Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

th er e' s st ill so me more upsid e. I still be lieve th at th e Wo rld Supe r b ike race . Now all of a upside to this even t, with a combined , four-day weekend, I still thin k you ha ve an upside to be a t the sa me sudden they have a level of an Ind y car crow d at Lag una Seca Raceway. benefi t . Pl u s t he biggest benefit, which What do the! get for that? . is what we' re all so rt of here to do , is we're Y OU always ge t p romot er n umber s on bo th sides, What is the event's fu ture? The World Supercross round this November won 't be the first her e to pu t together a · so I'll just give yo u a pe rcentage. They' re probabl y Supercross held at the Rose Bow l, though it will be the first since g rea t raci ng week35 to 40 pe rcent higher than w hat the motorcycle race is 1993. Th at year, Jeremy McGra th clinch ed his first AMA 250cc A ~ We have a five-yea r ' dea l end, to showcase how Supe rcross title at the venue. right now . I just think w ith the fou r-day w eek en d , and L-\.w ith Ac tion Group. I' ve go t grea t m otorcycle racth ei r no t be ing a ble to go to Lag u na Seca tw ice as a a o ne-vea r d ea l with th e Rose ing is. You can imagmot orcycle fan, th is is go ing to tru ly be the ha ppen ing Bowl. it was not an easy sell to ine 20 to 24 World facto ry guys racing agains t 14 to 16 for m otorcycle road racin g. th e neig hb orho o d as so ciati on s a t th e Rose Bow l to factor y A MA guys. You could end up w ith arg ua bly the app ro ve thi s event, a nd to also a p prove it re la tively best race in the wo rld . If you keep tha t in pe rspective Will you ~o n ti n u e to do Road Atlanta? close to th e Rose Bo wl foo tba ll ga me, w hich is in early w ha t yo u're trying to build - then some of these. probJanuary. We' re on a one-yea r deal with them. Ass u m ing w e' re go ing to cont inue to do Road Atla n ta . The lem s aren' t as big. we put in a so lid crowd, and ass um ing that the crowd AM A Se ries is s till ha rder to p ro mo te th an th e Bu t don 't a lot of these individual team s, who are d oesn't meet so me of the stereotypes that the neighborWorl d .5uperbike Series, bu t in a certain sense I wou ld all looking out for their own be st interests, just hood associa tio ns ha d w ith moto rcycling, then we'll say, we reach ed break even sooner in the AMA race tend to focus on the probl em s? . return to the Rose Bo wl. If it turns o u t where th a t th an we d id in the World Su perbike race . It took u s Actually , w he n I talk to them I ge t bo th answers. I d oesn 't work, we w ill probably go to Dod ger Stadiu m, three years in Worl d Superbi ke, In our second yea r in wou ld tell you if you talk to the riders, the riders w hic h we origina lly approached. But Dodger Stad ium Road Atlanta we've reached the break-even poin t. So think this is the greatest idea ever. AMA rid ers want to w as doing ren ovat ion this year duri ng th e off-season, we 're go ing to continue to do that. ju mp in th ere and compete with the Wo rld guys, and which d idn't allow us to go there. Dodger Sta di um is Y O U were mentioning so me saf ety issues you ' re they wa nt to race. A very high percentage of the AMA owned by Fox; we're owned by Fox, so there's so me addressing. clear synergy to go to th at s ta di u m if the Rose Bo wl riders are goi ng to be on tha t side of the fence . If yo u go lt goes back to ou r embarassing incid ent a t Road w it h the manufacturing. sta ndpoint, I think th e team doesn 't work out after th e firs t year. Atla n ta. O ne of the issues is our TV m anager s are goi ng to ha ve to have H OW does the Speedvision/Fox work out with guy is radioing to me about the probth e most amoun t of p ro bl em s w ith . CBS? lem because he can see (the pro blem) . this. Wh en yo u get to a higher level at Now ther e's a good qu esti on . How it works ou t is (The AMA) can' t see it a t th e tim e. man y of th e manu facturer s, th o ug h, . ne tworks pla n their ho urs of programmi ng literally Pa rt of the dea l is that the TV guys they look a t the bigger picture, which yea rs in adva nce - mu ltiple years in ad va nce. We wa nthave 12 different cameras around the is they wa nt to market the ir motorcy. ed this to be o n a ne two rk, not a cable system. We reall y course. So w ha t we put up' at.Lag una cles to as ma ny peo ple as possible. wa nted to rea ch a hundred milli on hou seh old s. By the Sec a Racew ay this pas t yea r was a tim e we approac hed Fox Netwo rk, th ey 'd litera lly What about gu ys who wouldn't mo nitor for every television ca mera book ed up too much a t th a t tim e o f the year, so we qualify with this system? that we have out th ere, so tha t a n we nt to CBS. Our othe r tw o o ptio ns at Fox we re cable . A.