Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EUROFILE BYALAN CATHCART History remade Billed as a "massive celebration of motorcycle nostalgia at an historic circuit" is the 1998 version of the Coupes Moto Legende, to be held in France, May 23-24, at the Montlhery circuit, 15 miles south of Paris. Built in 1924 by a French newspaper magnate who was the vintage Gallic version of Rupert Murdoch, the partly banked Montlhery circuit annually plays host to an increasingly large number of historic events on two and four wheels, of which this is the biggest motorcycle event by far. This year's edition will recognize Honda's 50th birthday by mounting a major exhibition of every single Honda road-going motorcycle, as well as the most important competition machines. In addition, stars of yesteryear such as the ubiquitous John Surtees, Giacomo Agostini and Sammy Miller will mount their usual display of mouthwatering machinery, including the unique horizontal-cylinder F-model works Norton 500 which Surtees has just finished re-,creating. This will top the bill of historic machinery of all kinds that will take to the track during Montlhery's Moto Legende weekend, which has now become the largest annual event of its kind on the mainland of Europe, attracting a huge crowd of tens of thousands of spectators. Doma de~1 moving forward . As reported in "In The Wind" last month, Grand Prix racing has new owners. Following on the heels of Britishbased media gian t Octagon's takeover of the World Superbike Championship earlier this year, the sale has now been announced of its smaller Spanish counterpart, Dorna Promocion del Deporte, which owns the rights to the World Championship Road Race series. Dorna, which was acquired by the country's leading bank, Banco Santander, as part of its 1994 bailout of its failed rival Banesto, is being sold toLondon-based venture capital fund CVC Capital Partners Europe Ltd. Via its Madrid office for an agreed-upon sum of 6.6 billion pesetas (about $43 million), plus assumption of the debt owed by Dorna to Banesto of around 5.5 billion pesetas ($36 million). The buy-out deal (thus totaling about $80 million) is still, however, provisional, pending CVe's satisfactory conclusion of the due-diligence investigative process - likely perhaps to take longer than usual, because of the murky nature of Banesto's past history, which includes the fact that the bank's former president, Mario Conde, was arrested last year and sentenced to a six-year jail term in the first of a series of trials in which the once high-flying banker and his friends· are accused of massive fraud, after Spain's central bank uncovered a huge $5 billion black hole in Banesto's accounts in 1993. Dorna, which owns the controlling rights to Grand Prix racing granted to them by the FIM until 2006, was acquired by Banesto from the founding Garcia Pardo b;others in 1990, in a deal later criticized by the Bank of Spain and a Spanish government commission as allegedJy forming part of Conde's systematic process of embezzlement and fraud. Specializing in perimeter advertising for major soccer clubs in Spain and England (with a very successfuJ rotation'llsigns subsidiary in th.e United States), as well as marketing TV transmission rights of sporting events, Dorna first became involved in GP motorcycle management in 1991 as partners of Formula 9ne car-racing supremo Bernie Eccle- The Coupes Moto Legende - to be held at the Circuit de Montlhery, just south of Paris - is one of many large-scale vintage racing events in Europe this year celebrating the rich history of motorcycle racing. stone, when, in November of that year, Ecclestone reached a deal with then-FIM president Jos Vaessen to assume control of GP bike racing via his Two Wheels Promotions company. But for reasons never confirmed on the record, Ecclestone grew disenchanted with his motorcycle investment and withdrew, leaving Dorna to assume sole control. Over time, Dorna's current management team of Jaime Mas and Carmelo Ezpeleta - who deserve due credit for rescuing Dorna from the aftermath of the Conde connection, and whom CVC has confirmed it will maintain in place after the takeover is concluded - has liquidated other interests to focus on GP bike racing, which represented the major part of Dorna's 1997 turnover of $53 million, yielding a net profit for that year of $2 million. CVe's medium-term objective is reportedly to float part of Dorna's capital on the stock market, once the company's annual profits increase three-fold and broach the billion-peseta barrier. This underlines the very different nature of the Dorna takeover from the Octagon acquisition of SBK/World Superbike. There, SBK has been acquired by a multifaceted sports-marketing company (Octagon) that is a subsidiary of Mle world's largest promotional-services conglomerate (the lnterpublic Group), and that views SBK as an integral part of its menu of sports-related services, and is thus very unlikely to be sold off. By comparison, CVe's acquisition of the Spanish custodiaq 'of the Grand Prix rights is something else entirely. ,CVC (formerly known as Citicorp Venture Capital) was formerly the New Yorkbased equity-investment arm of the giant Citicorp bank, until it was spun off as an independent entity in 1993 though Citicorp remains one of its biggest clients. . Today, CVC has an $840 million equity investment fund, which it has used to take over businesses as diverse as Formica in Britain, the Australian Building Products Group down under, and the largest chain of Wendy's hamburger .franchises in the United States. CVC is therefore in every way in the same position vis-a-vis Dorna as fellow financial opportunists TPG were in acquiring a controlling shareholding in Ducati: They're experts in leveraged takeovers of underperforming companies with attractive assets - such as Ducati's quality product and stellar image, and. Doma's contractual grip on the most prestigious branch of motorcycle sport. In return for pumping money 'and, often, management expertise into their new acquisitions, companies such as TPG and CVC expect to make a substantial profit when they bring the revitalized companies to the stock