Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

endurance class if you are a to p 10 superbike rider, and the Le Mans-style start should also help discourage tearns from participating. I also think you now need to have two riders who actually ride the motorcycle. Obviously there was a lot of confusion d uri n g the o ff-se ason in regard s to AMA vs. NASB and the other political is sues th at had an affect on everyone. As of la st week, it looked as th ou gh Mid-Ohio, Road America and Brainerd w ere set to com e back on board with the AMA Seri es aft er origi nally pledging their allegiance to Roger Edmondson and NASB . Everyone will have a more warm and fuzzy feeling in their tummies when it's official. Obviou sly, it' s good news. It' s just common sense that we need events like Mid -Ohio or Road America - there are only a few events in the series that have any real e q u ity a n d those two events com e to mind right away. Brainerd is also developing into a real good event. So, to lose those events w ould have been an extremely unfortunate situation. Hopefully, if it does reach that conclusion, then everyone will be able to put this behind th em and work constru cti vely in building the series and those events. Hopefully, AMRT will be part of that process. Did AMRT have any discussion with Edmondson about N ASB? Roger addressed our group and we listen ed. Obviously, we weren't there to make any com m it me n ts or endorsements. We wanted to hear wh at h is plans were. As far as that whole situation is concerned , w e were ba s ically spectators in the process. The team owner s ob viously h ave a lot of influence with th e manu facturers, but to a large extent the manufacturers are going to dictate as to where the teams go racing. Basically, we were in a watchdog position eve r since this whole thing blew up . Does AMRT have any say in whether or not the teams compete in NASB events? The talking betw een th e owners exists on both a foru m and a casual basis. As far as Dayton a and NASB, if the tearns don't show, it ha s more to do with costs than politics. We talked a lot last ye ar abou t cutting back. Dayt ona is a huge ex p ense . Ju st from a tire s t an d point alone, Daytona probably takes up 30 percent of a season. One team h ad used up its en tire year' s tire allotment afte r Daytona. It just makes common sens e for u s to wor k to gether o n an even t basis to see where we can cut costs. Right now we're enjoying the longest period of manufacturer involveme n t in the series. The top ro ad rac ing teams create a sense of commercial importa nce and professionalism to the series. You can look back to 1989, which isn't tha t long ago, and Yoshimura wa s the onl y manufacturer supported team in the series. If you or I were to walk a potential sponsor through the paddock back then, I think he or she would look around and politely say, ' no thank you: as far a s b ecom ing involved in the series . I think now, if a prospective sponsor were to come to the event, they may not open their checkbook right away, but at least they are going to look around and see that there 's real re sources being invested in the series. And that there are several companies who think the series is important. That's one of our main concerns right now - how do we maintain this level of manufacturer involvement? Costs are getting up there aga in and in the past that has always been an influential reason for them to exit the sport. They were always in for awhile and then they were out. I think AMRT can help perpetuate the current level of manufacturer involvement by working together with the manufacturers and the sanctioning body to help contain costs. I think it's really important that we address the matter to help encourage manufacturer involvement. W h a t d o you see ha ppening with NASB? Time will tell. Roger' s a n intelligent entrepreneur. He'll figure ou t a way to ke ep making money with motorcycle racing. tha t's an issue with us. There's seven classes at a u .S. Superbike Series event an d last se as on, 'five of those classes were run on Sundays. Racing would start at 11:00 in the morning and, with th e ex ce p ti o n of a lunch break, run str aight through until late in the afternoon, with the apparent objective of running as many classes on Sunday as possible. To the d ie -hard r acing fan, that 's gr eat stuff. They understand the differen ce between a 600, a Superbike an d an endurance bike. They unders tan d the di ffe rent p ersonaliti es and Would AMRT have a p robl em if th e AMA series only ended up being eight rounds? Yes, 11 to 13 would probably be a good number. It' s a problem . You have these huge budgets. I think collectively, if you look at what the manufacturers invest in the series, through their race teams and re lated promotions, you're lookin g at over $12 million. When you try and