ASK THE MXPERTS: WHY DON’T THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONS RUN THE NUMBER ONE PLATE

Dear MXperts,

I have a questions about 450 World Champion Tim Gajser. Why doesn’t Tim run the number 1 plate like the AMA Champions do? Since the goal is to become a World Champion, wouldn’t he want to run the number 1 plate especially given that he has won the World Championship five times?

There is good answer to your question. In the golden era of AMA motocross, riders were proud to run the number 1 plate on their bikes. They had worked hard to earn it, and they were happy to put it on their bikes. And in those days every National number from 1 to 99 was handed out based on the points earned from the year before. However, when agents and big money entered the sport, the riders wanted to stick with whatever number they believed made them the most marketable. Back in the era of action figures and motocross toys, the factory riders’ agents lobbied for the AMA to give their riders a recognizable permanent number that they could keep for as long as they raced. Why? So that their clients could sell products with their number on it (without having to worry about the current number being a thing of the past by the time the toy came out). Ricky Carmichael embraced this idea and chose number 4.

Ricky did run the Number One plate …at the Motocross des Nations.

However, in his first year on the AMA National circuit, Ricky ran number 768. In his second year, he earned National number 70. In 1998, he was National number 6 but ran the number 1 plate when he was in the 125 class. In 1999, he was National number 9 but ran the number 1 plate when he was in the 125 class. For the 2000 season, Ricky selected number 4 as his permanent number—and that is what he ran for most of his career, whether he won Championships or not. The strange thing about Ricky Carmichael is that since Ricky won 15 AMA Championships, if he had chosen to run the number 1 plate, that would have been on his bike almost every year (and number 1 is more marketable than number 4).

In 2009, well after Ricky retired and the action-figure market fizzled out, the AMA passed rule number 3.3 b, which stated that the “current Champion must compete with the #1.” This was not a popular rule with the star riders or their agents, but since the rule has been in existence now for 13 years, the riders who didn’t want to run the number 1 plate are long gone. We point all of this out as a way of saying that rule 3.3 b was very good for the sport. It let the uninitiated spectators or casual TV viewers understand that the numbering system actually means something.

The FIM World Motocross Championship does not have a rule 3.3 b, thus they have a mixed-up mishmash of riders with numbers that provide no context as to who’s who on the track. As for Tim Gajser, the number 243 has an emotional attachment for him. Tim’s brother Zan was killed in a motorcycle accident before Tim was born. Zan’s birthday was March 24, which in Europe is printed as 24/3 (day/month). As a tribute to his brother, Tim runs number 243 on his factory Honda.