Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O"l ......-I USGP+NBC+ ESPN = Yahoo! By William Edgar After Eddie Lawson won the Grand Prix . at Laguna Seca 'last Sunday he ran through the crowd to the winner's circle, flung his helmet and gloves in the air, and bellowed a wild " Ya hoo! " Steady Eddie wa s All-American and th e fir st one home at the United States ' 23 I h GP In ye~rs . twas t e comeback roa d racing event o f the cent ury. some th ing the world's specta tors will re~ember forever in th ! ee extrao rdinary versrons, One: Bemg the~e in p erson a t L~gu~a Seca. T,:"o: Seeing It telecast live m .14 for eign natr ons. Three: ~ atchm g.It o n delayed telec.a ~ts nght here m th e USA -:- Eddle.s .50~cc GP on NBC and JImmy Fihce s 250cc GP on ESi~i'st th e clock back now. all th e way to last Friday. April 8. a nd take a look a t th e La guna Seca that go t put o n television for a potential 65mill ion fan s worldwide. It was Peo pl e a nd Pro perties In corporat ed th at packaged th e dea l a nd o ur . . d . •h h en th usiasu c esrre to see ow t ey d idir 20 opera tio n a t Laguna Seca, " We' re a lrea dy layin g our a udio a nd video cable a nd we: r~ talkin g abo ut 10 cameras here - It Sa maj or lea gu e p roduction." says Sco tty, wi th to tal calm. " Grou nd cables from the truck to th e Corkscrew' everyw here." • The " truc k" is a big white video trailer with refrigerat or-like doors and a name pa inted up front _ Su per Sh oot er 5. " We put th e 10 came ras on all th e pl atforms so we can see a ll around th e track. T he n we chec k everyth ing." said Connal. Co n.nal is expla.i ni ng how ~he U.S. GP Will be televised , Th.e _50 and 500 races are eac h 49- m l ~~ te ~r~; grams. T.helr~ can be some. repairs to ESPN s rve 250 sho w. ngh t a fter th~ event. But t.he 500 Will ~e pos ted~ted a t NBC: m N~w York.. Compl icated - If yo u re not m T V . . . pro d uc ti ucnon. " I t .s a massive IOgIStlCS . \Je\ e in sid e a motorhome beh ind Lagu na's race p its a nd u p rides Edd ie Lawson o n a YSR50 A voice fro m somewhe re ca lls out.' " Be carefu l o f th a t. Eddie. it might get away from you!" Lawson. in hi s l eathers, steps off the wee bike. la ugh ing a nd a nswering a ll a t o nce . ..It a lready has!" Not far away. in front o f Bubba Sho bert's tent. a n in tense you ng man in g lasses is working o n a Bell helmet . securing a miniatu re TV came ra to it. H is nam e is Mark G leckl th e television director for two World Championship races to be run in less th an 48 hours from now . Sh obert has ag ree d to wear th e ca mera a nd chase Randy Renfrow a rou nd th e tra ck for coverage o f wh at it 's lik e to ride his 250 a t this fresh G P venue. Someplace else nearby a TV crew is shoo ting head sho ts and interviews on o the r GP riders. And a t a dusty television "base ca m p" below a va cant wi n ne r's circle. Executive Producer Scotty Connal o f Sports Entertainment G roup is telling me abo u t th e TV proble m." says Connal. Bu t there is reall y so met h ing fasc,i,na tin g a bo ut the mys tery of It a ll. Even thoug h it 's a tape show, it's a live sh,?w. ~ecal;lse every.t h mg they a.re feedi ng IS gom~ ou t II~~I You GI!! t sto p th is and d.o It over: Sco tty listens to the GP bi kes com mg off th e Cor kscrew. " I've not been exposed to mo to rcycles befor e an d it's exci ting." he says. and means ~ t. . . In a trall e~ by th e .tru ck. Dick ~ uerb~ch o fV ld:eo.Spec in !'lew Y~r k IS settmg u p hi s Int ernati onal Side o f th is glo ba l Gran d Prix telecast. "T oda y, most o f the foreig n broad caste rs chec k in." he says. " We're sett ing. up ou r technical p art o f the ? pera tlo n ~ere m th e trail er a nd up in the f~relgn com me ntary booth a t th e media cen ter. Each com me n ta tor h:;rs a m on i t~f with th e in terna tiona l picture o n It•.a nd th~y mix .the n com me ntary with th e internati onal sou nd." ~hi ch is a ll th e crowd ~n d track noi se, no ta lk. Ju st ch~er! ng and. two-st rok es o u t th ere kissing red h nes . . Auerbach goes o n. " Wha t happen s in an international telecast is we put a signal through our transportable uplink dish. up to a domesti c satellit e first here in th e U.S.