Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE Thefuture of GP road racing·· Con tinued from page 2 Du ring that same week, immediately after the FI M Congress in New Zealan d, Josef Zegwaa rd, CC R President and the man who is generally held respons ible for the FIM 's half-baked midsummer ni gh t's dream of subst itutin g four-stroke 500s for the present two -stro ke fours, was in South Africa , attending an intern ational road race at the Kyalami circui t and carrying out track inspections. I had a lo ng eveni ng chat with Zegwaard in Johannesburg, South Afri ca, "I h ave been blamed for everything and I am unabl e to defend myself," sa id Zegwaard, " beca use I don 't want to make the situa tio n wor se by exposi n g th e J apan ese 'facto ry executives who told me privatel y th at they su p por ted a cha n ge to twin cylinder 500s o nly to deny th is at th e last minu te. J ust to set the record straig ht, i t was no t me and it was not th e CCR wh o proposed four-stroke 500cc mac h ines. What happened was that when the J apanese reversed their po siti on on twins just befor e the Dutch TT, wh en we had been prepared to anno unce the new twin -cyli nd er regu la tions, th e Man agement Council decided that we had to offer a solution to the 500cc problem and the fourstroke idea was ado p ted by unan imous vote. I didn 't pro po se it. A Japa nese factory competitio n department executive assured me that the idea wo u ld be warmly accep ted by th e factories. Then a week lat er I saw th is same man o n TV sayi ng tha t th e four-stroke idea was FIM craziness." Is th is true? Was Zegwaard referring to Suzu ki race chief Mitsuo Itoh wh o is a me m ber of th e Tec hnica l Commissio n? Zegwaa rd would not nam e names in J oh annesburg. " What good does it do for me to nam e the pe rsons wh o misled the FIM and the CCR? " Zegwaard said. " If I have to be the bad man dr essed in black in this movie, wha t does it . matter? I 'love this sport. All my life I have been a motorcyclist. I raced in Holl an d from 1948 to 1952 and have spent all my life working for the sport. I have mad e mistak es as CCR Pr esident and I have been blam ed for many mi stakes th at I did no t make. Righ t now I tell you I am mor e sadde ned th an angry at the state of the FIM : I have great respe ct for Bernie Ecclestone but th ere is no doubt that he wants to tota lly control o ur spo rt and right now I am no t sure th at the FIM can win in a war with Ecclestone. Wh at I am sure of is that th e spo rt of road raci ng as a whole will su ffer greatl y if we do not solve th is. We do not wa nt war. We are willin g to talk. Only wh en we stop talking is it too late." At Kyalami, the da y before , I had had a talk with four-tim e World Champion Kork Ballington wh o has sold hi s house in EI Cajon, California, and moved back to South Africa, and now lives with his wife, ch ild and new baby in Durban. " Yo u kn ow ," said BaBington , " wha t is happening to th e FIM is a tragedy. The sport has o u tgrown them. I don 't doubt th at the FIM has mad e big mistakes and I wonder about this new President ... Does Vaessen reall y know anyth ing about road racing? But I see guys like Zegwaard and Hans Baumer (Au stralian CCR member ) and I remember that th ese gu ys were so helpful to me during my racing career. Zegwaard go t me a ride at th e Dutch TT when th e Dutch organizers didn 't think I was good enough. Does Ecclestone have people like that wh o really love the spo rt a nd would stick up for a you ng kid from South Africa wh o desperately needed a chance? I sure as hell hope that so meth ing e c-: ~ tJ ..0 c::! I:< <1,) ;> o Z happens to keep the FIM in the pi cture because nobody is going to realiz e what we hav e lost unti l it 's too late. Does Ecclestone even know wh o I am? I'll bet I wo uld n't even get a pa ss to the pa ddoc k a t an Ecclesto ne Grand Prix. T he FIM is like family to me. I kn ow Kenny (Ro berts) wo uld never see it that way and I respect Kenny's opinion. H e's right when he says that th e FIM doesn't hav e a clue abo u t the professio nal side of racing, but they have a part to play and I hope Ecclestone lets them. If he does , he'll impress me becau se it would be easy for him now to just sh ut the FIM ou t and take it all. " Meanwhile back in Europe, Zerbi, scalded by Ecclesto ne's invi ta tio n to kn eel and un sure as to whether Ecclestone and Golding would receive him in his capaci ty as ' FIM First Vice President, appeal ed to Cag iva's Cla udio Cast iglio ni to broker a meeting between th e FIM and Ecclestone a nd Goldin g in London. Without Cast iglion i's brokersh ip and Zerbi's ini tia tive, a meeting involving Vaessen , Golding and Eccleston e would probably have been im po ssibl e. Ecclestone and Golding agreed to the meeti ng only un der the