Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2001 05 30

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/128106

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L By Final lVIolo CHRIS .JONNUM ~ • •III~ 30 YEARS AGO.•• JUNE B, 1971 The co ve r of Issue #2 1 fea ture d a n unkn own rider at th e 25th Annual Greenhorn Enduro, Bill Clements, leaping his way to victory in CMC Utah MX a c tion , a nd a nak ed frontal view of a sidecar which competed at the AFM National Road Race in Northern California... The Pasadena MC staged the 25 th Annual Greenhorn Enduro in Duarte, California, and only 380 riders showed up for the 500 -mile event. It see ms tha t th e Pa sad ena MC req uired street-legal motorcycles to commemorate the silver anniversary of the event, and a lot of riders weren 't too keen on that idea... Bill Clement s went undefeated during CMC MX action in Zion National Park, Utah. Bryar Holc omb fin ish ed se co nd to Cleme nts e a c h tim e out... Th e AFM National Road Race in Vacaville. California, took pla ce on a hot day. Although rider tumout was low and spectator attendance was lower, the racing was reportedly first-rate. The team of Hummer/ Gilbransen (H-D) d ominated th e s idecar e ve nt. despite racing against many 750cc, fourcyl inder Honda s ... J unior -rank ed Ken Roberts beat a lot of nat-track Nationalnumber holders on the way to his second straight Sacramento Short Track win. 51JI11'!f//,0... S cott Pea rso n slid a c ro ss th e c ove r of Issue #21 , and inside we interviewed the 23year -old di rt -t ra c k hopeful about his plans for th e 1981 s eason. Pearson won his first AMA National at the Peoria IT in 1980 but was often seen showing his rear fender to his competitors at the beg inning of the races, due to his knack for ge tting great starts. He also tied for eighth In points in 1980 with Scott Parker and Steve Eklund... It was announced that the Hesketh VI 000 would go on sa le in Britain on August I , 198 1. Hesketh would be the first new British motorcycle brand in more than 12 years, and the asking price for the V1000 was 4495 pounds Ste rling, or more than $8000 ... Team Suzuki's Kent Howerton continued his streak at round six of the 250cc National Motocross Series. Howerton won both motos, and out of the 12 motos run had only lost one - he got se cond in that one. Round two of th e 500cc Nationa l Motocross Series took place on the same day, and Broc Glover kept his perfec t record intact with a I -I tally for four moto wins in a row. 10 YEARS AGO•.• JUNE 5, 1991 Du c a ti -m o u n t e d Raym ond Roche grac ed the cov e r of Issue #21 as we took a loo k at the men and ma chin e s of the Nat iona l and World Su p erb ike Champ ionships as both series he ad ed into their second ro unds. The photo on the cover is of Roche during the 1990 World Superbike Championship, as he won the title and ran number one in 1991... Kevin Schwantz (Suz) came out on top of a tight race with fellow American Wayne Rainey (Yam) for the 500cc GP win in Hockenheim, Germany. Michael Doohan (Hon) finished third while Eddie Laws on (Cag) made it four brands in the top four by finishing behind Doohan ... Ricky Graham moved into seventh on the all-time win list w ith hi s supe r- narrow win over Scott Parker at the Springfield Mile... Jeff St ant on (Hon) used 2- ' finishe s to top Da mon Brad s haw's (Yam) 1-2 placings and win round three of the 250cc National Motocross Championship in Mount Morris, Penn s ylva nia. Bria n S wink ma de it a Honda sweep by winning both motos and ex te nded his lead to 13 ov er Mike Kiedrowski in the championship. Jeremy McGrat h (Hon) placed seco nd in the first 125cc moto, only to crash himself unconscious in the second moto and break his right fibula. t ' s eas y to g et ca u g h t up in the minut iae of ra cing - wh o won the last race, wh o led th e last lap , etc . but it also pays to periodically ta ke a ste p ba ck and get a b ig-pi cture perspective of th e spo rt. For exa m ple , if you attended a tou r-stop of th e 200 1 AMA EA Sports Super c ros s S e rie s or even if you ca ught a round on TV t h e n y ou k now