Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125809
IT DON'T COME F.ASY (") -< so you wanta promote? by Steve King Almost every dirt rider has at one time shu t his machine off and taken a step back to review his favorite riding pot, that special little place where slides or jumps seem to come a little easier and the only fuzz around is on an unshaven Sunday afternoon chin. What a far out place this would be to hold a race, he thinks, flexing tired wrists. Notice all the shady greenery and the lazy expanse of unconquered territory. One thought easily leads to another, and before terminal leg cramps set in, Johnny Rider has envisioned a veritable Coney Island of picket fences, haybales, flagmen and brigh t wooden bleachers all geared toward~ magically conv rting his sacred. spot· into a miniature Saddleback. How hard could it be, he imagines. A few friends to help. Maybe find the owner of the land and okay everything. 'Course we could spread the word in the bike shops. Wow! Let's do it! S tanding on tum one in shorts and sneakers, sweeping debris over the edge of the real ·thing, that is, the track at Hialeah, some thing about my new sWlburn and sore hands told me there was more to staging a race than most people ever could think. Instead of staring wistfuliy in to an open field, I was looking at a quarter mile oval, the length of which can only be appreciated after you've helped sweep it. A wall, beaten in to submission by inumerable '57 Chevy fenders and an occasional pair of Harley or Yamah a forks, surrounded the whole thing. Inst~ad of trees, nearby there were pu trid green gas pumps, an appropriate match with the long faces of the endless stream of truckers ftnishing the lucrative field pea run on hearby U.S. 27. Doubtlessly, before anything else, there must be a track to race on, which is the /'irst big acquisition. But finding a spot is only the beginning when staging a real race. Sanctions (if any) must be gotten, effective advertising contracted and the necessary personnel for the' preparation and running of the even t provided for. On any Wednesday before a Friday ..night Pro short track at Hialeah, George Esser, cigar smoking president of Moto . Pro, can be found in his office with a phone to his ear. The place is. fairly loypical; paneled, with bike pics all· over and one shot of a younger Esser perched behind the wheel of a midget racer, forever chomping on the same stogey. In his own words, Esser told 'of three types of race promoters, the big time operations handling large crowd nationals, etc., the clubs promoting folksy local events and an in·between group of locally based professionals who regularly offer racing in hopes of making some money and eventually hitting the big time. . Moto Pro falls into the last category, waiting for the rest of the bike w9rld,to discover the potential second California in South Florida:. The phone rings. I t is the AM.A. referee wondering where the insurance fee for the next race is. The sanctions themselves were taken care of at the beginning of the year. Some promoters wait until 30 days before the event, but it costs double ($50) that way. "Yes, the check was mailed. If it's lost I'll stop it and send you a new one," offers Esser with a knowing roll of the eyes. He's armed with photostats of everything, the result of just this kind of experience. Hundreds of details like this must be taken care of before Friday night can go on. The week before, advertising was purchased in local papers and on the currently hip 16·30 year age group FM -station. "Anytime we spend a lot of money on advertising, say over $300, the dollar return doesn't go up in proportion. It doesn't payoff unless you've g6t some name riders. At the present time we hope to just contact a hard core of cyclists and let them tell each other abou l the even t5." Jumping into his Buick to go fulfill another business obligation, the Moto Pro prexy con tinued with a thumbnail of his philosophy. "Until cycle racing gains mass acceptance we can't expect anything big. Product idCJllification, emphasizing the riders and where they come from and inll du