… et autres rules FIM, source motocrossmx1.com
It’s nowadays a tradition: all the organiser’s of the 2006 Supermoto and Motocross World Championship had a meeting this week in Saint Laurent du Var, in order to prepare their event and to collect the last information’s concerning the new season.
Wolfgang SRB (FIM Motocross President), Giuseppe Luongo (Youthstream President), Dave Nicoll (FIM Motocross Race Director), Marc Pauwels (FIM Supermoto Race Director) and several Youthstream representative’s such as Guido Becchis (Marketing Director), Mireille Daumas (Television General Manager), Nikos Gounaris (Director) and Pascal Haudiquert (Press Co-ordinator) explained the new rules and the main changes in the regulations to the attendance. All day long there were many discussions and explanations between the organizers and the authorities, and each organizer had the opportunity to present his event to his colleagues.
“ It’s important to see everybody working together, the organizers, Youthstream and the FIM. Meetings like that make a lot of sense, we share ideas, visions, we explain the ways how we see the development of the World Championships. We got excellent response from the organizers, we have the feeling that everyone wants to make the best race of the year. It’s a positive competition that I like so much; every organiser work really hard to run the best GP of the year. That’s wonderful,” said Wolfgang SRB. “ The atmosphere of the meeting was really good, it’s easy as everyone is relax. We talked a lot, laugh together, everyone was like friends talking about their hobby number one” added the president of the Motocross commission.
“ Year after year this seminar is improving a lot, and it’s important for us to talk and exchange ideas with our partners,” explained Giuseppe Luongo. “ We need to have a good and strong co-operation with the organizer’s, and honestly I think that we reach now a high level in our relationship. I would take as example the tracks preparation; it has been really difficult for us to change the mentalities of the organizers, but now all of them accept the advices of Greg Atkins, our track designer. Some organizers even ask Greg to come and built their track! One year ago it was impossible, as most of the clubs had a long experience and wanted to do as they were used. Finally we proved in the second part of the 2005 season that Greg knows better than anyone how to prepare a track, and we had some exciting GP’s on safe and technical tracks,” added the president of Youtshtream.
Concerning Motocross, one of the main decisions for the future is to reduce the noise limit of the bikes. For 2006 the limit has been fixed to 96 decibels. “It’s a question really important for our sport, as we got more and more complains about the noise. All the federations will have to send their best technical staff on the events, as there will be no tolerance about this matter. Nobody can discuss the FIM rules; industry, riders, promoters and teams know the rules and must respect them strictly,” announced doctor SRB who confirmed that the whoops are forbidden on a Motocross track.
Concerning the events Sweden revealed that they started this winter a three years program in order to improve the Uddevalla facilities, Loket (Czech Republic) announced that they will do new investments on their track while Dave Nicoll gave good news about the new British facilities of Matterley Basin. Eric Geboers, the promotor of Namur confirmed that the “Citadelle” will host a triple event with the Motocross GP, the Veteran World Cup and the famous Monte Namur on friday prior the GP !
Eight events will count for the Supermoto World Championship, with a couple of new venues such as France, Sardinia and Sankt Wendel (Germany). This young sport will have now, as well as Motocross, a Supermoto of Nations organised this year in Ireland. “Each federation will have the possibility to enter two teams, one with their best riders and another with three young riders. We fixed the age limit of this second team to twenty-one, in order to bring new talentuous riders to the highest level,” said Wolfgang SRB.
But the main novelty concerning Supermoto is the fact that there will be an equal treatment for everybody concerning the tyres. “It has been difficult decision, but everyone was complaining about the tyres budget, factories as well as privateers. We contacted all the tyre manufacturers, and got two interesting proposals from the Pirelli group and Dunlop. We choose Dunlop, they did the best offer for the riders and for the promotion of this sport. The riders will have the possibility to use a maximum of ten tyres per race, and everyone will use the same products; they will have two choices for dry tracks, one product for wet tracks and no more qualifying tyres,” explained Giuseppe Luongo who confirmed that there will be no restriction for Motocross. “Motocross and Supermoto are different sports, and for sure there will never be one unique brand in Motocross.”
To end the meeting, Giuseppe Luongo invited all the organizers to the 2006 Off Road Prize Giving Ceremony. “This nice event will take place on the first weekend of December, and I would like to see you coming there with your ladies. They always support us during the season, and one weekend per year it’s important to offer them some nice moment.”
7.9 € TTC
