Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

r and in all honesty I'm glad it didn't happen the n, because it wa s too soon, too early. You kn ow, PACE is just gell ing back in to the motors po rts field . They' ve just go tt en back into it abo ut thr ee o r four years ago, and now the y've got all the supercross events. N ow is the time for me to come in and help them . Before, there wa s PACE, there w as Mickey Thompson, the West brother s, and th ere wa s SRO . Th ere we re fo u r com panies involved w it h supercross, and I don't know where I would have fit in. I wo uld have been a tho rn in someb od y' s s id e . Wh at woul d th e y h a ve done with me? As this new relationship grows, d o yo u think that yo u will see more manufact u r er or fac tory s u ppo rt i n the PJl Natio nal Arenacross Se ries? I think that aren across has its place, and o ne of th ose pla ces is fac to ry su pport team s. When I say "su ppo rt teams," I see support being given to a rider to put together a team, whether he is with Axo, MSR or ano ther industry sponsor. But I also thin k that you' re going to see some of the riders go ou t and bring some corpo rate sponsors into ar enacross, jus t like they wou ld in supercross. With our televisio n pack age, we get the exposure, and some of these riders that migh t not b e th e star s of su p erc ross ca n be the stars of a re nacross and bri ng in sponsors. That's one thing that we are go ing to assist riders in doing: putting tog ether sponsorship opportunities for arenacross and supercross. As far as yo u r Sp eed visio n telev ision pack age w en t la st ye a r, we re yo u happy with that? Everybody was real happy. It was my firs t yea r to deal w ith a production, so we di d n ' t know w ha t to ex pect. We learned a lot. We learn ed about came ra ang les, w here the ca me ras could o r co u ldn' t go . We lea rn e d wha t th e y expected of me an d what [ expected of them. I guess the greatest thing we did and wh ere I had the most fun was with the live coverage during the las t ro und in Denver. Even w hen I di d interv iews, I liked d oing live interv iews, becaus e it puts a lot of pressure on you, and I don ' t mind pressure. The live show worked out well enoug h that we might do mo re live shows instead of taped shows . Do you stilI h ave a Speedvi sion deal for the upcoming season? Yes. We have a th ree-yea r co ntract, so we still have a deal for Friday nig ht on Sp e ed vis ion and Sa tur da y n ight o n Pri me Sports, which is actu ally now Fox Sports. So lets talk about two or three years do wn the road. Hockey, for example, has the NHL and the IH L, where players mo ve up and down between the tw o leagues. Is this the type of ex istence that we win see between arenacross and supercross? Will aren acros s be some sort of a talent pool fo r supercros s? . I think so. I think a lot of the ma nufactu rer s will be loo king to utilize a renacross as a way to se nd thei r up-and co m ing yo u ng rid ers in to the fiel d of ba ttle w ithout se nding them to su percross . Before, a lot of th ese ama te urs were going right from Loretta Lynn' s their last "big ama teur race" - to su percross at the season opene r. I think thi s will offer an opportu ni ty to send the m to the field of battle with so me of the top guys before they turn in to supercross riders. Our sanction allow s the amateur riders to ride against the expert riders. They can rid e against a Buddy Antu nez w he n they ar e 15 years old , like Robbi e Reynard did a cou ple years ago. As part of this whole new deal. yo u (Left) Played In mostly secondary markets, Kldd's PJ1 Arenacross Series attracted a record hi gh of more than 300,000 spectators during the 1996-97 season. (Below) In the smaller stadiums In wh ich Arenacross is typically held, the racing action can't help but be close and exciting. .h ave been named Vice Pr es id ent of P ACE Moto r Sp orts. What role will you pl a y, a n d what is your vision fo r mo torcycle racing as we approach th e 21st cen tury? Wh at I see as a vision of where su percr oss a nd arena cross ca n go - and wha t everybody in our industry talks ab o ut - is corpora te sponso rs: bringing the corpo ra te wo rld to o ur se r ies, ou r teams a nd ou r racin g. It see ms lik e - a nd I' ve sat b a ck a nd wa tc hed th is fo r three o r fo u r yea rs - yo u ca n turn o n the TV and see ASA stock-car racing has sponsors, all types of tennis has s p o n s o r s; yet we ca n ' t g et a sponsor and han g onto them . NH RA took a sport that lasts four to five seconds and made a spectacle out of it, and they have sponsors. The th in g tha t I've thought we've been lac ki ng is that w e do n't have a poo l of sponsors in m o torcycle racing where, when we lose one, we go to this sponsor over he re and sa y, "Look, d o yo u wa n t to ste p up and do thi s with u s, " w he the r it is a team effort o r a series spo nso r or an eve nt spo nso r. So, w atching NASCA R a nd IMSA a n d CART and IRL, I've seen the formula that they are using, and it seems like irs a g ro up effo rt - es pecially in N H RA, w here some body ta kes cha rge . I th ink , in ou r position , that's go ing to have to be PAC E. We're go ing to hav e to take charge and go ou t and solicit corpo rate sp onsors, not just for the series