Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

... c<"':l Q.) ..0 o .... u o . ' Much ado about Sugerbikes: SleveMcLaughlin By John Ulrich Surprised by Daytona's announcement that 1985 Daytona 200 will be a Superbike race? Steve McLaughlin wasn't. McLaughlin is the man behind a proposed international Superbike circuit - to be called the International 'Superbike Masters Series - and he's now gathering support for FIM 12 approval for and sanction of the series, which McLaughlin sees as a World Championship class within five years. McLaughlin's venture M.C.C. and Associates, formed with partners Chris Carter (a British motorcycl~ journalist and broadcaster), Phifippe Bebarle (a French race announcer, broadcaster and event promoter) and Robert Cox (British, formerly a mechanic for Phil Read, Steve Baker and Rudi Kurth and racing rep for Champion Spark Plugs) - is at least partially underwritten by Jimmy France of Daytona International Speedway. McLaughl.in has already gathered letters of support for the series concept from several manufacturers including Harley-Davidson - and is looking for more support wherever he can get it. If anybody knows about Superbike racing, it is McLaughlin; rules he formulated launched the class in 1974. He won in the class he invented, at Daytona in 1976and 1978, at Laguna Seca in 1977, riding BMWs for Butler and Smith and then Kawasakis and Suzukis for Yoshimura. McLaughlin has worked as advertising and marketing director for Stadium Motorsports; he left to become, at 29, the youngest national sales promotion manager ever for Nissan Motor Corp. From Nissan, McLaughlin spent a year at Dancer. Fitzgerald-Sample, an advertising agency, then left to form and run American Honda's first Superbike racing team. McLaughlin hired Udo Geitl, Mike Baldwin and Freddie Spencer. Since leaving Honda in 1981, McLaughlin has been involved in various freelance promotions. Before taking his case for Superbikes to the FIM FaJl Congress in Munich, Germany, McLaughlin talked about his project. "The International Superbike Masters Series will make the AMA's successful Superbike format an international formula with the ultimate goal of obtaining FIM world championship status. "My group is a marketing company with 50 years combined experience in the motorcycle racing field; experience in television, event promotion, major sponsorship sales, and mass merchandising on a world-wide level. We intend to offer motorcycle road racing a professional organization that will interface with the rid- ers, promoters, sponsors, and FIM and FMNs (individual national motorcycle org,!nizations), the net result of which will be increased revenues to the competitors, successful race promotions with world-wide television coverage, and major sponsorship. "Obviously, the Frances' decision to run the Daytona 200 as a Superbike event supports our concept. If they choose to make that event the opener of our series, it would be the best possible endorsement of our program. Let's not forget that since its first race in the early 1940s, the Daytona 200 has become the most famous motorcycle event in the world. It is also the first event on the motorcycle road racing calendar and pays the highest purse of any motorcycle event in the world. "Daytona went to Superbikes because: I. the AMA's 1985 Formula' One rules exclude 1000cc multicylinder four-strokes, thereby reducing the potential competitors and reducing the odds of delivering Daytona's historic 80 machine field; 2. the speed differential between the pole-sitter in this year's 200-miler and the 80th qualifier was over 50 mph, while the speed differential in this year's Superbike event was only 17 mph; ll. the Frances, who've created the world's most successful racing series in NASCAR see the similarities in Superbike and recognize that as long as we race what the motorcycle manufacturers sell, they will sell what they race and equipment will always be available to competitors. "Since the Anglo-American Match I Races over Easter weekend, I've been in contact with the AMA's Wayne Moulton and John Hasty (AMA Chairman of the Board) regarding this project. So they have been invol ved since the very beginning. Because the AMA's first concern is American racing, their primary involvement has ben regarding our proposed American rounds and what rule differences there might be between AMA Superbike and our series rules. Since there has been a need of keeping the FIM fully appraised of our project, Ed Youngblood (AMA President and an FIM Vice-President) and Bill Boyce (a Vice-President of the FIM Technical committee) have been very helpful. As a matter offact, Wayne Mouton has made me a guest of the AMA for this fall's FIM Congress in Munich. "When we started this program, we figured that 1985 would be a transi tion year. Honda, the industry leader, got the jump on the competition with the 750cc Interceptor two years ago. As of this year's Cologne Show, Yamaha and Suzuki have displayed their entries in this class. Kawasaki has stated for two years that it plans to return to Superbike racing in 1986, And what is Team Yoshimura, if it is not, in fact, the official Suzuki factory entry? We are currently in the midst of a cycle where manufacturers are either reducing or eliminating their factory tearns. However, the Superbike format and the equipment available have led manufacturers that we have (Continued to page 26)

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