Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

A lEW FROM THE FENCE BY ERIC JOHNSON hether a number of people are willing to admit it or not, supercross is the great white hope of the motorcycle industry. Young, dynamic and wildly popular, the sport is the shot in the arm of which the quickly-graying American motorcycle industry is badly in need. On Sunday, April 26, 1998, the flashand-glam-saturated sport of supercross , entered the next phase of its evolutionary process when ABC Sports, on their worldrenowned "Wide World of Sports" program, aired next-day coverage of the Dallas Supercross. Slotted in directly after the Talladega Die-Hard 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race, ABC, Seals Communications and the supercross promoter group PACE Motor Sports pooled their collective resources in an effort to gamer a big chunk of the massive lead-in audience that the NASCAR race would deliver. Aware that the psychological mindset of a NASCAR fan is relatively similar to tllat of tlle supercross aficionado, the aforementioned consortium was looking for the "rub off' factor and, with it, the chance to impress a number of potential new fans. From the very first shot, which looked down upon the gleaming Dal1as Stadium, I knew the broadcast was going to do the sport justice. In line with the old and tired adage that you "only get one chance to make a first inlpression," Seals Communications and producer Scott McLemore decided to go outside the box and craft a show to not only entertain the hard-core following the sport has already gathered, but to speak to and educate the millions of Winston Cup fans that would be dropping in on the telecast. And to illustrate the magnitude of the importance of the occasion, Seals teamed with ABC to dig deep into a big bag of TV production tricks and tactics. The aforementioned roof-cam was installed, and helmet-cams were brought out and attached to a few helmets. And the most exotic item of them all, the jib camera, was incorporated into the production as it ran off a dolly placed on the stadium floor to give viewers the impression tIlat tIley were following the bikes with their own eyes. And from tIlere, the one-hour production rolled on toward its destiny. Paul Page, the voice of the Indianapolis 500 and a world-renowned auto-racing commenta- W tor, led the broadcast team as the contingent spoke out into the living rooms of America. With only one hour to work with, the network utilized a highlight sequence of the heats and semis to build intrigue and excitement and, ultinlately, set up the main event And all things considered, the highlights were intriguing, and accomplished their ultimate objective of getting the viewing audience wound up, as well as up to speed on just what the hell was going on. Furthermore, a smattering of preproduced rider biographies helped bring the sport's athletes to life. An interesting aspect of the telecast was the plight of supertalent Kevin Windham. Cast as one of the sport's premier riders, Windllam, through a series of uncharacteristic shunts, truly personified the "Wide World of Sports" catch-phrase of "the agony of defeat." However, the battered and bruised Windham retained his dignity, and like a big-time car racer - or punchdrunk quarterback - explained his frustration to on-floor commentator Art Eckman, who had pulled him aside shortly after he had gotten to his feet and cleared his head. Windham's woeful outing, and the subsequent deva tating disappointment he experienced, showed America what these guys go through every Saturday night. Of the few elements that were botched during tile proceedings, the primary culprits were tile graphics arulouncing and illustrating the main-event starting grid. The pictures of the riders were far too small, and a number of them featured either the wrong rider or the wrong bike. Perhaps we should take a clue from car racing on this one and make them bigger, and maybe even have them include the motorcycles within; I'm sure tile manufacturers would dig that. One other gripe heard throughout the industry - and th'e muckraking Internet pages of America was the fact tha t the 12Sec class wasn't shown. In the broadcast's defense, the producers only had an hour to work with, and ASCAR certainly doesn't show the Busch Grand National division highlights prior to the airing of every Winston Cup race, do they? Okay, enough dwelling on the negative. The main was bitch in' . After a nice buildup of the great Jeremy McGrath, which oozed of just how important the evening was to him, the gate clanked into the hard-packed Dallas dirt and the race was on. As a sign that the stars were aligned on the historic telecast, the race was chock-full of action. The young gun (Ezra Lusk), at the helm of the Big Red Machine, held off the golden goose Oeremy McGrath), while the iron man (Doug Henry) kept them all honest on his ground-pounding, hot-rod, Yamalla fourbanger. Big jumps, big passes, and for God's sake, big action! "Awesome!" declared Gary Becker, CEO of PACE Motor Sports, in regard to the broadcast. "The ratings were great, and we had people watching that were not supercross fans - which was our target. With the broadcast, we really wanted to attract new fans. [t was a great race, with all kinds of excitement - in fact, [ think it was our best race of the year. Our objective was to educate people on supercross - on just how it works. While 1 would have liked to have seen two hours of racing, I thought the broadcast came off extremely well." And if the AC. Nielsen overnight ratings are any indication, the broadcast of the Dallas Supercross went off the Richter cale. Generating a 3.5 rating, the allimportant Nielsen figure pulverized everyone's modest expectations - including those of ABC. In the event that you are wondering what a 3.5 rating constitutes, we're going to give you a quick education. That 