Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

AVIEW FROM THEERIC JOHNSON FENCE BY " There's 2000 tickets left and they'll be gone by noon," said PACE Supercross director Roy Janson om the infield of the Sam Boyd Silver wI. It was 10:00 a.m. on Friday morng, and in the background, the kJploaders languished around in the tilling heat, putting the finishing touchon the tight ana technical circuit for aturday night's race. Sure enough, by Friday afternoon, all 2,000 seats were spoken for, thus mark· g the first pre-event sellout in the hisory of the AMA Supercross Series. mehow, it seemed a fitting exclama.on mark on the wildly successful 1997 a50n. "Whatever barometer you use to · dge the season, it's been the best year 'n our history," proclaimed Janson the ext afternoon from inside the air-eondi'oned PACE motorhome. "Both from a romoter's perspective and the fan's rspective. For some reason, the sport as turned a corner." All things considered, 1997 was truly watershea year for the sport of supeross. Between the two-night Los Angees Coliseum dates - at a venue a num6er f people were suspect of - which drew a ery respectable combined 'crowd of 5,537, through the sold-out seasoninale in Las Vegas, 695,000 fans came ut to watch the 15-race season. And for ose of you that are counting, that's an average crowd of well over 46,000 fans er race. Moreover, the TV coverage and the a11-im.l?0rtant rating numoers at go along WJth it - was off the charts. was well with Roy's world. "TV used to air weeks out from the riginal event date, now the events are . ed just a few days later," Janson said · regards to one of many variables that ve pushed the sport into a newfound' ealm of mass popularity and maintream acceptance. "As far as TV is conemed, the sport is now being covered a sport ratller than a novelty. "You can't underestimate the McGrath factor," Janson then added immediately thereafter. "His level of professionalism and the effect he has had on the sport is tangible. He's brought attention to it that led up to this great year." It can't be denied that Jeremy McGrath, and to a certain degree, hiS much ballyhooed switch to Team Suzuki mere weeks before the season kicked off in Los Angeles, threw gasoline on an already raging fire of supercross interest. In addition, once the season hit full stride, it became very apparent that the Supercross Championsnip was up for grabs. On any given Saturday evening, anyone of a host of talented and fast racers were capable of pulling down a win. Truth be told, after four years of McGrath totalitarian rule, a new dynamic of "who will win tonight?" found its way into the sport. "This year you had a number of different winners," declared Janson. "Lusk, Windham, Henry, Huffman and Albertyn all won races. Judging from a manufacturer's perspective, they have to feel good about themselves, too. And it was certainly great for the fans." To inject a dose of historical realit;' into the conversation, what were Roy s feelings on the infamous Ground Zero public-relations-black-eye event at Las Vegas back in 1995, when the bad blood between the r-acers (both the stars and the privateers), promoters and factories reached a boiling pOint? "Ground Zero is a good way to put it," Janson replied, seemingly relieved it's now all in the past. "Our relationship with the AMA, riders and the factories wasn't that good. It all culrninated with the lights ?,oing off here in Las Vegas, and you II remember, a rider protest letter went around that day that caused a number of problems. Had the promoters gone too far? I don't know, but things were not good. "The big turnaround was the great supercross handshake tour," Janson added. "Gary Becker and Charlie Mancuso went out to every entity, the teams, the media, the manufacturers, looke'a them in the eye and told them that things were going to get better. These were two people of high position that put their credibility on the line. They then got up at the Los Angeles Coliseum riders' meeting and said: 'Don't judge us on our past,-but what we do this season.' They then began to take steps to enhance the sport. A $220,000 point fund was created - and that's more than the Camel cigarette years. Even that finish-line banner that had been sagging for 25 years.., The first thing I did m the off-season was to fix that banner. We 30 YEARS AGO••. JUNE 29,1967 in Louisville, Kentucky. Chris Draayer finished second and George Longabaugh got third, both on Harleys. Earl Lout won the Amateur final. on Morgan and D a v e Evans tied in the Expert class 'at the Southern California rials Association English Trial in Big Bear Lake, California. Jim Wilson won the Master class on a Triumph...BSA rider Don Haaby won the Ascot Half Mile race in California over fellow BSA rider Chuck Jones and Harley-Davidson's Mel Lacher. Jimmy Odom won the Arateur final on a Triumph...Husky's J.N. Roberts won the Pacific Southwest Championship Hare Scrambles near Adelanto, California. Triumph-mounted Gary Preston and Jack Byers finished seCond and third, respectively. Bultaco rider Howard Jackson finished fourth overall and first 250cc, and Jack Morgan won the Trailbike class on a Hodaka ...Harley-Davidson's Bart Markel won the Half Mile National Dirt Track D 20 YEARS AGO... JUNE 22, 1m e N's Roger DeCoster saga by John Huetter continued with part VII: "Nickel-dime disasters and the bitter taste of 10sing"...Yamaha's Heikki Mikkola took his Heikki Pentilla-tuned YZ to the win at the 500cc World Championship Motocross in Bielstein, West '~,\L.lr'I;J Germany. :-"......--..~'.4.I..;J~ S u Z u k i ' S -"-,,,, IN" DeCoster ~.-_:~~ t::i:~h:;~ . $ i- ~ . Gerrit Wolsink got third ... eN ran a preview of the Hang Ten U.S. 500cc Grand Prix at Carlsbad Raceway in put in leader lights to help the fans keep track of the leader. We put in holeshot lights and really attempted to improve the visual quality of the events." Fortunately, m this newfound age of good feeling and camaraderie, the toooften maligned privateer group has not been left out of the equation. "There hasn't been a lot of bitching this year," Janson claimed. "We put up a $4000 privateer bonus at each race, and a few guys have made over $7000 this year on that alone. I think it has really made a difference with that group. We want to help them." As the sport of stadium motocross heads into the off-season, PACE Motorsports now needs to catch its breath and· assess the season - a season that, years from now, may be considered the halcyon era of the sport. What does PACE plan to do to keep all well within the supercross world? "We've had a good year and what we want to do is build on that stability," Janson says. "We want to continue to run a quality program and avoid the traps and not step backwards. Other than the competition you see in the AMA Supercross Series, we really want to enhance the quality of our shows. I mean nothing needs to be done with the competition; it's the most competitive race series in the world now." While, by all accounts, it was a fantastic year for the sport, one nag$ing negative element made its way mto more than one conversation at Las Vegas: A number of riders, mechanics and especially the truck drivers - were running on empty after 14 consecutive races, and they were talking about it. From Indiartapolis back in mid-February, through Las Vegas in late May, WJth one more long trek to Pennsylvania right after the Vegas race, the circuit (National and Supercross) had not had a weekend off. It was quite apparent that a nUmber of people were a bit frazzled by the week-in and week-out travel. . "Look at it as you're in the American retail business," Janson fired back. "If you had two record years of business in a row, would you relax? No! You would increase the number of franchises. If you sold hamburgers, you would open more McDonald's. If you ran movies, you California. One of the favorites was the Dutch dentist Wolsink, who had won the event the three previous years. Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner was slated to do the color commentary for ABC's "Wide World of Sports" and, coincidentally, had broken his leg on a motocrosser a few weeks earlier...Husqvarna swept the podium at the 1977 Baja Internacional with the teams of Larry Roeseler and Jack Johnson taking the win, Brent Wallingsford and Scot Harden finishing second and A.C. Bakken and Bob Rutten snaring third. Bruce Ogilvie won the 250cc class ,~7i~r:;.,,~ riding solo on a HarleyDavidson. __ 10 YEARS AGO... JUNE 24, 1987 "SUdden" Sam . Ennolen!

• Cover