~ Well, yo u' re going to have a gri d AMA official can sitin a tim ing-andh o f 38 s lots, and p eo p le aren' t opt ions, and we thought to make this event a hom erun scoring tower an d lite ra lly look at the goi ng to make the grid . That might be out of the box, we needed to be on network television. mo nitor, and help the corner workers a good thing if you're one of the top with making some of the tough deciFIM/A MA SUPERB IKE ROUND racers . . , s ions . We as te le v is io n guys n o w You could be the leader of the race k now - because we did it .a t World A Wo rl d round and an A MA round: How will and poten tia lly never ha ve to pass Su perbike this last year · what's the yo u get all that racing into o ne weekend ? anybody. A~ Now that has two really interesting options. Firs t of equ ip ment that you need to be a ble Wh at about a backmarker in' the to give the AMA a camera in every h all our plan wa s to go w ith four days. Then it's a position. It' s not easy to do, but it's matter of what do you run o n w ha t days, a nd the World series who travel s around laguna Sees 's infamous Corkscrew: bigges t decision of all, do yo u ru n the AMA Su pe rbike t~world and basically makes every so methi ng we 're willing to help th e Safely mod ifications will bs made to the run-off area for the combined AMA to do in the interest of safety . race as a sepa rate race, or together wit h the Wo rld race? WorldINat iona l Championship They' re going to ru n the risk of Superbike race . Superbike race, but the track Itself Q Anyth in g eI S~? not qualifying . T ha t's raci ng . Whatever plan we come up with is go ing to have to will remain unchanged. Flami ni has al ready supported this meet the approva l of the AMA. It's go ing to be a mat ter Anot he r thi ng is that we wou ld idea. Their main concern of course is of working together with Scott Holl ingsw o rth of the need an exception from the FIM the .top 10 race rs who are all vying for the po ints chamAMA and coming u p wi th a so lution that is the bes t for for Ha rley- Davidson to ru n because they do n't have a pionship . You ca n' t spend your time worryi ng about all parties . hom ol ogat ed bi ke. So if we di d do th e race wi thi n a If you go ba ck to the tw o sol utions we' re talkin g the guys in 20th or 25th . race , Harl ey-Davidson would need to be ab le to en ter about, you sta rt with one that is probably the easies t That's what the AMA does. that race. But they currently aren't ho mol ogated . It's just to have a se para te race. Sta rt w it h Friday, as an One idea we've thrown ou t to the AMA for the res t goi ng to be an exce p tio n fro m the AMA , w hich ba sicalexa mple. Have one of the AMA classes run on Frid ay of the AMA field is yo u do yo ur final qualifying session ly is goi ng to take every manufacturer to ag ree' to that. a fte rnoon an d have one other AMA class, maybe th e o n Friday, and if you don't make the Wo rld Superb ike So that' s another hur dl e to ju m p throu gh. CN 600 class, ru n o n Friday. Sa tu rday run an AMASu perfield , then we would ru n a smaller, 12-to-14-lap race so bike race. Su nday yo u wo uld run two World Superbike that the rest of these guys would point, sta rti ng w ith the rou nds and tw o more AMA classes. We don't know yet last position of the gri d. If 12 AMA guys made the grid, w ho w ill fit on the Su nday card an d w ho wi ll fit in on and you won the second race, then you wou ld point as the Frid ay card. number 13. So there's some pluses and m inuses to bot h sides, and we 're no t