Coming home

There is no better place to be at this time of year than at the home grand prix of Motocross. Yes, back in the early part of the last century motocross was born, just 20 miles from the site this years British GP will be held.

The sport has developed a lot since that first race, and the fortunes of riders from Great Britain has been a little of a rollercoaster.

It has been a long time between drinks for British motocross fans. While their riders have been picking up the odd GP victory, the last time they had a world motocross champion was back in 2001 when James Dobb grabbed his chance with both hands and pulled the title from the hands of second placed man Steve Ramon.

The Brit really had dominated the early part of the season winning seven of the first 10 GP’s, but a crash in round seventh round in Sweden nearly stopped him in his tracks. Despite a broken shoulder Dobb continued to ride, and wrapped up the title in Gaildorf, Germany with three rounds remaining.

“It wasn’t easy,” Dobb told at the time. “I had a lot of pain, but I wasn’t going to let the chance slip away. I had ridden all my life to be world champion and to be so close I couldn’t just let the championship go. To be the last rider to win a world title for England is pretty special.”

Since that day in Germany the British riders haven’t had much success. A GP win here and there, some really solid rides from riders like Gordon Crockard, Tommy Searle, Shaun Simpson, Max Anstie and Jake Nicholls have given the British fans something to cheer about, but that motocross world championship has eluded them for nearly 15 years.

The 2015 season has also been a tough one of the Brits, with early injuries to Searle and Anstie in Qatar and Thailand, and less than stellar form from Simpson until now. Add to their problems Jake Nicholls was injured the week before the GP season began.

Heading to Matterley Basin though Simpson and Anstie are coming into better form, with Anstie looking the most likely to bring something special to their home GP.

Simpson is in fact undefeated in the British Motocross Championship this year, so he has massive pressure to continue that form in the MXGP class. With an overall victory last weekend at a Belgian International race the Scotsman must be feeling pretty happy with his current form.

“I won there (Wuurstwezel) for the first time which was pretty cool,” Simpson said earlier this week. “But I’m a bit fed-up to be honest. It didn’t even seem that sandy, which is unusual for here and was a bit sketchy. My results were okay, but they should have been better and I just didn’t really enjoy it. Anyway, we shouldn’t grumble too much and I’m really looking forward to Matterley Basin now.”

So the British riders head back home to England this week, confidence building and who knows, with a little luck we might see a Brit on the podium. It would take a huge surprise for one of them to win the GP, but bigger surprises have occurred this season.