Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN R IE Cary Agajanian TE V W dams e rggre n hen a son follows in a prest igio us father' s occu pationa l footstep s, th e doo rs may open v ery easily, b u t the scru tiny he wo rks under can often be too much to bear. The phrase "son of legendary so and so" is so me times more of a hindrance than an assistance; the antithesis of the occupational cakew alk. As the so n of legendary motorcycle racing prom oter, automobil e racin g team owner and visionary J.e. Agajanian - a man who helped shape AMA racing for much of its early- and mid-century history, the promoter of the fabled Ascot Park and a man wh o had his hand in almost every facet of car and motorcycle racing at one time or another, Cary Agajanian w ould certa in ly qualify as ha ving an en ormous legacy to uphold . Yet it wo uld be difficul t to argue tha t Cary, the eldest of the Agaj ania n boys, hasn't paid his dues. He certainl y got off to a good st ar t. H e grew up pl aying b ehind th e grand stand s at As co t, worked in th e Ascot ticket booth and gofered on many of his father's racing endeavors both in the United States and around th e world, includ in g th e 1958 Race of Two Worlds at Monza, Italy. He was his father' s so n. But rathe r than follow directly in his father's footsteps, Agajani an set out to add a fe w of h is ow n ch apters to th e family legacy. He grad ua ted fro m colle ge, ea rn ed a law d egree, and n ow owns a multi-partner law firm in downtown Los Angeles . He has long been the legal counsel to the AMA on all matters, and most recently presid ed over the Rob Mu zzy / Ferracci Ducati rule squabble. Wh en AMA President Ed Youngblood split AMA Pro Racing away from th e hi erarchy of Westerville - in the form of Paradama - he knew that he had to assemble a quality cast th at would bring instant credibility to the new organ ization, and alth ou gh new Paradam a board members Dave Despain and Russ Deane drip prestige and respect, Youngblood had but one choice for presid ent. Cary Agaja nian's name besto w ed the organization with a level of approval it co uld not have gotten anywhere else. For the motorsports circles tha t Agajanian navigates embody the elite of management and sports marketing; he is on a first-name basis wi th anyone w ho could be considered a mover or a shaker in the field . When he talks, people listen, and if you li stened to insiders from NASCAR and Indy Ca r long enough, yo u would be convinced that Agajanian can raise the dead and walk on water. Almost instanta neously, Agajanian has proven that Youngblood made the right choice. He sing le-handedly turned the road racing program arou nd after it fell apart" early this year, making Roger Edmondson's life very difficult in the process. Th er e are th os e w ho sa y that without Agajanian and his clout, business sense and bargaining prowess, the AMA road racing schedule would have remained in the shambles it was upon first being released. And it was Agajanian who no doubt had something to do with the small group of Ford executives who attended the Daytona 200 an d were presented w ith a variety of sponsorsh ip proposals by the AMA's Tom Mueller. Yes, years ago, the Agajanian name ' probably got him in the door, but from that poi n t, Cary Agajanian has earned the respect of many for his ow n accompli sh men ts. We caught u p with Agaja nian prior to the Daytona 200 in early March. W As an Agajanian you must have several memorable Evel Knievel stories. Let's hear one. Oh , I've got more tha n one. I cou ld go on and on and on, but the one that I like the most is the one tha t he (Knievel) wo uld tell wh en he would come to dinner at the hou se, while he was in jail. Whe n he was in jail he would get out on the weekend to d o his sho w and he wo u ld come to my mom and dad 's hou se. Thi s is the story that made our famil y hold him in great reg ard . As crazy as he was in a lot of w ays, and the wild things th at he's done and the problem s that he's had, I appreciate him becau se of the respect he showed my dad. The first time that he eve r m ade a jump in a stadium, that I kn ow of, was at Ascot. H e was th en known as Bob Knievel and he u sed to run so me TIs and even so me flat tracks at Ascot. He always ran in the back, and one d ay he ca me up w it h th e id e a o f m aking a jump, so he cam e to my dad. He told my dad that he wanted to make a jump over 12 cars and m y dad told him, ' Ah , ge t out o f h ere kid, go ba ck to yo ur flat tracking!' Well , what happen ed was, he to ld my dad , 'You don't have to pay me anyth in g to do thi s. All you have to do is pay me a dollar a head for ever y perso n you had at th is even t la s t year . You advertise me and if you have more people, give me a bu ck a head .' It w as a clever thing for a you ng guy because Evel was o nly in his 20s then. So my dad said okay becau se he liked a brash young guy who was a promoter like my dad was. They we nt ahead -and did it. And we had 2000 more people than we had the year before. I wa s working in the box office the n, my dad's box office at Ascot, and my dad comes in a nd say s, give Evel $2500. So I gave him $2500 cash out of the box office. On Monday morning he walks into my dad's office and puts $500 down on the desk and say s, T m not takin' this: during (Evel's ) more successful times. It wa s a lar ge gold nugget about an inch or so in circu mference in a little cage on a solid gold chain with an anti que toothpick an d a coin