News

5 Minutes with Mike Porra

Mike can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became involved in promoting the new sx series?
I have been involved in sports promotion for the last 10years and for the last five years I have been the worldwide promoter for the Crusty Demons shows. During this time I was approached about promoting supercross and not just freestyle. After looking at it for some time I decided to give it a go.
How long has the series taken to get up and running?
As I said before I looked at it for some time and wasn’t entirely enthused about getting involved. It took some time for me to convince the industry that a drastic change was needed. Once I had their support then it was time to go and that whole process took a couple of years to put together.
What were your reasons behind the unusual race formats at some rounds?
I went through a lot of frustrating times trying to implement these formats but they were needed to provide a better entertainment package. Our research and feedback has shown them to be quite successful not only within the live audience but the television audience We wanted to provide good close racing and have people coming away with a supercross experience unlike any other they have ever had.
Did you follow the Americans in any way as far as how you have presented and run your series?
Well I went to the U.S and went and watched a couple of the big AMA races and to be honest I wasn’t that overly impressed. Some of that comes from my experience with the Crusty shows where we turned FMX into somewhat of a theatrical show. But I saw two races where more or less after the first turn the lead stayed constant with no particularly great entertainment in the lead up to it. So really apart from learning about racing there wasn’t too much I gained from it. Except for really coming home feeling very confident that in this country we could lead from here, try new things and basically create a whole new sport called Super X.
How important do you feel it has been to have live TV coverage?
Well having live TV is very stressful. Especially when you are also trying to run an event for 20000 people at the same time. But we felt it important because with these new formats we really needed to get it out there and show people the sport, and live TV was the thing to do that. Plus I don’t think there is a more spectacular form of competition around. My pick is that in the next four to five years this is going to be a big mainstream sport on television.
How has the series been received by the participants and the general public?
The riders have been fantastic. As you would expect there are some of them that would prefer the straight 20 lap format, Chad being one of them. And I can completely understand him being a world champion in the 20-lap format why he prefers it. But from a business perspective and with him as my business partner he knows it’s the right thing from a business point of view. Most of the other riders really enjoy it. One of the main reasons being that they have never experienced racing in such an electric atmosphere. The crowds have never cheered louder and the whole place is buzzing and they can’t help but get caught up in the incredible excitement of it all. From a TV and crowd point of view we have had amazing feedback and there is no question it is certainly appealing to the audience.
Do you think this sort of sx concept could work in the U.K. and Europe?
Without a doubt. Super X as we call it really stands for a type of racing, which is the new formats. And I think to be honest if it’s not us someone will copy what we are doing and these formats will be happening in Europe and America in the next couple of years. It may be us or someone else but there is no question about it in my mind. This footage is being broadcast around the world and all promoters will be seeing it, everyone knows what we are doing here. In my mind it’s not a question of if, it’s when.
Are you still planning to expand the series next year?
We have now confirmed there will definitely be a race in New Zealand next year. I mean the event is called Super X the Australasian championships and our reason for that is we want to expand. We want to be in places such as China and Japan and other parts of Asia in the next five years and to have a truly southern hemisphere series to rival that of what’s happening in America.
Would you like to see more international riders involved?
Yes that’s certainly our plan. We are well advanced in our discussions with Jeremy McGrath regarding him competing in the whole series next year. We are also beginning discussions with a whole range of Americans, as are the race teams. Our window is perfect as we are outside both the MX and SX seasons in the U.S and running on full size tracks. So it is also great practice and training for the riders and as the series grows there will be more and more prize money. So yes we really want to see it as a full international series in the next few years.
Where would you like to see this series in the long term?
Well we are already talking with some of the Asian companies in their countries and aligning ourselves to run under the international controlling body. Our races have been broadcast to 30 countries around the world and if we can get another four or five races up in there and have full Asia wide television coverage, that’s when the money comes. With this money and publicity comes good reason for guys like the Americans to have a whole other season to consider competing in as well as it being great for the sport in general worldwide.

Updated on 17/12/2008