Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GMOTOCROSS YvonneBaumann Ending a whirlwind co urtsh ip, th ey wer e wed in h is father's pl ane, £lying o ver Austinl It a ll sounds so " Texa n ." Greg, now 31, £lew as a co rpora te p il ot prior to hi s a ir line job (he is the you nges t Southwest ca p tain ). Motocross legend Bob Hannah and he have mutual interests: Greg likes bikes, " H urricane" loves to £Iy. anno uncers and AMA Referee Ron Crandall - info too com plex to read over the headsets. , Let' s take a break and set the stage: Yvonne's a ppeara nce cou ld best be described as " str iking." Fact: she was on the cover of th e April '90 issue of Travel an d Leisu re magazin e - the Maui swi ms u it issu e. H er resume would als o note catalog work. In addition to being an att ractive woman, she is br ight, articulate and quick to laugh (one wo uld imagine tha ra real strong sense of humor would be a grea t adva ntage in prom o tin g MX ). Nothing like a dynamic smile to open those doors. In addition, she has a data pr ocessin g degr ee from the Un iversi ty Yvonne stres ses that Greg is th e " glue" a t th eir co mpany (Mo toli n k) - he ho lds i t together whe n chaos th rea ten s. For their third wedding an ni versary, Greg bou ght a pai r of Hon da thumpers, an XR200 and a 350. T hey soo n becam e mem bers of th e Trail Riders of Houston , a club that hosts the Caney Creek Nationa l Enduro and also £lags the Astrodo me Supercross. In 'S7, and since Yvonne had been riding with the club, she 'was asked to wear her riding gear a t the Astrodom e ra ce . They wanted a woma n to " (wo)man" th e club 's display booth a nd also do some "runner" wo rk during th e event. Her £Ioor job was to transm it hard-co py info to the of Houston and holds a cosme tology license - she owned and operated a hair salon in Scottsdale , Ari zona, prior to her beco mi ng to tally involved in promoting the GP. "I ge t ca lled to m odel a bun ch . . . but I hav e no interest," said Bau man n. Family and friends th ink that she is " crazy for not p ursuing that career, (bu t) it' s no t challenging prom oting mo tocross, no w th at's a challenge!" Ok ay, no w back to the H ouston Supereross scene. T he then- cu rr ent (a n d now- forgotte n) o££ici al Mi ss Coors got tied up in airport traffic and co uldn 't clear Housto n 's Hob by Air port in ti me for the trophy pr esentation. Coors' T om Karr said something mA · different kind of promoter By Tony Tellier ro mo ter. Who comes to m in d when you hear th at word? Ri ght, Don Kingl , " Promoter" has had a som ewhat scanda lo us quali ty attac hed to it, an unsavory ai r. T h e boxing scene is mainly responsible for that. You kn ow the scenario : shady deal s in smokefill ed rooms and all of that. Dealmak ers, bi g cigars, th e whole nine yards. (No te: the diction ary has o ne def in ition: " ... to 'get possession of by doubtfu l means." ) So that no o ne would dare think that I was im p ug ning th e veracity of promoters everywhere, the eq ual time edict req ui res that I mention that the same dictionary als o notes that a promo ter "assumes (the) financial responsib ility of a sporting event." So it is no t always a walk in the park. This race promot er - fashion model Yvonne Baumann - is an en tirely different crea ture. The Uni ted States Grand Prix of Motocross , th e American round of the World Ch ampionship 500cc MX Seri es, is promoted by the form er Miss Coors as a labor of love. An unusual si tuation , yo u might say? Perhaps, but still exhilarating. What is unusual is that this su cceessfu l entrepren eur was a novice, no , a beginner, wh en she jumped into race promot ing last year. And what is even mor e unusual is the fact tha t sh e is a wo man in an ar ea of activity that is genera ll y considered a man -only game. Add to this the fact th at she was a beauty q ueen : first as Miss Refugio County, then finally to a fifth in th e Miss Texas pageant. You can imagine how man y tough contesta n ts T exas would genera te. Yvonne Baumann ha s taken a supposedly prett y-fa rfetch ed idea and made it a reality - o n th e firs t try. T he 1990 U.S. GP, held at San Ber- ' nardino, Ca lifornia's Glen H el en O HV Park, was her first try at promoting. To ma ke matters even more complicated, it was held at a new venue. During the previous two years, the G P was held at the no rthe rn California site of Hollister Hills, and for many years before that at sout hern California's Carlsbad Raceway. T he switch to the new, un famil iar, and relatively obscure track would be yet ano ther hurdle in a seeming ly un ending series of cha lle nges. Bu t su