Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127997
A VIEW FROl\1 THE FENCE "I BY ERIC JOHNSON know that guy - 1 see him on ESPN ail the time," said a bespectacled man wearing a blue suit and carrying a briefcase, looking identical to the thousand or so middle-management type wandering around the Los Angeles Convention Center. The man, standing with a colleague, was looking at the line of people waiting to get Jeremy "Showtime" McGrath's autograph. About 40 people were patiently waiting their turn to stand in front of the big blue-and-red platform to have a few words with the champ and score one of the 8x10-inch black-andwhite glossies he wa signing with a blue Sharpie pen. The afternoon before, McGrath's public-relations person, Cheryl, had called me up, telling me that "MC" was going to be doing an autograph si~g to help launch his new video game, "Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000." So , the next afternoon, I climbed into my race car, hopped on the Harbor Freeway, and hotfooted it to downtown Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (known in industry circles as "E3"), which is one of the largest trade shows in the world. And it was there, among a crazy swirl of light, blaring noise, autograph hounds, celebrities and Disneyland-esqe mascots, that we came upon our man. Set up at the base of the massive, astonishingly bright Acclaim Sports booth (Acclaim is the producer of the McGrath game), we looked on as Jeremy signed one au togra ph after another. From the surroundings, it was quite evident that Acclaim had dug deep into the corporate war chest to create and market the McGrath game, and the display, which was built around our sport's version of Babe Ruth, featured a large image of McGrath flying on his Chaparral Yamaha. In the coming year, the video-game industry, which raked in $6.3 billion in 1998, will surpass the movie industry in gross earnings. That being the case, there is currently a cash-fueled feeding frenzy going on among tlle major com- 30 YEARS AGO,.. JUNE 17, 1969 . panies to create the next big game - and sign the biggest star to help promote it. "You can't have a supercross video game without Jeremy McGrath," said Michael Jerchower, a marketing manager at Acclaim, who was looking out of the corner of his eye a t the other motocross games being touted at the E3 show. "That would be like having an NBA All-Star game without Michael Jordan." The friendly marketing man ha d a poin t: Jeremy McGrath is sUl?ercross, and tha, fact is not lost on either the diehard or casual su percross fan. Nevertheless, there are a lot of fa ns ou t there that, through their Sony PlayStation or Nintendo 64, are looking to play out an electronic fantasy of flying over a triple while riding on the LayZ-Boy and drinking a can of Hammsbeer. However, that doesn't mean the other video ou tfits on hand in L.A. were going to let the fact that they didn't have the golden goose on the payroll stop them from cashing in on supercross. "There were too many motocross games to count," the Los Angeles Times would later report in their coverage of E3, the reporter more than aware that supercross and motocross are being heavily courted by the clairvoyant CYCLE NEWS aUy O'Keefe was the buxom beauty on the cover of our issue #22. O'Keefe, who worked for Richfield Oil, was -t draped over a Hodaka, t o i l which was imported ~ ."';. by a subisdiary of Sheil ~ Petroleum. Hmm... The Milne Brothers of Pasadena staged a practice at their brand new speedway track on the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, on June 4. Many of the area's top riders, such as Sonny Nutter, Rick Woods, Sammy Tanner and Dallas Baker, said that while the track was tight, they thought that it w.as going to make for a good show. Some 30 years later, it still is... Jim Odom switched from his ailing Harley to an unfamiliar Norton and went on to win the weekly Ascot Half Mile: One night later, Dusty Coppage (Tri) played it cagey and went on to the Ascot IT victory ... Up in Northern California, the Palo Alto MC hosted a scrambles event iliat drew over 1000 spectators and 300 riders. Lance Anderson (Tri) was ilie fastest of the lot, winning the Expert main event. P ~ ... /~1 .