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/126302
statement. I don't believe they've asked anyone else . Heck , when you apply for a sanction they're glad you' ve applied . If they asked eve ry promoter for a financial sta tem ent and evaluated th em , th er e would be very , very few promoters. " Doug d oesn 't have an easy job, I kn ow that. He has just made a very fa ntastic mov e fo r th e sport , one that I am not at libert y to d iscus s because' it was in a privat e co nfere nce and they said that if it leaked to the press th ey would ca ncel. In a n)' event, when you . hear about it I thi n k yo u'll agree that Dou g made o ne i he ck of a dea l. I think it is fr ought w th som e terribl e pitfalls and it will take a very good logistics guy whic h Doug is not . to pull it off. "T he re is a no ther problem in tha t. The board of trustees doesn't want to become involved in the day to day bu sin ess. Maybe they've heard enough of Mik e Goodwin . Ma ybe they think th at if things are as bad as I sa y then wh y ha ven 't other people sta rted corn plain ing. Ther e are a variety of reasons, How many full time m otocross promoters are there? Who else is selling as much TV as I do or sponsors or who has pe rha ps a personal co nflict wt h Mock ett ? I' ve go t to have more interplay with AMA so therefore m ore problems. Probably th e biggest thing is that I've go t a lot of prid e a nd do n' t take bei ng stab bed lyin g down . If some th ing is go ing wron g I'm go ing to bit ch a bou t it. " Fra nkly, th at ca n be a person a l fa u lt because it will cost m e more so meti mes th a n d o in g t he polit icall y ex pedient thinga nd ~oi ng a nd ta lk ing to the pe rson a nd tak in g the easy way in srra ightening th in gs out. I' m not like th a t. I take t he bull by the horns. If I scre w up , I want somebody to tell me. T hat is one th ing th a t is go ing to hold m e back , I think , from be ing extremely successfu l in t his business because it is so cliquish and I'm not a socializer. I don't reallv have the friends in t he business. . . " If I could convince m yself to back off the prin ciple a bit and do things the easy wa y I'd m ak e a lot more money and a lot more friends and things would be ea sier for me . But that's just not the wa y I o pe ra te . A lot of people say Goodwin is too tough . Well , Goodwin is tough . Goodwin drives a hard bargain and he 's abrasive. Bu t I'd like to hear from anybody out there that has J;ad a contract with me th at I haven't lived up to . T hey may say Goodwin doesn't pay enough pu rse m onies or he 's tight with his complimentary tickets. We ll I run things as a business and it is a busin ess a nd I'm going to be th is wa y th e rest of m y life . If it holds me back , then it holds m e ba ck . "I wish is that I could get an a ud ie nce with some responsibl e people with an o pen m in d fro m th e board of trustees . If they would just say, ' Mike, you're right or yo u' re wrong , or ' Doug, you d idn't take this into co nsidera t ion ,' o r 'Do ug, you're doing a good job with everyo ne but Goodwin and because of the past problems between you , m a ybe Goodwin should deal with DjPrete, " Or whatever. T here has to be some solu t ion besid es a folder filled with fo u r in in ch es thick worth of co rrespondence. " One thing the riders don't realize, whether Macken will admit it or not, is that I'm the one who got them $80,000 in point fund mo nies for this year p lus TV money." "I've said it before. They ha ve to ge t rid of Mockett. Dou g . like I've sa id , is th e only person I've m et wh o ismore a b ras ive wit h the peopl e he h as to work wit h th an I a m . The thing is I'll accep t a b rasiveness a nytime as a sid e effect of compentency. But he isn't co m petent , Now. he is compete nt in con vinc ing the board of tru stees th a t he is doing a fin e jo b so he is doing a heck of a job in th at res pect. Ta lk to a nyone of th e promoters out there and he's . stroking th em . " Most of the m fear rep ercu ssions and won 't tell you a nything like I will. I' m sure I'm going to get hauled to task over this article but , damn, the problem is hu rt ing our sport. If no thing else , let 's say I'm imagining a ll th e problems which I think you cal) see that I'm not imagining all of them . It pays me to be paranoid and I check th ings o ut. The other guys really fear the repercussions. I know I've talked to them . They say 'Hey, I ca n't afford to have my sanetion jerked.' I tell them that the AMA is not going to jerk you r sanction if you have a legi tim a te co mplaint a nd you handle it the right way . The AMA is going TEAM to to work with you because it is for 'the good of the sport. About a year and a half ago I submitted a report to the AMA with ideas and suggestions on a number of things inclu di ng the change in the su per· cross forma t , wh ich incl ud ed a lot of things th at Mockett is t rying to initiate righ t now . In fa ct I was offered th e job of ra cing com mi ssioner. (This was . b eh ind closed doors frankl y and nobody will proba bly admit to eye r offering it to m e because they sai d 'W e'll ha ve a lot of probl ems with you because you a re suc h a maverick . But we kn ow one thing, yo u' ll get things done .) I tol d them tha t I co u ld n't afford to work fo r t he m for the p rice . wh ich was a legitima te sal a ry - because it wou ld mean giving up m y rea l esta te business . It would a lso have caused a co nflict of interest with m y Su percross eve n ts and I ha ve too much of m yself invested in those to quit. I also kn ew that I probably wouldn't last because the way I wou ld wa nt to do things would probably upset too many people. Maybe I wo u ld h av e enco untered the same p roblems as Mockett. I don't kn ow . But I do know that th e first pe rso n you had be tter ta ke ca re of is the p romot er because he is your ret a iler. T he AMA puts a progr am together as a m anufacturer a nd sells them to the promoter/ ret a iler to sell before they've co nsu lted with hi m on wha t his needs a re . "Stadium eve nts, eve nt hough they n ave not be en " pu re" m ot ocr oss, ha ve helped spa wn growth in other areas . The problem is tha t th e AMA , in some situations , has tun nelvision and can on ly think of in creased p urses and such . Th e na tura l t err a in promoter is in a bind with the purse increases and splitting of their stars to only one cham pionship class. I think there are go ing to be some disasters this year , some real di sasters. Bu t 1978 is going to be a big year for motorcycling. However, it could be a big "good " yea r or a big " b ad" year. "It all d epends on th e board of trustees respon · sib ility and how they curtail the problems tha t Do ug Mockett is causing. Getting rid of Mockett, however . is not go ing to solve th e pro b lems co m pletely because th e board has to get into a ment al attitude that the promot ers are.irnportant , W e want to feel like part of th e fam ily. W e sho u ld be . W e deliver a lot of revenu e . Damn , m y co m pa ny ha s spe nt over five million dolla rs since 1971 when we got into motor• cycli ng . Think of wha t th e rest have spent . IDa • ~ E 00 - r-- O') SWEEPS Golden State Series on Production YZ E's YAMAHA 1 ST Rex Staten 500 Pro Rex Staten 250Pro 125 Pro Danny Turner We offer the same pipes and porting that powered our stock YZ E models to a series sweep. Interested in the same results? YAMAHA Call or write J~~~II 71 ,.-ti:i~ I -n 39