Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GUEST EDITORIAL .B DanAnderson y he way I see it, motocross and offroad racing are fraternal twins that were separated at birth. Both have e sam e ro ot s, but m ot ocross wa s opted by rich parents, while off-road cing ended up in an orp hanage . It's easy to see wh y. Mot ocro ss hapens on a closed course, where spectairs can see all the action , and spo nso rs et their monev 's worth from ad vertisg. Off-road ra ces, on the other hand, re traditionally near-secret events held s far from civilization as possible. Spectors are welco me , but only a dedicated w make the trek to see a brief glimpse f batter ed riders as they pass th rough l e pits or checkpoints once every lap . ccording to the muckety-mucks of the otorcycle in d u s try, off-roa d ra ci ng ill always be a hand-m e-d own little rother to motocross simp ly because otocross draws the spectators, sells the ikes and p ays the bills. I disagree. It is only a matter of tim e nd hard work befo re off- road racing dapts and becomes more spectator-ori nt ed and truly a big-ti me mot orcycle p ort. Th at is because spectators can ctu ally relate to and appreciate offad races better than the jum ping exhi itio n s t h a t bi g -t im e m oto cr o ss has ecome , This fact was brought h ome to me hen m y frien d Steve, an enthusiastic e wcomer to off- roa d m ot orcycling, tt ended both an AMA National Hare crambles Series race and a major Areacross eve nt withi n a month or so of ach other. Even thou gh he has raced in cal motocro ss eve nts, hi s reaction to renac ross w as, " It was okay... I sa w me neat cras hes and boy, oh boy, can ose guys ju m p ! I m ight go again if ey come back to town next year." But my yo ung friend ra ved for weeks b out th e Na ti on al H are Scrambl e s vent. " Th a t w a s a weso m e! Yo u oul dn't believe how fast Ples sin ger oes through the wood s. Summers and mith were reall y going at it ... Smith ou ld jump over the top of Summers on e m oto cro ss p art of th e track, th en ummers would plow past Smith in the oods! It's just like wh en we pla y rid e ver y w eekend, ex cept they' re wicked st. Man, I go tta en ter th at race next ear." The ne xt w ee k he jo ined th e , paid his Distri ct 22 fee, and began cing local hare scram bles . While he enjoyed both races , he was etter able to rela te to the ha re scram- bles because it was similar to the type of riding he did when he went play rid ing . That is wh y off-roa d racing, specifically hare scram bles, cross country , and certain types of desert races, has the po tential of turning the comer and becoming a major pla yer when it comes to attract· ing spectato rs and spo nso rs. Several things have set the stage for off-road racing to come out of the sh ad ow s and into the big-name, big-money sp otl igh t. Independent promoters like Casey Folkes in the d esert, Mike Burkhart in Missouri, and most prominen tly, Dave Coombs east of the Miss issippi River, have worked hard to move off -road racing fro m a p urely amateur sport to a Pro-Am basis where. promote rs a nd pro rid ers ca n mak e d e cent m on ey . Th ey have m an aged to cre ate local or region al eve nts that draw ent husias tic cro w ds and sign ificant sponsor suppo rt. At the same time, off-ro ad racers like Sco tt Summers, Scott Pl es sin ge r a n d Ro d ney Smith h a ve w or ked h a rd to b ri ng a d egree of p rofessiona lism to their sport that was previously missin g. With Su m mers leading th e way, they have es ta b lished ne w stan da r ds for media relatio ns and bu ilt an enthusiastic base of dedicated fans. They have also ham mered out increasingly lucrative contr a cts w ith spo nsors th at ena ble the m to be full- time, professional racers, well-respected in the in dustry . As t h e s e t op riders have created names for them se lve s, th ey have increased their appeal to spectators, and spectators are the key to attracting m ajor sponsors to off-road racing . Coombs has become a m a s t e r at p rom o t in g a nd drawing spe ctators to his Grand National Cross Country Series in th e East ern U.S. Las t year h e av eraged 25 