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/128114
By t' s a fu nny th ing about perception and reality : Oft en it is too easy to distort the m to the poi nt th a t pe opl e will believe that perception is rea lity. That some people allow this to cloud t heir judgm ent wi th regard to t he sport of dirt tra ck racing and its position with in t he rea lm of m otorc ycl e racing never ceases to amaze me . Ma ybe it shouldn't. Recently , I was hit with a doubledose of tha t reality, which , from my perc ept ion , left m e wo ndering if some of th e players in d irt tra ck racing today have a ny sen se of real ity left. Wh il e c o v e ri n g a re c ent Grand National fo r Cy cl e News, I had just finished interviewing o ne of the mo re vete ra n riders, who ha d placed well in the m ai n event. He to ld me his versi on of th e ra c e , a n d I g o t wha t I ne eded. He then asked m e if I wo uld m ind m e ntion ing a certain h ighlight that h a d ta ken plac e in his c areer in the sto ry . My repl y wa s, "No p roble m ." Suc h a milestone wo uld make for good copy. He then pitched m e on run ning a ph oto of one of his unique fla t trackers in an upcoming "Bikes of th e Sta rs " fea ture. On c e a g ai n , th e repl y was , "No prob le m." Aft e r a ll, th e afore m e nti on ed m a c h ine is not som e thin g th at yo u' re likely to see eve ry d ay , so why not? It wo uld m a ke for a good fea ture pa ge. S o m e five m inute s after I h a d wa lke d a way, the ride r th en m ad e it a po int to track m e do wn a nd utte r the wo rds that st a rted a b iza rre dia log ue tha t provided the m otivat ion for this co lumn. "He y, I just wanted you to k now th a t I re all y do n 't like t he way th a t you guys cove r our stori es," th e rider s a id. Well, okay. But what was the problem? Th e rid er went on to say that we focus too much on the m a in event (!), and h e wants to hear mo re abou t what happens in the heat ra ces and sem is . T his , of co urse , was just the opposite of what everyone else had told me for the past two yea rs - less wo rd s , more p icture s , less heat and semi info, more main , more Briefly... - and o n and on . I was willi ng to c ha lk it up to not being able to please all of the people a ll of the time , but th en so mething e lse happened. In a n a tt e m pt to prove h is point, the rider turn e d to a n approaching team owner fo r s upport, a nd that was when I got socked with my second dose of re ali ty in five m inutes. " Cycle News doesn't give d irt track a ny respect," th e team owner stated. I SCOOTER IVIIJNIIJ SCOTT ROUSSEAU Now I was not on ly in, aw e, I was pissed. I replied by .sayi ng that I was t ired of hearing th at , and asked how this pe rson could justify saying such a thing . "You do n't giv e dirt track racing the same coverage that you g ive road rac ing. When I open up m y Cycle News and look in 'In the Wind,' I just go rig ht down the col umns and see article after article a bout road racin g a nd no dirt track." The re a lity, of course, is that this person 's perception is tota lly warped , bu t let s just go along with it for a sec ond. The team owner's perception is tha t Cycle N ew s doe sn 't give d irt track th e coverage it de serves, neverm ind the fact that Cycle News, un like an y othe r printed publication on the p lanet, is the on ly one that affords th e sport any cons istent fe ature coverage wh atsoever, a nd has b e en do ing s o s inc e th e first issue we nt to press in 1963 . Put another way, it is the fau lt of Cycle News th at d irt t rack is in the pos ition that it has be en for the 'pa st severa l years . Af ter all , som eo n e needs to be bla m e d , right? Ok a y , now for some reality : T he reality is th at a lot has ha ppened in th e s port of motorcycle racing s in ce Cycle News s tarted , too. The m ore p a rticip a nt -frien d ly disci plines of road ra cing a n d m o t o c ro s s h ave g ro wn im mensely, cou rting hundreds of par t ic ip ants and thousan ds of fans at e ac h AMA Na t ion a l. F ur th e rmore, both pla y host to inte rna tio na l series with eve n larger a udiences. Roa d rac ing thrives with Wo rld Cha m pionship eve n ts fo r both th e trad it io nal F I style series and Wo rld Supe rb ike. In motocross , there are AMA Nat iona ls, Gra nd s Prix and AMA and FIM Superc ross ch ampionships , a n d t h e Motoc ross des Nat ions . If any of these events d raws below 20 ,000 fans , it is c o ns idered a p romotion a l failure . Fu rthermor e, no t one of theabove -mention ed dis c iplines has less tha n six full-boat factory teams competing in it, dumpi ng millio ns of dollars in the attempt to win on Sunday and sell on Monday and develop th e technology of its consumer products. In mos t cases , betw een th e main class an d its lower s upport d ivision, the participant base at these events will be over 100 riders . Major tea m and title sponsorship is a p ractical certainty , as th ese divisions reach a t re me ndo us amount of peo p le through television as well . In Cy cl e N ews , the headline class in ea ch Coming up