Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

, Many years ago , the conc ep t or'the AMA Grand National Champion was a guy who rode the same motorcycle in different events. He rode his Triumph on a di rt track a nd th e ne xt weekend he pu t clip -ens on it and a front brak e and went ro ad raci ng wit h it. As you know, we've grown aw ay fro m tha t. You need a d ifferent bike for d irt tra ck a nd a d ifferen t one for road ra cing. The interest level of competito rs and th eir own suita bili ty or desires has a lso changed . You ha ve more a nd more specification of competitors a nd you 've go t gu ys who only di rt track and guys who only road race . You 've got guys on the Camel Pro Series tou r who have to be ob viously excellent dirt tracke rs , but th ey must be somewhat proficient in road race because they have to ge t the road race points. I feel now is the tim e to stan thinking about a sp lit of th e series a nd start considering getting in other sponsors for the road race series or the same sponsor potentiall y and d ivid ing it up , makin g the Camel Pro Series dirt track onl y and making wha tever you want a sponsor for the U. S. Road Racing Championships . CN: So we would then have a road race #1 and a dirt track #I? OM : W e could even run both types of races th e same weekends at opposite ends of the country. W e found that of the.96 entries at the Daytona 200 , only about five people cou ld be classified as com bina tion di rt trackers and road racers . So you can see , there are very few who are both. So it seems if th e tim e isn' t ripe , it's ge tt ing ripe and we will strongly consider a sp lit 'u n der two conditions: One - we have a sponsor for a road ra ce series. Two - we ha ve lined up enough promoters to put on a viab le road race circuit seri es of probably a • dozen ra_ces. "We have discussed ... the possibility of Superbikes becoming " feature class, but the we hauen't set any date. " CN: How about the privateers who make up points on the road races, like Aksland before he was injured , or Eklund who made up points at Loudon when Springsteen didn't r ide? OM: That's true, but think of it from an economic point of view. For. Stev e Eklund to pick up roa d race IPoin ts he ha s got to have at least one TZ750 plus l ~pares . He's got to make trips to all these different . events. He's got to - let's face it - muddle along in the middle of the field . He's not going to be a challenger for th e win. H e might ge t fifth , sixth, or so, but the incre men ta l points he picks up is not go ing to make up the difference in th e en d for th e final Camel Pr o points pa y-off. I' m going to assume he's got la id ou t in investment in the motorcycle , transp orta tion, a n d all that stu ff to these five road races, somew here about $ 15,000. Well , he's not goi ng to p ick up enough poi nts to make $15 ,00 I in the Camel Pro Series poin ts sta ndings. So, if Steve Eklund could concentrate in dirt track , he j ust saved hi mself $15 ,000 . On the other hand , so meone like Ge n e Rom e ro co u ld pro b a b ly ~ concen tra te in roa d r ac e and sav e hims elf all the outla y for d irt trackin g equipment. So , that's the thi nking behind it , but as yot , we have no sponsor an d not enough via b le promoters for a 10-15 ra ce ci rc ui t. CN: Sounds fairly embryonic at this point. First . you would have to deal with the H-D parts problem for one thing, and the number of Experts available to make a field , and even the supply of Yamaha TZ750s. OM : Our thinking has been that we would have four classes - F250 , F750 , Superb ike a nd sideca rs. Whether the feature class would be F750 or Superbike , we haven't settled iriternally. CN: Would each class pay points separately or equally? . OM : T he featured class would get th e points and the point fund money unless a sponsor chose to pay a point fund in all the classes , CN : What about Superbikes being used as the machinery for the Daytona 200? What about the twa-year engine change rule? OM : Bill France a nd Da ytona Speedwa y a re very much in favor of the Su pe rbike class a nd ca n see it as th e major class in yea rs to come, W e ha ve discussed wit h them th e possib ilit y of Su per bikes becoming th e feature class but we have n 't set any d ate. Obviously, if we did it at Daytona we'd change it for th e entire U .S. CN: What about the cost factor? Isn't it more expensive to build a competitive production bike, bit-by-bit, as compared to the outright purchase of race-ready TZ750? OM : Yes, cost is a definite considerat ion. - CN: What happened with the Riverside Road Race? OM : Nothing. CN: But didn't you refuse the promoter a threeyear contract? OM : That's correct. W e wouldn 't gi ve a th ree-year cont r act because , for one. th ing, it wasn't applied for in a formal sense . W e have also found no way to compel a promoter to retu rn in yea r two and three if he bombs out in yea r on e. Nobody, as far as we'r e a wa re, has made a dime promoting road races at Riverside Raceway, so why bo ther getting into a three-year contract when you need th e proof tha t th e event and fa cility can be a profitable event . . CN: What difference would that make to the - - - . AMA? You wouldn't be out anything and at least you would have one year. OM : The other point was that we woul d give a threeyea r cont rac t on a guarantee of doing it in years two and three with a guaranteed increase in purse money - but the promoter d idn't want to do th a t. So , it fell by th e wa yside. No forma l sanction a pp lica tion was ever sent , only a letter or two , and it actua lly got down to being too la te . . "It costs my department a lot of money to put on races. The way it looks, we will most lz"kely lose money this year which is not unusual. " CN: Aren't most AMA events on a year-to-year basis anyway? OM : Yes. If a promoter does a good job in year one, he shou ld n't have any problems in the second year, assumi ng th e facility is right. CN: If there are so many unsuitable race facilities, will that not cause a problem with a new road race series? Will you have enough viable facilities to choose from? OM : W e have quite a few possib ilities and we've expl ored this in depth with promoters of road race facili ties. We've gotten a very positive response to the concept. W e feel we coul d add a n umber of facilities withou t too much trouble. We'd like to believe we could. It's a chicken a nd egg th ing. W e can't put togeth er a ci rc ui t without a bunch of race tra cks and th e AMA's no t interested in doing it unless we can benefit our competitors by ha ving a full -blown big dollar spo nsor. We're talking about $25 ,000 purses and a su bsta ntial point fund for th e series. So - we have to ha ve a sponsor before we go forward a nd it's difficult to get a sponsor without a series - it's d ifficult to get a series without a sponsor. So , we're left trying to put the whole th ing together hopefull y for 1979 , if not then, maybe 1980 . Time will tell , CN: What does your office contribute to the AMA as an association economically? . OM: As I see it , our function from the association point of view is to put on very professional, very good, very big motorcycle races wh ich reflect well on the ind ustry, the AMA , the sponsors in volved and the competitors. Dealers: If you're not handling Jardine now, here's where to get 'eml _ _ _ _ 1M ,, - ,- Fo. 0I01ributing Action Auocillt.. 33D2 No. 27th Ave. ~ PhoeniJl. AmoN 115017 102-2153-11 n .... .... o-gIo 3llO71 - . 0·"'3 .... 1Get Hwy.3I SL PIluI. MlnnuoUi 515101 112.-....0291 HEADER COMPANY 1511 Alum er-k Ad.. 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