Cycle News

MLADIN: But it has happened. A rider died at the Daytona CCS race in October. A rider died at Fontana last year. And Spies and DiSalvo are very fortunate not to have been more seriously injured at Daytona. PRIDMORE: I keep on waiting for somebody to light it up underneath that whatever corner at Mid-Ohio you're talking about where the Armco is right on the edge of the track . Two guys just clip, they 're going right into Armco. Right into it. MLADIN: Mid-Ohio is a deathtrap. It's horrible . Full stop. The surface the way that it is, how easy it is to crash there, with the walls so close. It's a deathtrap. With the surface being better, it's even worse. Especially in the rain. BOSTROM: Can you imagine?This could happen to any of us at any time , but whe re Yates crashed right behind my rear wheel going up into that turn. If he would have clipped me , I would have highsided and probably landed into the wall. MLADIN: You'd still be there . BOSTROM: Yeah, exactly. MLADIN: And Yates got hurt then. Just because the wall he went into. He was stuck under the bike. BOSTROM: He should've had no injuries in that crash . MLADIN: Nothing gets much more plain than that crash . Was it 30 mph? Forty mph? DUHAMEL: When I think about it, getting outside help, helping everything, that would be money out of all the riders' pocket. But we have somebody. It's called the AMA, who needs to just step up. It's not just for us riders and the privateers - it'd be betterfor the AMA. They 'd be making more money. Because there are a lot of racetracks in America that we don't go to that are ready to receive us. They're great racetracks , great venues . MLADIN : Even with the show the way it is, the crowds at some of the races are big. If the show improved , to doub le the crowds just wouldn't be that hard , I don't think. The other thing that you give them is stability. For better or worse, most of you are going to finish your careers here. And that's what builds fan loyalty. MLADIN: Most of the people in this room are going to finish their careers here. To have that to work with is unbelievable. BOSTROM: What becomes of this? DUHAMEL: We have the AMA. They 're out there fightingevery day for our rights to ride motocross bikes and in the deserts and in the mountains. They're our saviors . MLADIN: But they're also a business trying to make money out of racing, which doesn't hold us high up there when it comes to complaining about going to this racetrack that they're making certain hundreds of thousands from. PRIDMORE: We're hired help; that's the problem. The real people that are going to make the difference are the ones who hire us. MLADIN: The manufacturers, if we all stand up and complain for the next 12 months , the manufacturers will go, 'These guys, we need to get someone else that's not going to complain.' That's not true, because you guys are the best sales tools they have. PRIDMORE: Do you know how many years I've told the AMA, "Just tell me where you want me"? Me and Doug Chandler. I remember when Doug used to be on the advisory board . "Just tell us, wherever it is you want us to go, give us waming, we'll go." I have not had one time walking onto a racetrack. The first track they ever took me to was Phoenix. I was a privateer nobody then . I said "Y u guys can't be serious about racing here, o right?" We were there during an IMSA car race and I'm thinking, "You're out of your minds." MLADIN: I don't even get asked because they know that I'll pick up on every little thing possible. DUHAMEL: You know me, I'm rewed up. Ifyou can come up with a plan or an idea that we can make this sport better, I'm for it, because I love this. And if there is a way that we can make this thing go forward, I don't care what it would take , time or money, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat. MLADIN: The problem is ifone guy in the AMAsays no. It's happened before, mate. One little guy sitting up there that knows absolutely nothing or even pretends that he does. It doesn't happen . PRIDMORE: These advisory boards, I sit in them, and I enjoy being there because I want to hear what's going on, but on the flip side of it it's hard for me . There's other people like me in the meeting. We all kind of get together and go "Why are we here? What is trying to be accomplished by having us here?" A perfect example : What have we done? Well one thing we 've done is split the fast guy's pract ice. That was tough . BOSTROM: They 're totally dumping on you Jason, because all they're saying is your time's not valuable. MLADIN: Don't you get that feeling the AMAthinks that about you? I don't think they give a rat's ass about things. That's my feeling. PRIDMORE: Ifyou retired tomorrow, ifall of us said we 're going to go do something else. They're still going to be here do ing the same thing. That's just the way it is. And there's nobody on top that will listen to what it is that we have to say and take it with any kind of serious ness to where they 're not just going to present it to the board, they're going to go fight for us, to the board . That's the problem that you have. They may go, "Well, you know Eric thinks this." And the board will go "Okay." And then they 'll walk out and go have dinner, but they won't come in and go, "Look this isa list of rea- sons why Eric and Miguel and Damon and Mat and Jason all think this. This is why this has to be changed." They don't do that. DUHAMEL: I think the AMA might, when they read this conversation, they might be thinking, "We'll do our usual thing, turn a deaf ear to it." I'm afraid for the AMA, to be honest with you. Because we're bringing up situations about safety, and I think it's just a matter of time before somebody gets hurt and somebody doesn't just go home and cry, he goes and gets himself a really good lawyer. If they think Roger [Edmondson's lawsuit] hurt , this guy might really take our series away. If you look at it in that light, we're actually trying to do them a favor right now by improving the racetracks and improving everything. MLADIN: As a common opinion, I think everyone has said that we have no voice because it doesn't matter what you say,they just neglect to hear you. Or they hear you, and they let it go. It's a major problem when you've got the best riders in the series trying to get something done, and they just don't care. DUHAMEL: In 1998, when I broke my leg in Loudon, when we had that whole catastrophe with Thomas Wilson, I went and personally saw an AMA official, and I told him you need to put hay bales there. He said, "Yes, Miguel, for sure," because they were running on the emotion of Thomas Wilson. He ended his career there. It was at least half an hour or an hour before lunch, and then we had qualifying at two. I didn't think about it because I was so convinced that this person really took me to heart, that he was actually goil]gto go out there and put those hay bales. The first thing th

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