Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Analysis of FIM turnaround on GP road racing Continued from page 2 sponsorship will not last much longer and that the short-term objectives of the tobacco giants and the teams that work for them do not serve th e longterm in terests of the sport. And as he flew toward New Zealand, with a stop-over in Australia, he must have done quite a bitof soul-searching. He had lef t Heathrow apparen tly comm itted to gaining the approval of th e General Assembl y for the DornaTwo Wheel Promotions-FIM compromise agreement. H e certainly .had enough political power to gain the support of th e FIM m embership . . . but apparently Vaessen changed his mind as he studied the highsides of th e clouds out th e window of 'an Air New Zealand 747. H e may have been seeing a kind of cloud-sculpted Mount Rushmore of hat ed IRTA faces as well as he recalled quotes in the European press from IRTA leaders and riders wh o said that the FIM would now be a ceremo n ia l ent i ty, handing ou t bottles of Moet an d throwing flow ers at th e feet of Big Tobacco's young gladia tors. Or was it that he met with strong o p positi on fro m hi s o wn pe opl e ... from Zegwaard, from Zerbi, from Noll ,and Deubel and from Secreta ry Gen eral, Guy Maitr e? Whatever th e reasons, Vaessen was not the same man in Christchurch tha t he had been in H eathrow. H e opened the General Assembly with an attack on IRTA. H e said, "O n 11th August I called a meeting of the executive board to discu ss the situa tion (regarding the breakaway threat ) and I received th e full su p por t of the executive board and the CC R President to ac t to pull all parties together. On 17th August at Mugello I held a press conference to an nounce the p lan ." I was at Mug ello. Vaessen handled the press -well , with humor and tact compared with the provoca tive and defensive style of Zegwaard who had accused the press of misquoting him ' and distorting the facts in a press conference at the previous GP at Donington. Vaessen offered IR T A, ROPA and Dorn a seats on a Grand Prix Bureau which would govern Grand Prix racing, R O PA (Roadracing Organizers' and Promoters' Association) accepted immediately, or at least ROPA President Maurizio Flammini issued a statement saying that ROPA was totally behind the FIM and against any "outlaw" championship. "But when I approached IRTA," continued Vaessen speaking before the opening General Assembly in Christchurch, "I was told by the chief executive (Paul Butler) that he had no mandate to negotiate with the FIM. At this 'point , I knew that IRTAwas leaving th e FIM and was only wa iting for the season to finish." A week later, IRTA voted during their General Assembly, in Br no, Chechoslovakia , to leave the FIM and enter into a co n trac t with Bernie Ecclestone in order to form an alterna tive World Championship. Vaessen told the FIM, " I feel angry when I think about th e manner and the wa y that the FIM was treated. The strategy to protect the FIM had to be changed completely. There cou ld no longer be cooperation, communication and respect for each o ther. There could now unfortunat ely o n ly be confro n tation, po wer p lay and tactical moves." Vaesen then went on to exp lain how he made an appeal to Dorna to assist with their strength and fin ancial power. Dorna 's version is different, however. The Spanish say th at th ey asked to be emp owered to open nego- tiaions with Ecclestone and IRTA on behalf of the FIM because they felt that the FIM was losing and that as a consequence their in vestmen t in a fiveyear TV contract at $30 million, with ' $1 million already paid, was a t risk. The Genera l Assembly gave Vaessen the vote he wanted, ousting IRTA as FIM Associate Member. ' Back in Europe, Goldin g, Ecclestone a nd Butler wer e puzzled by Vaessen's attack on IRTA. T hey wondered if this was not' just mach o talk in order to make the bit ter pill of the Ecclestone-Dorna-FIM agreement easier to swallow. Word fed back to Europe by insiders was not comfortin g fo r Vaessen 's potential partners. Spanish Federation President Oriol Mauri said to Spanish friends, "The mood is ugly here, very much aga ins t IRTA and against Ecclestone.' Vaessen had postponed the vo te on th e Barcelona compromise until T uesda y, October 22, in order to hold a speci al meeting of th e Man agement Council. Wh en Vaessen addressed the General Assembly on Tuesday, most expected him to urge sup po rt for the ag reeme nt and indeed his opening words seemed to be directed tow ard accep tance of ~ " the