Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

emTERvmW~t~I_~P_.V_~_ffi~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I The man who calls the bluffs The FIM's outspoken president fears neither Bernie Ecclestone 'n or the tobacco giants. President Vaessen tells the FIM's side of the TV rights negotiations, shrugs off any threat of a new "World Series," and advocates the twin-cylinder 500cc proposal for the GPs starting with the 1993 season. By Dennis Noyes hen the sua ve and Machiavellian Sp anaird Don Nicol as Rod il del Valle stepped down as president of the FIM at the Benalmaden a FIM Congress in Andalucia (Spain) in the fall of 1983, his 18 year s of absolut e po wer over all aspects of motorcycle sport came to an end. But before pas sing hi s authority to form er Treasure r Nicolas Schmit; an efficient Swiss bureaucra t, RadiI had successfully defeated an idea listic bu t naive attem p t by a break- away group of rid ers led by Kenny Rob erts and Franco Un cini and jou rn alist Barry Coleman to form the World Series, an "ou tlaw" road ra cing champ ionship series. R odil, a m a ster p olitician who ~ co ntrolled the FIM thanks to , the loyal ty of th e " La tin block" an d to an in tricate tapestry of alliances with th e other maj or FIM power blo cks, kep t total pow er cente red in Geneva from th e.idays of H ailwood and Agostini righ t th rough to th e unforgettabl e Rob erts-Spen cer battle of 1983. Under his reig n, altho ug h not necessaril y as a result of his efforts, roa d raci ng sur vived the withdraw al of the J apanese factory team s a t th e en d of th e '60s and lat er grew to becom e a maj or sport in Europe and in large parts of the world when Yamaha retu rn ed to 500cc racing to tak e on and event ua lly con q uer th e MV-Agu st a dyn a st y. Suzuki and H onda joined Yam ah a in th e ba ttle for 500cc supremacy and Cagiva painted its bikes in MV-Agu sta fire-engine red in a brave and on -go ing att empt to ma tch the Japan ese works mach in ery. All of this and mu ch , much more transpired under the stern watchfulness of Nicholas Radii del Valle. , Rodil's greatest hou r was hi s defeat of the World Series " pirates" in 1980. H e confessed, however, th at his greatest frustration was not bein g able to sig n a maj or television contract for the FIM Road Racin g World Champion ships. Bu t it was h is successo r, Nic ho las Schmit, who in the fall of 1988 sold the TV right s for four years (1989-1992) to Form ul a One czar Bernie Ecclestone. In order to do so, Sch mit crea ted a company, Moto media, empowered to sell th e rights to an inte rnatio na l agency. Motom edia was made up of ' three pa rtne rs wh o wo uld share profits: The FIM he ld on ly 10% whi le IRT A (Internat iona l Racin g Teams Associat io n) and ROPA (Road Racin g Organ izers and Promoters Associa tion ) each held 45%. Motomedia considered vari ou s offers but event ua lly chose to sig n with I.S.c. (Inte rnationa l Sportsw or ld Communicators), an Ecclestone company directed by Christa in Vogh t. I.S.C. wo u ld ta ke o n producti on costs and nego tiate all rights for TV and video usage. Motomedia would receive 50% of the W 20 profits and theremaining 50% would those wh o accept compromise. Vaessen be for I.S.C. ' came in to office like a man ina big hurry. He said he would be a handsThe principle concern of the major sponsors, the tobacco gian ts Marlboro, on pres ident and he was soo n to make good that claim. After a chaotic Rothmans and Lucky Strike, was that Yugoslavian Grand Prix where almost expos ure be increased. But no authoreverythi ng that could go wrong went ita tive audience figu res exist. Bernie , wrong, Vaessen, who was on holiday Ecclestone himself called the figures released by , Motom edia at th e end of at the tim e, cu t short his vacation and flew to FIM headquarters .to take the 1990 " to say th e least, inaccura te," and risk y step of provisionally abolishing a tt ri b u tes d iffi culty in a chieving the j ury system and tak ing upon his 'dramatic in creases in expos ure to a own shoulders the duty of heading an combina tion of causes -ranging from FIM GP com mittee which for the th e dw indling grids in the 500cc class remainder of the 1990 season would to Motomedia's emphasis upon profitoversee all asp ects of the running of making from the very offset of th e each and every GP . No previous FIM I.S.C. -Motomedia deal which began a t president had ever exposed himself to the start of the 1989 season and will suc h ris k. run out at the end of the '92 season . For the rest of the season, the tall, ' Wh en J o s P . Vaessen , for mer stern President roamed the paddock, Gen eral Secretary of the KNMV (Dutc h chaired meetings with race officials, Motorcycling Federati on ) left his fullconsu lted IRTA frequently and almost tim e job with hi s nati on al federat ion as frequently took their adv ice. to take a high-ranking post in the Vaessen's first year as FIM pres ident Dutch Central Bureau of Dr iving went more smooth ly than had at first -Licenses, he beca me eligible to seek th e seemed possible. However things were FIM p residency in the 1989 fall elecnot as ha rm oniou s as th ey at first tions . The FIM sta tutes prohibit the appeared to be. election to office of anyo ne who is a His first major objective had been full- tim e employee of any firm directl y to put an end to the Swedi sh GP invo lved in motorcyclin g, inclu ding probl em (IRTA th reat ened to boycott Federation employees. , Vaessen had the event) , and to firml y re-establish been p resident of th e FIM Track FIM a u thor i ty ov er all a ssoci a te Racin g Commission wh ich governs memb ers (IRT A, ROPA above all). speedway, probab ly the most " profesT hese in itial objectives were met, but sional" branch of FIM sport in the it has not proved so easy to find a op inion of Vaessen, solu tion to the crisis in