0 ATVs a nd 300 b ik es a t h is two-day GNCC even ts, attractin g up to 1500 specta tors e a ch d ay at eve n h is le s s er-kn own events. He d oes it by copying the way NASCAR stages races. "I have one crew that does nothing but put up flag s, p osters an d banners before eac h even t," said Coombs. "We ' want th e spectators a nd rider s to feel like they are at a big-time event, something special. Another crew is in charge of the so und sys tem . We ha ve workers mo vin g arou nd th e tr ack wi th radios, an d they call back to ou r annou ncer and tell him who is passing who, who h as crashed, who is stuck in the mud . We even ha ve our own low-power FM radio station that is tied in to the PA system . Sp ectat or s ca n ei th er bring their ow n headsets or rent them from us and keep track of the race while they wal k aro und the course. Our goal is for every spectator to know what is going on, just like they do at a ASCAR race, so they feel like they are part of the race." Scott Summers, seven-time national off-roa d champion, says that once spectators arrive at an off-road event, they must be constantl y e n te r ta in ed , and that means the lavo u t of off-road courses must become mor e spectator-oriented . "We aren' t seeing too many of th e old-style courses, the ones that used to b e 15 m il e s lon g a n d o nly passed through the p its once per lap : ' he said . "Spectators want to see the ride rs more often than that, so Dave and some of the othe r promo ters ar e design ing the tracks in sort o f a clover lea f sh ape, w ith the pits an d spectators in the mi ddle. They are also sho rte r, so the laps don't take as long, a n d m o re la p s m e a n s m o r e chan ces for spectators to see the race." Riders and promoters agree that television is the next ste p for off-road rac ing, b ut it is a d angerous o ne . In th e right hands, TV coverage co uld b last off-road racing int o the big-time, but in the wrong han ds it could actuall y scare away sponsors. "Some of the video coverage of the last Blackwater races d id us more harm than good," sai d Coombs. "It focused on the derelicts and the drinking, and gave the event a ba d n ame. We' re worki ng real ha rd to ge t TV coverage of some of th e GN CC events th is year, but w e' re going to be very carefu l wh o does it an d how it is p rese nte d. " "TV could really promote this sport," said Summers. "Goo d coverage of tou gh sections o f th e co urse, com bi ne d with h elm et -m ounted ca meras to give th e au dience a feel for what we see, would reall y m ak e it interesting for p eop le w atching a t h ome, ev en if th ey had never ridden a mot orcycle. And a good announcer w ho coul d exp lain what is going on, like they do on NASC AR cover age on TV, is absolu tely essenti al." Rodney Sm it h, fo rmer m otocro ss cha m pio n and now a major force in the off-road title wars , noted that TV coverage coul d create geo metric growth for off-road raci ng : "With good TV cov er age we'll d raw m ore fan s an d riders, which will attract more sponso rs, which means mo re mone y to attract even more fans and riders. I think off-road racing is ge tting real close to a po int where it is going to tak e off and becom e big-time." Given the chance for equ al air time on TV, can off-road racing com pete with its long-lost brother, m otocross , on a sp ec t a to r -to -s p e ct a tor b asis ? Scott Plessinger, mu lti-time GNCC champion says, real isticall y, no . "I do n't think we can com pete headto-head with motocross, simply becau se our races are held in rural areas and the spectator base is smaller," he said. "Bu t I think th at somewhere down the road we'll see (off-road) races with 15,000 specta to rs, like the outdoor mot ocross races at Mammoth Mountain or Una d illa." Big gate-counts will attrac t big sponsors, and big spo nsors (rea d: big mon ey) will a ttra ct m ore pro riders. Some of those riders will corrie from the world of motocross. Smith and Fred Andrews are just tw o examples of motocrossers who have successfully mad e the swi tch, with Steve Hatch, Ty Davis and Guy Cooper reported to be eyeing the GNCC d ogfig h t