Features 3 Mar 2022

Countdown: FIM World SX key points

Detailing latest FIM Supercross World Championship announcement.

Earlier this week, SX Global, the Australian-based promoters of the upcoming FIM Supercross World Championship, revealed some much-anticipated details of what the all-new series will look like when the gates drop later this year. MotoOnline focuses on some of the key points of the major announcement in this Countdown.

Image: Foremost Media.

6. Five-round pilot series:
Before this week’s announcement, one of the biggest questions we had was how an overhauled FIM Supercross World Championship would fit in with other major, established championships – namely the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship and the FIM-backed MXGP World Championship. We now know that there’ll be some synergy this year, with a ‘pilot’ five-round series taking place from September until November. However, from 2023 the new World SX championship will expand to at least 10 events between June and November. It’s understood that races are being considered across multiple continents, including Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Given Mubadala Capital’s massive investment (see more below!) in the series, it’s expected there will also be at least one round in the Middle East also, but we will see. We also found it interesting that SX Global’s media release stated that current standalone supercross events are a ‘significant untapped opportunity’ as they are ‘not currently linked by any official FIM championship status’. These sell-out events (such as Geneva and Bercy), prove there’s certainly an appetite for supercross racing at an international level.

5. Support for teams that commit:
The FIM Supercross World Championship going head-to-head against the established and internationally-recognized MXGP and the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship from 2023 onwards poses something of a quandary for manufacturers and teams and will make for some tough decisions as far as resourcing goes. SX Global is well aware of this and has pledged more than $50-million (all dollar references in USD) in team and rider support over five years, which includes covering the cost of freight of motorcycles and equipment, logistics support, seed-funding for every team and appearance fees at every event. The championship structure is limited to just 10 team licenses, but these financial incentives would certainly be attractive. Note that they’re not just talking about manufacturers, either. With this arrangement, it could be possible that a maj

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