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/127244
from 10th o n back. And I th in k i t's eas ier for every body to j ump in th en hold back. .You also said it 'd be good to have somebody in charge of GP racing, somebody with a lot of power. I th ink th a t, stra ngely enough, no w the FI M's got power, IRT A's got power , I don ' t kn o w what ROPA is, but, th e riders have power. Someone, I felt th a t someone h as to be lookin g after th e sport. In gen eral terms, th e peopl e th at ac tually m ak e it ha p pen. Wh ich means th at everyone in this sport h as to make money. All the teams , if they 're good tea ms, shou ld have the possibility to make money and no t j ust spend it. Beca use if the tea ms make more money th ey can afford to pay the riders more money, support riders. So so meone has to tak e a real hard look at th e doll ars th at th e teams a re actua lly putting . in to gi ve th e show to' th e organ izer. And th e d oll ar va l ue tha t h e 's ac t ua lly p a yin g fo r th a t show. Because I kn ow tha t he's paying the same amount of money fo r his show that he was 10 years ago. In what sense is that? T he purse hasn 't go ne up a ny . The o nly thi n g th at's gone up p robably is sanc tio n ing fees. So wh a t's ac tu a lly ha p pened is . . . I know tha t I won th e World C ha mpionship in 1978 on a budget of $350, 000, and I did 250 and 750 champions hips too. And what would that ge t yo u today? T ha t wouldn't get you out of the garage. When riders cost two mi llion steps back in my o p inion . We n eed key mark eting p eople. You ca n't take a mech anic an d expect him to sell m ark e tin g a n d prom oti on s and sponsorship. The FIM is just too o ld to accept a fac t that it' s a business because the changes th ey make are crazy . The complexity o f G P racing no w far succeeds the people that are in th e FIM . And I thin k to h ave a ma jor team a t this momen t is very cos tly and I thi nk th ere's a lot o f peopl e th at feel that if th ey don't have Lawso n or Wa yn e Rai n ey we don't want to ru n a team. If we don ' t ha ve th e best equipment we don' t want to ru n a team. I th ink the re's that kind of a ttitude in the motorcycle busi ness. "Oh, we'd give you the money to run a team if we had horse. You have to get bu ilt, you have to esta b lish , but yo u ha ve to have th e tool s to do th a t a nd no on e is su p p lying th e tool s. It 's o n th eir own a nd Yamaha ca n' t h ave any more teams. H o nda doesn 'r .want any m ore tea ms, Suzu ki on ly has o ne tea m. So what chan ne l do yo u h ave to get a sponsor? Which b ri ngs us back to building a motor and to m ak in g a Hennybike if you want because yo u h ave a m ot or a nd yo u have so me people in a ga ra ge tha t ca n bui ld a chassis. I m ean the n yo u start to get sponsors tha t wou ld say we 're no t going to wi n, bu t we ' re going to be o n television , but someday we 're goi ng . to win. I'm sure everybody wou ld like to come in and buy my P ·road .racing they ca n afford to spe nd more money on eq u ip me nt, hospital ity. What would this person do? What's the most important issue to be addressed? Is it TV? Is it to keep the cost of racing down? Is it to get people to the races? I th ink th e people co me. G oing to th e best fac ili ti es with th e best p romo tion is key. And n o t wha t th e Ita lians or th e Fre nc h or Ame ricans feel is the rac e they need to go to in tha t co u ntry. "Oh, this race track hasn ' t h ad a race for th ree years, they need it." Because we need now to sta rt building. T he TV is bein g bui lt. T he peopl e co me to th e races. We have to sta rt taki ng some money out of the" siio w to p ut back into the teams. Because team costs ar e going sky high and riders have more costs al so. Especi ally th e n on-fac tory b ucks, th ree million bucks. T ha t was a screw -u p, of course, by Ago. T hat 's th e cost. Bikes a re a million. What does it cost to run a 500 team? Mill ions. T h ree- four. For one rider? I don't kn ow because I'v e never run a one rider team. You co u ld run a good team, a dece n t tea m for five mi lli on bu cks. Why hasn't it been able to attract non-tobacco sponsors? Pepsi was a no n -tobacco sponsor. That was the only one and they're gone and the y weren't much of a sponso r as far as what it costs to run a team. Personally I th in k tha t it isn ' t w here it needs to be yet. It rea lly needs to be more organized. It needs to be a cleaner pa ckage. This year had some g ia nt steps forw ard and some giant Edd ie La wso n." I mean wh a t kind o f sh it is that? That 'd be lik e sayi n g we'd give yo u th e kind o f m oney to run a Form u la One team if yo u co u ld ge t Sen na. Wh ere do yo u start? Wh en I started a team with Raftdy Mamol a a nd Mike Baldwin, 'nObOdy even heard o f Mik e Baldwin w he n I took him ove r th ere th e first year, a nd we ra n o n a very small budget a nd we b ui lt th e team into so methi ng that was bett er th an it origi na lly started. And even the team Ago had his first year was Graeme Crosby and Graziano Rossi, wasn't it? Ri gh t. So th ere's a lot o f talk this yea r o f p eopl e th at tri ed to get Schwantz, tr ied to ge t Gardne r, tr ied to get this because th ey h ad a sponsor that wou ld do it if th ose people would co m e along. Well that 's putting the ca rt a little bit before the tea m, but p aying for it is a nother sit ua tion altogethe r. Do you think there's going to be a problem with tobacco advertising in the future? People are turning against it , Australia just went against it. . I don 't kn o w, I'm not a p olitician , I don 't kn o w th a t. We'r e not say ing, " Sta rt smoking. " If yo u smoke, try o ur br and , th a t's a ll I know th at we're sayi ng. I th in k th a t yo u're rea lly un co verin g a can of wo rms if yo u tell so meone th ey ca n' t smoke ciga rettes. Wh at a re you sayi ng? You can' t advertise cigarettes, yo u ca n' t adver tise alcohol, yo u ca n 't adve rt ise asp irins because they 're bad for yo u. I mean , it rea lly goes a ll th e way do wn th e ladder. I' ve seen cigarette advertising fo r years : I do n ' t smoke: I don't know. I don't know what, th en I'm not a politician, like I said.•