Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

for one race or dan gero us. How can Mr. Burns say tha t the m ajori ty of the racers are m ad e up of once-a-year vacation racers? Th er e were 792 entries this year. Did he interview every one of them? No one kn ows w he n it is his or her hour to di e. If th ey d id , would th ey live th eir lives any differently? We ha ve over 400 m embers o f o u r Tea m USA IT Supporters club. I wo nder w hat their opinion would be on this "typ e of coverage? I know of over 400 Ll.S, fans who feel quite differently than Mr. Burns. They supported o u r team and helped us get to th e IT th is yea r because of the love of the sport. For this reason and so many others, I a m committed to run fo r the AMA Trustee position becoming vacant in the eastern region in 2000. There needs to be a change to th is attitude of marketing an d journ alism, I have spoken to a nu mber of people, both fans and racers, w ho are tired of only hearing abo ut the top thr ee or fou r racers ou t of 80 in any class. I'm not taki ng anythi ng away from the front -runne rs , but without the o ther 75 riders, th er e wo ul d be no racin g se ries becau se no one woul d pay to see five factory riders race. I personally think th e way motorcycle racing is covered in the Ll .S, is horrib le. The m ed ia and racing o rg anizatio ns shou ld ta ke no tes from Europe or NASCAR. I know th e ga me, and I'm goin g to try and change it for future racers from the inside. I've traveled to over 60 cou ntries for wo rk and pleasure and never is m otorcycles or racing so poorly received as here in"the Ll.S.' Even ou r own journalis ts who claim to love the sport a re always putting it down. Why do all the jou rn alists have condescend ing, holiertha n-thou attitudes? As if th ey cou ld do so much be tte r. I do n't see the majori ty o f them ra cing . You r own Pa u l Car- " ru th er s jus t recen tly e ntered h is first road race at Road A tlanta . Did Mr. Bums ever stop to think that the-classic parades are held for a reason? Pe rhaps it' s a cha nc e fo r th e en trants wh o are racing multiple classes to relax. As a race r, I k n ow I enjoy the b re ak between classes. I for o n never co m plain when the organizers cancel a practi ce o r d e la y a r a ce b e ca u s e o f th e wea the r. Having raced in the rai n and pra cticed in th e fog , I for o ne can tell yo u th ey ' r e the worse racing ex periences ever I've had . It's nothin g like ra cing in th e rain on a purpose-built race track, w hich is far easier by comparison. As far as TV med ia coverage is con cerned, programming / airing rights are locked in by the big-boy network a nd o nly news segments u nd er 10 mi nu tes are otherwise allowed. BBC-TV, Eu ro -Sport, Sk y- e t and Speed vision are ai ring multiple p rog rams o n the IT. Speedvision sta rts July 6th, and the other ne tworks in Europe have already started their programs. I a lready have friends recording programs for me in Europe. I have spoken to executives at ESPN and was advised the only reason th ey can ' t air programs on the IT is because Speed vision ha s purchased exclusive rights to this event: And to talk about death at the IT... Is this the only way he feels he can make his a rticle more appealing? The racer w ho was killed in the 600cc race, Stuart Murdoch, was a friend of mine. We were hanging o ut ju st before the race. I will mi ss him very much, bu t people have been dying at the IT each year for over 90 years . It's pa rt of the lure and cha llenge of the TT. Wh y do yo u thi nk the racers still ra ce it? More people d ie every day of natural causes th an in the whole IT fortnigh t! Dea th has always been a part of any kind of racing. If people race, someone's going to die. It' s just tha t simple. It's been this way from the beginning. It's always th e sissy p e o pl e wh o do n't race w ho complain about the dea ths, and not the ra cers . We have accepted the personal risks, and we love the chall enge. Why don't all of th e scared people with no heart just stay out of our business? If th ey don 't like th e sport, d on't come. Or better yet , th ey s h o u ld ge t th eir la z y couch -racin g behinds up off th e sofa and simply turn off the TV. Da vid Dwight Mitchell Pisc ataway, NJ Dwight, whil e I have respect for both you and your team's performa nces at the recent Isle of Man IT, let' s not confus e the Isle of Ma n today with the Isle of M an of the past. A lthough 'you are correct in noting that I have only road raced one time, I' ve beet! to my fair share of road racing events - including the Isle of M an TT ill 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970. If you recall, that's when the event was a roulld of the World Championship, and at that time it was w ithout a doubt