Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I (er Sports' supercross director Todd Jendro 12 h e ki ck off o f the 1998 AM A Supercross Series also marks the d ebut of Todd Jendro as PACE Mot or Sports' new director of su percross . Jendro, 27, is a former Pro-Am racer himself w ho seems to ha ve a keen se nse of balancing both the need s of the rid er s and th ose of the promoter s and fans . But as in all things, ac tions sp eak louder th an wo rds . Firs t of all, congratulations o n your new p osit ion as PACE Motor Sports' director of supercross, which is a ro le that Roy Janson formerly held. How did y o u come about working with PACE? Well, I'v e been racing since '78 and purs ued ra cin g in a p ro fessi on al manner from 1988 through 1992. I was a Pro-A m rid er for DGY Racing - Down er 's Grove Yamaha. But while warming up for the Red Bud Nati onal , I had broken m y w,rist - sha tte red it - and even tua ll y decid ed that it wasn 't meant to be. So I quit in '92 but came back with DGY racing in '95, working on their Pro-Am support team in an orig inal sa les type of thing at the races . Then I d ecided to apply at PACE Motor Sp orts for a job and ended up ge tting a pos ition as event manager with the U.S. Ho t Rod Association . Tha t evolved into a role wi th supercross , and here I am! What do es an event ma nager do? Did th ey have yo u bannerin g the h ot rod track, or di d you jum p right into the top end? . As an eve nt manager, you' re resp onsible for coord ina ting th e en tir e eve nt fro m start to finish . Basically, I wa s involved in the monster-truck as pect of this bu sines s. Eve ntually I hook ed up with Roy Jan s on , wh o was a lre a dy w it h PACE /supersports . I was with sRO then and we only did a few of the su pe rcrosses. 50, with Roy kin d of tea ching me, I s ta rted learnin g more abo u t th e bu s in es s , especia lly in 1996 w he n I worked a lot m ore su pe rcros even ts with him . Since I already kne w th e spo rt really well, com ing from a racing backgro u nd, they decid ed to give m e a shot as th e su percross man ager . Last yea r, I was at all the supercross races, and at the en d of the season, when Roy was th en prom oted to vi ce presid ent of motor spor ts, I w as promot ed to d ir ect or of supercross. Will Janso n still have a hands-on role in supercross racing, or is his role going to involve other are as of motor sports? He reall y has his hands full becau se he's in charge of ov erlook in g ou r "Truckfest ," our UsHRA ev ents, truck- and tractor-pu llin g events, plus su pe rcross. He will be at a few of the supercrosses, but w hen we have an off-road event or so m e other event that he ne ed s to be involved in, he'll be there instead. Well, si nce you ' re th e man, w e'll ask you the questions. What is th e stat e of the supercross u n io n right now? Is PACE happy wit h the improvemen ts they made in their firs t year? Yes, we' re extremely happy and ple ased. And we want to keep improving thin gs and keep ope n lines of com m u nica tion between the riders, mec hanics, and team m anagers as we did in ' 97. I'd like to even tua ll y d eliver supe rcross to the mains trea m so eve ryone knows w ha t we're all abou t. We're extreme ly happy with ou r record and we se t a ttend ance figures for '97, and we plan on improving the growth of the purse and points fund and outside sponsorshi p. PACE made a lot of promises before the '97 seri es regarding a points fund, improved track design, a better ove rall attitude and atmosphere. Do you fee l that PACE kept th ose promi ses? We have stood behind all of our promises to the factory team and independ ent tearns . Our commitme nt conti nues, and we were already having talks ab ou t the '98 series during last year's series . Com municati on is the key here. We need to comm unicate to the riders, to th e team managers, to the mechanics, to everyone invol ved in the sport, and we want them to feel that they have a say in th ings, too . Everyone is treated equally. Obviously , we've gone above and beyond what we just spoke about to the factory tearns an d mana gers. Myself, Ro y Ja n so n, Gary By Davey Coombs Becker, Charlie Ma ncusso - we all were committed to the 1997 series and are even more com mitted to 1998. Wha t are so me of the ne w th in gs that supercross ha s in store for us in 1998? Wh at can we loo k for? There isn 't much that an yon e can do to improve the ra cing, which h as n ev er been better, s o we are worki n g to enhance th e overall series itself. There's going to be a lot of improvements in Jhe presentation of th e events th emselves. Look for a n ew infie ld a n no u nce r's tower, whi ch is similar to the aluminumgirder-s tructure finish line we d ebuted las t ye a r. Al so attach ed to that is a n AM A scoring tow er (included in ) th is same stru cture. We also design ed and mad e a new sta rt-ga te stru ctu re, wh ich is an 80-foo t overhead piece with signage space for the ci ty, the sp o nso rs , everything. It should be back-li t, too, to give th e flo or a better-enhanced look. And, as yo u m ight have heard, we've done away wi th ha y ba les, and we will be introducing som e innovative safety barriers in 1998. Th at' s a pretty revolu tionary th ing ha y ba les ha ve been with motorspo rts fo rever. • That's correct. Roy and I have sat down and twiddl ed our thumbs for yea rs over this pa rticu lar topic. There have been riders lan d ing o n bales and explodi ng them . Or when it rains on the bales, they weigh a m ill ion pounds. O r watchi ng b al es tumbl e over in th e turns in th e

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