The press conference this morning revealed the big changes coming for the 2009 season. 2009 is the first year that MX Sports will own the series. The big hitters are:
- New class names — 250 and 450. Imagine that. Somebody actually listens to Jody Weisel.
- Tracks — all the same tracks as 2008.
- Races — still two 30+2 motos, folks. 450 class will run first.
- TV — 3 live races on SPEED. All others broadcast same day at 10:00pm ET. 250 races on the following Tues. First motos, both classes, live and free on the internets.
- No. 1 plates — If you’re a defending champ you have to run the Numero Uno. That’s the way it should be.
- No Side plates — side numbers no longer required. Transponders have rendered them unnecessary and you can’t read them anyway. So the riders are now free to add more “bold new graphics”.
Also, the WMA gets a lot more coverage in 2009 with 8 National events, SPEED and internet coverage. You can infer from this announcement that two-stroke and four-stroke bikes of equal displacement will have to compete against each other. We’ll have to see what this means in practice. Will there even be any two-strokes since all the MX manufacturers have pretty much given in to Honda’s marketing assassination of the ring-dingers? We can hope.
Given all the wild rumors floating around about what would, and would not, happen I’d say this is a great start for rebirth of MX. I give Davey Coombs and the entire MX Sports organization an A+ for their first foray in the Pro Motocross management role.
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