the most important road race of the year . That is no longer tru e. A s for your assessment that "if peo-' pIe race, someone's goillg to die," I totally disagree. Racers race all the tim e on modern race tracks and very seldom do we have to report 0 11 death s . And that 's a good thing ... Editor And his friends As a motorcycle enthusiast a nd sport enthusiast, I find that noncommercial sports in the USA, such as mo torcycling and soccer, often receive poor coverage. The Isle of Man mo to rcycle race, from what I am to decipher from literature and video, has a historical place in racing. It's a place where th e brave race and a place w he re factories often raced their best and newest steeds. Ig norance on behalf o f a w riter is unacceptable and contemptible. Too often, they will knock a sport or a po rtion of the sport out of sheer ignorance in trying to appease a large but mostly ignorant audience. This is similar to the situ ation w here a sportscaster belittles the sp ort and will on ly show some stupid footage of a motorcycle crash and no other part of the race, or will show soccer fans chasing a referee. Foul. M r. Bu rns may have been gu il ty of ignorance in his con tem p t of mo to rcycli ng history. Mr. Burns, p lease report fairly on the spirit of the race o r enterprise. A race is made u p of fans, even ts and all of th e racers. And co ngr atulations to Team USA from a nonCycle News subscriber and supporte r of the team. Carlos Bocanegra zopilote99@aol.com Just ill case we don't get en oug h e-mail around here, M it chell had all his friends bombard us with tltem. Naturally , they were all ill support of him alld his ideas. Allyway, enough's enough. We get the point: The Isle of Man rules , Dwight Mitchell and Team USA rilles, death in racing rilles, Paul Carru thersis a nonracing idiot, and Stephen Burns (despite the fact that he resides there) hates the Isle of M an. So let' s move on to something else, shall we? .. Editor Summ ercross I subscribe to your excellen t paper and have no ticed a stra nge lack of comme ntary or d iscus sion on yo ur part regard i n g th e upco m in g Sum m e rcro s s , although I've see n an advertiseme nt for it in Cycle News. Maybe yo u can find o ut if anyo ne besides Jeremy McGrath is riding in it. The Summe rcross web pa ge lists rid ers, and I'm su re you m igh t have a comment when yo u see w ho is riding, o r more importan tly, who is not riding. If only th e riders listed on th e web page are riding, McGrath wi ll probably lap the field twice. I think you have the cred ibility and right to as k the promoters what the deal is - even if they did run an ad wi th you. Of course , y o u onl y h a v e a few days to find o u t and I s h o u ld have asked earlier. Dan Can eva Los Angeles, CA The most recent issue of Cycle News contained an interview 'with Summercross promoter Steve M cfAugllIin. Between that and the web page you've already seen, hopefully your questions have been answered... Editor Cross gendering I question why you felt you needed to use th e word "fem a le" o n p ag e 31 of your recent issue (Ju ne 30, Issue #25) wh en r eferrin g to flat-tra ck racer Stephanie Welch. It' s obvio u s she's a fema le by her name (she doesn ' t have one of those cross-gender nam es). You don' t put "male" in front of all the ot her racers to whom you refer, so w hy wo uld you put "fem ale" next to he r name? It's like you are setting her apa rt for somereason, If she's good enough to be racing flat track a lo ngsid e th e g uys, she 's goo d enough to be written up just like them wi th no reference to gender. And, besides, wom en racing alon gside gu ys is old news now. Stephanie's class title , "Pro-Am," should be good en ough. I don't see you referring to Angelle Seeling as a "female" drag racer. Is that beca use everybody kn ows who she is? Genevieve Schmitt asphltmag @aoI.com Male Paul Carruthers apologizes for fellow male Scott Rousseau for mentioning the fact that Stephanie is indeed a female. 1guess we also owe an apology for all the years we wrote about Stephane Mert ens and didn 't refer to him as a male road racer. By the way, Stephanie also goes by Stevie - not to be confused with male dirt tracker Stev ie Beattie... Editor Letters to th e editor shou ld be se nt to Vo ices, C ycle News, P,O. Box 5084, Co sta Mesa, CA 92628-5084, fa xed to 714 /751-6685 or e-mail, edito r@cyclenews.com. Pub li shed letters do not necessarily reflect the pos ition of Cycle News, In c. Letter s sh o u ld n ot exceed 200 words and all let ters are subj ectto editing. Anonymous letters w ill n ot be cons idere d for publi cation . All letters s h o u l d contai n the w r it e r 's n ame, address an d daytim e pho ne number .. . Editor. en en en 5

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