3.5 ielsen number represents a percentage - 3.5, to be exact - of tile %,915,000 households witll TV sets that were dialed into the race. When you boil it all down, the Dallas Supercross was watched by almost 3.5 million viewers. Perhaps an even better gauge of the broadcast's resounding success was its lead-in audience. According to preliminary ielsen figures, the Dallas Supercross enticed, and held on to, roughly 65 to 70 percent of the NASCAR Talladega viewing audience. Said my friend Shini Reddy, who works as a strategic media planner in L.A's rough-and-tumble advertising community: "65 percent, as far as a lead-in audience is concerned, is phenomenal. Normally, 40 percent to 45 percent is considered good:' When all was said and done, and as 1 got up off my ass in order to walk around and think about what I had just watched, 1 felt stoked. Being a major auto-racing enthusiast (and taping up to three car Faces every weekend), 1 truly felt that Seals, ABC and PACE had done a wonderful job of portraying our sport. While watching, I tried to be objective and pretend I was Harold T. Six-pack, the typical auto-racing enthusiast. In doing so, I came away with the opinion that supercross is a big-tinle motor sport that held my attention to the bitter end. Witll tile exception of a few minor miscues, the broadcast was first-rate and compelling, and certainly worth another gander. And now that a few days have passed, and tile buzz of the Dallas broadcast has sinlmered down a bit, the inevitable question of "Where do we go from here?" needs to be posed. "Our job now is to go out and get more TV," explained PACE Motor Sports supercross overlord Becker. "We wqnt to have a t least one to two shows on in 1999, and four to six on in the year 2000 and above. We're going to explore our options and make a decision on what's best for the sport and our company. We may talk to ABC and NBC, but we have to keep our obligations to ESPN and ABC, who have been so loyal to us. We'll see what hap- pens." Deservedly so, Jeremy McGrath was the star of the Dallas show. Caught on camera several times - including a poignant moment in which he met his family following tile clinching of title nwnber five - McGrath, too, had his take on the hyped-out matter. "1 thought it was pretty sharp," McGrath said the Monday after the race. '1 really liked the bios they did on all the guys. Hopefully someone saw it and will realize that we should be on network TV all the time." If Sunday's broadcast taught us anything, it made it painfully clear that we've certainly come a long way from the polyester-clad twosome of Sam Posey and Bruce Jermer yelling into their ABC microphones during 197Os-era "Wide World of Sports" broadcasts of the Carlsbad USGP. We've entered a new frontier, and thanks to deft production work and our friend Mr. AC. Nielsen, the sky is now the limit. Let the pigeons loose, and for God's sake, don't touch that remote! l~ LOOKING BACK... I 30 YEARS AGO... MAY 30, 1968 20 YEARS AGO... MAY 17, 1978 10 YEARS AGO... MAY 11, 1988 ommy Rockwood (Tri) made the cover after grabbing his fourth Amateur win in a row at the Ascot Half Mile. Rockwood was the only unbeaten rider at Ascot to that point in the season. In the Expert ranks, Dan Haaby (H-D) scored his second main-event victory in as many weeks... Steve Kirk (Tri) picked up the overall win in the California City, California, Hare Scrambles... Gary Bailey had his Greeves rolling again, as he took tile measure of the SOOcc Senior competition at the ACA motocross in Castaic, California... ational number 45 Darrell Dovel (H-D) won the short track at Zebulon Crazy Eight Speedway near Griffin, Georgia. The event was supposed to be the prelude to the Atlanta AMA National, but the National was rained out ... Novices were in the news at the Silver State Classic scrambles in Las Vegas, Nevada. Randy Ellis (Bul) won the 250cc Novice class, while little Gary Wells (Bri) - presumably before his daredevil days - won the 100cc Novice class. or anyone who was caught by surprise when Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-Cal.) Desert Protection Act passed a couple of years back, this 1978 cover should hit home. Citizen rights to public land use were being seriously challenged way back then ... Garth Brow (H-D) won the first of the three San Jose Miles that he would win during his career (Brow tallied a total of five Grand National wins, four of them on Miles). Brow led Skip Aksland (H-D) and Steve Morehead (H-D) across the stripe... Team Yamaha's Bob Hannah and Broc G[over were beginning to a make a mockery of the AMA/Mr. Pibb 125/250cc outdoor Nationals, as the duo picked up another pair of overall wins in their respective classes in Southwick, Massachusetts... Jim "The Animal" Fishback (Yam) surprised them all again by taking his second straight win in the AMA [SDT Qualifier Series, this time in Fort Hood, Texas. eff Ward (Kaw) and Guy Cooper (Hon) were the top dogs in the 250cc and 125cc classes during round three of the AMA/Bel-Ray 25Occ/RK Chain 12Sec MX ational at David Bailey's Lake Sugartree MX Park... Kevin Magee (Yam) narrowly defeated Eddie Lawson (Yam) to win the Spanish Grand Prix, round three of the World Championship Road Race Series... We published a brief riding impression of the 1988 KTM600 LC4 MX, saying that it "seemed to have the motor needed to win races against the two-strokes" ... Ryan Young (Bet) beat Jonny Andersson (Hon) in the ew Mexico round of the AMA/ ATC National Championship Trials Series, bu t the two riders' positions were reversed at the very next round in Colorado... Jim Holley (Yam) scored the win at the Houston Ultracross ... Despite racing with two broken hands, Dave Schultz (Kaw) won the Pro Stock Bike final during the AC-Delco Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. l~ T F J

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