deal." Vaessen took the delegates th rough th e developments that had led him to sign a letter of intent with Ecclestone and Golding and even exp la ined, " What is happen ing to our sport is nothing new. A lot of inte rnatio na l federa tio ns have faced the same threat of break way of the top pl ayers, at h letes or drivers , etc: ' Delegates still jet-lagged by th e long £light to New Zealand believed that they were being prepared to vote yes, 'especially when they heard Vaessen say, " Mr. Ecclestone has proved with Formula One what his organization can achieve. I honestly believe that this wo uld be positive for the image of our sport and for the standard of living of the rid ers, etc." (Did Vaessen 's change of opinion take place so suddenly that he did not have time to rewrite his original speech which was intended to lead to approval?) Then Vaessen changed gears: "The only consequences (to approving the agree ment with Ecclestone and Dorna) are tha t he (Ecceston e) rules and governs the sport all by himself. He shows absolutely no respect for the international bod ies such as FlA . The ro le of FIA in the car spo rt for exa mple has been reduced to nearly zero." Everyone was bolt upright and awake now. " Finally we (the management council) came to the conclusion that we had to advise the General Assembly, the highest deciding authority, not to accept the proposed agreement for the FIM World Championship." A couple of people had already slipped out to the lobby an d soon phones were ri nging in Madrid, London, Amsterdam and Hammamatsu. "Vaessen is scrapping the deal," was the terse message in Spanish that shocked this reporter who was monitering and congress by fax and ph on e and modem from Madrid. At mi dnight Madrid time, I heard fro m Peter Clifford, IRRPA's (Inte rnational Road Racing Press Association) representative in Ch ristchurch. The General Assembly had voted down the proposal and Vaessen had proposed a GPBureau made up of the FIM presid ent (him self ), th e CCR president (Zegwaa rd), the FIM treasur er (Tore Kittilsen), the CCR safety o££icer (Hans Baumer) and th e managing director of Dorna Prom ocion del ~ Depone, Ri chard Golding. Vaessen then asked hi mself the $64 million (li terally) q uestion, " Why?". and he answered himself as foll ows: "First. The ou tcome of the elections of the FISA presidency where Mr. Moseley, Mr. Ecclestone's lawyer, was elected ins tead of Mr. Balestre. And this shows th at he will try to influence the FIM sometime in the future. Wh y would he act di££eren tly in the FIM than in FIA? " Second. It came to my knowledge and in a di££erent way to other managem en t co u cil membe rs that h e , (Ecclestone) ha s tried to influence th e outcome of the voting by bu ying votes before thi s congress. I can assure you that th is did not succeed." " T h ird. The fact that the CCR presiden t (Zegwaa rd) wh o was chosen by you an d th e CCR is not all ow ed to take part and to carry out h is duties in the new set-up proves once more that there is no confidence in th e FIM . And in th e background th ere is a po lit ical play by IR TA. " Fo urt h. The role of IR T A will (wou ld) still be an im portant one at the FIM Grand Prix. Severa l interviews last week show clea rly the arroga nce and the celebra tion of a victory over the FIM even if an agreement is reach ed between the FIM, Dorna and T wo Wh eel Prom otions." Vaessen in calli ng for the vote had warned that Dorna might wa lk: " It is also po ssible tha t Dorna would like to or will cancel their con trac t with us because of th e change in circu ms tances, but even wi th th is in mind we still advise you not accep t." T he half day ti me -lea d of New Zealand over Europe gave Berni e Ecclestone and R ich ad Golding time to draft a joint press release stating that Two Wh eel Promotions an d th e Dorna Group of Companies had decided as a result of the fa il ure of the FIM president to support th e agreement that he had signed with them to "proceed to promote, organize and run 500cc, 250cc, l25 cc and sidecar even ts counting for the World Championship." _ It was a declaration of war on th e FIM signed by Ecclestone and Go lding and dated Tuesday, October 22, in . London, although the Spanish translation was :released a da y later in Madrid because Golding wanted to speak personally to Vaessen before o££icia ll y leaving the FIM to join Ecclestone. In the closing session of th e Gen era l Assembly, Vaessen asked for and got approval (several federations including Spain and Australia may hav e abstained from