WESS is Dead. What Happens Next? Rider, team and race organisers have their say
WESS is dead so what happens next for the Hard Enduro World Championship? Enduro21 talks to a rider, a race director, a team and the FIM to find out their take on the current situation, where we should go from here and ponder was WESS the problem all along?
When the story broke last week that WESS Promotions, the promoters behind the Hard Enduro World Championship, hadn’t reached its owns finincial targets and was therefore pulling the plug on the 2025 HEWC season, few people seem surprised.
WESS had been the promoters of first World Enduro Super Series in 2018 and the driving force behind what became the Hard Enduro World Championship.
But they have alwasy been heavily endebted to KTM and when the Austrian manufacturer pulled its sponsorship due to its own financial problems, it caused a serious knock-on effect.
With no major backers before its own end of February deadline, WESS has closed its doors leaving the ’25 HEWC season at best on hold, at worst all off altogether.
What happens next? HEWC 2.0
Enduro21 has spoken to leading players in this game to find out what the news actually means to them as we look at a 2025 season potentially without a Hard Enduro World Championship.
The general air and sense of feeling following the WESS announcement has been two-fold: firstly, Enduro21 has spoken to various people over the last week and not one seems surprised that this has happened.
Secondly, it is moment which many see as a positive. “Time for a fresh start”, some say, and a chance to look at the championship, its organisation, the rules, prize money, the type and format of events and more to move things forward.
Rider’s view – Billy Bolt
“I think it’s not a bad thing for it to break down to the point that it gets built back up again.” Says the former FIM HEWC and WESS champion (and now five times SuperEnduro World Champion) who has spent the last couple of seasons injured and unable to compete the full outdoor series’.
“In my opinion there were a lot of areas where it could be improved and could have been better. The sport at the top level is only getting smaller which is a clear indicator that something’s not working, from the top to the bottom of it.
“I’m not saying I have all the answers, but it needs looking at. We do have more teams, and that side is improving, but the championship still wasn’t doing enough to be attractive for more people to come in to make it grow.
“There’s never been too many manufacturers in the championship and it’s clear that those who aren’t don’t want to and that tells you something.”
Speaking about the events themselves, Billy is clear what works best for the spectacle of the races in front of spectators.
“To me you have such clear examples of what works when you look at Hixpania and Getzen. I fully get that doesn’t appeal to 300 hobby riders who want to turn up and go ride for six hours, I fully understand that’s where the sport came from and it was amazing when everyone was competing together, Pros and hobby guys all on the same start line and all that. I get it.
“But at the same time an FIM World Championship has to become professional. You have to create spectacle. You have to be able to livestream the race so it can be viewed around the world from start to finish. You have to do all these things to get eyeballs on the sport and gets fans involved.
“Shorter format events create a vibe and an atmosphere; you can have the hospitality that’s going to bring the sponsors in who just want a nice weekend out. You have to realise that doesn’t happen when you’re in the hills for four days.
To me that’s how you make it work for a bigger audience and bring in more riders, teams and manufacturers
“The other side of it is those races are still going to be there. Romaniacs is not going away. It’s still going to get hundreds of riders and we’re all still going to want to do it each year because it’s still the gnarliest race. If you win that you’re still the hardest geezer out there. Everyone still wants that title.
“If anything, it will be a better thing for those races because it will bring some people back, prize money will come back because those races will go back to how they were, competing for riders to be there and making it attractive for riders and teams to be there again.
“It’s obviously a shame if it doesn’t happen this year but it gives a good opportunity to build it back up again to what I think the sport deserves. The profile of the riders now I think the sport needs to go at the same level. Hopefully a lot of good is going to come from it.”
The organiser – Nick Plumb race director at Valleys Hard Enduro
New to the championship in 2024, Valleys Hard Enduro was set to be the opening round of the ’25 HEWC season in May until the news dropped last week.
“My first reaction was relief,” says Plumb, “It is a massive commitment to run the event as world championship and of course that is something I committed to because it brings the kudos and the best riders in the world to my event.
“But it also brings a huge amount of stress, partly because last year it was all very last minute, and because of the financial aspect and meeting their demands of the promoter, the FIM, and the riders.”
Now I think I’ve got my event back in my control and I can do it more how I want to
“I try to run a principle of looking after the spectators first, then the riders and then the marshalls. Those principles got blurred last year but this year I think we can put it back on the right path if we do what we know works.
