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/126460
Jackson or Magic JohDJOn like we have here. That's right. But nobody in any motorcycle racing is a big star here. It's been in Europe a lot longer. And maybe in 10 years it will be really big here, probably on TV every weekend. Think that supercross has a lot to do with the growth of motocross here? Yeah. Pretty soon it's going to be all supercross, I think, instead of outdoors. Do you think that stadium racing is real motocross? It's not real motocross by any means. It's where the money is. The people come in, the promoters get rich - I mean it's much easier for somebody to come to an indoor race and sit down and have them get their drinks for them. There have been, of course, a lot of arguments about Supercross racing being a lot more dangerous than outdoor racing. It is. It's much more dangerous because they're trying to make it much more exciting for the people. But don't the promoters ever talk to the racers? No. We really don't have a say-so in it. Some of the tracks we do; but like the Superbowl, Anaheim and the Astro· dome we hardly have any say-so at all in those things. New Orleans has a really good track and·they have a really good promoter down there. They really have their shit together. Do you think that the promoter and the racers ought to work together? They should. These two promoters I know. they try to give us a really good track to ride on. They try to work with you. But there are a couple of guys out there who don't really care too much. All they want to do is get in, get their cut, and they don't really care what we have to ride on. Does it really bother you that in golf, tennis, race cars and other sports the players get a lot of money, when in motocross they hardly give you anything? It makes me sick. lf you win an indoor event, you can easily make 10 grand, with contingencies and all. But I know that isn't anything compared to those other guys. I don't know what the difference is. Winning one National race pays about eight grand. That's peanuts. It sure is. How come motocrossers get the short end of the stick? I don't really know. I'd like to try and forget about that. There's nothing I can do about it. I just do the best I can. When you're out .there racing, you're not out there thinking about how much money you're going to be making. you're thinking about winning .. What do you think about the lack of recogniticm that motocross gets in the U.S.? J'hat will come in time, I think. Would you like to see motocross as a major recognized sport, getting decent sports coverage like baseball, hockey and other sports? Oh, yeah. I'm sure that it will get that way, maybe within five years. But it's got a lot of maturing to do before that happens. It needs to be publicized better. We watched the Carlsbad GP on TV last week, and it just covered the first and second place riders in the whole race, If you were first or second, it was great, but if you were all the other guys in the top 10 who worked their bulls off that day, they didn't even get their names mentioned. These sportscasters they had on ABC, they know nothing about motocross, and they get in there and they ... Nancy: Tbey have guys who aren't even involved in motocross narrating the C'I ~ ...c::: u 1-0 ~ ~ . *,- KX-80 HEADQUARTERS We Have The Latest Trick Parts And Tuning Know-How • Suspensions • Engine Work • New Bike Sales RINCON KAWASAKI 263 South E St. San Bernardino, California 92401 (714) 884·6481 Cycle News Want Ads do it 8PEC'l'1l Fa, DeoI., Info' • ollJl1lilC.. \iilJ I' LOVE DISTRIBUTING CO. 18061_7338 I l'Itt ~:O Q 33 T