Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

fI2 51 r.1 ; ~ PETTY PRODUCTS •• Presents g • • Did You Know? Whenever the conversation turns to Americans who did things first to the Europeans in motocross. the easiest way to· recall the answers is remember our Independence Dayl That's rightl The first time an American ever beat the Europeans in an International Motocross event held in the United States was on July 4. 1969 at Saddleback Park when Gary Bailey iNan the Firecracker 400. That year. it was a Friday. Two years later. the "Fourth" fell on a Sunday and on that July 4. 1971 two more firsts cam!! to the Yanks. Jim Wicks ~me the first American ( towin in an International Series held ir:J the United States as he· won the AMA-Sanctioned InterAMA event at Denver Colorado. That same day. some ten hours earlier. American Motocross Team representative Bryan Kinney was making history in France. becoming the first American to win an International race in Europe. And. the next time July 4 fell on a Sunday. in 1976 our 200th Anniversary. Steve Wise won his first major U.S. motocross race, a 125cc National at Keysers Ridge. Maryland. All that on July4th·s... Now you know. READ CYCLE NEWS WANT ADS!!! 8,."e LIne Pel'fll Wll-Qulp Is the mejor supplier of perIormence weier, 011 end brak; line systems uBlld by WIllIaJirs, Renault .nd Ferreri In FOIIiIula One, the IndylCART tums, .nd in AMA Superblk. by Hand., Kawasaki and YoshlmufllSuwki. We stocl. comp/et.llne of Setrab CooI.rs .nd Aeroqulp hose/1tt11lgB .nd .tainltss braided lines for w.Ier, all end brake syst8ms. call for Inform.tlon on your particular application or send S3 for our complete cat.log. ORDERS (714) 751·5131 WiI-Quip 52 llO'1·A west Baker St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 A proposal for a safety .program, which included this roll cage-equipped ATe, ended Domokos' relationship with Honda. For '85 he's on his own. govern the ultimate outcome of a wheelie, and it has taken its toll on the King. After finishing and thanking the crowd, Domokos retreats to the pits for the riight. ••••• "When I first got involved with Doug," said Immediato, "people told me, 'Don't get involved with him; he's over the hill.' But I looked at Doug and saw that what he had done and what he could do was just the tip of the iceberg." Getting Domokos exposed on television of any son was difficult because of the stunt .rider stigma that many people then had attached to his act. Similarly, race promoters and others who wanted Doug to perform for them didn't ask for him as a per, former toentenain, but as a diversion while ground crews would be busy watering the track. The status of Domokos' act took an unexpected turn one year at the Superbowl of Motocross, which was held at the Los Angeles MemoriaL Coliseum. "When I was riding for Kawasaki, I was talking to the people at Stadium Motorsports, saying, 'I want to do my act before the main.' And they said no; they wanted to put me on after the last qualifying heat. So I did it, changed my clothes, put all my gear away, and went up into the stands to sign autographs. "So all of a sudden, Mike Curb (then Lieutenant Governor of California) gets up and says, 'I'm Mike Curb, and I like motorcycles!' Everybody booed him really bad," said Immediato. "Then there was a beer fight, and all of a sudden you could see a wave of beer flowing across the stadium - peopfe are outtherefight- . ing. The AMA and Stadium Motorsports people were worrying that the whole place was going to get torn down, they didn't know whattodo." Immediato added that the· police were soon called in to bring about calm, but it was no use. The situation was getting very scary quickly. Something had to be done. A track official begged Domokos to return to the infield, and maybe things would return to normal. "Doug didn't cross 12 feet of real estate," said Immediato, "and everybody went silent." Suddenly, Domokos was no longer a side-show attraction; he had become, instead. an "insurance policy" of sorts against future potential riots. But at the moment Doug re-emerged upon the Coliseum infield, nobody knew for sure if the horde of rowdies would suddenly turn on him. It was a gamble which paid off. not only for the promoters, but especially for Domokos. Since that incident at the Superbowl of Motocross in Los Angeles, Domokos and his repertoire of wheelie antics has been a staple of the sport. But he doesn't see himself as absolutely indispensible, however; Doug doesn't see himself as any kind of a star. "I still feel like old Doug," is the reply. "The only time people feel different about me is the fact that I get publicity. People may say that I've changed, but that isn't so. Nowdays there's more emphasis on me." If anything has changed over the years for Doug Domokos it's that he doesn't have to live out of the back of his pickup tTUck anymore; now he has a large home in an exclusive community near Perris, California. He has mechanics tending to his machines and other gear. And, yes, there is more emphasis on Doug and what he does. As in any good marketing effort, lots of research has been done by Doug's manager over the last two or three years to see how much the Wheelie King rates with the public. The results have proven to be interesting: According to Immediato, al· most everybody in the country has somehow seen, read, listened to or otherwise heard of the Wheelie King. Domokos appears in some form of ·mass media several times daily, every day of the week. And based on the coverage provided by radio, television and the newspapers, Domokos' management figures that the number of "exposures" received by the general public number somewhere around a half billion. What this means is that Domokos is probably one of the most recognized motorcycle personalities in the U.S., not to mention several other countries, especially Japan where wheel ie-mania has been at a particularly intense level. And if that weren't enough, according to the same figures, when Domokos was with Honda, he had the most "visibility" of anythi'l1g backed by the company. This included all of Team Honda's motocross, road racing and flat track media exposure combined. Yeah, Doug Domokos was the biggest of them all. ••••• It's 11:00 p.m. at Costa Mesa Speedway, nobody's in the grandstands, and the Wheelie King is in the middle of doing his act. Earlier that night, before 6000 screaming Friday night party animals, Domokos unveiled some new additions to the act. Nobody was disappointed, especially the William Morris agent in charg.e of Doug's account or the vice-president of network casting from the ABC television network, or the product rep from Adidas shoes. All of them were thrilled to be working with a new talent, a guy who's as good-looking, clean-cut and responsible as the Wheelie King - a hero for the I 980s. Media stars don't come any better than that. But here it is after the speedway races, .and Bomokos is running through his act for the benefit of the TV cameras. This is important stuff, because he hired and paid for the director, camera equipment and technicians, not to mention the extra track time, all out of his own pocket. In fact, it probably cost him to video tape himself that night as much as he earned the first three years his wheelie act was on the road. Doug is spending all this money to produce a promotional video which can be used for broadcast to tell people that the Wheelie King's in town. The cameraman and director get lined up, and Domokos does his thing. More than a few times shots are done over again; the video has to be just right. During a break, as Domokos waits for .the next camera setup, a kid comes up to him with a Whedie King poster in hand. He asks Domokos for his autograph; iI'S late, everybody's tired, and the busload of William Morris and TV people has gone back

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