Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·: IN EP D OSCott . . JH . ' .:By MichaelC AD K ..... s Grand Pri x racing too expensi ve? Fans will have a si mple answer, since the commercialization of the GPs in 1992 led to spiraling ticket prices and plummeting crowds - but thi s time, it is not addressed to them. It goes instead to the participants, the people who must find the $1-million plus lease fees for the factory bikes, or shell out $60,000 or more for a single race bike should they w ish to come higher than 20th in the 250cc class. And their answers, which of course vary widely between the well-heeled tobacco-sponsored teams and the penurious privateers, don't really seem to matter much, just at the moment. The powers that be have made their own decisions anyway. Cost-cutting measures are currently being promoted (some say "steamrollered") by the teams' association IRTA; eagerly welcomed by the majority of IRTA members, mostly, after all, privateers; and bitterly opposed by the manufacturers and their satellite teams. The question has raised deep internal di v isions w ithin IRTA, and put the people who make up the bulk of the grid into direct conflict with the manufacturers who represent the crea m of the crop. . IRTA w ere p rompted by fears of shrinking grids to look for wa ys to cut costs, and to narrow the gap between the works-bike Haves and the privateer Have-Nets, with special reference to the 250 and 125cc classes . Various proposals included introducing homologation ru les which would effectively ban small-run works bikes, switching to pump fuel, controlling tire quantities and sizes, and limiting each rider to only one bike. Of these, it is the last that has surv ived various stages of d iscussion, and eme rged to become a definite goal. This is directly opposed to the philosophy of the factory teams, the people who actually make GP racing what it is. At the mom ent, they seem in danger of being pushed asid e. The risk in th is is that they may be tempted to quit GP racing altogether, to spend their money either on superbikes or simply on advertising and promotion. And though GP racing would be cheaper for the remnant, it would also lose so much status that it could not survive as presently constituted. In terms of cutting costs, the proposal is of dubious merit . It would hardly affect the poorer teams, since most of them only have one bike as it is. Which is a bad way to go racing . If, for example, they crash in practice, they have to sit out the rest of the session rather than running back to the pits to jump on the spare. This might mean that instead of qualifying 18th, they may qualify 23rd instead. On the other hand, it would severely affect the competitiveness of those wellfinanced works teams who currently run two bikes per rider. They would still have spare bikes, but now they would have to leave them in the back of the van . Meanwhile, to them, missing a practice session, whether because of a crash or engine trouble, might make the difference between qualifying on th e front row or the third ot fourth. Even not qualifying a t all, if t he previous pr actice was wet. These are without fail the riders contesting the title rather than the back of the grid, so it does seem to ma tter in a larger sense than only their own disgruntlement. No wonder the works teams ar e up in arms. The war is currently taking place on two levels. For the most part, it has been fought with discretion behind closed doors. This all changed at Laguna Seca, when the GPMA, the manufacturers association, mustered a quorum of very, very senior executives from Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Cagiva to stand up . and be counted. Most of them were Japanese, a nation knowil for preferring not to take part in this sort of public flimflammery, especially at this level of seniority. Note also that these directors, board members and (in the case of Cagiva) factory own ers are all also business as w ell as r acing r ivals, more accustomed to being at one another's throats than elbow to elbow. They were brought together, they sai d , by a common interest in the healthy survival of GP racing. They needed to find assurance that their heavy racing inv estment would not be rendered useless by rule changes beyond their control. Their menace was carefully contained within a framework of anodyne speechifying. One was obliged to read / between the lines. For example, when they praised the "cooperative attitude" of Doma (the company which leases all TV and commercial rights from the , FlM), what they were really doing was criticizing IRTA . But when given the . chance to do so directly, they instead chose to belittle IRTA by declining. By this stage, however, IRTA were already committed. This was inevitable given their structure. One team, one vo te, and so members like Suzuki or Cagiva, with one ' team each, have the same power within IRTA as the humblest under-financed 125 privateer. It is .not surprising that the penny-pinchers prevail, and clear within IRTA's statutes that its executives must work in support of the will of the ma jority. They also have discretion over the rules, and the power to impose this will on the minority, no matter who they might be. The factory teams, however, have a different status outside IRTA. They have th e loudest voices, command much greater influence, and call most of the shots. This is as it should be, since they also spend most of the mon ey, and ere. ate most of the show, the part that matters - the front-runn ing men and machines that define GP racing as the . summit of ambition for riders and factories alike. Thus the other war iswithin IRTA, w h