The 2014 Pro Nationals series has been condensed from a five-round championship to a one-weekend ‘festival’ on the beach at Weston-super-Mare on June 7-8.
Classes will remain the same as in 2013 with a mixed capacity MX1 and MX2 pro class, 125cc and Open two-stroke categories for Expert and Junior riders and four youth divisions.
A letter has been sent to all the teams and riders informing them of this dramatic change. Keep checking back here for further updates.
Weston was the venue for last year’s most successful round of the Red Bull Pro Nationals with 10,000 fans flocking to the custom-built beachfront track.
Web surfers heading to www.redbullpronationals.com will find themselves redirected to www.pronationalsfestival.com although the site isn’t due to launch until March 31.
Letter to teams from Matt Bates:
Dear Teams,
It is with regret that I am writing to inform you that in 2014 we will be taking a break from staging the Pro Nationals series.
As I’m hoping you can appreciate, making this decision has been exceptionally difficult as collectively, e22 Sports and the team of dedicated staff have worked tirelessly to elevate Motocross to a standard that few have ever achieved. Equally I fully appreciate the difficult situation this may put you in with riders and sponsors and I can only apologise for this late decision, but I challenge anyone in my shoes if they would have made any other decision.
My personal reasons for making this decision are because with only a handful of available venues able to cater for events of this size, coupled with the increasing number of new national event organisers claiming they are going to ‘fix the sport of its problems’, it has become commercially impossible to continue in a very crowded market. Other licensing bodies have also played a part in our decision process having mercilessly placed restrictions on riders taking part in our events whilst continuous date clashes and venue restrictions leave us confused with their true reasoning.
My belief is that the Pro Nationals together with our partners and you as team owners have played a leading role in elevating the standard of Motocross events in the UK. We’ve kept the 2-stroke championships alive and were the first organisers to give opportunity for youth riders to showcase their ability in front of industry supported professional status teams. Over the course of five years we have staged in excess of 50 events, attracted tens of thousands of new fans to the sport, given over 5,000 individuals the chance to try the sport for the first time and above all, I believe we’ve made the sport a better place that’s equally led to other championships needing to match our commitment and level of entertainment.
Naturally I’m well aware that not everyone will be pleased with this late decision and despite all rumours, we had every intention of continuing the series up until only a few days ago. I can honestly say that as a team of dedicated motocross fanatics, we are all just as disappointed. I also have no doubt that Social Media channels will be awash with criticism, but all I kindly ask is that you take a step back for a few moments to remind yourself of what we’ve positively achieved over the past five years.
Pro Nationals Festival – 7th & 8th June 2014
Weston Super Mare was a huge highlight for us in 2013 and something that I believe has a great future as a singular festival style event or part of a series that we will look to continue from 2015, therefore on June 7th & 8th 2014 we will be staging the Pro Nationals Festival to celebrate everything that we have achieved since the start of the series in 2009. In typical e22 Sports style, we’re going to make certain of the fact that this is the biggest MX event of the year! I would therefore like to ask you as teams to attend this event.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support you have given me and our series over the years as undoubtedly the increase of professionalism within the sport has always been a priority.
Thank you
Matt Bates
