Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

20 year s ago, and we should have followed th is thi ng u p . I know there has bee n a great effort, and we have gotten places with Da ve Despa in and Ch et Burks - I mean , th ose guys hav e spe n t their o w n m o ne y d oing it. Bu t w hy doesn't somebo dy who is going to ben efit fro m it spend their own m oney to have their bikes or these races on TV so that we can continue this spo rt? Right now it' s th e promoters who have to spend more money so th at the riders can ha ve a larger purse. Th at would be fine if the costs went up in conjunction with the amo unt of public that' s comi ng to th e races. Television is very important, and it has to be consisten t coverage. If you don' t have that, then the sport cannot grow. Why are we goi ng backwards in this sport when it has the closest competition and the fans are paying more attention to it than ever? Yet you've continued to try and move the se ries to new o r " improve d" venu es/m arkets . So m etim es it h as work e d a nd so m eti m es it has no t. Wha t are yo ur thought s and your expansion in light of the p roblems that you see w ith th e series? I may not be the only promoter who 's do ing it, bu t I recognize that you have to try new pl aces. Knoxville and Del Mar worked ou t, but we tried Denver and it di dn' t work, we tried Albu querque, and it d idn' t work. I do n' t even want to try an d nam e a ll t he p laces th at di d n 't work, but you take the risk, and if you do n' t make it, then you jus t go on. I'm loo king at a couple of new states right now, and we a re loo ki ng fo rward to going there in the futu re. Where will you be heading? (Pauses) I p robably sho uldn ' t say right now. But we are looking at new places and new venues becau se tha t's the best wa y to get more peop le to come out. You are going to promote an event in N eb raska this year. How d id yo u go ab ou t making that de cision, for example? A lot of it is a gu t feeling, but a coup le of factors are the marketplace and the facility. This Lincoln race is on the Nebrask a State Fairgrou nd s. It' s a first-class facility. They have an indoor section an d an ou tdoor section. It's a beautifu l fiveeigh th-m ile rac e tr ack. Basica lly, you have to go to a venue that people don't mi n d go ing to. If it' s a good fa cili ty, th en new people won' t mind coming in, and when they see a good show, they' ll come back. If it's raunchy, then only the hard-cores will co me, and th a t's not nearly enough to support the expense of putting on one of these events. You talk a lot about the show. Here's a variation on "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" What comes fir st, the riders or the show? The show is wha t you sell. Bu t as far as th e ri ders' safety, the y co m e fi rst before anything else you consider. For the past couple of years, you have been complemented for the profile of your events and at the same time been cri ti cized for paying purse that aren't as high as some of the other promoters. Yo u promote in the se great places, you' re the one who get s a lot of the TV deals, and the purse s are the same. How would you an swer those critics? There are d ifferen t types of promoters, and there are d ifferent types of entities th at are putting on these even ts. Some of them are club s that are d oing it. Their ma in interest is to put on an event an d ma ke it a good clu b functi on. If th ey make a few bu cks at the end of the da y, th at's fine. Th ere are o the r p romoters who ar e grou p s of d eal er s. It' s pretty much the same idea. Every body tries to make a profit. The y make their money off of selling m ore mot orcycles . Then you have promoters w ho do this for a livin g, and if they didn' t do it for a living they'd have to be doing som ething else. They are more profit-orien ted. If you don' t ge t a profit, then you d on't continue to put on an event. And there is trade-off in a larger market . Ther e are radio commercials that cost $1200 for a 30- secon d s pot as opposed to radio commercials that cost $50 for the same amount of time. These bigger venues want a higher percentage of you r gate. It's big city vs, small town, an d I believe tha t my expe nses are higher than anyone else's out there. I d o it for a profit, but I also do it because I love the spo rt. There are othe r businesses that I could get into th at have a grea ter reward in proportion to the ri s k. Bu t m y rew ard is wa tch in g the event and appreciating the event. Everything I've do ne I try to do with the best interests of the spo rt in mind. I love the spo rt. I alwa ys have. You've never had any trouble selling title s p on so rs h i ps to y o u r eve nts . We 've seen Kragen Auto Parts Sacramento Miles, Chief Auto Parts/Valveline half miles, etc. We don't see that elsewhere. Are you "giving" that signageaway? You're forge tting Miller, Budweiser an d Coors, too. No, we don' t give tha t away. There's n o need to clu tter u p yo u r ad vertisemen ts w ith so m eone else ' s ad vertising. We get good d ollars from these sponso rs, and we ask them to d o the ir share in helping us promote it . They d istribute pamphlets and help us wi th the adv ertising . We get the m, bu t it' s a full-time job, and there are four or five of us tha t are always on the phone trying to land them. Eithe r we're lucky or we're persistent. So you basically have you r title sponsors at your indivi dual events taking the place of what a series sponsor used to do . Yes. It's a lot more work to have differen t sponsors ta ke th e pl ace of a se ries Agajanlan converses with his event production and racing director, 1970 AMA Grand National Champion Gene Romero. The pair have been working together since Romero left the Honda factory dirt track team In 1985. spo nso r, and the markets are all different. But you gotta do wha t you gotta do. You are already promoting four Grand Na tionals, and you say you' d like to have mo re . I sn 't what you hav e enough? No. I'd actually like to ad d about four more if I could. It' s just diffi cult whe n you pack th em close together and you d on ' t ge t a break betw e en m ar ke ts where you have to go in and be the spin doct or th at you have to be. But I'd like to do eight of them as long as they are all qu ality events. What are the best and wo rst parts of promoting a Grand National? The best part of promoting them is having a su ccessfu l, safe a nd profitable event. It makes me feel so great abou t it. Also, there' s a lo t of cam ar ad erie ou t there. I love all the ride rs, and I rea lly enjoy it. The bad part of the sport is the very worst, and it falls in all of motor racin g. Unfortu na tely we los t (car racer) Scott Bra yton at the In diana p olis Mo tor Sp eedway th is ye a r. We los t Rod ney Farris last yea r, who was ju st a great person , a grea t friend and a great guy. You jus t wi sh th at part of the sport wasn 't th ere. We have to lea rn from it an d make safety a little bit more effective. I know that we used to lose more, and tha t safety has come a long way in racing, but tha t' s the wo rst part of it. We don ' t need to lose any lives. Many see your brother's (Cary Agajanian) position at AMA Pro Racing as being in conflict of interest with your events. How do you respond to that? Well, if I called up my brother at home and as ke d h im for a sanction, then I guess there would be a conflict of inter- est. But I don' t call him at home, an d he does n't give ou t sanctions. Right now it wo ul d be easi er for m e (to get a sanction) if my last name we re Smith an d I were a qua lity p rom oter than it is now. I kn ow tha t' s wha t people a re say ing because my brother an d I ge t hassled about that all th e time. I read a letter w here th ey called us "a pa ir 0' dummies." I thou ght tha t was hilarious. I was doi ng six events whe n m y br other wasn' t on the board. Now I'm doing fou r. I have to tow my own line. I don't think anybody gives me anything. Last year I wanted a su percross sanction, and I d idn 't get one. So tell the AMA I want a supercross sanction (laughs). It' s actually become more of a burden having him on the board, but my brother is a fair an d honest person. Ascot Park has been gon e for five years now. D o you s till have an y de sire to become a race track ow ner agai n? Well , tw o ye ars befo re th e clo sin g of Ascot, I started wo rking to p ut together ano ther race track . We settled o n a t rem end o us p lac e in San Bernardin o County. But things led us away from that, as much as we had a righ t to buil d a facility there . Circumstances that I ca n' t speak about have prevented us from having a track. But we are starting to do some more car races. We are going to d o a USAC Cha mp Ca r race at Del Mar on the week following the Del Mar mile. But we d o hav e a track that we' re going to be bui lding at the Pomona Fairgrounds . It is going to be an exact Ascot replica, and it w ill be a permanent facility. This is br eak in g news, and yo u' re getting the scoop. I believe that I'm the only one w ith the exact specs of Ascot Park. And I have filed them awa y just in case this day came . I've m ad e a d eal w ith th e Los Ange les Co u n ty Fa irgrounds, and we're going to insert a perm anent d irt / clay oval wi th thos e exact specs inside of the thoroughbred track so that we can run car events. We' re going to have a World of Outlaws race there on November 1-2. On November 16 we are going to have the Don Peabody Classic SO-lap sprint car race. On November 28 we are going to have the Turkey Nig ht USA. Midget G ra nd Prix is going to co m e back to th e Lo s Angele s area . Whether or not motorcycles will ev er wo rk their way into the program there is another story. But we're wo rki ng with the Pomona people on all that right now. H ow m uch money do you ha ve in the bank? (Laughs). That's pretty big news. You have been promoting dirt track for so long, but put the promot er aside. What is it about dirt track racing that attracts Chris Agajanian the race fan? I grew up promoting races. My d ad had us d own at the race track at age 7 or 8. We w ork ed every fac e t there wa s, wheth e r it w a s se ll ing p rogram s o r parkin g or ho t d ogs or coun ting the money in the office. It has always been a part of me, and one of the forms of racing tha t I have always loved the most is m otorcycl e fla t track . I d on 't k now w here th at comes fro m . I know tha t I don't have the balls to d o it myself, and I admire and respect the guys who do. I tried it, an d it scared the heck out of me. Maybe that's wh at does it. Dirt track has always been one of my favorite forms of racing, an d it all starts ri gh t on th e race track with the close competition. You' re so thrilled by the style of the se gu ys and th e sp eed at which th e y're runnin g that yo u' re a lw ays in fea r for their sa fet y. That's what hooks you. It helps sell the show? Tha t's correct. a

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