er e factory team delegates hold a number of powerful positions, particularly in the sub-committee responsible for writing the rules. Here one man from Honda and another from Aprilia share a sense of outrage, claiming that the IRTA executive have already deliberately deviated from their own statutes by bypassing this sub-committee to tum the "one bike each" idea from a discussion point into a clear proposal, which is now to be put before the GPMA for possible adoption as early as next year. This is a real war, and there will be casualties. IRTA itself could founder - there are already many who say they are an irrelevancy, and that their whole function was fulfilled when they were a crucial part of the commercial rebels who hijacked the GPs from the FlM threeyears ago. Or the works ·tea m s could back down. And thereafter probably back out as well. Superbike racing may have problems of its own, but it already has factory or works-backed participation from Honda, Kawasaki and Ducati. Yamaha are in from next year; HarleyDavidson are well on the way as' their American effort gains momentum; even Triumph and BMW are said to be becoming interested. Suzuki are now th e only ma jor fac tory whose racing department is dedicated exclusively to GPs. In this case, Grand Prix racing as we know it would be the ultimate victim. One comment by a factory team man sums up their view - that instead of trying to cheapen the top class of racing, IRT A should d irect their energies instead to other aspects of the financial equation, by seeking sponsorship or renegotiating the current often punitive financial agreements. "When the recession hit," goes the quote, "Porsche lost 50 percent of their sales in the USA . But they didn't respond by making Skodas." 01 I· champ, and Ivan Mauger were caught in action at ,._. , the quarter-mile i.;,,{: . track in Santa Bar- '?"~,.:..' -I: -.::='"'oiI'IlJ bara, California, as were a pack of motocross riders sprinting towards their motorcycles at the start of the Bay Mare Team Prix race in Simi Valley, California.. . Some of the top MXers of the world compe ted at the opening round of the Mid-States InterAm Series at Pepperell. Arne Kring scored the overall win ahead of Dave Bickers and Vic Allen ... In the same issue, Cycle News covered the second round of the Inter-Am Series at Marion County Racewa y in Larue, Ohio. Once again, th e Europeans domina ted the event, Bengt Aberg took the win over Arne Kring, Joel Rob ert and Torsten Hallman. John DeSoto was the highest finishing American in ninth.. . Skip Van . Leeuwen was the winner at the Frid ay i. ' night Ascot TT.. . Mike Patrick beat out J.N. Roberts at the Rams M.e. hare and hound race in Lucerne Valley, California. Mitch Mayes finished fourth in the 10C)cc class ... Out of approximately 500 starters, only three managed to finish .the Potasi National Enduro. 15 YEARS AGO October 31,1979 ra n d National Champion Steve Eklund was featured on the cov er 15 years ago. The photo accompan ied a fou r-page interview with the privateer di rt track racer... Kent Howerton and Mike Bell took their series-long battle to the Sears Point Trans-USA MX Series finale, and when all was said and done, it wa s Bell winning the final battle but Howerton winning the war. Darrell Shultz finished third in the series ahead of Chuck Sun and Brad Lackey. Jimmy G Ellis wrapped up the series' National class title ... Bruce Ogilvie, riding a Yamaha YZ400, topped the So Cal M.e. California City GP off-road race over Mark Zoller and Chuck Miller.. . Todd Harrell, Denny Bentley, Mark Hicks and Eric McKenna won the respective classes at the AMA National Amateur Motocross Championship in Plymouth, California.. . Kenny Annesley collected $10,000 after winning the IOBA drag races in Gulfport, Mississippi.. . Dick Burleson clinched his sixth National Enduro Championship at the Prairie Dawg' s Mile High National Enduro in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, but it was Maico rider Dan Sanford scoring the 'event win, over Burleson and Drew Smith... George Holland won the Mini Expert class at Saddleback Park MX. 5YEARS AGO October 25,1989· "J eff Ward completes title sweep" was the headline on issue number 42 five year s ago. Despite lo sin g to Jean-Michel Bayle, Ward wrapped up the 500cc National MX title at Unadilla, completing the "hat trick." The 500cc title meant that Ward was the ~OOKING' BACK..... ·1 ,'!1J ..' 1 .J.'::J:.:.tJ '. .,'. first, and as of H!; y.e t, the . only ,,-,,,,,,",,~ . nder to wm all ' ~ c.mpJ.... 'iil,·---'· .~ . -us. p f our major MX . , ' ", ".; ..... ""'., . ' .J .... " •. 'f;,,!." ~ titles in the U.S. At that same ; " ' ':'/: :..' ~ \i' ; :' .: ' event, Mike ! ii~t~~ ~t> Kiedrowski, ; ~ .r.~!~, wearing num- j .J..... " ,. . ; .. :.. ber 762 on the ~ .." ..._ .. ~ ... ~·- 1 - u b ac k 0 f hi15 ~~, c...or... ..o;:: ~~...... jersey, earned ~ ~_ his first-ever National MX title, in the 12Sec class. He beat Damon Bradshaw, who won both 12Sec motos that day, by just three points .. . The Human Race Team won the WERA/ EBC Brakes National Endurance Road Race Series final round at Ind ianapolis Raceway Park, but it was Team Suzuki Endurance winning its fifth title... Scott Summers narro wly d efeated Steve McSwain at the Hardrock 100 GNCC in Bunner Ridge, Wes t Virginia ... Cycl e News interv iewed former World Road Race champ Wayne Gardner... Bobby Schwartz collected his second title at the Coors N ational Sp eedwa y Champ ionship at Costa Mesa, California.. . Jeremy McGrath won the 250cc Pro class at 01 Perris Raceway MX. . ";'. -:j1 0\ 0\ .-4 \D'" N 1U ..0 ·..... 0 U o 67

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