Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'AVIEW FROM THE-yEric Johnson " FENCE .B ver pull up a seat, click on the TV and tune into a live NASCAR, Ind v Car or Formula I au tomobile race? if r you are like millions of other motorports en th usiasts across the U.S. w ho epend on live television coverage to folw each and every major race. In recent ears, television ha s taken on a criti cal Ie in the development and growth of rofessional motorsports. What role does national TV coverage la y in the future o f m otocr o ss and percross? A very major one. In order r a young sport like su percross to proser and grow, more comprehensive teleision coverage is of critical importance. elevision, without a doubt, is the feblood of motorsports. Why ? Read on. To help illus trate the importance of levision, one has to look no further than e incredible success story of NASCAR . g the '60s and 70s, NASCAR racing as seen exclusive ly as a regional sport, ncentrated pri marily in the southeast gion of the U.S. While the sport was riving in this section of the country, it njoyed no more than a cult following in e other regions of America. TV cover ge of the spo rt was a very rare phenomeon . But th at would soon change. On ebruary 18, 1979, CBS television made e call to televise the entire Daytona 500 ve, It would prove to be the defining oment in th e e xp losive growth of ASCAR. A large segment of the Amerian popul at ion tuned in to watch the ceoAnd what a race it was. After 500 iles of shee t-metal-bending action, the ce concluded with a go-for-broke, lastp melee between Donnie Allison and ale Yarborough. The two cars crashed gether and slid onto the infield grass in smoking heap . The two drivers climbed om the wreckage and started throwing unches at each othe r. Not to be left out, obby Allison (Donnie's brother), pulled is car into the infield and also start ed 'ailing on Yarborough. No one could elieve it. (I actually remember being 13 ea rs old and watching the conclusion of e race in awe.) The entire scene wa s rger than life. The race drew a massive udience ratin g and would w in CBS an mm y. From that day forward, NASCAR eca me a na tional phenomenon. The port, and the electronic age for live otorsports, had arri ved. While America may have had its first ajor expo sure to stock car racing on BS, it was the new an d thri ving ESPN etwork that took the sport (and eventulIy all motor sports) to the next level. In 1981, ESPN was a burgeonin g new cable network that televised sports 24 hours a d ay. Since th e m ajor ne tworks (A BC, NBC and CBS) had bought up most of the major sti ck-a nd -ball broadcast rights, ESPN went looking elsewhere for sports to tel e vise. Seein g th e pot en tia l in NASCAR Win st on Cup Racin g, ESPN gobbled up a large number of races at bargain-basement p rices. With a la rge num ber of NASCAR races being broadcast, fans were now able to follow the spo rt throughout the course of an entire season . The dreaded "Dukes of Hazzard" regional tag, so long th e a lbatro ss o f NASCAR, was now history. . Cable television brought the sport to the American people - no matter where they lived. It also brought motorsports coverage ou t of the dark ages as the productio n va lue o f live race coverage became significan tly more polished. The in-car camera was introduced (a major revolu tion in au to racing TV coverage) and lifestyle pieces were incorpo rated to augment the show. By explaining stra tegy and capturing the behind-the-scenes drama of professional motorsports, the networks were able to show that auto racing was not just a bunch of guys driving around in circles for thr ee hours. ESPN blazed a trail for other networks to begin broadcasting auto racing (and eventually motorcycle racing). As NASCAR started to grow and expand, networks such as TNN, ABC, TBS and CBS gobbled up every race on the schedule to where now every single Winston Cup event enjoys live coverage. What was of paramount importance to motorsports in general was the fact that the networks were now looking at televising other disciplines of motor racing. If NASCAR could pull such strong ratin gs and viewer loyalty, why couldn't oth er forms of motorized competition? Up until this point in history, motorsports coverage in the U.S. was generally reserved to