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/126287
,_ - - - .. __ a ..... • ' a • .. • _ a - _ _ _ ._ - - - j- By Charles Clayton Every year about this time the American Motorcyclist Association (new name) slows down for a few months and lays plans for next season . Majo r even ts a r e te nta tively scheduled fo r the coming yea r. polici es and rules are re examined , and m embers st a rt campaigning for the February officers electio n . This tim e even th e st a ff put their spokes in when they asked the Board of Ifr us tees t o fire their as sociation manager, Barrie Best , after only 90 days on the job . and rehire former legal director Gene Wirwahn to take h is place. Mr. Wirwahn ha d terminated the AMA recently to enter private practice , but was persuaded to re turn " tem po rari ly" unt il a n ew manager is found . Un he ard fr om since it bogged do wn in impot ency durin g t he Russ March er a , th e A MA C ongress is flex in g its will in sm all m atters , demanding more consu mer m embers on the almighty Board of Trust ees . and a change back to th e old n ame , American Mot orcycle Association. I recently learned th a t pa ck ing t he board with rider reps would h a ve lit t le effect o n A M A policy , since Class A (co nsu mer) trustees can not even vote for officers. All pow er resid es in t he offices of president a n d treasurer of t he Associ atio n . Ironic is the fact that M ark R osen . Cl ass A Trustee from the Eastern Region . wa s e le ct ed Vice Presid ent . and cou ld not even vot e fo r himsel f. Mr . Rosen is preparing to run for president th is co m ing elec tion. Bob Rudolf of Bates Industries has serve d two terms as president and announced th a t he d oes not plan to su cceed himself, Back gate scandal Whatever, AMA racing is due for some change . and member policies that were scheduled for rev ision may stay the same . Mr. Best had proposed to ra ise AMA annual dues 't o $1 5 . That plan may be canned. Instead , AMA may look to upgrading its r acing management . especi alIy the infamous " ba ck gate" policy. For yea rs AMA has su b si d ized racer entry fees at the expense of promoters . One day's insu ran ce for a professional racer costs AMA $15 . yet the racer pays an entry fee that is considerably less. To make up the differen ce , AMA collects a fee from pit support personnel as they come in through the back gate. The local refe ree is trusted to account for the back gate recei p ts and remit the money to AMA headquarters . But it appears that some (m a n y? all?) refs dip into this pOl sometimes (freq uently ?) and pay themselves an unofficial " bon us. " Nobody knows how much the association regularly loses through this one example of loose management . but estimates range from $200 ,000 to ' $600 ,000 per year. Previous boards have chosen to overlook the back gate scandal , if ind eed they were even aware of it. They seemed to assume that their referees were po cketing the money d ish o n estl y. "Half of our referees would quit if we fixed up the back gate!" one trustee of the association exlaimed. Besides. referee fees are too low , and it's only co sting the promoter, they reckon . Wrong. It 's costing us alI - racer , promoter , association , even referees. One thing is causing the d isappearance of non -n ational AMA d irt tra ck ra ces and that is our nefarious back gate policy . What's wrong with a ri der paying his ' full ins u ra nce fee? Why not let t he promoter control the back gate , and pay the referee a good fee fo r his services , plus a dolIar or two pe r rider, for enterprise? Riders need local , nonnational professional events to whet their a bi lities and earn advancement points from novice to junior to expert. Yet many times p romoters see more people coming in through the back gate (pits , infield) than through his from gate ( ticket boo t hs , grand stands) . The bottom lin e is, you ca n 't make cost with the front gate only on AMA non-national events. It is no wonder that there a re no ne a nym o re . Novices and juniors ha ve to travel to th e few regional ch ampionship events that are st ill some times scheduled , to earn po ints fo r a dva ncemen t to ex pert . This costs a rider everything he has , and then so me. So how is an artificial $9 en try fee benefitin g the aspiring professional ra cer ? It' s time to fix the back gate and st art encouraging some of th e better promoters to put o n more AMA races. T h is yea r let us quit assuming th a t our re fs are d ishonest and sto p makin g t he m co llec t AMA m oney on top of everything else they are responsible for. It has re a ched the point whe re nobod y is having any fu n or m aking a ny m oney. Already the n at iona ls are starting to suffer from lack of ex perts qual ified to enter, and , for a va riety of reaso ns. it will get worse in 197 8 . There need s to be regula r fa rm tracks where the up an d coming yo ungste rs ca n ge t racing experience , and wh er e th e t rack ca n m ake a living off of fam ily and friends . Such tracks may st ill ex ist, but they are not AMA sancti oned . Now you kn ow why. Perhaps this may change soo n . _ Don't BDITORIAL AMA: Winner of our discontent ,,;;.,; Send Christmas cards .. reach 65,000 friends ~f1.- this way. 1~~~'';',. f":I ·~~ ~ . '. . ,\ "/ ... ~" ') .,?!l ""i9 . 0; Here's the deal : The special part : You can run thi s ad in any or all of o ur Decem ber issues! But h urry ! Ch rist mas will be he re before yo u know it ! We will give you an yo ne of these ads exp ressing apprecia tion to your custome rs for only S25 each . (Reg. $36.50) g eaS()IlS [ilreeri ngs (yo ur name. address, phone no. ] to our customers & friends cB B ~ (your nam e, address, ph on e no.) " ~ " -~ ~. .. . . ;a; .:.. . ;;4"'A.:r --~r,a; ..,. ~ :.. ;a;o . ' • l '~ ~a~ . ~~~ •. . . . ,.; _ . . __ " . tt!J!IfJ~ ·{1 d" ' .i.\ . : \ ,r" ,1.~ .:»:!/.. ~ .~ { ,.«. .. . . ..r- ; ~. ::-~ ~~;. J . • f .. ... " , " . ~ ~Zl~gn~ Bring back brand competition National races a re thriving now. AMA ran 28 successful nationals on the Camel Pro Series alone last year, a nd alread y has scheduled 32 for 1978. The upper lim it seems to be the maximum number of weekends on the calendar. This crowded schedule is both a blessing and a curse. Occasionally a junior in vitational race is added to a national , and at road races even novi ces get some time on the track . On the other hand , a rider has to race almost every national o n the sc hed u le if he's making a se rious bid for Number O ne . It is true that the top three national points winners this year got there without scoring in any road races. Next year's schedule. with more pavement nationals on it . may change that situation. Harley-Davidson has succeeded in doing what everyone used to accuse them of trying to do: dominate flat track racing. They d id it with a highlydeveloped machine that simply gets the job done better than any ot her brand . This has given us some fine , close racing , but rubbed out the bra nd contest that is so p o pu la r with spectators. What is ironic is that H- D is mainly in the road segment of the market and makes the best dirt racer, whil e Yamaha. which dominates road (Cont inued on page 21) to my customers & £riends EiNetings SeBlO. . Gl'eetlags (y ou r name. address. phone no. ) to o u r cust o m ers & friends (your name, address, phone no.] Cycle News West Adve rt ising Dept. P.O. Box 49 8 Lo ng Beach , CA 908 01 J ust till ou t the cou pon below and rush it to: f-~ycle N~:In::'Chris:: G~~ng-----------~ ~ I I I I I I I I I I I I I am enclos ing $ for Ad (s) to appe ar in_ _ 0 Issue 48 LJ Issu e 49 0 Issue 50 0 Please bill my Nov. 23 Nov. 30 Dec. 07 acco un t Circl e yo ur ad choice No, I No.2 No . 3 No.4 No .5 N o.6 Name ' Add ress Cit y ~h one _ St at e Zip_ - _ _ L~~------_---_-------_-----------j 17