Five Minutes with ... Mark Stallybrass
OCTOBER 31, 2007

Mark Stallybrass

By Danny Brault

Even though the 2008 Monster Energy Motocross Nationals are still seven months away, this is the time to make changes, upodates, and secure sponsorships and put in contingencies for next year’s series. That’s what is keeping CMRC president Mark Stallybrass busy right now. The most notable and recent change to the `08 program is the MX2 series going coast-to-coast, which has received mixed reviews. We called up Stally to see what else we can expect in the New Year.


RXC: Hey, Mark, what’s been keeping you busy now that the nationals are wrapped up?
Mark Stallybrass: Basically, my number one priority is is trying to generate sponsorship, renewing contracts with existing sponsors, and finding new sponsors. I had a meeting with the manufacturers last week to talk about some things we’re doing next year.

So Monster Energy is back again next year, right?
Yes. I have a two-year deal with them. From everything that I’ve been led to believe, they are more than happy. That’s another thing I’m doing, going to California to meet with them and see if I can get them to step things up in a number of different areas. There are consumer shows coming up and retail business to take care of. The pace isn’t the same when the season is on, but there is still a lot to do.

When you say you’re approaching Monster to step things up, in which ways?
Well, I don’t really want to get into it too much, because I don’t want people to get their hopes up. There’s more we can do promotionally, working with their partners such as Pepsi Canada, whether it’s doing something retail or in-case promotions. They have the Triple Crowns going on down south; I’m going to talk to them about the possibility of doing something like that. But if they do the same as what they did last year, it’s still a big step for the series. If you don’t ask, you will never receive.

When you say in case promotions, is that like buy a Monster Energy drink and receive a coupon to a Canadian National?
Yeah, something like that, or even to the point of printing something on the can. There are lots of ideas, but it’s a matter of presenting them and saying what can we do or how can we extend the benefit of the association with the motocross nationals. That’s really what it’s all about: these sponsors want to increase sales. So if we can assist in another promotion, or anything to increase the value of their association with the series, we’d like to do that. I had a meeting yesterday, and I’m trying to raise enough money to hire a press relations company for the nationals. We would hold press days and invite local media. That’s something I’ve wanted to do for some time, but it takes money.

Obviously it’s still early, but are there any new sponsors coming on board?
I’m actually going to Montreal tomorrow. I have a meeting with Motovan and I’m renewing our agreement with them. I’m also taking along another potential sponsor that I’m trying to get Motovan to distribute product for. There are a number of companies I’m dealing with, but I don’t want to say anything and jinx myself.

Each year the series seems to get a little better, like with Monster signing on for two years. Which areas would you like improve and focus on, Mark?
There’s a ton of steps, and a lot of things the series could use. I went down to the Des Nations, and the way I summarized it was—that it’s everything I or a promoter could dream of. The number of spectators, the track, the layout, the pits, everything. It was just amazing. I was more than impressed. There are so many different areas you could look at, and not necessarily in this order. More corporate involvement with the teams and riders, so they have funds to work with outside of the industry then they aren’t looking at the manufacturers as much. To have more television coverage and mainstream media. If we could get into all of the major newspapers, just results say, that’s going to raise the profile. If we can generate more sponsorship money, I can employ more people for track prep, signage, and cross promotions. You can look at every piece of the puzzle and say that could be better. Trust me, I’m my own worst critic. It’s a matter of using what you have to work with and saying, okay let’s do this. From day one—we’re going into our 16th year of the nationals—we’ve been polishing the whole package and every year it has improved.

 One change for `08, is to have practice on Saturday at noon so we can have a “press day” before practice. That way, if there is any media coverage or television coverage there is enough time to get back and get it into the six o’clock news or Sunday’s paper. But it’s a matter of being able to afford a company who can arrange this, have the contacts, and can hound people. It’s an accumulative process, though. This year we might only get five or six media out, and the next year, seven or eight, and year after year it improves.

Monster Energy will be back again next year supporting Canadian motocross.

photo: Dan Stenning

Switching gears here, Mark. I’m on the fence with the MX2 series going to nine rounds. I think it’s great to have a “real” series rather than four short rounds, but after speaking with factory teams, they don’t think it’s cost effective. Why did you decide to make the MX2 series coast to coast?
Well, it’s funny you say that because I went to every team manager last year and they said they think it’s a good thing. I’m the one who started the East/ West format, so I’m somewhat on the fence too. We’ve done it since 2000; I think it’s been seven years. There are a number of reasons. I think we’re ready for a change; we can always go back if it doesn’t work. The series is at the point now where it’s ready for this change; I think it will make for interesting racing with guys from the east and west competing. As for teams saying that they’re hiring only one rider, I guess we’ll see.  Cernic’s, yes I know that they are only an MX1 team, but then there are guys pooling together to race the entire series who would have never done it before. I’m anticipating that we are going to get an increase of entries from the teams at each round, as far as privateers goes, if you look at the entries at each round, there are only handful that do the whole four round series.