goi ng to - at this state - pre judge or What about World Supersport? pu sh one idea versus another. We' re going to take a lot of inpu t, and the AMA will take a lot of input, and we ' ll hile our interview concentra ted on MurA~ Pa rf o f the com pro mise so far wi th Mau rizio Flamiproba bly have a se ries of meetings a t Pikes Peak, an d phy's role as a promoter, he also talked a L-\.ni to mak e th is happen is for him to leave World try to get some more input from eac h of the teams, and bit about his job as president of television Supersport home. We cou ld then easily fit two races in ho pe th at we ca n d evelop a schedule that will work for station Speed vision. there . The most d ifficult pa rt abo ut tha t, though, is that eve ry body. I d on 't thi nk we ' re goi ng to ever come u p Here are a few of the more interesting tidbits: there are so me d iffer en ces bet w een th e AMA regulaw ith a p lan tha t will make everyone hap py ou t of th e tion s and th e Worl d Su perbike regula tions. You'd have • "We feel very confident that we will have the GP bo x. I think we wi ll be ab le to come up with a plan that to prepare tw o bikes, and fo r team ma nagers, th a t' s racing on Speed vision (agai!).in 2000)." after th ey go throu gh one yea r of the plan, they'll go, go ing to be ver y d ifficult a nd very cha lle ngi ng . Th e • " I thin k the moto rcycl ing is helping to drive "Ma n, is th is thing great!" Tha t's pa rt of our cha llenge is rig ht idea is yo u hope to se ll th e AMA and th e tea ms on Speedvision 's subscribers, probabl y more than to be ab le to put tha t plan togeth er. a one-race exceptio n that yo u ru n the Wo rld Su perbi ke any of the other sports which Speed vision is a ru les. I think the key po int is to decid e, do th e Worl d Q Has attendance for Laguna Seca about peaked ? part of, which is boats, planes, and automobiles ." Su perbike ru les give yo u an adva ntage, and I thi nk if • "Fortuna tely, I feel I don ' t really have to go in yo u talk to most team managers, they wou ld te ll yo u N a , it's kind of crazy . Tw o years ago, I tho ug h t there and battle for the motorcycle programming. that it doesn' t. . that. It was between the thi rd and four th vear, and I just need to go in there and make a reasonab le a tte n dance was kind of flat - a bo u t a tw o-percen t pitch." Last year, a lot of those tea ms di dn't participate in increase. I thought, We finally hit the top, and now I'm • "We' ve go t a lo t of very so lid comments about Wo rld Superb ike an yway: goi ng to be in tro u ble'. Because if yo u hit the top, and adding Dave Despain to the staff. He adds a lo t of Well, let' s ge t on to the second so lu tio n, because Laguna Sera's fees conti nue to go u p, and Flamini's fees credibility, and a lot of jus t flat experience in ne t... th at' s a good po int. The dow nsid e of tha t so lu tion continue to go u p, prett y soon the thing's u psi de d ow n work television." is th at there's still no t an incenti ve for th e AMA teams and you're not goi ng to be a ble to have the event a ny• "A lot of peopl e have a tendency to thro w so me to run on Su nday, other than almost the macho th ing of more. We ll then surp ris ingly, this year, be tween th e stones at the AMA about their racing program. I let ' s see how we can d o against th e World Su perbi ke fou rth and fift h year, we had a 22-percen t ju m p up . would tell you from ou r perspective, th ey' ve done guys. Som ething th at th e manufacturers wi ll have to When you're into yo ur fifth year, yo u're looking for sina g reat job of pu tting a show on the track that's look at in their opinion that th ey give back to us and to gle-digit jumps. That big a ju mp in the last year says grea t for television." the AM A, is if th ey ran a points-p aying race within a work, so ou r abili ty to ru n a lot of com me rcia I s po ts o n Fox S po rts Ne t and Speed v isio n obviously is th er e . We own o r ha ve re lationsh ips wi th those netw orks. Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A Q Q O A A IfIICTII Q W A Q A a> a> a> ~ N - N ..c '" E '" c.. en '" 21

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