reed involved on every level with ideas and once they get a couple more elite level guys in the class with Roczen and keep the depth, this series will get even better.
Congratulations to all involved!
Words: Jonathan McCready
Photos: WSX/ Jonathan McCready
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