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/126290
r 11 hamRs' . ---eye VIew J. \ II . q () r ) Glover, DiStefano and Smith evaluate the AMA pro MX business By Charles Morey i Professional motocross in the United States is a young, fast-growing sport. Changes occur almost weekly.i, Rule changes keep abreast of new situations. Format changes (Supercross, for example) help the sport's popularity expand. Champions change as top-ranked riders from the old guard fall to the upward bound: young lions. The keep-up-or-be-trampled pace is incredible. .:. 1 Millions of Japanese yen are in constant movement. Spent to develop the latest technological methods of producing shorter lap times , to finance contracts necessary to secure the most capable riders and to mobilize' a convoy of machinery and personnel suitable to support the other investm en ts, the mighty ye.n have built an' industry based on racing. I It's no surprise then , that the three AMA National MX Champions ride for Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda. It's no surprise that each of them won a National Championship title at an age when most people are conAl( cerned more with skin care problems than with contract negotiations. And it should be no surprise that each' ofthem is involved with the changes that are constantly going on in his chosen professional sport. That's why we invited the new 125cc AMA National Champion Broc Glover, three-time 250cc Champ Tony DiStefano and former two-time 125cc, present 500cc NationalChampion M~rty _~mit.h to sit.down.and talk itover;", ._. - - -- -- -.- - ~" - - " . .-, . Young, at seventeen', twenty and almost-twenty-one, respectively, Glover, DiStefano and Smith .ar examples. of men who have met the pressure of year-long competition and come out winners. Near the end! of the longest and most intense year in the short history of U. S. professional motocross, tired and! emotionally burned out as they may have been, the Big Three were ready to take a critical look at the pas season, 1978 and beyond. have more races which I think is good , although I'm not fond of being restricted to just one class . But if it's that way; it's that way . I still think that having ten races for a National Championship is a lot better than having six or seven. The first year I rode, it was only five. Nothing even happens in that many races. Broc Glover: I think you should be allowed to ride two of them because there's a number of riders who ride either I25cc and Open or 2.50cc and Open. I'd like to ride 250 and 125cc next year, but I can't do that. I'm Marty Smith: I don't think it's any good. W e can only sure everyone in this room is going to defend his own # I ride one class , the way they set that up. The way it is plate. . now, if a guy wants to ride a lot of races and rea lly work Tony DiStefano: That's one thing about the l25cc his tail off to get something -- to get more than one class; the way the schedule is now , you can ride either National Championship .. he can do it. 250cc and Open or you can ride the 125cc class by itself. Terry Mulligan, Team Honda 's manager, mentioned a It's kind of like forcing the 125cc class to be put aside, problem with injuries. If a rider gets hurt in th e first and having the riders not want to participate in it. This race ofthe series, he's donefor the year, and his sponsor new way seems like it's going to put everybody equal. has to honor an expensive contract even though there 's And it might add some stature to the l25cc class. I can see some good with the new way. I think a no chance of him getting a National Championship couple ways you can see both good and bad. What's title. Broc Glover: Yeah, but if you get injured, half the good is having more races and making the 125s equal. races will be over in all three classes before you could It'll have the same purse money, and it'll encourage more guys to go into that class . recover, anyhow. Broc Glover: The way they scheduled the l25cc class Marty Smith: They're setting it up for the AMA , The AMA always says they're for the riders. Well , you know this year, they had it all spread out. You'd go to a race. then there was a month wait before the next one , th en that's not true. They're for the AMA. Tony DiStefano: I've seen it a couple different ways , you race again, then another wait. Nobody could afford be ing on that rules committee and hearing different to sta y on the ro ad that long. Shoot, they should have it people invol ved with the racing.' They weighe d t he a ll tog ether. th en it'd be all over. They did th at in the possib ilities .. whet her they would have just on e cham - oth er classes. Why not with the 125s? pion , repeat the way we have it now, or do it th is new With th is new plan, it seems that 's th e way it'll be. way. When it's all weighed out · · consi der th e pl uses and Broc Glover: Maybe , but we do n't know it. How can we the minuses .. it seems to come out better with the new voice our opin ions on it if we don't even know what the • way. I never liked th e way the present system is· · - not dates are? having so many races. This new system does allow us to Marty Smith: Th.er',rt; . I?u q ing this . thing . th,rough N ext year's National motocross format will have the three displa cement classes -- 125, 250 and 500cc .. as it did this year . But instead of running three separate schedules, dates unll be combined with two Nationals run per date . T en races in each class will be run .. a total of30 _. and the ent ire program will be run offin 15 weeks. Riders must choose to ride only one of the three classes, and they'll not be allowed to ride for National points in any other. What's your opinion ofthis system.' 8 . wi'thout even having a riders' vote! They say they're sup· posed to be doing everything for us . - working around us and trying to help us out .. but we don't have a time to voice our opinion, just like Broc says. We can't tell them what we want , and if we do try to talk to them , they always think we're trying to argue with them! Broc Glover: That's the truth. Marty Smith: ' W e had no say' so in this next year's schedule whatsoever, and we're the ones riding it and traveling. We have to leave our families an' stuff. And we don't get asked which way we want it. The new schedule seems to help. out the privateer. do you think about that.' Wh~t J Tony DiStefano: The three of us and all the top guys will make the same amount of money anyway, if we do well . We'll just be racing fewer events. And they're talking about more stadium races to make up for it . So, there'll be a lot more opportunity for the privateers. The way it is now at a National, at least the top fifteen are factory riders with super sponsorships , and that only leaves five places. That's not enough money to make it worth a privateer's time to come each week. Automatically, the guys (factory riders) will be divided into thirds, roughly, it 'll divide up equally among the three classes. That will make it only five or seven factory guys in each class . Then there'll be more opportunity for the privateers. And a rider can just concentrate on one class . The way it is now , if a privateer wants to go (on the National circuit) , he 's gotta try all three classes, or at least two . I also like th e way th e new system gives us a season . L ike now , whe n's ou r season? It's for ten months. For training, you 've got to ha ve a time to " peak." Which (series) is the m ost im port ant?! Broc Glover: Yeah, -wh at's more important? The Supercross where you make a lot of money? The . Nationals where. the plate counts? The Trans-AlvlA? . .