Welcome to today’s edition of the MX Hub presented by Alpinestars, coming off a highly controversial week for supercross promoter International Entertainment Group (IEG). Here’s a heap of info from behind the scenes and more.

Image: Grant Reynolds.

What is going over at Motorcycling Australia (MA) and IEG? Well, a lot, actually. It all started late Friday afternoon on close of business when MA released a pretty vague statement that IEG would no longer be running the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) due to the cancellation of Darwin and “other difficulties relating to the promotion”. And with that, supercross was all of a sudden cast into doubt as well to nobody’s surprise.

Funnily enough, the announcement coincided with David White’s final hours as MA CEO, since Dale Gilson took over on Monday. We’re yet to hear anything formal from MA or IEG regarding supercross, but a press release from the Australian Grand Prix Corporation this morning confirmed the Phillip Island event will be going ahead. On top of that, all indications are that Bathurst will host the opening rounds a week prior (both double-headers). As for the fifth and final round in Brisbane, can anybody say INDOOR? That’s what speculation suggests.

Of course all of this depends on IEG’s financial position. As I wrote last week on CycleOnline.com.au, IEG was recently involved in a legal dispute behind closed doors, and revisions to its shareholders made via the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) recently spelt changes/troubles within the company. Right now, according to the ASIC website, “International Entertainment Group is held pending transfer to another holder”.

I respect the dedication IEG managing director Yarrive Konsky has in the sport, both through his promotion and in running the Honda race team. You can’t argue with his commitment, but from the outside it’s been spiraling out of control due to all kinds of circumstances. Many are his doing, others may be out of his control, and right now as it stands, they’re in a difficult position and it’s going to take a massive, massive effort to pull through from here with real success.

Budgeting, plus planning including booking travel and accommodation, is impossible at this point without concrete info. The longer this goes on, the more difficult and expensive it’s going to be for the Phillip Island/Bathurst events if they do go ahead in less than five months. And don’t forget teams actually confirming their rider line ups for the series, because to do that, they obviously need to budget how many events they will be doing, what the series is worth in bonuses and more.

Apart from the financial aspect, in my opinion it’s the smaller shortfalls that are concerning as well. The official website has no significant updates since 6 December when the provisional calendar was announced, yet MotoGP organisers Dorna announced just days later that particular event would be held a week earlier than previously scheduled and we had zero correspondence or updates from IEG at the time or since. And apart from that, it’s still displaying incorrect or last year’s dates throughout.

Is it that difficult to communicate anything at all? At the same time, their Facebook Page is updated frequently full of silly memes (there’s a time and place for that, but not on the ASX series’ official Page to that extent IMO) and other shared international content in a bid to win hundreds and thousands of so-called ASX fans over. Forget Facebook for a moment, let’s see some real information about YOUR series. Nobody writes about it and few even ask about it, but it has long been a vital aspect of Australian motorcycle competition. If it’s not going to be done right, don’t do it at all.

I hate to be the media guy that calls out these things, but it all indicates the lack of direction the series has. Maybe with superbikes off the radar they’ll lift their game, but the industry is getting anxious and at a time when money is becoming increasingly scarce, it’s not looking good and I can understand why. I support the series and I’m a major fan of supercross, but I’ve seen first hand the state superbikes ended up in after five ill-fated years with IEG working alongside MA and it wasn’t pretty. But that’s a whole other story. How about some official communication soon, IEG/MA?

Anyway, that’s it for me this week, now over to Simon Makker for his latest…

On Monday we received the surprising news that former World MX2 and AMA Eastern Regional 250SX champion Ben Townley had stuck his hand up to race the iconic Manjimup 15,000 in WA later this month. BT sensationally quit professional racing at the beginning of last year, and has since stepped into a vastly different role as the team manager for The Honda Shop race team back in his homeland of New Zealand.

Still, even when he quit professional racing and gave up on his dream of returning to the US, BT101 made it clear that he’d always be a racer and would still do the odd event here and there. I hope as much as anyone else that Townley will return to the start-gate of a national championship, but don’t read too much into his inclusion for the Manji 15,000. Last year he rode the Hattah Desert Race and is more than content to simply show up for the odd event, then disappear into the Tauranga hills and enjoy his retirement.

While on the subject of WA, the Nitro Circus Live tour kicked off in Perth on Saturday, and by all accounts the new-look show is an absolute banger. We haven’t seen too much footage, from the event, but ticket-holders can expect to find the Giganta-ramp has been replaced with a Tri-ganta ramp that has three wooden double jumps instead of the one big dog that’s featured in every NCL show to date.

Queensland’s Clint Moore also pulled off a completely new, never-before-seen body varial he’s calling The Bundy. He ran a bit off-track after landing, but still effectively landed and rode away from the new trick. The Circus has now arrived in Brisbane, where they’ll perform an unprecedented four back-to-back shows from Thursday until Sunday nights. X Games gold medallist Jacko Strong will also join the tour in Brisbane, where he’s expected to land the Frontflip, or a variation thereof… stay tuned!

On a different tack now, but it sounds like one of motocross’s regular pit attendees, Ben Lane, has been replaced as the team manager at Raceline Suzuki after the Wonthaggi round of the MX Nationals. Lane, who worked as Jay Marmont’s wrench at Monster Energy Kawasaki, had been with Raceline since the beginning of 2013. We’re not sure on the ins and outs of the whole thing, but Benny had told us he was planning on exiting the sport at the end of the year anyway, to spend more time with his family in his home town of Toowoomba.

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