and for the events, but for the teams as well. We need to bring in, and I'm just goi ng to u se this hypoth eticall y, a Coca Cola . If we went to Pepsi or Co ke, wha t we'd do is go in and lay ou t a p rogram that got them involved in the se ries - at every event, the re would be a Pe ps i banner up. There would a lso be a tea m spo nsored b y Pepsi , w he the r it's H ond a , Yamaha, Suzuki, Cha pa rral , or whatever. And we would also have one of the eve nts somewhere, like the Ast rodome, that wou ld be a Pepsi-sponsored eve nt. Pepsi, in thei r corporate world, co ul d have a VIP meeting and bring in peo ple fro m all over the country, and we could wine and di ne them and let this be their premier event. That wo uld be the "Pepsi Su p e r cr oss." Th at wo u ld be th e one even t that th ey cou ld h ost a ll th eir wholesa lers and reta ilers, and win e and di ne th e m . Th ey could w a lk them th ro u gh the p its and s ho w th em the team - and it would alread y be an established team, we would jus t be going to them and saying, "Here 's X amou nt of do llars. We need your help in going to the n ext leve l. " O n ce we teach o u r ind us try that that' s wha t we wan t to d o, then we could go out and bring in more spo nsors like that, and start tying every- body in to the point where it would be harder to wa lk away. When s u p e rc ross lo st W ran g ler, everyone said, "W hat a re we go ing to do now ?" When Camel was go ne, they said the same thing. If the re was a pool of sponsors, yo u could wa lk throug h the pits and look at somebody and say, "So w ha t d o yo u wa n t to d o no w ?" You look a t th e tobacco indu s t ry a n d a t what' s goi ng to happen if R.]. Reyn olds has to pull o ut. Well, NASCAR has go t 40 s ponsors where th ey ca n wal k th r ough th e p it a r ea a n d intro d uce them selves. W hen we lose so me bod y, we have to start ove r. But there has go t to be a tim e w hen we can bring a sponsor and wine and dine them throu gh a team , a series and an even t, a nd that will help us step up to a prime tim e like ABC, CBS and NBC. If you look at Bull Riders O nly, they did a dea l on Fox that wa s prim e-time Bu ll Ridin g Only. It was on in Texas at Bp .m. If you looked at the bu ll riders, they had a list of spo nsors like Wrangler and Bud Light that they co ul d go to and say, "Look, if we ge t this prime-time deal. wi ll yo u ste p up and help us pay for it?" And Wrang ler said, "I'll bu y the amo unt of spo ts," and Bud Light did. When we want to do something like tha t, we' re d oing it as a self-su fficient industry. Pretry soon, there will be no more money. Co rporate America sponsors are needed to assist wi th exis ting sponso rs su ch as Parts Unlimi ted in the s u perc ross series a nd PJl in the a renacross series. As an example, additional spo nsorshi p suppo rt from compani es such as Pepsi, McDonalds and Dodge crea tes more opportunity for increased purses, point fun ds, reven ues and network tele visi on co ver age . Marke tin g st ra tegies cha nge, and sponsors will come and go, bu t I d on 't think that we, as an ind us try , have done a good job of keeping co rporate spo nso rs in ou r sport. Tha t's the vis ion tha t I have an d tha t I want to share with Charlie Mancuso and Ca ry Becker. I think tha t's the direction we need to go, and we need to sell i t no w , because su perc ross a n d a re nacross is o n a high rig ht now. Is th is part of the re sponsibil it y that yo u w ill now ha ve with PACE? O ne of the pos itions that I wanted to do was this end of it. I want to help and be responsible for this end o f it. When I b ro ugh t th e Army in (d u ri ng Kidd ' s Gra nd Na tional dirt track career), one of th e fi rs t th in gs th a t their a d vertising a g ency as ked me wa s, "W h a t other tea m s arc th ere? " And I hes ita te d , because I realized that in their wo rld of sponsors, the y're used to racing against th e Budweisers, etc. At that tim e, the Ar m y a lso ha d Don Prud ho m me in funn y cars, and corporate America was i nv o l ve d in dr a g racing. It wa sn ' t in vol ved in m oto rcycle ra ci ng . I too k abou t 30 seconds and th en I said , "Well, we're spo nso red by Camel." And they said tha t was great, beca use the y knew wh o Ca mel was because of drag racing. There's going to have to come a time when the ind ustries ca n take a look at su percross and see all these spo nso rs and say, "Hey, ma ybe tha t' s something tha t we need to look at." Righ t now , they see that there is nobody in there, and there has go t to be a reason why nobod y is in th e re. I loo k fo rwa rd to h avi ng th e opportu nity to work with Roy (Janson ) to co nti nue to im p rove co m m u nic a tio ns wit h the riders, teams and sponsors. It is im perative tha t we create an event where every one is proud to be a part of it. But either way, this d ea l ha s pretty much secured the future of arena cross? Yes . I thi nk arenac r o ss has grow th pot ential, and I thin k th at supercross has growth po tential. I think that all of m ot orcycl e ra cing d oes . l'mnot sure w hat motorcycle sa les d id in 1997, but I kn ow tha t, a s far as sp ectator turnout goes, every thi ng was up. And tha t's good. We're heal thy right now. 0' 21

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