Livin' the Dream

Andy Gee

Description

We're living in a golden era. Grand Prix motocross has never been so competitive, bikes are more sophisticated than ever and the presentation of events continues to reach new heights of professionalism as countries vie to host MXGPs around the world. Livin' the Dream charts the journey of Hitachi/ASAKTM UK from a small privateer team to their current factory supported status as Britain's most successful MXGP team and the business of running the team through the ups and downs of the 2018 season. Through 20 MXGPs, 8 British Championship rounds, staff changes, injuries, mid-season slumps, internal disagreements and the challenge of competing with factory teams, Livin' the Dream is packed with interviews and insights from the people inside the team and inside the paddock, covering all aspects of paddock life. With unrestricted access, Livin' the Dream gives you the best ever insight behind the scenes into the most successful motocross team in Britain.

Sujets

• Motorcycle racing

Informations

• Publié par: Brown Dog Books
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785453298
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

First published 2018

Copyright © Andy Gee 2018

The right of Andy Gee to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Published under licence by Brown Dog Books and The Self-Publishing Partnership, 7 Green Park Station, Bath BA1 1JB

www.selfpublishingpartnership.co.uk

ISBN printed book: 978-1-78545-328-1 ISBN e-book: 978-1-78545-329-8

Cover design by Kevin Rylands Internal design by Andrew Easton

Printed and bound in the UK

All photos by ace moto photographer Ray Archer unless otherwise stated.

Front cover Graeme Irwin’s Hitachi/ASA KTM 450 with his British championship number 1 plate Back cover The team picture, taken at the first round in Argentina. L to R, Bryan Connolly (BC), Ian Browne, Graeme Irwin, Conrad Mewse, Vaclav Lavicka (Vas), Paul Keates

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Humble beginnings & Team Principal Roger Magee

Chapter 2 2017, a challenging year for Britain’s premier motocross team. Team Co- ordinator Ian Browne

Chapter 3 Preparing for the next year & ‘Silly season’ 2017

Chapter 4 ‘Success breeds success’; Sponsors & Contract Furniture

Chapter 5 Off season, testing & pre-season

Chapter 6 Round 1, MXGP of Patagonia Argentina, Neuquen - The season begins & Conrad Mewse

Chapter 7 Round 2, MXGP of Europe, Valkenswaard; under prepared and cold. Meet the mechanics

Chapter 8 Round 3, MXGP of La Comunitat Valenciana, Redsand – working out of a Sprinter, Culham & Lee Tolan

Chapter 9 Round 4, MXGP of Trentino, Pietramurata; the new awning & Graeme Irwin

Chapter 10 Round 5, MXGP of Portugal, Agueda; trouble in paradise, Steve Fry – race truck driver & Canada Heights

Chapter 11 Round 6, MXGP of Russia, Orlyonok; a political ‘hot-potato’, Shaun Osmond – sponsor & associate, & Blaxhall

Chapter 12 Round 7, MXGP of Latvia, Kegums; Howard and Ali – team players, & the source of Conrad’s malaise

Chapter 13 Round 8, MXGP of Germany, Teutschenthal, & Conrad’s dad, Steve Mewse, the dad’s perspective

Chapter 14

Round 9, MXGP of Great Britain, Matterley Basin, Roger’s frustrations & Max Anstie’s concussion story

Chapter 15 Round 10, MXGP of France, St. Jean d’ Angely & Contracts

Chapter 16 Round 11, MXGP of Lombardia, Ottobiano, & BC, Desertmartin Back on track & Conrad’s team, Justin Morris (riding coach) and Paul Keates (practice bike mechanic)

Chapter 17 Round 12, MXGP of Indonesia, Pangkal Pinang, Jamie Dobb – MX agent & the half-time review

Chapter 18 Round 13, MXGP of Asia, Semarang, & David Luongo - Youthstream Vice- President

Chapter 19 Round 14, MXGP of Czech Republic, Loket, Lisa Leyland – the face of MXGP- TV & disaster in Duns

Chapter 20 Round 15, MXGP of Belgium, Lommel, Shaun Simpson’s perfect weekend & Hawkstone

Chapter 21 Round 16, MXGP of Switzerland, Frauenfeld-Gachnang, social media & Samanta Gelli - Youthstream Press Officer

Chapter 22 Round 17, MXGP of Bulgaria, Sevlievo, Bob Buchannan’s midnight run & Brooke, Milly, Jill & Joan - MX WAGS