market - as CVC has already said it plans to do with Dorna, and TPG with Ducati - or else someone makes them an outright offer to buy it. In the meantime, CVC will give Ezpeleta & Co. a free hand and the necessary finances to develop the business in any way it thinks best, and that will probably include diversifying back into other sports - like soccer - from which the cash-strapped Spanish company has had to pull out. Doma's hitherto essentially Hispanic management culture will . certainly become more international in nature, just as Ducati's ultra-Italian management and business ethos is now truly mid-Atlantic. So expect certain idiocies - such as the recent removal of the press pass of Gunther Wiesinger, the Swiss doyen of GP journos, by Dorna management for daring to criticize them in print - to be no more, and the many areas of concern that GP luminaries such as Kenny Roberts and Wayne Rainey have consistently highlighted to be addressed. Two major concerns will be to turn back the outflow of major sponsors such as Rothmans and Lucky Strike that have pulled out of GP racing in recent years, and to encourage the involvement of more manufacturers, sponsors and especially teams and riders from countries.other than the Grand Prix hard core of Japan, Spain and Italy. .This will include addressing the unsatisfactory situation of three of this season's 15 GP races being held in Spain, and two in Italy - but none in the Uni ted States, the biggest market of all for just about everything: bike sales, TV audiences, advertisers, sponsors, etc., etc. To be a true World Championship, Grand Prix racing must become a truly worldwide sport once again. To sum up, if the CVC deal goes through, Grand Prix racing will have new owners behind the scenes, and, to start with at least, there will be little obvious change. But, just as TPG has so totally transformed Ducati in littl.e more than a year, so the CVC company doctors pulling the strings of Ezpeleta & Co. will be expecting quick resuJts, so as to maximize the chances of a prompt return on its investment. Dorna management will be under pressure to perform" fast - and will surely realize that, to do so, they must bring all the elements in the GP paddock (manufacturers, teams, sponsors, riders, promoters and press) with them. With the revitalized appeal of the 500cc class as displayed in the Suzuka GP a key element, expect GP racing to take on a new lease on life, and start fighting hard to win back sponsors, spectators and viewers. Oh - and forget all that mealymouthed stuff we heard from Dorna, Flarnmini and the FIM about GP racing and World Superbike not being in competition with each other! Just as CART /Indy car and Formula One hate each other! s guts and compete on every level via the worldwide medium of TV, so both forms of two-wheeled road rac- ing will be locked in even greater contention for the top spot in the eyes of advertisers, promoters, spon sors and viewers around the world. And especially now that their respective owners Octagon and a revitalized Dorna - are such direct competitors in the outwardly urbane but inwardly cutthroat business of sports marketing. We, the spectators and viewers, can only benefit from this. History remade II In recognition of the ongoing appeal of historic racing - but true competitive races, rather than "regularity" events .where you must aim to make the same mistake every lap in hopes of setting a consistent lap time! - the organizers of tile Dutch TI taking place at Assen, Holland, on JUne 27 have promoted the two Historic TI races from the Thursday of TI Week, on which they've traditionally been held for. the past 10 years (the first one took place in 1987, won by, er, yours truJy on a Paton twin!), to the Saturday race day, as the only support events to the SOOcc/250cc/12Scc/Sidecar GP races. Organized as alw~ys by IHRO - the nonprofit organization th.at brought historic racing to GPs in France, Italy, Spain, Britain and Holland 10 years ago - both the 350cc and 500cc Dutch Historic TIs will be held at the conclusion of the GP race program. These will certainly once again attract the cream of pre-'73 classic racers and machines from all over the world - especially as IHRO ruJes outlaw the tricked-out, lightweight replicas that appear in other forms of classic racing. "This is a great vote of confidence in our track record," says lHRO organize.F Graham Boothby, "as well as underlin: ing IHRO's ability to deliver thrillin& racing with authentic, historic bikes." Given that Dutch rider Dirk Brand won the 1997 SOOcc race at Assen on his Seeley-Matchless by passing Briton John Cronshaw's BSA in the last comer, that claim seems justified. History remade III Also intent on offering a points-scoring championship series for Classic racers is Britain's George Beale, one of the world's leading restorers and collectors of Historic bikes, and perhaps best known for the faith.f1,>Jly executed replicas he makes and sells of the Matchless G50 single, four-cylinder Benelli and six-cylinder Honda period GP racers. For 1998, Beale has established a bornagain "Continental Circus" consisting of the world's top 500cc Classic racers, who will take part in a four-race series (with a possible fifth round) held as a support class to major events. Kicking off at the Spanish round of the World Superbike Championship at Albacete on May 24, with successive races at Misano in Italy on June 21 and Austria's AIRing on August 30 (both also at S'BK World rounds), plus the T~uck GP at the Nurburgring on July 12 and a possible final round at the lmola bike GP on September 5 (provided space can" be found in the Italian circuit's small paddock!), the International Classic Championship is open to the same pre-'73 drum-braked GP machines that take part in lHRO events, but with no minimum weigh.t limit. Beale says his aim is to develop the new series into a full World Championship within the next two years, and has selected 33 riders from the many applications received from all over the world to take part in the debut series. 'I These include American ace Stephen .Mathews, France's Bruno Leroy, Swis~'

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