However, it was a Kiwi Greg Atkins - Youthstream's track designer - who was in charge of 'tuning' the Budds Creek course for the biggest Motocross race of the season and, as he reveals below, there was plenty of work required.
"Greg Atkins did an outstanding job in designing and preparing the track for the Motocross of Nations in Budds Creek", said FIM/CMS president Dr. Wolfgang Srb. "Greg does all the tracks for the FIM MX1/2 Motocross World Championship in the most professional way, but Budds Creek was without any doubt his masterpiece. He deserves all the credit for this job. It's very important having a neutral designer working for Youthstream as there are many countries involved in the Motocross of Nations and we cannot allow a local track designer to build a track in favour of their country, the track must follow the FIM Standards and must be fair and equal for all participating."
Here, Atkins talks about how he ensured the best motocross riders in the world had a circuit to match their talents - and entertain the event's worldwide audience...
Q:
The Budds Creek circuit looked close to perfection...
Greg Atkins:
Thanks a lot. I just did my job, the job I do at every GP, we give accurate and precise attention on every circuit we work on. Here we had to fix some issues that obviously generated some complaints back in June at the [AMA] National round. I think we got it dialled in pretty well.
Q:
Let's go back to the first time you checked the circuit and the ideas you then brought in to make it even more exciting and of course to fix whatever was not in accordance to the FIM rules.
Greg Atkins:
I made two inspections, one in November 2006 and the other during the AMA National in June. Then I arrived at Budds Creek 14 days before the MXoN to follow all the work being done to the track. In general what I did was: shortened the track, mixed wood chips into the soil, added new soil, completely changed the start, added the mechanic's pit lane, put up the green netting around the circuit, set up the waiting zone and the technical control area, put new larger tunnels for the medical staff and so on. It took quite a bit of work because we had to make sure that the high standards required by the FIM would be respected.
Q:
It sounds like a lot of hard work...
Greg Atkins:
People sometimes don't realise how high the FIM standards are and how much work it takes if you don't start from scratch and you have to operate on a pre-existing context. Yeah it was a lot of stuff to do but in the end we were all extremely glad with our results.
Let me explain in detail what I had to do to get the track up to the standard we saw at Budds Creek for the Motocross of Nations. I sent plans of what had to be done months before the event but was negatively surprised when I saw in what condition the track was when I went over for the National in June. Again I sent e-mails with guidelines to follow and I received positive e-mails back saying that the work was getting done.
Like I said I got at Budds Creek for the Motocross of Nations 14 days before and found that only about 20% of the work I had asked to be done was actually done. That required from us an emergency reaction to make sure we would be on time. As soon as I arrived we started working the dirt and added the new soil and wood-chips. In total we brought in about 20-30 truck loads of wood-chips and new soil.
