Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTERV WPart II: Jos P. Vaessen IE e Why do you th ink that th e major sponsors are uncomfortable with th e Doma con trac t? Why has john Hogan authorized Leo de Graffenreid (Marl boro) to say that if Ecclestone loses th e T V rights the y might pull ou t? Who kn ows if Leo de GraHenreid spea ks on hi s ow n or if it is john Hoga n. I have never met john H ogan, yet I am told he was at the Gen eva meeting where the Dom a contrac t was discussed and he did not even com e up to introduce himself to me. We all know that Marlboro has a very good relationship with Ecclestone in Formu la I, bu t this is no reason to attempt 10 take such an attitude toward Dorna. The Dorn a contract can never be the ene my of the sp onsors. This is a .curtain of smo ke that the y are lifting before our eyes. The real enem y of the major sponsors is the anti-tobacco legisl atio n fro m Bru ssels. 30 The "World Series" threat There has been a lot of talk about a new "World Series." What will th e FIM do if the major teams and sponsors form a parallel championship series? If they wish to do th is inside the FIM then they need the permission of the FIM. If events are linked internationally, if a series is created, then the organizers and a ll riders an d teams must have FIM authorization and they can only receive this if they sign an agreement with the FIM 10 also race the existing FIM Grand Prix races. Bu t we will never a ll o w them to do an ything which hurts the prestige of th e GPs. Is this wh at happens wit h th e Masters o f Moto cross se ries orga nized b y Luongo? Yes, th is is the right exam ple. All the riders who participate in the Masters al so rid e in th e FIM World Ch am p ion : sh ips. If they want to run a World Series th ey m ust sign a contract wit h us to race all our events. (This is not tru e because n ot all of the American riders w ho ride th e Mast ers ri de in th e W orl d Champ ion sh ip events, how ever, m ost do ride th e A merican MX and SX Championships. Wh eth er th e FlM can legall y oblige riders to participate in th e World Ch ampionships is a point that would have to be tested by international law. Off icials from IRTA and team managers are certain that such a rul ing wo uld not stand ,in court, but Presiden t Vaessen is equally certain of th e FlM 's p ow er to pr ot ect itself again st a " pi rate" ch am pion ship . . . Dennis Noyes.) Su pporters of this idea say that the FIM does not have th e power to force riders to ride the FI M Cha mpionships and th ey say tha t a TV deal with Bernie Ecclestone would make th eir series more important than the FIM championship. They will fin d that the FIM does have this power and that the FIM will use this power. We will never allow any series of international races to harm the GPs so the riders will have to ride both th e GPs and the other series if they want to ride with FIM permits. Now they comp lain against riding in 15 events so it is hard for me to beli eve that they cou ld rid e another 10 or even five even ts in a season. The FIM will not allow them to ride the ir series a nd not ours. If they want to do th is they must leave the FI M and go it on their own and of course they will fail because these attempts at para llel champ ionships always fai l and the riders are the losers. Bernie, in your interview, sa ys th a t if he were approached with su ch an idea he would be interested. He does not say he would help becau se he cannot help. He is in FOCA and FISA and will no t work against the FIM. Bernie is vice president of the FISA, and th e FIM and th e FIA work very closely together. He is not seriously pl anning to become in volved in organization of a series. H e just says . he "would be inte rested." When a japan ese bu sin essman says that he might be inte rested in something, what he reall y means is he is not interested and that is what Bern ie is saying. He ca nnot tell , you the truth . .. that he would never su pport th is World Series . . . because hi s big sponsors and clients like Marlboro would not like this. But this is anothe r bluff and the FIM has a lready called this bluff once and we will do it again if th e riders all ow them selves to be mislead into sucha thing. Ass u mi ng tha t Bernie Ecclestone sta nds comp letely outside the actual organization, but that a series is put togeth er with top teams, factory bikes, top riders and accepta ble circuits . .. then the rights of this package could be offered 10 Bernie Ecclestone an d he could take it on through I.S.C. strictly as a business propostion, No, he couldn 't. Why shou ld he? If it is not a World Champ ionshi p , wh y sho uld he attem pt to do harm to the FIM? And do you reall y think th e J apanese factories sup port such a thing? The J apan ese factor ies are very loyal 10 thei r associa tion to the FIM. In spi te of what Ken ny Roberts and Paul Butler think, the J apanese are very inte rested in having the true world title. T he Japanese factories have been raci ng the FIM World Championshi ps for over 30 years. They are not go ing 10 break from th e FIM. This is someth in g everyone kn ows. These auempts 10 form break-away championshi ps always fail .. . we have seen it alrea dy with th e " World Series," but a lso in other spo rts - tennis, soccer. No one has been able 10 establish a long term series outside the controlli ng inte rnation al federat ion . They cannot upset me with that bluf£. If th ey wa nt 10 do it, let th em do it. I kn ow wha t will happen and the y do as well. , If a parallel Worl d Championshi p is attemp ted and the riders want to race under FIM license, will the FI M revoke their permits or order their nat ional federat ions to do so? If they want to run a series of internationalraces, linked as a cha mpion sh ip, I will allow th em to do it providing first of all tha t they ap p ly for FIM approva l and tha t th ey agree 10 ride the entire FIM World Championships and, of course, we wou ld restrict them to a limited number of event s' as we do with the Masters of Motocross series. I have exp lained how this would work. If the y wish to try outside the FIM, then th ey will fail. In the first