conditio n tha t the FI M understood that, in Bernie's words, "We are no t trying to ta ke part in you r ch ampionship; we are offering you a place in ours." T ha t meeting at Ecclestone's Prince's Gate office, near the Albert Hall in London, was a tense o ne. Vaessen had told the General Assembly in New Zeal and tha t he on ly signed the previous ag reement wit h Ecclestone and Dorna in order to buy ti me. He accused Ecclesto ne of ma nipulating the FISA (automoble raci ng federa tion ) electio ns and causing " Ecclestone 's law yer," Max Mosley, to be elected over for mer president Balestre, (Mosley popped in on the Fri day meeting an d Ecclestone introd uced h im as, "T he President of FISA who some peop le seem to think is my barrister." ) Vaessen even said in New Zealand that Ecclestone had attempted to "buy the votes of FIM delegates." Eccles to ne had a n no u nced at the Aus tra lian Formula I Grand Prix th at he was suing Vaessen for libel. (The Ital ian tran slat or, wh o was on hand to assist Zerbi , left Ecclestone's office saying that no translat or had ever ha d to tra ns late such blun t remarks as those that were directed to the represen tat ives of the FIM by Golding and Ecclesto ne.) Zegwaard's presen ce at the meetin g was a su r p rise as no o ne cou ld remember having invi ted h im. He showed up when th e meeting was well underway. T he meetin g started at mid-morning and conti nued until nearly one o 'clock in the afternoon wh en th ere was a break. At that tim e, Ecclestone called IRTA Chief Executive Paul Butler wh o was standing by in London at Mike Trirnby's IRTA center office. Butl er and Trimby were told the conditio ns that the FIM was asking for and both IRTA lead ers in sisted that the FIM be held to a stri ctl y supervisory po sition. IRTA, sai d Butler, was prep ared to grant the FIM's demand to name lo cal offi ci al s fro m th e national federa tions to occu py the pos itio ns of race director and tech n ical steward, but th e World Ch ampionship must be totally controlled by Two Wheel Promoti ons and Dorna with IRTA hav in g the final word on the Grand Prix calendar. The second half of th e meetin g went well in to the aftern oo n. At sundo wn , the FIM fina lly decided to accept th e . con ditions offered. When the meetin g was adjourned Dorna's Golding ca lled hi s office in Madrid to anno unce: "We have a very acceptable agreement that allo ws us to include the FIM in a su pervisor y role." Shortly afterward a press release was issued: "I n consi dera tion of th e evolution of the situa tion after the FIM Co ngress and 'of the po wers entrusted to the FIM President, th e representatives of the FIM, Two Wheel Promotio ns a n d Dom a Promocion del Deporte have met on 15th November, 1991 in London, and have reach ed an agreement acco rding to whi ch , as of 1992, th ere will be o nly one Motorcycle World Championship un der the sportin g supervisio n of the FIM and with the act ive coo pera tio n of Two Wheel Promoti ons and Dorna Prom ocion del Depone." The release was signed by J as P. Vaessen , Bern ard Ecclestone and Ri chard T . Golding. Mike Trimby, IRTA's gen eral secretary, was already wi ngi ng his way toward Asia, bound for the Macau Grand Pr ix when the news broke, bu t Paul Butl er heard th e news with a mix ture of relief and scept icism. " I have to reserve my judge me nt un til I have a meeting with Bernie to go o ver this agree men t. My understanding is that the FIM's po siti on is now much wea ker than in the origi na l H ea th row agreemen t tha t Vaessen scrapped and I th ink the FIM is fortunate th at Ecclestone and Golding took th em in. In o ur cont ract with Ecclestone, he is responsible for p roviding a federation to serve as sanctio ni ng umbrella and if he is p repared to live with th e FIM after the way they ha ve treated him, I suppose IRT A will also be able to live with the FIM as an organizatio n , but it wo uld be very difficu lt for us to have to wo rk with Vaessen and Zegwaard. Havin g the FIM seal of approval ha s certa in advantages but I no longer cons ider th e FIM president (Vaessen) reliabl e and as far as Zegwaard is co ncern ed his reco rd spea ks for itself. The FIM will have to accep t that they are operati ng in a su pervisory capacity a nd that this is an IRTA Champions h ip under joint Ecclestone and Dorn a management," said Butler o n Friday evening . Dorn a' s Cerm elo Ezpeleta , former director of the Jarama Circuit o uts ide Madrid and th e man wh o directed the buildi ng of the new Monmelo circu it o uts ide Barcel ona before joi ni ng Dorna, appeared o n the Mad rid televisio n program "Cent imetros cubicos" (Ante nna 3) o n the morning of Sa turday, No vember 16, the day after the sig ning of what sho u ld be the definitive agreement . "S ure, it will be easier to get