Chapter 23 Round 18, MXGP of Turkey, Afyonkarahisar & drugs testing & WADA

Chapter 24 Round 19, MXGP of The Netherlands, Assen, Foxhills & the ASA partnership

Chapter 25 Round 20, MXGP of Italy, Imola, silly season wrap-up & the season reviewed

Chapter 26 MXON, Red Bud, USA, Graeme leads the Irish team, & Lyng

Epilogue

MXGP & British Championship tables

Foreword

The life of an MXGP team is an on-going cycle that refreshes every year as one season finishes, and a new season begins. If the team had good results it’s a time to build and make progress, if the results were below expectations then it’s a time to wipe the slate clean and start over, but either way the work goes on with one caveat: that sufficient sponsors and funding can be gathered to let the cycle continue, otherwise it’s the end for the team, at least in that iteration. It’s not uncommon for teams to fold, shutting their doors as the funding stream has run dry. But just as in nature, as one team dies a new one springs up, fresh with optimism and new ambition, sometimes buying up the remnants of the defunct team such as the transporter or employing the mechanics and other staff. The subject of this book, Hitachi/ASA KTM UK, have been around for thirteen years, although not always in their current guise as sponsors, bike manufacturers and personnel have changed over the years. With eleven British championships in that time, they’re the most successful British teams in the paddock and one of only two full time grand prix teams that regularly compete in Britain. My involvement with the team started years ago as a fan, but also as an old friend of some of the team riders and staff at that time. I worked for the Husqvarna importers back in the ‘80’s and got to know a lot of the top riders of the day before my career took me elsewhere. In 2016 I was back on the grand prix trail and in 2017 I started working as a freelance journalist covering some of the MXGP’s, providing reports and interviews fordirtbikerider.com which led to spending more time with my old friends on the team. Seeing what it takes to be part of the MXGP paddock has been an education. The sport has progressed and grown so much since I was first involved in the early 1980’s and whether or not you agree with the vision of the current promoters Youthstream, it’s now a global operation with races around the world, a growing television audience and the relentless appetite of the internet and social media to sustain. I’ve worked with team owner Roger Magee and the rest of the crew to bring you a factual, ‘warts-and-all’ account of life in the team, the history and growth, the business side of running the team and the ups and downs of the 2018 season. I’ve included quotes and interviews from the people who have been instrumental in the team becoming what it is today as well as reports, interviews and examples from other teams and industry insiders looking at all aspects of life in the MXGP paddock. I didn’t want to write a book that was just another politically correct press release, painting a picture that it’s all group hugs and nothing ever goes wrong, so I hope you find my story interesting, informative and entertaining.

Introduction

Before we go any further it’s worth pointing out a few home-truths so there’s no misunderstandings as you read this book. Number 1. This is a business not a sport. Obviously, motocross is a sport, but running a team to compete at the highest level, that is MXGP, is a business. Fundamentally, it’s a marketing business where the teams represent and promote their sponsors’ products and the sponsors or partners use their association with the sport and teams as promotional tools and/or corporate hospitality for their clients. For the manufacturers of the bikes and aftermarket parts there may also be some research and development work done with the teams but essentially it’s still about marketing a product and what better endorsement than ‘as used by XXX team. Hitachi/ASA KTM has worked its way up from a relatively small ‘privateer’ outfit, to become a factory supported team with direct links to the motorcycle manufacturer, in this case KTM in Austria, as well as a host of sponsors that have been cultivated over the years as both the profile and success of the team has increased. The manufacturers’ teams are known as the ‘factory teams’ and their budget, resources and equipment are the top of the tree, with budgets running into the millions if not tens of millions per year and high-performance parts that aren’t available to the public. The next level is ‘factory supported’ teams. They may receive bikes and/or parts from the factory but have to buy much of their equipment. They are funded by their sponsors with only a small amount of revenue coming from the factory, which could be in the form of special race engines, performance parts and technical assistance. They generally act as a “B” team, with riders that will one day move to the factory team. Hitachi/ASA KTM sit in this group. The privately funded or privateer teams are generally supplied with bikes and parts by the country’s importer or distributor for that brand and depending on the success of the team they may get additional special parts and/or support from the factory. Private teams’ budgets are usually smaller, relying on cash and products from sponsors to pay the bills. And even for a small team the bills can be considerable, certainly hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. With a workshop and race truck to run, mechanics, riders, a truck driver and team manager to pay, plus flights, hotels, air freight, entry fees and fuel, it’s a small to medium sized business. More on this in the coming chapters. Number 2. Each team is like a family, and just like the families you know, some are tight-knit and stick together through thick and thin, whilst at the other extreme some are so dysfunctional that it’s hard to believe that they work at all, with all the human foibles, quarrels, money problems, relationship issues and insecurities that could be found in any group of people. The GP paddock is like a village that has every type of family, and despite the façade of corporate shininess that they all portray, when you scratch the surface they’re not all as shiny as you may think. You’ll also meet a wide variety of people from virtually every nationality. It would be easy to stereotype some of them with national traits but that would be both lazy and wrong; some people are just odd, wherever they come from! But that multicultural mix is also one of the great strengths of the paddock; despite language barriers, team affiliations or the politics of the real world everyone seems to rub along using the international language of hand gestures, broken English and beer. Number 3. Almost everyone is there because of a shared love of the sport and a desire to do as well as possible. They certainly aren’t in it for the money. Sure, a few people earn a very good living, but the window of opportunity is very short if you’re a rider, and if you’re a mechanic I would suggest that many are working for less than the minimum wage if you include all the travelling, long days in the workshop and even longer days at the track. It can be a