• th en it's brought down and handled over to an international sat ell ite o verseas. " Remember th e g uy with Bubba 's helmet? H e's back in th e truck now wh ere it's ai r co ndi tio ned. Video eq uipmen t has to be ·kep t coo l to work well. some th ing like peop le. G leckl in vit es me in side. lat ching th e th ick door as he starts talking abo ut rider POV for th e show opener. " Bubba carr ies a three-quart er-in ch tape deck on hi s back , a nd a little chip camera called a CI- IO with a 5.5m m len s mounted on th e helmet. He's th e mos t cooperative g uy in th e world a nd calm as they ge t." Mark kn ows Bubba. H e kn ow s riders. beca use he is one. Besides being th e NBC / ESP N tel evi si on directo r . Gl eckl has raced motocro ss a nd flat track a nd TT way before he go t hooked o n TV. Then because he lik ed ac tio n and op port u nity. he got into vid eo production. became a ca mera man. a good one. And even tually a director. a very good one. ''I' m not the most expe rienc ed director in the bu sin ess by any stretch o f the imagination," he says. "A director is more a traffic cop than an yth ing else. getting th e came ras in ro tation and cu t right. ta lking th e came ra me n th rou gh th eir sho ts, and insert ing all th e breaks a nd gra p hics. The producer keeps hi s eye o n how the £Jaw of the p rogra m goes. And m y adva ntage is. my background is in motorcycling. I'v e been in it a ll my life. I had a n AMA class C license in the 1970 s. I've had o ver a dozen m o torcycl es. T ha t 's m y real big adva ntage. Wh at I bring to the party here is a decade o f mot orcycle raci ng. " If I not ice somebody slidi ng both ends o f the bik e ou t o f a turn. I'll say 'Ca mera Four. ge t in tight next tim e. I rea lly want to see.' And he mi ght not even kn ow why I'm as king him to do tha t. But people are going to look a t this a nd say 'That is really neat!' I kn ow ho w to shoot mo torcycle racing. And th e reason wh y is because o f m y ba ckground. I'm trying to cove r it from a racer' s sta nd po in t. " T he 250 race for ESPN is pretty stra igh tfor ward. The racing is tight eno ugh. We'll hav e a bike description to look at. And a little vintage foot age. A little helm et can stuff. But we're not go ing to go to Bubba's house. that kind of thing. The 500 race is a little d ifferent sto ry. It will be put tog ether in New York. but it will stick very close to th e racing a nd have a live feel." Laguna Seca is a n exciting thing for Gl eckl. " It's certa in ly th e bigg est race I'v e ever co vered. I as pi red to be a p rofessional mot ocross racer for a couple of years. It came first in m y life. I foll ow ed th at. a nd wo rked as a motorcycle mech anic a nd service ma nager Ior 10 years. And I sai d I want to do some th ing else. So I went to school a nd stud ied film . a nd m y first was a little dune bu ggie film ca lled Sa nd T oys. I did th e title with . m y finger in sa nd.': G leckl a lso mak es deal er film s for mot o rcycle com pa nies. He did the Supercro sses in Anaheim a nd San Diego th is year. a GSXR road rac e special. 1985 World Ch ampionship Spee dway at Long Beach , 24-Hours o f Daytona. "I know cars." .he sa ys. "b u t I know motorcycles bett er. "I saw Bob Hannah a t Saddleback o n a Yam ah a o n MotorWeek Illustrated a nd I sa id. 