“Last year I was pulling my hair out with it a bit, I must admit, and at times was not sure it was worth it. Then we got the news last week and I felt relief. Now I think I’ve got my event back in my control and I can do it more how I want to.”
Plumb also runs an early season event at the same venue which is extremely popular, the Valleys Extreme, plus the Dawn to Dusk race. Both of which mean he knows his onions.
Heavy price to pay
What many rightly do question is how and why so much money is involved, or was involved. An event organiser had to pay WESS for the right to run a world championship event. If they wanted Red Bull TV coverage, they have to pay for that also.
We’re talking tens of thousands to WESS, plus more to the timing systems company, FIM, Red Bull…then a minimum requirement from the championship promoters in terms of infrastructure, trade stands, spectator entertainment, catering, insurance and so on. Many of these elements amplify as soon as you declare you’re doing a world championship event too. It’s like if you say we’re having a wedding instead of just a party, tens of thousands Pounds/Euros/Dollars becomes hundreds very quickly when you factor in other costs.
It all adds up to a heavy impact on a race organiser like Valleys who are building a relatively new event as opposed to one of the far more established races like Romaniacs who have put out this, ‘we carry on regardless’ message:
The race team – X-Grip Racing
X-Grip Racing team has a growing presence in the Hard Enduro World Championship (and SuperEnduro) paddock. With Mitch and Ash Brightmore onboard this year, they have stepped up their expectations in terms of championship aspirations and ultimately global media coverage for their brand.
So how does it affect a professional race team to learn just a few weeks out that the championship they’re focusing on may or may not happen? Enduro21 spoke to X-Grip CEO, Benjamin Diesel and what was their first reaction.
“To be honest, my first reaction was pure disappointment.” Says Diesel. “While the races will still take place, WESS as a promoter, in collaboration with the FIM, has added significant value to them. They ensured proper marketing and introduced clear regulations.
“Of course, not all riders were always happy with every decision, and the situation was sometimes difficult – but that’s just part of the ‘small’ motorsport world we are in.
The clear goal was to elevate the sport to a new level and make it more well-known
The next obvious question is how will it affect their 2025 program if the HEWC is put on hold?
“For 2025, we will definitely compete in the major races, including Erzberg, Romaniacs, Hixpania, Sea to Sky, and Getzenrodeo.
“At the same time, we are keeping an eye on the growing Hard Enduro scene in the US. The sport is expanding rapidly there, with increasingly popular and large-scale races. We still need to discuss internally how we might adjust our schedule accordingly.”
“From a financial perspective, we still need to evaluate the situation. Our focus will remain on the big races, but whether we participate in all previous events or concentrate on selected highlights will depend on our internal planning.”
What’s the FIM doing?
The FIM have been waiting on the decision from WESS at the end of February like everyone else. Though heavily involved in the process, they, like the event organisers of the championship rounds, had to react and move forward with the new reality i.e. no WESS as promoter.
We trust they are working to secure a new promoter, and the president Jorge Viegas is pretty hands-on with this kind of stuff – he is said to be working on it personally along with the FIM board.
Their aim remains to make the championship happen this year and Enduro21 understands there are some interested parties, but it seems a difficult ask to get things rolling in time for the 2025 season.
One option is the FIM taking control and promoting the series themselves as a temporary measure. Having done so in EnduroGP for a spell, annually for the ISDE and in other sports such as TrialGP, this could be an interim option to keep the 2025 going ahead more or less as planned – though rumours are that some events may drop.
Enduro21 verdict
So will it happen or won’t it? We’ll have to wait until the FIM has had time to come up with a new reality. They haven’t got long.
The races will go ahead, that’s for sure, and the riders will still compete, but with potentially more freedom to race where they and their team want to depending on event kudos and media coverage.
Our view is it should be a chance for a reset. A time to get rid of the orange noose around the neck of the Hard Enduro World Championship, define the rules better so that event formats are fixed and the type of race is uniform across a season.
Then the oh so important TV coverage can be set in concrete as definitely happening at each round of the championship which in turn would mean major sponsors will be more interested and financial problems will be less likely to happen again.
In the end our conclusion is the problem with WESS promoting the series was WESS itself (and by implication KTM). Without them involved things can move forward.
Photo Credit: Future7Media