attached on which was engraved the wo rds to "j .C, Agaja nian, yo u ' re word is as good as go ld." My da d was one of the few promoters that Evel got along with and tru sted. Your responsibilities in Paradama are fairly well kn own, but your other activities are not generally known by the motorcycle co m munity. Please inform us . I do, really, too many things. Briefly, I'm a pr acticing attorney and I have my own la w firm with 12 lawyer s working for me, and we have just a regu lar normal law office. We represen t doctors, ho sp itals and stra nge things that don't have any th ing to do with racing, but we do hav e - in effect - a racing sectio n and some gu ys work ing d irect ly for me. I obviou sl y do not do any of th e medi cal wo rk any mo re, and the part of the firm tha t I kind of look after specifically is motor racing . In that division we represe nt race tracks, san ctionin g bod ies an d com petitors, any body who may be sued or involved in an y kind of litiga tion, usu ally throug h the insurance company tha t ins ures the race track. That' s so meth ing th at we specialize in, and along wit h tha t, in a profession al capacity I re pre sen t a number of dri vers or rid ers in th eir co n tra ct negoti at ion s and other things, I have a small mana gem ent company that I have actually just started . I've been d oing it for many ye ars, repres enting driv ers, including John And re tti wh o is a close friend of mine and I ha ve done Jeff Gordon's contracts, though he doesn' t need much help an ym ore, a n d I represen t a number of yo unge r drivers. I have formalized it now and I have formed a little company that will actu ally do that on a regular basis. I've hired some people to help me where before I tried to do it all by myself. I also have a promotional compan y. You represent drivers , do yo u represent any riders or have yo u in th e past? N ot now . I've d on e some in th e pa st, and actually I'm assistin g, an d not in any fo rmal way, Rick y Johns on right now. He's no t a motorcycle ra cer anymo re, but I'm assisting him - loo ki ng around for some NA SCAR th in gs and h e ' s ob viously in the off-road truck series right now . . I hav e not re ally be en active in the mo torcycle side with the rid ers particularly. In the last se veral yea rs I have bee n much more involved in the IndyCars, and in Ind yCar I represent Bryan Herta and (Jim my ) Vassar and a few others. I'd like to do more in the mo torcy cles because I e n jo y th e sport so much, and I grew up in the mo torcycle sport as well, but it just seems that my time is limited. Now, with the managem ent company , w e will look a little more to the motorcycle field and some other areas of motorcycl e racing as well. I' m excited ab out having so me peopl e w orking for me in this are a, and I think we can exp an d and d o so me things in that area. Here's a lawyer question : Kenny Roberts has been quoted as saying rider con tracts are garbage,. that th ey don't mean anything and that any contract can be broken. Opinion? I read that too by the way. Wh at do I t~in k? In a p ractical wa y, he' s righ t to so me exten t. When he said that he was talking ab out sig ni ng a contrac t with somebody an d th en havin g that rid er become much more successful and turning around and say ing you're on ly paying me a hundred grand and I'm worth a million . Theoreticall y, that rid er can crea te or wreak su ch havoc in his team that the owner virtually has to give him a raise, so Kenn y' s right in s o me regards. If you run up against an owner who doesn't care about that happening and holds a rider to a contract, either the rider would have to sit ou t, which typi .cally nobody should do especially if it is a lengthy period of time, or jus t let the in a mock anger tone . My dad asked him w hat he was talking abou t? And Evel says , 'You' re trying to cheat me , y ou only had 2000 more people, not 2500 more.' And my dad says, ' How do you know that?' . And Evel says, ' I h ir ed so me guys with counters on your ga te and they counted everyone who came in . You overpaid me .' My dad told him, 'I did tha t because I liked what you did and I want yo u to keep it.' That's just one story, bu t out of tha t an d a lot of other things came a beautiful momen to that Evel gave to my d ad We promote World of Outlaw even ts a n d USAC Nati onal Midget even ts . We're not as busy as we were when we were running Ascot obviously bu t tha t' s anoth er busi nes s that I run. We h ave family properties th at I do too , so I'm busy doing those things right now, and this Paradama thing ha s become a fulltim e thing itself - at leas t for the last fou r or five months. Hopefully, it won't continue tha t wa y, bu t we had a bit of a...a bit of a problem . O ne cou ld say that, yes. When I came on, that need ed to be sorted ou t. guy ride around in the back whi ch doesn 't do any good either. So contracts obviously h ave value, b ut just as we have seen in all professional sports, if a guy wants to cha nge his contract and he is good, and he has bargaining power... On the other hand, a contract is valuable for the rider especially if he is with a team or if he has a long-term contract, and if the team is substantial and they are going to have to pay him and they are going to have to do what they said . They can 't break the contract or they are subject to suit, and those contracts are enforced, I've enforced them inthe past.

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