'That's what I want to do! I want to go out and shoot pi ctures of mot or racing a nd have th at stuff on TV. It's kind o f been m y dr eam , a nd the dr eam 's come true. Wh at is the most gratifying is to kn ow th at th ere's go ing to be a zillion people all over the world that will be watching our stu ff." Gl eckl reminds me th e Laguna GP is his fir st maj or league network specia l. "Am I n ervous? Yes. But I'm al so ca lm. I'm very prepared. I went o u t a nd rented a ll th e motorcycle vid eo ta pes a nd watch ed th em ." Out a lo ng th e pits. a t lu nc h-brea k. G leckl a nd hi s crew pu t first Shobert o n hi s 250 a nd then Kevin Mag ee on his 500 bike th rou gh point-of-vi ew hel met came ra la ps. chas ing Randy Renfro w a nd Wa yne Rainey. respecti vel y. Th e video ta p es a re o u tsta ndi ng. " It was a little hea vy." Sho bert says. "but ac tua lly af ter you get go ing it 's kind o f fun, a nd just knowing th at it might g ive th e people a better feeli ng of wha t's going on o u t there wh en th ey'r e wa tching it on T V. Kind o f gi ve them a clue as to wha t it looks lik e behind th e handl ebars o n one of these things." . Kevin Magee. looking down into th e portab le mon itor. says. "Kennv'd p robably get a kick out of seeing thi s!" He la ug hs. then talks about what the fans will get. " At times, through that lens. I was o nly about five feet behind Wayne's back wheel. They ca n' t get th at clo se sitting in the grandstand!" " Wo nderfu l!" says Gleckl. "Let's put this baby to bed." It 's Saturda y a nd we 'r e inside Su per Sh ooter 5; befor e a bank of working televisio n screens as Bruce Fl and er s ho st s a n d Keith Code narrates the ca mera-eye tape for th e opening o f ESPN's 250cc GP show - that prim e rider view from Bubba' s helm et as he chases Renfrow in a nd o ut of Lagu na Seca's II turns. Cod e's qu ick co m me ntary pulls me into the T V scene. I ca n pretend I'm th ere. on Bubba 's yell ow Honda: "T h is is a tri cky sectio n o f th e tra ck as we co me up th e hill here. This little rise wh en yo u're on the gas pi cks th e front wh eel off the ground! And yo u go tta get it set down aga in because you' re hard o n th e brakes. You 're look in ' down th e barrel of the Corkscrew right now ! Fli ck it on hard! Turn it left ! Stra igh ten it up just for an ins ta n t! Flick it back to the right!" G ary G erou ld, NBC's hostco m me nta to r tells me a bo u t his ex pert talent for the 500 show . Freddie Sp en cer. " Peop le a re hungry for it. and ho pefull y the y'll see a gr eat show. I think Freddie is just ~ going to be supe r. H is retirem ent is o n ly a month o ld. and he's tested this circu it since it's been rem odeled, so he's very mu ch in tune with wh at 's going o n." Gerould has been a read er of Cycle N ew s for years: he keeps back issu es as referen ce. a nd relies on them to bu ild hi s backgr ound. Same with GIeck!. He's got th e Suzuka issue in the tru ck with him. checking GP facts and spe ll ings while making th e TV grap hics in adva nce. Now th e inten sit y of the prep begins to sho w. And wh en things don 't go just ri ght. life in and arou nd the video truck begins to resemble tho se "ang ry" com mercials th at are in vogue righ t now. But it 's th e way video life operat es. Which is like a lmos t every o the r p ressure situa tio n in life. Su ch as GP road 'racing. At Laguna Seca. Anywhere. Bob Dinsmore is Au erbach 's partner in the internationa l feed. He likes what he sees here. " G rand Prix ' motorcycle racing," says Dinsmore, " fro m a television sta ndpo int. loo ks very much like a n eme rging sport. You crea te as many markets as possibl e." It 's Sunday and NBC's Sally Larvick ha s been assigned to do the pit repo.rting with Ian Norris. She

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