tha t the s por t o f su percross ha s nev e r be en stron ger. Th e s t a n ds a re c on s is t ent ly ja m packed ; t h e ra c in g is exc it ing; the purse s ar e respecta ble; ther e 's d ec ent covera ge on t e le v is io n a nd in the m a in st re a m pre ss ; corpora te an d industry s ponsors hip a re strong . By all outward a p pearances, s upercross seems to be over the hump a nd ga ining momentum - re ady to ta ke over the wo rld. Unfortunatel y , all is not as we ll in s up er cross-l and a s a c ursory perusal seems to suggest. Behind the scenes, a c on flict is build in g b e tw e en t he m ajor pa rties invo lved . At the end of the 2002 season, th e co nt ract bet ween SFX Motor Sports (the series promote r) and th e Ame rican Mo to rc ycl ist Association (its s a nctioning bod y) will ex pire, and it is not at a ll certa in that it will be renewed in a sea mless, civil manner - o r even at a ll. Although no o ne will com ment on the record , people in both ca m p s d id so 'a t length with Cycle News off the re co rd, and th e re ha ve been e nough pu b lic h ints ( no t th e lea st o f wh ich was the "Co mmunication Bre akdown" s oun dtra ck to th e presentation of the AMA Appreciation Award at th e SFX series -end ba nq ue t in Las Vegas ) to make it clear to an yone who c a re s e nough to pa y attention that someth ing is am iss in th e s tate of supercross. Th e m o od between SFX and th e AMA is ugly , and it's been slowly fes t ering benea th the spo rt's g lossy ex terior. If all th is sounds fam ilia r, it' s pro babl y because a ve ry s im ilar situation o c c ur re d b ac k in Aug u s t o f 1994 , when th e th en -pro m oting gr o up (compris ing the si nc e- folded Micke y Thomps on Enterta inm en t Group, and t he n o w-m erg ed a n d bou ght -out PACE/Su pe rs ports a n d SR O Moto rsport orga n izations ) spli t off from the AMA t o fo rm its own s a nct io ning bo d y , called American/I nternational Ra cin g (AIR). The AMA countered by forming Paradama , a for -profit, Ca ry Agajan ian - and Tom Mue ller-hea ded branch that involved the organiza tion in pr om ot io n al a c ti vity , a nd t hat is now mor e commonly known as AMA Pro Racing . The rift was soon repa ired and th e c urre nt arra ng em ent ag re ed upon , bu t with its expirati on looming at th e e n d ' o f n e xt sea so n , th e war drums are once ag ain audible . I Ex actly wh at is the hang-up? What conflic t could possibly justify e nda n geri ng t h e s ing le di s c ipline that is e njoy ing th e m o s t s ucces s - th e crown -jew e l of Am eri can motorcy cle sport? Th e a nswer to th a t d epends upon who you ta lk to (a nd in an effort to ga in th e most a ccurate perspective poss ib le, we 'v e t alke d a t length to p lenty - incl ud ing ind ivid ua ls o n the ins id e of b oth e nti tie s ) , but if yo u b el ie ve tha t o ld adage a bo ut histo ry re pe a ting its e lf, the d is a gre eme nt is like ly over sim ilar issues to the 19 94 d ust -up. Ba c k th e n , the p ro moters a ccused th e AMA of wanting more of the re venue from titl e spon sorsh ip and television righ ts, though th e AMA clai med tha t th e de al -b re a ker was th e promoters' re quest for final approval of t h e ra c e s ch edul e , for mat and ru les . Either wa y, wha t it a m ounts to is a po we r-s t rugg le , t he m o st pre dicta ble disagreemen t in the books whe n it c om e s to as p rom is in g a n e ndeavor as professio nal superc ross. Not surp ris ingly , there a re m ore simila rities tha n diffe re nces betwe en th e old disagreem e nt a nd the new one . So who de s er ve s th e power? Th o se in the p ro -SFX ca m p p oi nt to the a dv an ceme nt o f sup erc ros s unde r their watc h , a fa ct th at is d ifficu lt to arg ue . T he co m p a ny has inv e ste d huge a mount s into the sport - much m or e th an th e y we re req u ired to by th e c ontract. For ex a m p le, th e over$400 ,000 po ints fund is fo u r times that s tipulated in the contra c t , and SFX also m a kes gesture s like throw ing a lav ish year -end b a nq u e t and provid ing the s e ries cham p with a be autiful