amortize th at over eight events, it 's a real big cost. Obviously, more eve n ts make more Sense. ' What is th e lon g-term goal of AMRT? Is there one thing that yo u w ould like to a ccomplish more than anything . else? I don't think there' s one s tu m b li ng block. I think there's many things. We're doing what we canto help address the problems. The sched u le is one thing they'll sit there until dark if they have to see all the races. That person is our loyal. customer and obviously th ey ar e very important, but I think the future and gro w th of the se ries lies in attracting new customers. For the ' new customer, more classes can actu ally mean less. I've talked about . this example before, but with Smokin' Joe's Racing having a hospitality at most of the events for RJ Reynolds customers, we see people who are usually attending a motorcycle road race for the first time. They are the new customer, so to sp eak. Th ey ar e th e people we would like to win over. When the racing starts, th ere 's in credi b le excitement; they're pumped up and sitting on the ed ge of .their seats . But by the time the superbike event is gridded , they've watched almost three hours of motorcycles going around the race track. It's racing overload, and they've lost interest. Sometimes they're ready to leave before the supe rbike race, the main event and the event that we are all there to see, is flagged off. I think we need to address tha t. Idle track time is not necessarily a bad thing . I think spectators sh ou ld be given more of an opportunity to visit the paddock, meet the personalities, see th e equipment and visit other a tt ractions that typically accompany a superbike event. I also think there needs to be more of a distinction between a support event and the su perbike race. I think the AMA is addre ssing thi s by m ov in g th e end u rance and 125s to Saturday, but I still th ink the re needs to be som e fine tuning to Su n day 's ca rd . Th at ' s one issu e. Cost is a no ther issu e and th e AM A has ask ed u s to provide them with specifics on the matter and we'll be w orking on that th is year, hopefully with the manufacturers involvement. We're also doing some things on a promotional level which I think are important were introd u ced to the promot ers. In Oct ober of last year, we introduced a program to promoters called the "AMRT Pit Crew Challenge", which is d esigned to i n cre ase ticket sales th rou gh a sp onso r store or -dealer. It would be a coun ter d isplay with an en try form to fill out;the people enter and tell us wh ich team they would like to b e a pit crew w ith. At each event there would be a winner for each team. Th ey wo u ld be give n a team uniform and they'd be able to hang ou t with the team on Sunday morning, go ou t to the pre-grid, get their ph oto taken, etc. That wo u ld be a big help to the prom oter. Will programs of this nature be implemented in 19957 Well, unfortunately, this whole mix-u p has been a big se tback for everybo dy . But there are still some prom oters wh o have exp ressed some in teres t in star ting this program this yea r. Hopefully, next year it will be a more uniformed program . We're also wo rking on the pavilion con cept. We're takin g the initiative to try and ad d more excitement to th e events. I'm really pleased with the way that's coming along . It's a starting point. Superbike racin g is now a major form of international motorsp orts. As we kno w, it starte d here in the u .s. If yo u look back at it, you' ll see that it actu ally started here in Ca lifornia . Abou t 20 years ago it really started an d the AMA series starte d in 1977. Before that, there were what you and I wo uld call superbikes at the local level here in California. Th rough the superbike his tory exhi bition, that Cycle News is spo nsoring, we hope to add some continu ity for sup erb ike ra cin g . We h ope to show where su perbike racing has been, where it is , now and where it's goin g . I think the hi story exh ibition will go a lon g wa y toward doing that. There will also be a merchandising element called "Factory Row." There will be a section of AMRT merchandise and there will also be other se ctions 'for individual team merchan. dise. There will also be an exhibit kiosk element where the tearns will be able to display their products, thro ugh pictures and the display of literature. I think this can grow in the future, and there's also talk of the AMA becoming involved in both th e merchandising and exhibition le ve l. Hopefully, it can grow to also include the manufacturers involvement. We're trying to create a focal point out . in the midway area for people to come to - to reall y experience the sport. Next year we'd like to get in to interactive things that they can actu a lly co me in and touch and feel. I~

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