relentless grind; as soon as the last race is over they are packing up to get back to the workshop and start preparing for the next race. With twenty MXGP races in 2018 and 8 British championships, there only a couple of free weekends between March and October. It’s no different for the reporters, journalists and photographers that follow the circuit. It’s a labour of love with probably only 10% making a living from their work and with magazine circulations around the world decreasing and the abundance of free websites and social media pages giving real time information, it’s only going to get harder.

CChapter 1

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS & TEAM PRINCIPAL

ROGER MAGEE.

Theteam started in 2005 as the Lizard Honda team. Set up by Roger Magee, a business man from Northern Ireland with a passion for motocross and a desire to compete after his own racing days had ended. A long-time friend of Willie Simpson, who was a GP racer from the late ‘70s until the early ‘90s, Willie’s son Shaun was just starting to make a name in racing having finished in the top 15 in MX2 world championship and scoring points in every race in the British MX2 championship. Roger’s family had business interests in running bars and with support from SOBE energy drinks and a few other sponsors, the start-up team was born. Honda Britain wanted to support Simpson and came on board Roger’s new team, supplying reduced rate bikes and spares for Shaun Simpson and local rider Adam McKee racing MX2 in the British and world championships. The RTT team had folded and Roger purchased their HGV race truck and with Willie Simpson enlisted as truck driver and mechanic, he and Shaun set off to Belgium. They would operate out of commercial premises in Ternat, west of Brussels, living in the race truck. Simpson would break his collar bone during practice at Hawkstone Park, before the season had even started so it wasn’t all plain sailing. Honda would increase their support in 2006 with Irishman Gordon Crockard enlisted for MX1, and Scott Probert joining Simpson and McKee in MX2 in the renamed Wulfsport Honda team as Wulf clothing joined the team, paying Shaun and Gordon bonus money for points scored.

TeamPrincipalRogerMagee “ Life in Belfast in the ‘70’s was a lot different than today, the height of ‘the troubles’ with British troops on the street. A young Roger met a road racer called Jim Rogers and started going to watch. Buying the ultimate starter bike, a step-through Honda, it was used around the garden until his dad bought him a 197 Sprite trials bike for Christmas in 1972. The following year schoolboy scrambling started in Northern Ireland and Roger entered on the sprite against a host of converted TS Suzukis but he saved up and soon graduated to a TM125, the third one in the country. At a schoolboy meeting in England Roger finished the first race in thirty-second place then lent his bike to his mate Lawrence Spence who was having bike problems. Spence rode it to second place and would go on to become a factory Kawasaki GP rider, but Roger’s talents on a bike were more limited. By 1976 Roger was in the adult class on an RM370 (“the throttle would stick wide open if it rained”) racing against the likes of Spence, Dave Watson and Stephen Russell, all later becoming professional racers, and still friend with Roger today. In 1986 and now Honda mounted, Roger had a slow speed tip-over that damaged his right shoulder affecting the nerves. After nine month of physio he regained most of the function, but it was the end of his racing. Already part of the Killinchy and District Motorcycle Club, he would become the secretary of the meeting for their John Donnelly International, a bit like the