Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

season, and they need quite a lo t of moti vation to go to Europe. I understand that. As much as they have a lot of fun in Europe once they're there, it's always a drag to pack your bag one more time an d go for a ID-hour trip. [ would say tha t going to any race in Europe is not like going to Las Vegas. There's a culture shoc k, and for tha t reason, appearance mo ney is justified. HOW are you financially able to put up so m uch money? A-Spo nsors, and the price of tickets, which is about 50 J-\. percen t hig her than at a regular race, ye t we only have 10,000 seats. It's a ca tch-22 ther e. Str eamlining the expe nses, d o ing a good job for the fans. We w ork with the ind ustry. We ha ve a very high level of su ppo rt, as far as spo nsors go. We certain ly hav e th e most- sponsored single off-road race in his tory. We have a vid eo _ arne com pany, THQ, the sa me folks that are sponsoring th e outd oor se ries, sig ned up as title spo nsor. We have a cosmetic com pa ny . We ha ve Gatora de . We hav e a lo t of pe ople who have nev er been involved in any regular motorspo rt, and it's all due to the location and ur work, of cou rse . It' s no accid ent. It's really Vegas and MGM eleva ting th e sport. Q D oes the u ni q ueness of your event all ow yo u to access so me unique re sources ? Exactly. We're trying to take some of th e spo nso ring burd en a way fr om the m ot orcycle ind us try spo ns o rs, as much as w e w elc ome th em as well. We wan t to get some ot her people excited . Q A 5 0m e say th at the small track makes it harder to pass. It's definitely hard to pass on a small track. If you look at the American season, the top five guys a re alw ays the winners. I've been following the entire season, and the winner is always in the top five guys in the firs t comer. Does tha t make our track harder to pass or not ? I don't really know, there. That's definitely a whine I' ve been hearing a lot about the '98 race, and it's funn y because it gets exaggera ted with time (chu ckles) . Q A It seems li ke the top riders fi n d a w ay to pass, es pecially w ith that much money as a motivato r. Yea h, and when yo u look a t the results, the hardworking guys were th er e. Damon H u ffm an ro de extremely smooth . He d idn't wi n a race; he was jus t two times second . That' s what go t him the big check. But all the ot he r guys we re no myst ery . Ryn o (Rya n Hugh es ) is a very hard-w orking, charging guy, an d he go t second place. Jeremy (McGra th) was off a night an d won the ot her ni gh t. So as (fa r as) cre d ibi li ty, those guys are cred ible to me. Jerem y need ed to tune in. He never w ins the openi ng round of a cha mpions hip, if yo u look at it. The next day he kn ew exact ly what to d o, an d kicked butt. Jer em y McGrath wa s th e fast est guy at the U.S. Open. Unfortu na tely, he had a ba d nigh t. Tha t ha p pens to the best of th em . That happens d uring the championship. Q A YOU say the crowd is different. Is it the same people dressed d iff eren tl y, or are there actually different people? Q A view 01 last year's U.S. Open (Indoor Motocro s s) lrom Insi de the MGMGran d. lt' s too new to actually analyze th e people, but at first sight, we kind of felt that it wa s a sophisticated cro w d, in a non-arrogant wa y. More the people who want to be close to the ra cer . We had an extremely high demand for pit passes and credentia ls. It was like th e MTV Awards of su pe rcross. People wanted to be there, to be seen there. We had a lot of stars. It' s very interest ing. People went to a race like they go into a casino. It was the g lamo ro us pla ce to be seen. It wa s reall y different; th at's what w e wanted , and it w orked . That site worked pe rfectly . It was like the Mon te Carlo (Formu la One) GP of motocross. It's jus t what you would expect a t any event at the MGM . A Q Which riders do you have? All th e top riders, I invited . For the selection, it' s the top 20 fro m the AMA Supercross cha mpionship (w ho) are invited . Th ree from the 125cc West, three from th e 125cc Eas t, a nd th e A renacross C ham p io n . Th a t's 27 guys that [ inv ited to the U.s. O pen. Ninety percen t of those guys are goi ng .to be the re . It's an invitation, so w he n yo u in vit e so meone to your we dding, yo u d on ' t call them every five min ut es to ask if th ey're go ing to be the re. We know 90 percent are go ing to be th ere. Stepha ne Ron cad a is having surgery. There a re a typica l co uple of guys between con tracts. (David) VuiIle