this show of ha nds, but only th e British ACU asked to have their abstention recorded) of a motion stating th at "any circuit used for a road race not held under the auspices of the FIM will not be nominated any more for any internation or national racing events under the aut hority of the FIM or the FMN (na tional federa tion )." He then presented Hiroshi " Fred" Suginuma who spo ke on beh alf of th e Japanese Federation to inform that "the four companies (Honda , Suzuki, Yam aha an d Kaw asak i) have sa id u nder oath that- as long as they are manufacturing mo torcycl es they will sup port the FIM . All manufacturers will supp ly ma chines for FIM event s." H e later acknowledged, however, tha t he wa s n o t say i ng that th e man ufacture rs will only supply the FIM and no other champions hip . I RTA _G en eral Secretary Mike Tri m b ly 's reaction to the FIM' s attemp t to scare o££ circ u it owners was, "T he circui ts are Bernie Ecclestone's problem and he assures us that there is abso lu tely no problem in his sec- ROADRACE uring the 12 to 14 safe circuits he is required to provide as his part of the con tract. As far as the teams are concern ed we have ·the great ma jority signed. The sponsors have and are ront inu ing to put an extreme amount of pressure on the teams so that at the moment we have all the 500cc teams excep t one Honda rider and two Suzu ki riders." And to add a final el em ent of mystery, Vaessen told a reporter that, " We will hav e a meeting on December 1st and we might just give the federation th e ri ghts (TV rights) for one year (1992) and then in 1993 the Dorna con trac t comes into effect." Did Vaessen forget that Dorna was now in the enemy camp? Does he still believe th at he can recover his pow erfu l Span ish partner? If he does he is very badl y mi stak en . Does Bernie Eccleston e already hav e eno ugh circuits to run from 12 to 14 World Ch ampionsh ip points -scoring races? Will H onda and Suzuki lease thei r works racing bikes to Rothmans an d Lucky Strike for the breakaw ay series? (Yamaha and Cagiva are already fir mly commi tted to the Ecclesto neDorna-IRT A cha m p ion sh ip.) Will there be parall el championships? The answer to all q uestions seems to be yes, a lthough it is difficult to imagine how the FIM World Ch ampions hip will be fina nced, wh o will race in it and who will televise it. In New Zealand, Vaessen has conducted a sor t of thea tre of the absurd before a ca p ti ve a u d ie nce befor e departing to Bal i for a vacatio n. Wh en he return s to Europe he will find th at Ecclestone, Dorna and IRTA are not blu££ing and that the big teams and the world's elite riders are absolutely fed up with the FIM. Vaessen beli eves that som eday in the future he will be remembered as the man who stood up to save Grand Prix racing from falling into the waters of the big-time marketing sharks. The conditions that he flew away from Heathrow with w ere not ideal for the FIM, but th ey were probably the best . deal the FIM could hav e hoped for , and conditions that will not be o££ered again, at least not to th e present leadership. In fact if FISA decides to take motorcycle road racing under its wing, the FIM may have lost forever the jewel from the crown of motorcycle racing. Whatever happens, it is clear that Vaessen 's actions are based on a deep personal r esentment for the treatment that he received from IRTA and on an instintive distrust and/ or fear of Bernie Eccleston e. (Vaessen wou ldn't hav e wanted lights in Wrigley Field either. ) Loyalty is an admirable thing and Vaessen believes he has been loya l to the FIM . He has defended his cohorts and gloss ed over their mistakes. Is he dr iven by a quixotic distaste for the commercia l interests that have taken over a ll major professiona l spo r ts, including road racing? It doesn't reall y matter anymore, becau se the war ha s begun. In his Mugello press conference, Vaessen spo ke of war and when asked what he would do to head off th e breakaway series, he replied, " I have a plan, but when Norman Schw arzkopf was asked - wh at his plans were he did not disclose .them and I will not eit her." The traditional power of the federations is still co nsi derab le, especially in Eu rope, but the forces already am assed aga ins t Vaessen seem s to put h im more in the position of Sadam th anStormin' Nor man. . Unfort una tely, some in noce nt federa tions and circui t owners are going to be caugh t in th e cross fire th at has . al ready begun. CN e e 37

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