Yep. So you would have your handful of factory riders, the middle class riders who will follow the series, and then the local guys who complete the gate each round.
Yes. If you look at the change that we’ve done, for the guys who race the two or three local rounds, they can still do that. If you look at the top ten, pretty much all of them were team riders. Now that we’re awarding full points for MX2, if a guy does run one or two nationals, he can get full points towards his national number. Some guys could say, ‘I’m not going to do the nationals because I can’t afford it and I won’t get recognized.’ Well, you’re not going to get recognized by staying at home. You still have an opportunity to race three or four races like they did last year.

Maybe those guys feel that since they can’t follow the full series, they won’t earn a good overall finish.
Again, you are going to get the same, if not more guys doing the series. Maybe this will encourage more guys to travel, even if it’s just from Manitoba to Ontario. Now they can race their MX2 bike in the east and not have to worry about having an MX1 bike. They can team up with a buddy or two and make the trek for a weekend or two. There are lots of ways to look at it, on both sides of the fence, and I was a proponent for the East/ West series. I’ve heard riders and teams say, ‘Oh, we should have a coast-to-coast series because you blow one moto and you blow the whole series.’

Without trying to play devil’s advocate, you said riders don’t need an MX1 bike to race the whole series. One of the concerns, however, is racing the 250F over nine rounds can be more expensive than racing a 450F.
Versus buying another bike? Is it going to cost them another $8,000 to maintain it for another five races? That’s what it would cost to buy a stock 450. It will be more expensive, but maybe try the MX1 class.

With riders earning full points, what happens if a guy runs both classes and does well. He could have more points than a guy who wins the MX1 championship. How does that work?
The top ten numbers will be based on the MX1 class. Let’s say someone gets second in MX2 and some points in MX1, the highest number they can get is 11. If a rider finishes in the top ten, he cannot advance his position by adding MX2 points. Example: If he finishes 7th in MX1 and 2nd in MX2 his national number would be 7th. If a rider is 14th in MX1 and 2nd in MX2 the best he can advance his national number to is 11th because the top ten numbers are assigned by the top ten finishing order of MX1.

Okay, so what if two guys are tied in points in MX1, but one has scored points in MX2. Will that bump him up?
If his total number of points if higher, then yes. Something else that we are going to be changing is the format on Sunday so we can finish the program earlier and make it more spectator friendly. For instance, the best moto I’ve ever seen was the final MX1 moto at Sand Del Lee, but it didn’t go off until 5:30 or 6:15 PM. We’re going to tighten the program so there isn’t that 45-minutes between each moto. It will be more challenging for riders to race both classes. The schedule I have, the final MX1 moto would be off the line at four o’clock. It will be a tight schedule, but if we can start at noon and finish at 4-4:30 that will be more attractive to spectators.

This comes up quite a bit amongst the riders: will the purse increase in 2008?
Not at this point, but that is something I’m trying to do with the series purse. I was going to propose an increased series purse from the manufacturers, but now they are in survival mode from the dollar. There is some cross border shopping going on and if people want to see our sport grow, they need to think twice. However, there is another argument there and I can see both sides of the coin.

With regards to the dollar, there has been rumour that Honda Canada might pull out as a series sponsor next year.
I’ve heard rumours. Honda is looking at where they stand in a number of areas. Yes, it’s a rumour and yes it’s a possibility, but I haven’t spoken to them. I plan to speak with them as soon as I can. That being said, I didn’t hear from Honda until a week before the nationals started last year, but hopefully I can get an indication earlier than that. It’s not a reflection on the series; it’s a corporate direction and a matter of money to them.

Any changes to the 2008 schedule?
As it stands right now, we have one change.

Raymond instead of Calgary?
Yep. There were a number of issues why we changed that round. It wasn’t just myself that wasn’t happy; there were a number of people who weren’t happy. The club took a different direction that they aren’t necessarily pleased with.

I do like the idea of going to Raymond. I think it will help boost the prestige of the Western Canadian Amateur National and give the western amateurs something even bigger to look forward to.
The biggest reason we left Raymond in the past, because we did have nationals there for three or four years, was an influence from our title sponsor, Export A, who was looking for a bigger audience and it wasn’t happening at Raymond. Now with Raymond growing at the amateur level, it’s a much more significant event than it was ten years ago. As you said, it’s going to make the prestige of the event bigger and it’s going to attract more amateurs because of the addition of the pros. The track, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the top three in the country. I know Gerry [Nelson] and I know how hard he works, he has a lot of pride in the track, and with the whole country watching, I think he’s going to do a bang up job.

Other than Raymond replacing Calgary, are there any more changes to schedule?
There will be three western rounds in a row, and then a week off before Nanaimo. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same.

Cool. Do you have any other changes planned?
It’s still a little premature, but we’re going to continue improving and moving forward.