moment that I see any attempt 10 hurt the estab lished FIM G P series I will act wi th all th e power that , I have as FIM president to protect th e FIM GP Champ ionsh ip. T hey canno t scare me with that. T hey are bluffing. If they want 10 do it, tak ing the risks that they will be taking, let them try. I wi ll use all my power to defend th e FIM. Other subjects The interview with J os Vaessen was nearly two and a half ho urs long and covered a wide variety of subjects tha t cannot for reasons of space be incl uded in thi s text. Here are a few of the more sign ificant statements of Presiden t Vaessen on other subjects : Abou t IRTA's proposed boycott of the 1990 Swedish GP: Mike T rimby told everyone in 1989 tha t th e IRTA teams would not be in Sweden for the 1990 GP. This cost hi m five bottles of whiskey tha t he bet with (Anders) Aberg (Swedish member of th e FIM Road Racin g Commission ). After my election I told Paul Butl er and Mike Trimby tha t the FIM would not accep t any threat or ultimatum from anyone an d they understood th is and withdrew thei r threa t of a boycott. They had no powe r to override an FIM Management Council decision and I told th em thi s. No group of teams can elimina te a whole area of the world, Scandanavia , becaus e they say it is not of commercia l interest to their sponso rs. The factori es do not want to ign ore Scandanavia. The King of Sweden is, by the way, a close perso na l friend of Mr. H onda. When IR T A was prepared to talk without th reats we were abl e to reach an agreement. We raced in Sweden last year. This year Sweden has a Superbike World Championship race and next year if they carry out the modifications we ha ve asked th ey will have their G P again. On the World Champio nship Superbike Series: This is an important second series, behi nd th e GP s, but we are very ha ppy with its development. In the future we are hoping 10 have angry that the FIM was blamed by the riders for making th is proposal. This was an IRTA proposal put out by Motomed ia , bu t when th e riders protested, IRTA pretended that they had nothin g to do with it. The riders should know that this was an IRTA proposal in order to make the grids look beuer on TV. I did no t like this idea and I asked th e Management Council to reject it, bu t it angers me that IRT A mak es this proposal and then h ides from their own riders and lets them blame th e FIM when Paul Butler kn o ws that the FIM had no thing to do wit h th is idea. On relations between the FIM and IRTA: I had a telephon e call from Paul (Butler) two weeks before the Spanish GP and he said he would like to get tog eth er with me for an hour 10 talk abo u t th ings ... to update things he said. I said if there was no urgency we could meet in J erez and he said that was fine. Then suddenly I find an article written by Gunther Wiesinger which says in German something like, "The World Series is beginning while the gentlemen from th e FIM wait around." I am amazed when I read that in th e middle of May there will be a high level conference between myseIf and IRTA delegates. So I see that Paul Butl er tells Gunth er thi s, but of course Paul has only said he wants to have a chat. The headline that Gunther writes means " Ken ny Roberts defecates on the FIM," and this is probably a good headl ine to sell papers but I am no longer su rprised by such things. This does not help our relationship with IRT A. We consult with IRTA and take their opinions into considera tio n. Paul Bu tler is an employee of Kenny Roberts and Marl boro and like all th e members of the Executive Committee of IRTA he represents the in terests of the happy few, the big teams. I respect this and respec t the limited power tha t IRTA has , bu t I sit in a different chair and I truly represent the long-term interests of the whole sport. But I do not like IRTA feeding news that is false to the press. T hey tell you that th ey have agreements with th e J a pan ese bu t th e Japanese tell their true feelings to the FIM not 10 IRTA. We work with all FI M associate members as long as the members respect the absolute aut hority of the FIM. I believe that some journalists hide from me because they do not want to let facts ruin a good story. IR T A gives them ma ny "good stories" and this " paddock tal k" does no t help to keep good relations betwee n IRT A and the FIM . ••••••• more and more GPs outside Europe and we canno t promise all organizers a GP every season, but with our comi ng rotation system an organizer can have the G P one year and th e Superbikes th e next. It has never been our idea to replace th e 500s wi th Superbikes as some have said. We wa nt Superbikes as a strong secon d series, and that is why we have sig ned a new con tract with Flammi ni to contin ue ru nning the Su perb ike cha mpions hip. On GPs outside Europe: New tra cks are being bu ilt in many pl aces . . . in Riga , Russia, in India, in Venezuela, in South Africa. T he World Ch ampionship now has 10 races in Europe and th e rest outside Europe, but in the future it may be seven or eig ht races outside Europe. ' On the proposal to include 750« four strokes in the GPs: It ma kes me very J o s Vaessen seems very sure of himself, very sure of the support of the Japanese facto ri es and ab solutely certain that th e thr eat of a parallel championship is a bluff, But if you speak with IRTA's leaders , you will find that they are equally'certain that Vaessen is overestimating his strength. They claim that the major sponsors and the factories themselves are now seriously considering the possibility of a parallel championship. I know for a fact that plans have been made and schemes hatched, but the key figure in all these plans seems to be Bernie Ecclestone, savior to some, boogie man to others. The haIf-dozen people in the paddock who know and understand (which is not the same thing) what is happening, believe that ' if Ecclestone decides to throw full behind-the-scenes support to the "pirates," the FIM is ' going to have a real fight on its hands. Rodil bet against it happening and won, and so far Vaessen has played his at cards well . . . so far.

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