Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

forth. I can say a lot about that, but traditionally, southern California has many problems. One. miserable soil conditions; two, generally hot weather. But I think Saddleback, because of its soil conditions, trys . ha rder than any other park around to keep its track in better condition. It costs us a bout $450 to prepare our track for any event -CMC or our own Saturday program - whatever. That $450 is directly related to man hours and equipment. You talk about equip· ment! There is nothing more expensive today than heavy equipment and the repairs and maintenance of heavy equipment. Replacement pans have tripled. Rollers for tracs that we used to pay S20 for are now $80. Metal and steel prices have gone up, labor for manufacturing those pans has gone up. Our current park admission fees, right now , aren't even high enough. They should be more than $5 a day. We are barely at a break- even point . The only thing that keeps Saddleback Park alive today are the events that we put on (Saddleback Park) by ourselves. Saddleback Park is not strictly a motorcycle park. The corporation promotes other events out of and off of our facility . My wife andI were going over the books the other day and the other events that we put on - are what keeps our cash flowing . If it wasn't for that , Saddleback would be nonexistent . I know for a fact that many other parks are in that same position . That's why you ' see other parks go . under, like the Muntz Park, Arroyo Cycle Park and I know them all because I have a consulting business that watches the different operations and why they go under and whether or not we can feasibly take them over. I've just backed away because the financial structure isn't there to keep them open. At this point, how do you feel about keeping Saddlehack open? WILSON: Well . I read these. letters and they talk about a rip· off and the financial structure - and when they come out there they're seeing an environment which is their spon and fun for them - but they don't look at our operation as a full- blown business requiring payroll taxes, insurance and land lease . Our land lease alone is 15 percent. So by .the time you add costs of 22 percent for insurance , 15 percent for land lease and then the cost of employees.that totals 75 percent of our operation cost right there. As for the future of Saddleback Park, or any motorcycle park, if people consider they 're being ripped -off, quite frankly , I would love to sign a contract and let these people buy Saddleback Park and all my time and effort could be put to uses other than the park. Stu, what do you say to a rider when he confronts you at the races, hitching about the conditions of the park, which you really don't have anything to do with? PETERS: I try to explain basically, what Vic already mentioned. Weather conditions in southern California are the worst! Soil conditions are very bad. We have a situation where in practice (as in the case at Carlsbad Raceway) the track can be very muddy. We don't have a water truck down there, so we overwarer it the night or morning before - which upsets a lot of the riders and sponsors - so the track will last , hopefully, for the majority of the day. In the case of Saddleback Park, in most instances, the track is raceready in practice and then we try to keep it in racing condition by watering as frequently as possible. There again, when you get to the point where there is a packed groove , it's almost impossible to continue watering because you've created a situation where the water doesn't soak in -it doesn't penetrate - and you've got a slippery situation. A lot of people don't stop to think that CMC would have a lot of expenses oJ;, they think the people who work for CMC are doing it for the love of the spon -which has long past disappeared. For an example, just for my flag personnel (and I'm being very realistic about these figures) flagging , sign up, etc . , runs a little over SI I ,000 per year for local Saddleback and Carlsbad events. These are people interested - in the sport, They're making just enough money to make it worthwhile for them to show up but if they were doing it for a living they wouldn't be there, they'd ' be doing something else. But they're all enthusiasts and that's what we have to live on . Another example most people don't stop to think about: Trophies and prize money last year ran in excess 0£S47 ,OOO, That was not running a lot of big purse races, there were some guaranteed purse races, but basically this is the ordinary ' weekly grind trophy and Pro prize money , There again, it's a percentage of the Pro entry fee that's paid back to them, but when you're looking for an example, a Pro pays $12 to race and SIO of it goes into the pot. That lea ves $2 for the organization to provide insurance, officials, ambulance service and other things along those lines. Another major thing -Is racing insurance. Last year I paid $18 ,240 in racing insurance alone, Then $1,645 per month goes to operate the CMC office, Printing expenses are close to $4,000 a year (that's results, rule books, licenses, etc .). Legal fees are another . situation. To date, this year , I've paid out several thousand dollars for attorneys fees. Not because I want to pay these attorney fees, but because we have problems where people claim they were hun at a CMC race , It was fine as long as little johnny was doing his thing, but little johnny got hun and now mom and dad want a piece of everybody. In one case I can think of, the young man was not even out one . full season. He's back again racing, he's licensed again by CMC, he wasn't maimed , he's not a vegetable, but still they feel they should get a whole bunch of bucks for their pain and suffering. To date, I've not had 'a suit where other riders were . involved. They usually go after CMC , the track, the promoter; in many cases we only sanctioned the races. I wasn 't even there, Has motorcycle riding and racing become a rich man's sport? PETERS: I don't think it's a rich man's sport. Try getting into sailboat racing or power boats. Sure' a motorcycle is an expensive item. It's a $1.500-$2 ,500 expenditure by the time you get it tricked out. But if you're looking at any boat, you're starting at about $10,000 and working up . There again, I'm talking about something where you could include your entire family - where the kids don't have to sit around on shore and watch .you race your sabot. If you want to hang glide you'll pay $2,500-$3,000 for a hang glider and you're very, very fortunate if you can find a moutain to leap off of now days without a problem. WILSON: I do a lot of skiing and skeet shooting, I can't even go shooting for one hour for less than $2 I. Look at desert racing. There's no overhead, it's run by the BLM, nobody owns it , nobody maintains it , there's no fences, etc . So the desert's cheaper and in (Continued to page 39) o c. ~~ The Oil ~ORCO Authority V TORCO OIL CO• . 12247 Lakeland Rd. Santa Fe Springs, CA. 90670 213-944-6361 . 25

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