sketchy, half-assed coverage on the network sports variety shows (for example, ABC's "W id e World of Sports" and NBC's "Sports World"). Even th e Indy 500, covered on ABC for decades, did not receive live coverage until the early '80s (the race was alwa ys sh own on a tap edelayed basis). The times were now achanging. The major networks were now . beginning to tel evise li ve Indy Car, NHRA Dra g Racing, and Formul a I races. Televis ed motorsports coverage was beginning to boom . This revolution in motorsports cover- age (particularly w ith ESPN) w as also g rea t for th e sport of m ot ocross and supercross. In years past, the only significant TV coverage the sport received was the infamous ABC Wide World of Sports annual broad cast of the Carlsbad 500cc Ll.S, GP . ESP N (w it h th e help of th e supercross promoter group) first began to televise the AMA Supercross Series in the form of half-hour programs (aired a few m onths afte r the events actually took place). It was the first time in the sport's you ng history that an en tire series was being br ought int o the living rooms o f America. Throughout the '90s, ESPN has continued to broadcast the AMA Supercross Series (albeit in the late-night/ earlymorning programming hours) . While the individual programs consistently dr aw a relatively respectable ESPN viewing rating (in the area of a 0.5 to a 1.0 rat ing), there is still a lot of groun d to cover if the sport is ever to gain a broadcas t television audience anywhere near that of NASCAR or Indy Car racing. To help p ut the aforementioned, allim po rtant TV-rating scenario into perspective, in 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup, Busch Grand National and SuperTruck races were viewe d by over 120 milli on people, drawing an average network rating of abou t 5.4. The PPG Indy Car World Series averaged a solid 2.8 netw ork rating and was viewed by more than 56 million people. To show the magnitude of these numbers, one must look at how they are measured. A broadcast rating point is based on an overa ll view ing univer se (how many TVs households are present in a given geogra phical area). Due to the fact th at not all households in the U' S, receive cable TV (about 70 percent ), viewership rating numbers for the cable networks (ESPN, TNN , TBS) and broadcast netw orks (CBS ABC, NBC) are not "mea, sured" equ ally. For instance, while a 1.0 rating on ESPN translates roughly to 750,000 homes, a 1.0 rating on one of the bi g three br oad cast net w orks e qu a ls roughly 950,000 househ olds. Got all that? While these TV rating numbers ma y appear to be smoke and mirrors, voodoo math, they are of critical importance to both au tom obile and motorcycle racing. When a corporation decides to become involved in racing, it is primarily du e to the fact that they want their brand name an d corporate image to be brought into the homes of America via television exposure. When Tide, McDonald' s, Valvoline, Budwe iser or Spam decide to plaster their names across a NASCAR stocker, the y are d oi ng it excl usive ly fo r on-air promotion. To top-line the situation, a corpora tion sees massive TV rating numbers, quantifies th e amo u n t o f ex posu re th ey can receive, sponsors a car, paints its name all over it (as large as possiblel), and sends it out to do battle. The potential retaiI consumer, a race fan wh o follows the sport on a week-to-week basis, sees the car (and the honking corporat e sponsor brand name) and makes a mental note. When it comes lime to purchase a product or service at the local Ralph's Supermarket or Chief Auto Parts, the consumer remembers the car he or she watched on TV the day before and grabs that brand off the shelf. Pretty simple, eh ? It works! It has been proven that NASCAR spectators are the most brand -loyal in all of professional sports (mo re so than NFL Football). TV, by all accounts, put NASCAR on the corpora te boardroom map. What does all of this have .to do with supercross and motocross? A hell of a lot. If professional supercross and motocross ever expect to step out of the cave and into the bright light of big-time professio nal sports, it is imperative that the sport's power brokers attract a more comprehensive television package. Surprisingly, despite all of the political turmoil we have seen in recent years , that da y may not be too far off. Seals Communications, the television production company of the AMA Supercross and MX Series, ha s been d oing a rock-solid job of producing excellent race coverage . The camera work, on-air commentary, graphics, behind-the-scenes features and rider profile pieces have all been first-rate. In fact, they have even experimented with new ideas such as the' on-h elmet camera which puts the TV viewer right smack (literally and figuratively) in the middle of things. As a result of Seals solid production work , the AMA and promo ter group now cooperating with each other, and the sport experiencing a minor boom in popularity, ESPN 2 is planning to significantly upgrade their coverage of the AMA Supercross Series and National MX Series in 1996. While ESPN 2 is still a young and growin g netw ork (it has about half of the viewing audience of big broth er ESPN), this significantly improved broad cast package is a very encouraging sig n . Perh aps the biggest goal of all - live TV coverage - is not that far off. And if that is to happen. the sky is the limit. l~ I ·LOOKING' BACK~ ... I 5Y ARSAGO E ... EBR A Y23, 1971 UR t' s not th e size th at counts, it' s how you u se it . Wes Eva ns d e a Bultaco 250 at e Matt erhorn H illlimb at Sout h ern : al ifo rnia ' s Saddleack Park, and stole " le Top Eliminat or ' ~."'.... op hy from his 500 nd 650cc co mpe tit io n . enny Grothe topped the 125cc class by aking it 600 feet up the 650-foot hill... I Ke nyon, returning from his triumph t the Yam ah a Silver Cup in New York ity, and Jim Odom, still glowing from is Nat ional v ic to ry a t th e H ou sto n stro do me , faced off in San Fran cisco r the second sho rt track racing round f the year, and fans eage rly aw aited the utcom e. The bi g w inner on the day 'as - Kenny Roberts... Larry Pfutzen- C --=- =-----=-_ reuler took the ov erall in the Ch eckp o in t Mo to rcycl e C lub' s H a re a nd H ound a t Barstow, Cali fornia. Tom Poteet had cha llen ged briefly ea rly in the race, but drop ped ou t with a seize d motor. Fifteen-year-old Terry Clark finished fourth overall on a Ha rley-David son 100 Baja. Astrodome the next d ay, Springer finPalau Sant [ord i Olympic Sta di um by ished second to Steve Ekl u nd... Hours taking the win in big-leagu e, broad-slidafter conce di ng defeat, Larry Roeseler ing American style . Jordi Arca rons was and Bruce Ogilvie d iscovered that they seco nd, ahea d of Alberto Puig... After h a d won th e SCO RE Parker 400 . lead ing for the first 14 laps of round five Th roughout the rac e they had battl ed of the 'AMA Camel Sup ercross Series in w ith Chuck Miller and Jim Fishback. San Diego, California, Jeff Stanton had Fishback finished ahe ad of Roeseler, an unscheduled rendezvou s with bu t Roeseler and Ogil vie' s official fW7i:lr'i'":-a--n--':=-.~ a hay bale, giving the point ,, m'7i.IT~'";"z~...L_ el apsed ti me was 30.10 se co nds • position to Frenchman Jean1 EAR 5Y SAGO... ~_~§~~"::!:tlle s s tha n th eir riva ls' ... Donnie Michel Bayle. Bayle w en t FEBRUARY 18, 1981 ~ Cantaloupi took the 250c c Pro on to win his third event of p ringing back into overallwin at round six of the DG the series, putting h im one ac tion at the fir st Golden State Series in Sacram ento, race ahea d o f the defendi ng rou nd of the AMA California, but Bra e Glover took ch amp ion.. . John D ow d Grand Nati onal Chamth e se r ies titl e b y m eans of a wrapp ed up th e 250cc Pro pionsh ip in the Housthird-pl ace finish. Rex Staten was champi o n sh ip a t th e fin al to n Astro do me, Jay runner-up on the d ay. r ound of th e Flo ri da Winter Spri ngsteen, pictured AM A Mo to cr o ss Se r ies in celebratin g o n the Gain esvi lle, scoring a d ouble cover, won the 20-1ap -~._ 5YEARS AGO.•. m o to w in for h is fi rs t overa ll of t he Sho rt Track Nat ion al. Springer series. Barry Carsten rod e a bit more FEBRUARY2 1991 0, was back in form after suffering health conservatively in th e 125cc Pro cla ss , t the firs t-ever dirt track race run problems, sayi ng, "I haven't felt th is finishi ng fourth in the event to claim the in Spain, Steve Moorehead good in two years." In round two at the series ti tle in that d ivision. 0 wowed the fa ns at Barce lona ' s S A 47

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