On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 151

On The Pegs VOL. 4 ISSUE 7 - July 2020 151
tivation was to always raise the bar and that is why it had a three-year lifespan
because the last time we were there I believed we had done all we could. I didn’t
want to go on for five or six years and end up rolling out the same thing.
“It was the same when we went up to Scotland with the World Trial – we ran for
two years and in the first year we learned a lot and I believe we delivered a lot
more the second time, but with the budgets and the marketing I didn’t believe
we could do any better and that is my pull-out point.
“One of my traits is being critical. About myself – both personally and professionally
– and, unfortunately for people I work with, I am also critical of them,
but not everything is negative and I will praise people too. I love going to other
people’s events – it could be football, a tennis tournament, a music festival – and
I drive everyone mad because we are meant to be having a beer and socialising
and I am taking photos of everything from recycling bins and compact generators
through to wristbands. I am always thinking ‘how can we use that?’ – if you
don’t keep your eyes open and learn then how can you ever improve?”
When asked about future projects, Jake is remaining tight-lipped although he
hints at having a number of ambitious schemes in the pipeline that will raise the
bar even higher.
“After the wheelie project, the next thing we need to deliver has to be better
and that is what we are currently working on at the moment. Before we break
cover it needs to be at the next level and that is hard, but I do not want to go
backwards. I have always believed that as an organiser of flagship events we have
to raise the bar and hope it cascades down. That is my ethos.
“We are proud of what we’ve achieved. We have worked with some headline
riders, run some great events and by diversifying, working hard and utilising
those loyal relationships we are still here and we are still relevant.”
Team-work makes the dream work
“On a personal level the wheelie project was probably the most satisfying
thing I’ve ever done,” says Jake. “It was a difficult time with the death of Martin
(Lampkin) and just because of how mad and diverse it was and the challenges it
brought us as a company in terms of getting the permissions, the planning and
detail, the fact we had no reference.
“If you’re going to run a trial or enduro there is a fair bit of reference material
out there, but when it comes to someone wheeling a motorbike around an open
road which is what it was – it did start off as a closed-road project, but Red Bull
decided it would be too sterile – then there was no benchmark. It was a massive