FXR Racing: Point/Double-Point “Monster Clause”

 

Swiz- It’s not like the American National MX series is the only non MXGP gig in town. There are pleny of other National championships to go around for racers to wage their own personal war on. But of course, like so many other areas of competition, America has a target on it’s back because of our brash, proud nature. The odds are not in our favor in terms of shear numbers, I mean have you SEEN the crowds lining the tracks of the MXGP’s? Never mind the size, those damn chainless saws are intense!

 

As popular as the global MXGP series is in terms of profit and fanaticism on the east side of the Atlantic, it just wasn’t enough. Guiseppe Luongo and his promotion machine set their sights on the West and penciled in two USGP’s for 2016. This addition of 2 races falling strategically at the conclusion of the US Nationals removed the obvious conflict for US racers dedicated to progress in our own series and made the USGP’s a viable option. Well unless you’re a Monster sponsored rider racing in the US. As Monster is the title sponsor for the MXGP’s, their “pull” was obvious. A “preferential” insistence by Monster is akin to a Don Corleone “suggestion” in the Godfather. To refuse is not wise.

 

It’s incredible to me that Monster would insist on forcing the hand of their top US-based racers to make a decision between two bragging-rights-only races or another race they also sponsor, the Motocross Des Nations. The MXdN has already been the target of scrutiny in terms of losing it’s own prestige and importance with American riders in recent years, so the edge goes to the two races which fall closer to the termination of the National series so the racers can get on with the downtime, recovery and preparation for 2017.

I’m not getting into an argument over which riders or series is better, I’m just laying out my case that the GP’s and more importantly, Monster needs to keep it’s claws out of the US riders when it comes to a series which offers them no incentive whatsoever, unless they opt in out of their own desire. 

 

Trust me, I may sound bitter but if Adam Cianciarulo had ended up with another serious injury and longterm layoff… There are no words that could convey my vitriol toward these races.

 

In true college debate-team style I have set my stance as many of the arguments you have made recently, Boss (and I absolutely fall on this side myself). Now show me how proficient you really are at arguing and tell me why I have it all wrong.

 

 

Matthes- Well  I CAN’T reasonably argue the side that two USGP’s, an SMX Cup, an MEC and a RB Straight Rhythm are all fine and dandy for off-season races after eschewing them over and over and over on my shows and Twitter can I? 

 

What I can say is it’s a damm shame that Monster has determined that the two USGP’s are more important than the MXDN in forcing Tomac to go to both. “But Matthes, he signed the contract to race them so shut up” is what your comeback could be and you’re right except the deal was for ONE USGP. I admire Tomac’s balls in saying that he’s out of the MXDN if he had to race Charlotte. There’s no way Monster thought that would happen, they probably figured they could get their pound of flesh and ET wouldn’t want the wrath of the fans on him about the MXDN.

 

The timing of these things couldn’t be any worse either. What’s happened is European riders used to be able to do supercross in January and then have time to go back to get ready for the GP’s but Youthstream has moved the schedule up more to stop that from happening. And the USA teams did want the outdoor schedule done earlier so that they would have more down time for everyone, MX Sports accommodated that but everyone (Youthstream, energy drinks) just saw that as an opening and bulldozed their way in. The gap between the last USA national and the MXDN is an issue for everyone and again, I put the blame on Youthstream for this in their quest for global reach of their series. The trump card they hold of the MXDN and when and where they place it is a powerful one to be sure.

 

In short Swiz, we’re “fuckered” to use a term my buddy Brett uses. The teams need to stop this but they can’t and the riders are paying the price as we’ve just seen with our buddy AC.

 

Swiz- This totally comes down to two things.

 

First, Youthstream is looking at this and treating it like any capitalist business would; where opportunity lies, pounce. They aren’t concerned with the racers desires, well-being or career longevity. They care about their own ability to cash in now, riders be damned. Another business cliche is at work too, supply and demand. Supply the event and demand your top athletes compete. It’s not in the contracts(yet) but with the strangle hold sponsors appear to have on teams and by extension riders, it might as well be.

 

This leads to the other aspect of this scenario. Riders essentially being indentured servants. It’s incredible to me how the very object of a racing series spectator draw and money making nucleus are considered so little. For all the bling we see in the pits and on social media, the majority of riders are viewed by the title sponsors of both teams and a series as cogs in the machine. Unless you are a current champ or in the current title chase, your job security as a top 1% of racer in the country is nearly the same as the last guy qualifying for the opportunity to line up for the points. It’s ridiculous. Yes, again Im beating the drum of a rider represntative group.

 

Matthes- Nah, it’s not the riders that need to get together (well maybe they do but that will never happen), it’s the teams. The teams have the riders and are there are fewer of them so they can organize better. The teams need to tell Feld, MX Sports, Youthstream when, what and where they’ll show up at. A lot of my opinions on these extra races come from them…they’re the ones that tell me they don’t want to have extra races, that they’re overworked and it just took me looking around and seeing that they’re right. Hold as many races as you want after the nationals are over, that doesn’t bug me- but force no one to go and see what happens.