in 1996. Curious m ot ocro ss fans will follow thei r heros to off-road racin g, swelling ga te-counts and d rawing the in terest of even more m ot oc rossbased sponsors. Will 1996 be the year when off-road raci ng turn s the corner? M a ybe . If Coo mbs or ano ther promoter can catch the eye of ESPN or a m ajor ne tw ork, and deliver d ecent ratings and stro ng au dience resp onse, things could happen fast. ABC's Wide Wor ld of Spo rts semi co u ld be p ark ed at the co m bi ne d GN CC/ AMA H are Scra mbles ra ce at Loretta Ly nn'S . Je rry Bernardo could soon be insulting and h ar assin g Summers, Plessi nger an d the other top offroad racers for ESPN. Factory spo nsored tra cto r-tra iler rigs cou ld rep lace bo x vans in the pits , specta tors ma y begin to travel hundreds of miles to watch their heroe s a t w ell -org ani zed off-r oad ex travaganz as, and m ot ocross' s h andme-down little br other will finally h ave its da y in the sun. Dan Anderson is the Midwest Editor for Trail Rider Magazine, has covered AMA National Hare Scrambles f or Cycle News and does fr eelance work for several other national motorcycle magazines. He also likes off-road racing very much. LOOKING BACK ~ .. 5Y SAGO,.• EAR ANUARY 17,1971 i l l ow Springs wa s th e ite of a leadwapping fren zy, s 500cc GP raers Wall Fullon r . and Dave a m ron xc hanged ositions sever- ..... I tim es d u ring each ciruit of the Rosam ond, Cal ifo rnia, race c u rse. Alth ough Dam ron w as first in ine out of 10 loop s, it's the last one that e a lly m atters a n d Fulto n en ded u p ith the win ... Inter-Am racing at Cycleports Park in H ou s t on, Texas, saw nthon y Jones pre vai l in t he 250cc xp er t class. Lo cal sta r Ro b i H olb ert urrendered the lead when his handlea rs broke during the race, but Holbert ""':'-----_.J came back to dominate the Open Expert class... A field of 251 riders cha rged up a mountain at the New Year's Day Pikes Peak Snow Run - because it was there, no doubt. Husky-mounted Bill Thomas of Denver was first to reach the l ·tll 0foot s u m m it. Thomas had been the victo r in {Fi7i-~U1rrJr.o--,-..L the event's previ ou s two runnings, as well. 15 Y AR E SAGO ... JAN ARY 21,1981 U l th o u g h Br oc Glover a n d Eric M cKen na sp li t m oto w ins, consiste ncy earned Rex Staten the overall victory in SOOcc Pro competit ion at round two of the Golde n State Motocross Series in M ad e r a , C a lifo rn ia . Glo ve r a nd Lawr ence were m oto win ners in the 250cc contest, wi th Sta ten again nabbing A the ov era ll... Kevin Davis was victo rion d place went to Jean-Mich el Bayle ous in the Open class of the European and th ird was claimed by 18-year-old Scrambles at Beerbottle Pass, Nevada . Damon Bradshaw . Supercioss rookie Brian Swink proved he had the juice to Da vis rode a Maico 490 Meg a II out front for most of the race. Jody Mader win in the 125cc event ., Willie Surratt got past a near-disastrous cross-up at a n d Mike Heale y trad ed 500cc Pro moto wins in round tw o of the Golden the photo jump to take the 125cc win... Ste ve Church took top honors in Open State Nationals at Sunrise Cycle Park in A compe tition at the All-Star Adelanto, California, with Su rr att nab Enduro in Tacoma, Washington. rH7;;rj~r~-__ bing th e overall. Jeremy The invi tational event consisted of McG rath beat out te am 60 miles of tight trail th r ou gh mate Steve Lamson in both heavily wooded forest with short 125cc Pro rno tos , and took se cti ons o f m u d d y road , w a s the 250cc Pro overall as sche duled at 18 mph and includwell... At round tw o o f the ed six checks. GFI California Winter Series Sou th, I2 5cc M otocr oss World Ch amp ion Donny 5YEARS AGO... Schmit p roved he could hanJA U Y23, 1991 N AR dle something bigger by blastqueezing out the com pe-' , ing to the 250cc Pro-class win. Ru n ne r- up Kyle Lewi s contition, Jeff Stanton took soled himse lf with the 125cc the 250cc main-event wi n at the Pro ho no rs. Willy Musgrave w as tops Citrus Bowl in Orlando , Flori da, ro und one of the Camel Supercross Series. Secf~ in the 500cc Pro class . S 47

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