rprise, surprise: h er race was a success. It dr ew 17,000 pa id spec tators, wh o were able to see the world 's best big-bore motocrossers go at it on a co urse design ed a nd supervised by five-time 500cc MX World Champion Roger DeCoster. In addition to the 30 Eu ropeans wh o compe ted in the event - that figu re is a tribute to th e power of Ro ger D's name and his abili ty to co nvince the riders who were already o ut of the points chase of the qualit y of the event - a 125cc Support class kept everyone seriously entertained, p lus die fans literall y went wild during the Vin tage event. So, how di d a 26-year-old woma n who calls Arizo na home become the El j efe (T he Boss) of the U.S. 500cc MX G P? T he story is even mo re unlikely than the end result, but it read s well. Fro m a wide -spot-in-the-road Gulf Coas t Texas town (Refugio - Popu lation: 4000), she went to H ouston, wh ere, a t fS, sh e met So uth west Airlines Cap ta i n G re g Ba u mann. P 20 to the effect: " Why not use that girl gofer in th e leathers?" H e h ad , obvio us ly, 'noticed her. Being a model, ' Yvo nne was used to being in front of the camera ; being an active member of th e mo torcycle com m unity sh e was easily able to answer the announcer 's q uest io ns abo ut th e sport intelli gently and coul d abl y demonstrate her knowledge of wh at was going o n. That was it , she was instantly th e new Miss Coors. At subseq uent supercross even ts - Dallas, New York , Los An geles, et c. , she would ride th e co urse, in full riding regalia , while th en -champion Ri ck J ohnson described th e co urse over th e public addre ss system . Then she would stop on the finish-line tabl etop, and pull o££ her helm et. Her lon g bla ck ha ir would sp ill out of the helmet and, hey; would it be too tri te to say tha t th e sta nds went wild? Well , one thing led to ano ther, as it so often does . T he Miss Coors scenario lasted fo r almost two years. Duri ng that period she was also Miss Unadill a fo r two 250cc GPs. Then it cam e to pass th at the Motocross Des Nations need ed a Miss Moto USA and for a year she was the " Int erna tio nal Trophy Girl." She was then asked to rid e in France's prestigio us " 24s H eurs de Brittan y." Sh e p racticed, under Roger DeCost ers su perv isio n i n southern Ca lifornia, for that event and then it .was on to living-out-o f-asui tcase and " May I see your pas sport, p lea se" tim e. Yvonne spent three months in Eu ro pe accompani ed by Roger D, The " 24 Hours" is a po p ular dawn-to-dawn h are scra m bles-type race, com bin ing a motocross course, open trail terrain , an d lots of specta to rs. Sh e notes that th e fans were seriously fan atica l, and very voca l you would get 40,000 spectators - on a pra ctice day. Baumann was teamed with Les Sisters Gi lbert - fast Fren ch femmes - o n a Honda CR250; one of 133 multi -na tional teams , of which six were comprised of women. T he team was pretty quick, fini shing 30th overa ll. A simple, but oh-so elegant engraved silver lovin g cup stands in a pl ace of hon or in her office. It is the kin d of awa rd th at yo u would drink your post-race champagne ou t of after you sprayed the fans. The family's typ ical run-of-the-mill screw-toge ther tro ph ies langu ish in th e ga rage. Greg Baumann was in strumental in getting h is wife to push DeCoster offcenter, feeli ng th at he was "getting sta le" - n ot ca p i ta lizi ng o n hi s inte rnatio na l recogni tio n factor. Greg enco uraged Yvonne to ap proach DeCoster, wh o, she found ou t, was still very hot in Euro pe (and J apan ) - bu t in the U.S. hi s fam e was movin g to ward tha t dus ty closet of the nostal gia arena: " Yeah , Roger D was a rude dudel" While he was ma naging the HRC racin g activi ty, th ose organizatio na l and developmental tasks kept h im well -hidden from the public, behind th e scenes. Greg figured that Ameri cans need ed to be reminded of Roger' s huge co ntri bu tion to the sp o rt of mo tocross: " Five times (World) Champi on ," says i t all. H er pitch to him was simple: " You com m it to su pport th e GP, and I'll do everything else." She was to do everything else, from the prom o letterwrit ing down to the stamp-licki ng, a ll , the headach e jobs. T hey incor porated as Mot olink Racing Enterp rises, In co rpora ted; Roger DeCoster an d the two Bau manns - period. Almost a Mo man d- Pop operation. Almos t. T he task they faced to launch th e race was eno~mous. Im agine the da yand-nig ht effort , p la nni ng, and en th usias m req uired. T hree people, o ne £lyin g a lot , and one an expa tri ate.

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