in Cycle News rece ive s betw een three and five · pages, with the support classes - all of which could be pe rceived as bea ring more real -world significance than dirt track - re c e ivin g an additional page to five columns . Wit h all of th ese series thri ving , they have a ttracted more coverage by Cycle News as well as mu ltip le major publi cations around the globe. By contrast , we ha ve dirt track, with its two National series and no World se ries to speak of, boasting a whopping 38 rid e rs on a good day , with many of those riders contesting both classes just so tha t there is some form of support series in pla ce, and a ha ndfu l of shows per ye ar that draw more than 10 ,000 fa ns . The re is one factory team that ra ce s dirt track - no t to te st n ew te chno log ie s or to sell m oto rc ycle s , bu t just beca use it al ways ha s . Wi t ho ut that fac tory pro p ping t he s port u p b y d u mpi ng thou sands into it through a conti n ge ncy p ro gr am tha t m a k e s litt le s e n s e du e to the fac t t ha t on ly its products a re on the track most of the t ime anyway , t he sport woul d be in worse shape th a n it is. Te lev ision ? Well , they 've tried , a nd it has not met wit h the desi red re su lts . The p e rc ep t ion as to why that's t he c ase is t h a t di rt t r a c k always gets stuck in crappy t im e slots. The re a lity , ho we ver , is that modern road racing a nd motocross a re c olorful s pectacles, their riders o n the preca rious edge of contro l a t all times. Ride rs fall , s pectacula rly, a nd un fo rt una te ly they ge t h urt. Mo st hard -core Cycle News rea ders m a y not tune in to see that ha ppen, but, like it or not, that's a big part of why many casual fans do . Ha ving compared the three disciplines , it seems pretty clear to me which one is lagging, and yet there is - and a lways ha s been - Cycle New s. When other publications hav e reduced the g rand old s p o rt of d irt track t o mere blips on the ir sport pages - if bothering to cover it at all Cy cle News has contin ued to recognize its value not so much to the motorcycle ra cing world , but to our readers , who are passionate ab out it. Cycle New s ha s consistently given it more pag es of coverage in one week - b etw een two and five pag es per story - than most other magazines do a ll year. As for "In the Wind" , I say th is : If that team owner can tell me when was the la s t t im e that they b othered to wr ite a press releas e abou t someth ing newsworthy that their team or rider did, then I'll giv e that team $100 . Granted , "In the Wind " isn 't all p ress re le ase s , but a lot of the news items are generate d that way by motocross and road racing t e a m s who make it a poin t to ke e p the media informed as to what is going on with their operatio n. It seems like the top dirt track teams assu me o r even ex pect that we know everyth ing about what is going on in their yard without them even telling us . But, if dirt track we re in tune with the real world, they would tell us. If dirt track were in tune with th e re a l world, then the sanctio n ing bo d ie s wou ld find a nd fe a tu re a fo rm at that is based upon what m oto rc ycles are curre nt ly a v a ilabl e in mo torcy cle de a le rs hips a nd not wo rry a bo ut los ing th e few th ou sa nd fa ns it has left who like to remin isc e a bo ut the good old d a ys . If d irt tr a c k were in tune wit h t he re a l worl d , it wo ul d ma ke its e lf mo re attra ct ive to a g gres siv e young riders , le a ving g uys like m y vetera n frien d to contem plate reti re me n t b e c a u s e h e keep s ge tting smoked b y 17 -yea r-o ld versio ns of himself - with th e poss ible ex c eptio n of S pr inger, tha t is . Of cou rse, then the rea lity cou ld c ha ng e , and that m ig h t m e an th at th e sam e p e ople involve d in dirt t rack raci n g t o d a y wo u ld no t be a ble to do it tomo rrow because the y don 't ha ve the m on ey o r they ca nno t com pete - same goes for Cycle News. It wo uld be kind of like Mos es le a d in g t he Israe lites to the Pr omi s ed La nd ; h e g o t th em the re , b ut he was u n abl e to c ross over into it. No w , a t t h e en d o f th e d a y , exp ressing my ve rsion of rea lity he re prob a bly isn't go ing to win m e a n y fans, especially those who perceive that this is some attem pt to de mean the sport and the people who wo rk hard to be su ccessful at it. But that's okay, beca use I'm no t a rider, nor do I traipse across the country to National dirt track races in search of social acceptance. This is a living for m e, but it doesn 't hurt that I do ha ve a tremendous amount of respect for the s p o rt and the peop le who ar e invo lve d in it, whether th e re a re 10 tea ms involved or 10 0 . It only h urts whe n I a m told that I don 't. T h en aga in, peo ple who belie ve otherwise ho ld opinions that I don 't deem worth listening to anyway . Cy cle New s not respect dirt track? Get rea l. CN • German Road Race G P • Mid Ohio AMA Superbike • Troy AMA National MX • Andora World Trials cue I e n e _ S • J ULY 25 , 2001 91