Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

GOODWIN likes the way they operate. They have a project involving a scientific study of motorcycle suspensions. It's going to be done with computers. scientists and stuff. He only talks with Mike briefly because of all the pressing correspondence that has to be sent out today. So I steal Steve away for a while to see what useful dialogue can be ex tr acted from him. We talk about the philosophical and political aspects of motorcycling. I discover not only is Steve a handsome bugger and down right purty, he 's smart. too . Lunch · time arrives. Mike and Diane dress up to buy a wedding dress and go restauranting. They leave. Steve leaves. I'm alone to myself. Mike had locked his office. He thought that since I was so persistent in trying to see : him, I migh t get into some mischief. I look about the living room and conclude that the spirit of living flesh be comes woven in to the inanimate materials to create an atmosphere that reflects the essen ce o f the inhabitant. This house is an ex hibition of all the fac ets of Goodwin's life. b oth personal and public. Since he al so invites business associ ates to t he house. it would be ex pe cted that Mike would have his house say all the things about him that were left unsaid in a business conversation. Mike is a chronic overa ch iever with an overwhelmin g ego. Everything is done wi th the same lust for perfection. His driving instinct for the good deal is com parable to a fast moving freight train. On our trip yesterday, he had said with an authority that I won 't argue with , that there are about five or six (Continued from page 15) We went on talking ab ou t money, business, love, death and taxes. He comp lained bitterly ab ou t ho w the govern m en t take s 70% of his income, which he calls legal ized theft. He went one step fu rther, calling the taxation legalized murder, be cause the time spent working behind a desk takes away 10 y ears off a man's life. He emphasized the coun terp ro ductivene ss of heavy taxation. Back uP .th e hill . at home base. Mike go es downstairs to his office to make some m ore phone calls . mostly about h is disqualification from the SCCA national. He doesn't know if hell ra ce or not. and he 's especially an xious to find out. since he had just bought a $5 .000 ra cin g engine for his Shelby Cobra. Dinner is served: Elk meat tacos. Mike had shot the entree himself. He tells me he will be going to Alaska to shoot Kodiak brown bear with a .44 magnum pistol. Th e tacos are really good. Dan Skahill , Mike 's pro tege and radi o advertising salesman joins in. Between bites. Dan and Mike talk about sales, ratings, and cov er age for the upcoming blitzkrieg ad campaign for the Anaheim event. Th e discussion slips through my mind, so I ch at about _ so meth ing more fam iliar : sex acts that can be performed with small animals and cru sta ceans. They " don't get it. We're even. Bob Clampett, Mike's adver t ising rep, com es in for biz and tacos. Mik e bre aks out the Oly and booze because today 's been good to h im . so he's goin g to whoop it up and boogie tonight. I remember a do ctor's appo intment, "At nin e o 'clock tonight ?" "Y eah , he sucks bl o od ." So I leave. I tell Mike 111 see him tomo rro w m orning. He says for me to take my time be cause he's go ing to go out and get bombed. End Day One . -- years old; I mean he doesn't look older. and certainly not younger, but he doesn 't look 30. He had admitted that he wants to get out of the business by the time he's 40. but I don't think it will happen. I see an ashtray on a table between a copy of Fortune and Cycle World. It has Goodwin 's coat of arms on it with an inscripuon that says Virtue et Labore . which Mike translated for me . meaning "Hard Work." What am 1 doing here? I feel almost devastated by Mike's overbearing histrionics during our taped conversations, striving for the cen ter stage. I resent his overachievements , maybe because I've been such an underachiever myself. i k e and Dianeretum with crepes in their stomachs and a dressbox in Diane's hand. I ask wh ere the happy event will be held. Diane says that the wedding will take place here. Mike goes back down to his office to do more work and write more letters. I follow him down to see wh at's going on. Mike is a fresh air lover, so he opens up the sliding glass door in his office to let the cool breeze in . He digs it. I'm freezing. He works on a letterhead id ea for his American Motocross Finals. After getting a good idea of what he wants, Diane is called in to handle it. A ' secretary comes in a while later to give him a letter. Mike complains abo u t the po or quality of work th e secretarial staff has put out recently. Le tt er s have to be proof read better. Or else. Lynne Saunders. Mike 's business manager . drops in during the long M DAY TWO h e hill is a stark con trast to yesterday: foggy with a hint o f sunsh in e. Bu t that's okay because Mike is grooving. Yesterday was really his day. Every th in g had gone welI, an d it even looks like he 11 be racing the SCCA national finals at Road Atl an ta. Even though he 's still recovering from las t n igh t 's celebration at Isadora's. Mike does hi s exercises. He fools with Poo and Lisa. rolling ab out on the carpet floor with their furry bodies. After breakfast Mike reads his paper. then hustles down to his office to work. Instead of dealing on the phone like ye sterday. today Mike works with his pen, writing importan t letters that resulted from yesterday's successful deals over the phone. It's strange to see h im so quiet for so long. It's almost ominous. I sensed wh at could happen by day 's end. I wander down to the office where secretaries handle vari ous projects for th e Media Max operation. One secretary is checking out survey forms from this year's SuperBowl. Surveys can detect what people like or dislike about the event, 50 aspects of next year 's event ;;~ n be changed based upon