the circuits we want thi s year an d to avoi d the problem s th at the FIM could have caused," Ezpe leta said. " My feeling was th at we shou ld try and reach an agreemen t for the sake of the national federations and th e riders who want to rid e in th eir national champi onships. I beli eve the FIM realized th at th ei r si tuation wa s hopeless becau se we had all the best teams and all th e best riders. We would have been abl e to run our races on 14 world-class circui ts, but now we will be able to in clude some excellent circuits that would have been difficult to obtain without the FIM seal of approval. The FIM ha s joined our champ io ns hip and I think this is better for all concerned. T he FIM will no longer hav e to co nce rn themselves with technical regulati on s whi ch will be made by IRT A in con j unc tio n with the factories and the FIM will no longer hav e to worry abo ut decisi ons co ncerning th e ra cin g ca lendar because th ese cho ices will be made by Two Wh eel Promoti ons and our compa ny. It is good to get these troubles out of th e way so that we can get down to work. " Under the agreement betw een T wo Wh eel Promotions an d Dorna, Dorna, genera lly considered to be o ne of the world's top th ree sports marketin g companies, will be sole o wners of all TV rights as of the beginning of the 1992 seaso n. If the condi tions of the Barcelona agreement are preserved in the London agreement Dorna' s TV rights will run from 1992 until 2002. Ezpeleta would not co mme nt on the matter of Dorna's payments to the FIM for TV rights. (U nder the or iginal FIM-Dorna con tr act Dorna would have paid the FIM a total of $30 million dollars a five-year TV rights contrac t.) H e did say, however, "The FIM turned down a better deal than th e one they will now have to live wi th." (On Monday, N ove m ber 18, th e FIM issued a press release that stated, in part , " T he financial condi tions of th e new con tract foresee th e payment to th e FIM of a total am ount of 152 m illion over a period of 10 years as f rom 1992." More on th e FIM press release follows at th e en d of Noyes' text . . . Editor.) I was una ble to con tact Vaessen in tim e to get hi s feelings o n the agreement, but it may be that from his point of view the concessio ns grante d in London which will allow the FIM to nam e race directors and techn ical stewa rds from the nati on al federations of each Grand Pr ix were major po ints th at ma ke th e London agr eem ent better from the FIM 's point of view th an th e o r ig in a l Barcel ona agree men t. Kenny Roberts, speaking by ph on e on Friday mornin g (Friday even ing in Europe) from Ga ry How ard's International Racer's In c. offices in Santa Ana , Ca lifornia, said, " I' ve ju st go tten off th e phone with Paul But ler wh o had just spo ken to Bernie, so I rea lly don 't have all th e details, but I kno w eno ugh to kn o w that we haven 't given up anythi ng and tha t o ur pos ition is even stro nger tha n it was after the last agreement that Vaessen sig ned. Now maybe we can start th inking about racing again. " The N ovemb er 18 FIM press release also said, " T he calendar wi ll be made up of 15 Grands Prix, each in 14 different countries, plus one Grand Prix extra nominat ed to a nat ional federation which has no circuit on its own territory . . . The maximum number of riders for each Grand Prix w ill be: 30 in the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc classes; 20 in th e Sidecar class (running a m inim um of eight rounds. Only riders with a Grand Prix license are allowed to take part at th e pra ct ice an d th e race. Condition to receive a Grand Prix license is a written and sign ed declaration to take part in all Grands Prix all over the world. The riders wi ll be paid r through Dorna /TWP . . . The basic spo rting and techn ical regulations are the Series Regulations. The FIM will have th e right to veto on all proposed changes to the sporting and technical rules . . . Changes to the circuits' safety standards, Medical Code and Disciplinary Code shall be made by the .FIM upon referral .. . Inspection s of th e circuits for homologation will be th e responsibility of th e FIM. Inspections will be carried out in conjunction with . a FISA inspector. The final homolgation and licens ing of a circuit is the responsibility of the FIM ... The FIM, Doma and TWP will set up a Permanent Bureau consisting of the president of th e FIM, one representative of Doma and one representative of TWP w ho will meet on a regular basis to discuss all aspects of th e Championship. All questions and decisions shall be referred to the Permanent Bureau for determination . Decisions of th e Perman ent Bureau shall be made only by unanimous agreement of the Members." ... Editor.

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