ring (this year, SFX , recog niz ing th e co nt rib uti o n s ma de over th e years by J e remy McGrat h , even se nt him a n d his fam ily on an all expenses -pa id vacation a nywhere in the world) . S FX has also p roved th a t it can work without th e AMA, us ing its ow n F o rm u la USA s a nc ti o ni n g b od y t o prom ote races like th e THQ U .S . O pen a nd those in th e Nationa l Are na c ros s Seri es. And although they're sma ller in sta t ure th an th e AMA EA S p ort s Su p e rcr o s s S er ie s , SFX doesn't run those ra c es on shoestring budgets. The medical insuranc e pol id e s p rovid ed by FUSA to t he Are nacross riders a re for over twice the amount of those prov ided b y the AMA to the Supercross ride rs , and the U.S . Open has a la rg er purse than a ny other motorcycle race . Perhaps just as com pe lling a n a rg ument in SFX's favor c a n be m a de by po inting to s u percros s races tha t a re run w ith ou t th eir in vo lvem ent. Las t year 's Lo s Ang e le s Su mm er c ro ss a nd Pa sa dena , Californ ia , ro und of th e Wo rld Supe rcross Series were reso und ing fail u res - de s p ite b ette r star power tha n the more-successful U.S . Op en . You can a lso c ite the sh eer size of S FX, a company whose owne r is bigg er than God . O ne of the la rg e s t co m p a n ies in the c o u nt ry , Clear Ch annel owns 1200 rad io statio ns , 100 televis ion sta tions and ha lf a m illi on b ill b o ards - now th at 's hor s epow er. Of co ur se mig ht doesn 't make right, a nd as a gen e ral rule , promoters s houldn 't be trus te d further than th e y c an be throw n. SFX ha s invested so much in s upe rc ross not be c ause the y feel ph ilanth rop ic , bu t beca use th ey know it m akes g ood bus iness sense. Promoters are supposed to be g re e d y , a n d a n y inves t ment SFX m ak e s is wi t h a n eye tow ar d s the s ubseque nt pa yoff. But th e y a re mak ing th e inve stmen t. Th ose on the pro -AMA side a rgue that th e organization has a vital role to p la y in th e s por t 's d ev el opm ent, assuring its lon ge vity by putting forth the best image poss ible . Th is is about the ex te nt of any contention I've man a ged to extract from that c a m p (a pa rt from the altruistic aspect tha t bec ame d efun ct th e mo me nt for -p ro fit Pa rad a m a was for m e d) , but th at doesn't make it any less com pelli ng . I'm a strong be lie ver in checks and balanc es , a nd I'm convinc ed that the balanc e of power is largely responsible for the curre nt hea lth of s upercross. S o wha t will hap pe n if no a g reem ent is m ad e ? Both o rg a n iza t io n s c lai m that th e y will b e putting o n a super cross seri es in 2003 , so the potential ex ists for outright com pet it ion be tween SFX and t he AMA. If t h a t were to h appen , t he fo rme r series would have the benefit of t he good sta dium s (than ks to lo ng -term date contracts and protectio ns) , wh ile the latter might likely get the to p rid ers (since most of the manufacturers sit o n the AMA Board of Truste es ). In other words , we wou ld be fac ed with t wo mediocre ra c in g series (for an a pprox imation of what to expect, see wh at h a s deve lo ped in road ra c ing an d d irt track). Not o n ly th at, but ma ins tr e am press and corpo ra tio ns th at a re c urre nt ly invol ved or a re cons idering be com ing involv ed in supercro ss m ig ht be fr ig h tened a way b y the controversy . S up e rcr oss woul d be set ba c k by a de c ade or more, a nd some of the damage wo u ld b e irre pa ra ble . That's why the question ev eryone s ho uld be asking is not how to fix th e sport of s u pe rc ros s , b ut how to not b re a k it . If the AMA, SFX, an d the manufacturers c a n kee p th e ir cu rrent t hre e- le gged stool inta c t, th e s port w ill reta in it s ba lance a nd rema in he althy . If th e y ca n' t , the sport will suffer. Sta y tuned... eN • Mt. Morris National MX • Donington Park World Superbike • AMA Springfield IT and Mile • West Virginia GNCC Coming up in. " Cycle News . c ue . e n e _ s • MAV30,2001 111

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