the •ecpo nses, Originally there were supposed to be 11 .000 survey forms to be counted. but most of them were acciden tally disposed of by Coliseum personnel. It was a happy accident. one secretary ad mitted , bec ause it would have b een a drag to tally all o f them. Dian e asks m e if Cycle News has a list of all the National MX winners to mak e up a riders list for Anaheim. I put my sharp mind to work and call up CN to see if they can help. It 's not that ea sy . th ey say . Looks like Diane will have to lo ok t hem up herself. Steve McL au ghlin drops in on Mike . He 's a handsome crea tu re. Downright purty, too. He talks bus in ess with Mike . Steve has been asso ciated with Media Max for abo ut th ree years because he T 42 Ul In Ul Ul a: X Ul a: good promoters worth mentioning. including himself, which he immediately footn o ted with the statement that. " I 'm probabl y as full of shit as the next guy." Sometimes he'd say. " I'm really full of shit! " And I can't tell if he is truthfully apologizin g for his egotism, or if a more subtle game is bein g pl aye d. Everything th at I see in the room sends m e th e same message: Michael Goodwin is a creature in ov erdrive. He had once said , " I'm a victim o f m y own des ti ny. " and t ha t bei ng constantly at work had taken the y ears ou t of him. I couldn 't agree more. He do esn't look 30 afternoon to show him a bunch of goodies that a company had done for the Long Beach GP, and now they want to do the same for the American MX Finals. Mike examines the so u ve nirs closely and comments on their fine quality. Lynne will handle the details. Quiet returns as the tension in Mike 's body bu ilds . I sit there in his office as the day gets o lder an d shorter. waiting for something to happen. b ecause I can sense something almost hostile in the air . I do n ' t bother to ask Mike wh at t he problem is; besides, I'm an easy bleeder. - He makes one last phone call. then • heads up the stairs to the living room. Mike gets the exercise wheel and gets down on the carpet' to work off the tenseness that had built up. He telIs me that certain chemicals build up in the body that create tensions if not worked off. He then rolIs the wheel with powerful thrusts. back and forth on the carpet. Randy . an employee. steps in briefly. Mike orders him to get his Husky ready; he's itching for a ride . After a while we both go up to the garage and check out the bike. The Husky "..· an old ISDT bike that had been prepared by Rolf Tibblin. It's a 450. and it 's powerful. Just seeing the bike gives me all sorts of lusty desires to ride off into the sunset. We both return to the house. Mike made himself comfortable in his easy chair, and told me his pride and joy has been the SuperBowl, which has been carefulIy cultivated over the years from a daring promotional experiment to one of the premier motor sports in the nation. He sees further improvement in the future of the SuperBowl and the creation of other stadium racing events through a new organization he calls The St ad ium Motorsports Feder ation , whose purpose will be to provide a body to negotiate for better sponsorship, publicity. and ri ders fo r such events. Th ere are more plans and events in the future that are waiting in the wings of Mike 's brainchild. But for the time being. they can wait. His present concern is that he'd like to see more continuity in stadium MX events which would make it better for everybody involved, from spectator to promoter to manufacturer. He would also like to see some positive changes in the AMA. "The problem with them." he commented. " is th at none of them work fo r a profit; they get paid whether they make money or n ot." Mike can't see why out of 10 or 20 million rid ers, only 140 thousand are AMA; but he sees an idea which could give the AMA membership a tum for the better. "If I were AMA. I would negotiate with the factories. Why not discount your membership - or give it "away fr ee the first year ! With - th e purchase of a bike. have the manufacturer mark it up four dollars and give that to t he AMA for the membership." Another of his ideas, in order to help the continu ity of the sport. is to have only one national MX champion. This would be determined by having the best riders from two main classes compete to see who is the best. One would be an "outdoor" class co mp o sed of Open class bikes, and the "indoor" class to be made up of 25 0 s. Both classes would be supplemented by a 125 support class. Mike thinks that this would be less expensive for the factories. and would cau se less confusion amongst the non-motorcycling press. What does Mike see in the future of th e motorcycle sport? "I think if we can cut out the petty infighting political problems we have to put up with, and keep people in the industry that have the most to lose or gain, we can sit down and work together. I'm certainly willing to sit down with everyone involved to see how we can best promote it, to see how we can selI more motorcycles, to help make better riders. to help the riders make more money. to make the spectator happy. or whatever - for the total industry. That is why we need a very powerful central body even a dictatorship - but somebody that considers the marketing point of everything. "I think that if we can all work together. there is no reason in the world that we cannot have a sport that in any major market we move into. we draw at least 50-70,000 people for a stadium event. Frankly. if we keep it out in the fields, it's go ing to die away into oblivion. People here are too spoiled, too sophisticated, and there is too much competition for the entertainment dollar. If we recall again that we're producing entertainment. and there are so many benefits that come out of it . let's take advantage of it." He looked relieved of the burden that had built up inside as he sat in his easy chair. For a moment, Michael Goodwin was at rest. •

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