Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

; • ~ E IIIlI o 00 (j') ...... Cood-bye, Larry BuffmaD talks about h is split from the Costa Mesa Speed Ba....y Oxley ..epliesBy Rex Reese 18 Larry Huffman had been a standard fixture in the traditional Friday night speedway craziness at Costa Mesa since 1969. Dressed up in his bow tie and tuxedo, his rapid-fire motor mouth has been known to stir up the crowd at the punch bowl-sized track with an energy almost equal to the alcohol-burning 60 hp racing machinery at the starting tapes. It was a case of the announcer being as good as the racing itself. In time, in fact, it was becoming accepted that the combination of Huffman in the stands and racers on the track created a show in motorsports unequaled anywhere else in terms of intensity and spectacle. That all came to an end last year when Huffman and Costa Mesa speedway promoter Harry Oxley - very close friends at the time - failed to come to satisfactory financial terms on Huffman's services for the season-finale Nationals. That, along with alleged scheduling conflicts, created a quiet impasse between the two which carried over into 1980. Early in the year, both parties tried to reach an agreement for the coming season, but to no avail, apparently splitting Oxley and Huffman further apart. Huffman alleges, basically, a lack of consideration (as much personal as financial) on the part of Oxley, while the promoter cites a lack of enough money to afford Huffman. In an interview in early April in Anaheim, Larry Huffman presented his side of the story, which is followed up with a reply taken from a phone conversation with Harry Oxley at his home in San Clemente. . ~ 11 II How come you're not at Costa Mesa this year? This began last year, as near as 1 ca n figure : Harry (Oxley) came to me at the beginning of 1979 an d sa id, " I really go t to cut expenses. I'd like to pa y you this year for the same amount you got last yea r." Before, 1 was handling his a dvert ising on th e rad io stations and placing his commercials and getting a commission on that. He asked me if he could pay me just one flat fee , and I said sure. We got through the season , and I was off for a month filming in Europe for On Any Sunday, II, and I think Harry resented that. Looking back, I think he was upset that I did take off for a month overseas. Did this cut into the speedway season? Yeah. We had to film Silverstone and Belgium. Then I came back and did the last two or three weeks . Just prior to going - we had planned all year long, because we had to do the movie - he (Oxley) said, "Are you really going to leave on me? " And I said that I had to . Was he aware of this in advance? Yes. So we got down to the (U .S . S~dway' Nationals, and Harry had It ... t t t ..... to move th em up a week because of th e Ascot (AMA) Nationals. That was th e same week I was supposed to do the Trans-USA race at Unadilla . I said to Harry that 1 had a problem. , and he said, "W ha t are we going to do about th is? And I said that I'd check with a " travel agency. 1 did and found out that 1 could do speedway on Saturday night , ca tch a midnight flight back Ea st, and do' the Trans-USA the next day. Harry said , "I think that's going to be difficult for you . I don't th ink you can do it. " I said , "I'll do it , no problem. I can handle it. " _ Then we started talking about money - and this is like two or three weeks before the race - and he said , "What do you want to do the race?" And 1 said that I'd like to get what 1 go t last year. He said , " I wasn't planning on paying y~u that ; I was p lanning on paying you the regular weekly salary." I went back and checked that though we had agreed to pay me one figure the same as the year before on a fla t fee basis, I had actually been making quite a bit less than that over the year. 1 said, "I don't think that's fair: ' He said , "We've never done it differently. " What he was asking me to take was a 70% cut on what 1 made the year before at theNationals, (including) the • J I ',: i t,.{.' r J • "r, -; t ') : l ~ 1 ) f I )

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