Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE ~. Gone forevert Reaction to the demise of the U .S.GP OJ ....... By Paul Carruthers or at least the 1992 season, the United States Grand Prix is gone. Will it co me back to the U.S.? Maybe. Will it return to Laguna Seca International Raceway? Doubtful. When the race track in northern " Ca liforn ia failed to meet the upped ante of $1 million and the additional $500,000 in signage rights to hold the GP, Bernie Eccelstoneand his company Two Wheel Promotions were forced to remove the race from the schedule. Since then the o utcry from American road racing fans has been substantial. They feel cheated. They do n't care that Eccelstone has taken over control of the Worl d Cham pio nship Road Race Series. They don't care that things may be improved for those who compete or work in Grand Prix racing. All they know is that they can no lo nger hop aboard their motorcycles and head to Monterey to see Wayne Ra i n ey, Kevin Schwantz, Michael Doohan, Eddie Lawson and the rest do battle on their radical V-Iour 500cc missi les. And they're upset about it. They've pointed their fingers at Eccelstone for taking away their race. They've accused Kenn y Roberts of not doing his part to help save the race he was responsible for bringi ng bac k to the U.S. They want answers. We caught up to Roberts recently, ironically at Laguna Seca where he was watching his son, Kenn y Roberts, Jr., during a two-day test session. He responded to the accusations. " What they (the people) are not looking at is that " gu na isn 't speLa cial," Roberts said. " It has got to hold its own with everybody else. Laguna is the one that chose not to run the event, and I'm as sorry about it as anybody - probably more so. Bu t there's nothing we can do. With the restrictions that were p ut on Laguna and the money - it was tough for them. I have not given up on the fact that we might be ab le to put it together for next year. But it has to be put toge ther for everybody, not just the people who come here to watch it. " Believe me , there are some interested peo ple in Grand Prix racing who want to have a GP in America. And they will get one. It 's not a question of no one wanting a G P in America. The people in charge now know the American problem. Laguna Seca has some built-in problems:"" it 's a park and they don't ha ve control over what happens here a lot of the time." Many have said that Eccelstone no lo nger cares whether his Formula One cars or now his Grand Prix motorcycles visi t the shores of the U.S. Roberts, though, denies this. " It' s not that Eccelstone doesn 't care about racing in America. From my point-of view , we started last year ' with the same basic purse that we've had since the World Series. It was such a low level. To think about all the money that we spend to win a Grand Prix and to get a couple of thousand U.S. dollars - it just didn't make sense. ' T h e teams were struggling. Everybody wanted more teams, more 500s, but nobody wanted to pay any money. The FIM just didn't look at what you had to do to make it work - it's all money. It cost money to run bikes and pay riders. "Now Eccelstone has taken over and there's the money. Each rider and team F is going to make more money - at least spending money. (T he first plac e finisher in the 500cc class in Eccelstone's new pay structure will actuall y eam less than than last year, but the money is spread further down th e [ield with the 30th place fin ish er in a 500cc GP set to earn 16727 rather than the 12428 he earned in 1991 . . . Editor). Okay, it is a lo t of money to ask for, but it's got to come from somewhere. Any time a spon goes from being run by non-professional people to professional people there will be some initia l problems. "I don 't think it was the money at Laguna that was the big problem to overcome, it was Laguna Seca's built- " in problem with the signage. It would take some time to tum that around. T he park would have to want to play ba ll with the race track. I know that the people in charge want a Grand Prix in America. In Formula One it's a little bit different - they don 't have any American Formula One drivers. And Formula One is a business as well - (Above) T eam owner Kenny Roberts . (Left) SCRAMP 's Lee Moselle. true 30 if the United States can't pay what it takes to bring the show here then they don't get one. . "We can 't jump in to Bernie (Eccelstone) and say we want to give Laguna Seca a discount when we've got little places like Czechoslovakia - a co untry that's on its butt - still having a GP. Or H ungary, for example. We just have to find a circuit in America and the righ t deal will have to be put together for a five-year commitment. "That's what we want. A five-year deal to make the thing work. You can't do it year by year. That's what Lee (Moselle) was faced with every year. He had to change this, he had to change that. And that's not right. You should gi ve the guy a commitment and say, 'Loo k, yo u' re going to have the race here for five years.' As long as it 's not a safety issue, he shouldn't have to change things every year. That way he kn ows he 's got five years to make some money on it - it's an investment. " Grand Prix racing and what it costs to go Grand Pri x racing is expensive. You can't expect a promoter to make th e kind of money needed in just one year. Right now we're looking at other race tracks in America. Okay, we know it 's not going to happen this year, but I'm going to do exactly what I did for Laguna somewhere else. " We really haven't had time to look yet. When the schedule is finally out, when the FIM does their job, when Bernie and Dorna do their jobs, then we'll start looking for a ,race track ." While the GP may be gone, all is not lost for road racing fans. AMA racing will benefit direct ly from the loss of the GP and will take over what is one of only a few race dates at Laguna Seca, The AMA will ru n a full slate of racing as th e second round of the AMA Championship Road Racing Championship comes to nonhero California. "I believe the National Superbike program is very strong, and the proof is in the talent that's come from AMA racing," AMA president Ed Youngblood said. "T he AMA is extremely pleased to have a race at Laguna Seca in lieu of .the GP, an d we're going to do everything we can to provide a competitive event that the spectators will enjoy. " It appears that Lee Moselle, the director of the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP), had little defense in saving the G P. The biggest stumbling block for holding the Grand Prix lies in the signage dilemma faced by th e facility. Currently, the signage is based on long-standing contracts, and Mosell e simply wasn't willing to go back 'to those sponsors and ask for more money. After all , it"would have cost an additional $500,000 in order to keep the signage intact. . Will the race track ever be able to meet the conditions presented by the Eccelstone group? "I don't know, " Moselle said. "T he conditions are out of my control. Right now we're waiting to see what happens with the AMA National. There 's always a possibility of the GP coming back, but at the moment it's pointless to go after it. We'd ta lk to them again if they were willing to talk to us." CI

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