- r" . ~~r"_~~"-' 20 YEARS AGO... JUNE 13, 1979 video-game marketing people. (For the record, before I left the advertising business to work with Davey Coombs on Racer X llIustrated, I was part of a team at Ground Zero advertising in Marina Del Rey, California, that created the advertising for a major video-game company called Activision. Through that experience, I ca me to realize that the video people have their finger firmly placed upon the pulse of American youth and what they are drawn to. Obviously, supercross is a sport that has the 12- to 34year-olds of this na tion mesmerized.) As fate would have it, just across the redcarpeted hallway from the Acclaim booth was the opulent Entertainment Arts (the "EA - It's in the Game!" folks) display. The EA people trotted ou t their new motocross game, "Supercross 2000," in a major way. Hanging from the ceiling was a KX250, while in the showroom was a major bank of big-screen, flat-panel displays in which people could test-drive the game. And test-drive they did, as scores of people wandered over to try their hand at being Jimmy Button, Jeff Emig or Ryan Hughes (not to mention any of the oUler big stars they have signed up to be featured in the game). Other games. such he u.s. GP of motocross was still the premier MX event in America, and our preview issue provided you with plenty to digest as the Carlsbad race neared. Our up-to-the-minute coverage included an overview of the race, the entry list, the series points standings, an interview with "Rocket Rex" Staten and much, much more... Meanwhile, they were still slugging it out in the stadiums, where Bob Hannah clinched tbe AMA Supercross Title at the New Orleans Superdome with a sixth-place finish. Steve Wise (Hon) won the race after battling with Jimmy Weinert (Kaw)... Defending 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts (Yam) won the Spanish GP in Jararna, Spain. Roberts also moved into the series points lead, ahead of Virginio Ferrari... Bruce PenhalJ, Bobby Schwartz and Kelly Moran made up furee-fiffus of the U.s. speedway team that advanced to the semifinal round of the World Team Cup. Team USA finished second to New Zealand in the British qualifier at Reading, England. T as "Supercross Circui t" (by 989) and "Championship Motocross featuring Ricky Carmichael" (by THQ) were also being pitmed at redIine levels in L.A. Wandering around the show and seeing motocro sand supercros enjoying sum a major presence among such colorfully named games as "Dukes of Hazard: Racing for Home," "Thrasher Magazine Skate and Destroy," and "Planet of the Apes," was encouraging. In fact, in my mind, it wa just another sign of the sport's burgeoning growth in the American mainstream market. That being said, the best part of the show was watching Jeremy McGrath hold court in a room filled with iliousands of videogame people, ail of them trying to outdo one anoilier. '1t was pretty cool, and 1'm surprised so many people knew who I was," said McGrath in typically modest fashion while rubbing his arm after signing so many autographs. "There was a pretty good line of people the whole time, but the people were a little bit different than the people that come to the supercross races - maybe not quite as enthusiastic." Nevertheless, at the end of the day, MC was one of the key attractions of the show, and it's great to see our man being grouped in with such big-time sportsmen as Brett Favre, Derek Jeter, Randall Cunningham and Dale Earnhardt. For years, motocross has had to look on as sports such as mountain-bike racing, surfing, rollerblading and (gasp) pro beach volleyball were led out into the bright light of mainstream - and, as a result, corporate - acceptance. That wasn't the case this year at E3. Mentioned in a host of mass-media outlets ("'Supercross 2000' and 'Supercross Cir· cuit' are auilientic motocross games that are worth the ride," declared USA Today, along with a picture in their "Life" section), it is clear that motocross was a star player in the pulsating L.A. Convention Center. And as for Jeremy McGrath ... Well, he was perhaps the biggest and brightest player of them all. Imagine iliat. CII 10 YEARS AGO... JUNE 7, 1989 eam Honda's Jeff Stanton and George Holland scored ilie 250cc and 125cc wins, respectively, at the High Point Raceway round of the AMA National Championship 125/25Occ MX Series in Reading, Pennsylvania, on May 28... We ran a feature on women road racers in this i sue. Entitled "Fast ladies in leathers," the feature covered ilie careers of lady roadies Kathleen Coburn, • Toni Sharpless, Suzanne Brightbill and Sharon Lynch... Scott Summers (Hon) thumped his way to victory at the joint AMA GNCC National Hare Scrambles round in Flat Top, West Virginia. The event was called the WinterPlace 100... Team Suzuki was back on track after winning the WERA six-hour endurance event at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon. The team had fielded riders Paul Bray and Mike Smith... We turned over our test Kawasaki KDX200 and Suzuki RMX250 to Pro Circuit and let them work their magic. The results? Two great off-road bikes were transformed into hot-rod trail burners. ,. T I • iI III :l ~ Q • §! 75