m in is be tw een co n tracts; he's leaving Yama ha Europe . Mean while, Yama ha Ll.S; that is hiring him , is not ready to have him yet. All the typical things. But I expect all the healt hy riders to be there. It's $300,000, so A Huff'Dadd I f you attend thi s year' s u.s. Open, the rider you'll see sporting a gold numbe ro ne plate will be Damon Huffman, last y ea r' s winner. Huffman wouldn't tell us what kind of b ike that plate wiII adorn (u nco n firm ed rumor says Suzuki), but he did talk to us a bit about his win. Q What was the ke y to winning last year' s race? A Starts. The track was a little har d to pass o n - a little small and tight compared to a lot of the ot her races we race. I got good starts every single time. It seems like I always have reall y good sta rts or rea lly bad sta rts, Damon Huffman cel ebrates last yea r's U.S. Open win. bu t I reall y got them w he n it cou nted ther e. I was coming off of my broken leg , and a lot Q How did the win effect your career? of tim es I think th e sta rts helped out a lot. A I think it helped . I go t a lot of p ress ou t of it. I wou ld Q H o w was th e ra ce different fr o m a normal race, say it's th e biggest race win I've ever had - definit ely the fro m a racer's pers pective? biggest pu rse mon ey I've ever won. A It was a lot like a Eu ropean race, with it s sligh tly Q Ca n yo u win again? smaller track. The sta rt w as a littl e differ en t. Aft er th e A No doubt. I totally know wha t I d id last year, and I'm gate it had like a five- foot d rop, which was kind of goi ng to be practicing the same way that 1 d id last year, unique ... I liked it. I th ough t it w as good. Also, (the and work on those starts. Ironi callv, that was one of the even t) kind of ran like a sho w, like an extravagan za . easiest races I've ever won. .. a w eek end in Vegas where yo u ca n ea rn 5100,000 from $300,000 - would yo u stay hom e? Q A Will there be Eu ro pean rid ers ? . Yes, Edgar Torronteras will be coming. He's the only European because we didn't hav e anyone w ho was really interested, and we don't want to drag people.. This is a race w here we want the racers to be happy, and we 're treating them well. We want them to succeed. It's not like, Please come to the Ll.S Open. That' s not the concept. , Q DOyo u think th e pu rse is big enough? A I th ink we're right on the mon ey. I thi nk w hat they can earn is what they're enti tled to earn. Q Wha t is the event's format? We have a regular format. We have two hea ts, tw o semis, a las t-chance qualifier and a final. It' s not exactly the same numbers, becau se the AMA always uses a 20- man ga te . We're usin g a 14-m an ga te... It's basicall y an AMA forma t, just adapted to the smalle r track and at ten da nce. A Q H OW many total riders do you begin with? A Tw en ty-eig ht, and we get down to a 14-man fina l. Q A What fu tu re do es th is event ha ve ? We want to create a one-off event. One of the big p roblems we had last year was a lot of people thought we were out to create another series. A lot of stupid things we re said. We receive phone calls, "Oh. w hen is your series?" No. We are doing something that is a unique race, and it can only be special as a unique en tity. It just has no bu siness being part of another series. My next intention is to be creating another event, totally outside of that style of event. Th e philosophy sounds similar to that of Franco Acer bis and his various rallies. First he does the Incas Rally for a few years, then he stops it and dries the Nevada Rally for a few years. Exactly. Fra nco a nd I, we talk, a nd it 's the same ph iloso phy . It's not lik e we w~ nt to crea te so mething and milk it for 20 years. We wa n t to create so mething exci ting . If it's no t exci ting to us and the fa n, I d on't want to do it. Q A At $40 to $100, yo ur ticket p ri ces are rather hi gh. Does th is exclude so me loyal mo torcycle fans? A- I was very worried of tha t, and to my mistake; the J-\.hig hest-p riced tickets so ld the quickest last year, and are doing so again this year. It seems like some how so me fans are read y to pay more to be 10 feet from the rid er s, instead of being 500 feet fro m the riders. You can really see w hen th e g uy's smiling or not. Basically, eve ry body's on the field at the MGM - es pecially the $100 ticket. They can feel the wind when the bikes are ju m p in g in fro nt of them . It 's to th e poi nt of being almost sca ry, how close yo u are. eN Q . Q) Q) Q) cD .2: o ti o 43

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