the 500cc class When Vaessen obtained hi s release nor has the sale of TV rights to the from th e KNMV in order to 'work in the Central Bureau of , Driving FIM Wor ld Road Racing Championshi p to Dorna S.A. from Spain (instead Licen ses, h e ' was imm ed iately of ren ewing th e 'original Motomediaapproached and requested to becom e Bernie Ecclestone contac t) been a a candida te for the FIM presiden cy popular move with the ma jor teams . against the Luigi Brenni of SwitzerT he maj or tob acco sp o nsors have land, the candidate heavily sup po rted sho wn -themselves to be very relu ctant by "liberal" delega tes and by IRTA. IRTA had even pl ayfully distributed to see th e TV rights pass from Ecclesto ne's com p an y to Dorna S.A. , a " Brenni for President" buttons in the paddoc k during the 1988 season. The Span ish giant in TV marketing rights ,FIM reacted to the threat of an " IRT A of soccer and basketball but without experience in motorsports. Meanwhile man " at the helm and set out to find IRT A, which also was in favor of a a hard-lin e FIM pol itician capable of renewal of the Ecclestone con tract, is restor ing FIM au tho ri ty to all bran ches of the sport , especially to Gra nd Prix stro ng ly against th e p roposed change from fou r-cylinder to twin-cylinder roa d racin g. The FIM was not lookin g for a " n ice machines in the 500cc clas s an d claims tha t the Japan ese factories, in spite of guy," and J os Vaessen made it clear what th e FIM cla ims, are also aga inst from th e beginning that he inte nded to put a halt to wha t he and his the cha nge. suppo rters in the FIM perceived to be Clearly, an d especially afte r the . ari erosion of power. ' sta tements made by Bernie Ecclestone When Vaessen declared himself a i n h is rece nt interview with this , reporter, it was tim e for th e FIM ca n d ida te to repl ace the retiring Nico las Schmit, he and his forces acted _ President to speak ou t. quickl y to break down the su pport th at I found the six-foo t-five Dutchman Brenni had gather ed , a nd in the enjoy ing a rare holiday with his famil y elections held in Maastri cht , Holland, at h is mod est beach apartment on in October of 1989, Vaessen took power. Spain 's Costa Brava, set back a block H is victory was an overwhelming one. from the beach in the village of Tossa Brenni was crushed, deni ed even a vice ' del . Mar, an hour's drive north of presidency or symbolic honor of the Barcelona. kindthe FIM frequently bestows upon "I rem ember all this from IO years ago when we first bought this place. . The road outside was not paved. The ho tel th at now blocks our view of the hills was not there and this was just a fishing vill age. Many things have changed since then," said Vaessen as I got out the tape recorders to begin our interview. But it was not so much about the th ings that have changed tha t we were to speak for the next two hours ... it was about the things that J os Vaessen inten ds to change in the immediate future. ' ****** What you did after Yugoslavia, stepping in directly and suspending the International Jury system, was a risky move . No FIM president had ever done anything like that. It must have been an unpopular move with many of those 54 federations. . In the statutes there is a rule that give me power to take this kind of action. The FIM is a presidential 'orga nization. The president has very great power in case of emergency, but he must be careful because if he takes power from the hands of the board members and the national federations he can find himself out of office. This, was , I think, the first time these powers were used , but I felt that there was nothing else to do. The FIM was being attacked from all sides , and I have learned in my management experience that you don't go in the corner when you are under attack. You must act, not wait and hope. I did this and it was the right thing to do and proof of this is that in the FIM Fall Congress in Budapest the FIM has voted to replace the temporary jury with a permanent jury system not just in road . racing but in all branches of motorcycle sport, But in spite of the changes made, IRTA and IRTA's ch ief executive, Paul Butler, believes that it is vital that a Grand Prix Commission be created to act on it own , although perhaps under the indirect authority. of the Road Racing Commission (CCR) and the .T ech ni cal Commission (CT). This would be a commission that would deal exclusively with professional road racing. I know what Butler wants, but there is already a Grand Prix Group (GPG ) , which meets twice a year with IRTA and twice a year with ROPA. I have seen that th ere has never been cooperation between IRTA and ROPA . . . we saw this is Motomedia. Both bodies showed in the pa st that they not only can not coo pera te ... they can not even 'com municate. So how can they make up a Grand Prix Commission? The Grand Prix group that I have created consists of the president and two vice presidents of both the CCR and tire CT and a couple of weeks before each major congress the GPG meets individually with IRTA to consu lt them on their views and needs, to allow the m to participate in the . making of calendars and rules, and they have ano ther private meeting with ROPA for the same purpose. When you say that you know what Paul Butler wants, I feel you are saying in the same breath, "but he isn't going to get it ," Of course, I kn ow what Paul wants. He is an emp loyee of a big team and heads an 'orga nization of big teams ; but, is what the big teams want really what the sport wants? Should bike road racing be like Formula: One with a small elite of very well -paid fortunate ones and no on e else, or should it be a sport which offers from the very bottom opportunities 'to young racers who can then work their way up to .the highest level .!in racing. I ask you

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