Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The AMA Pro Racing/Clear Channel Divorce W&JIJfJD&JfJD&J flil@f1@[l flil@@r?&JllfJD [X]{fj@DfiD® Bob Starr Corporate Communications Manager Larry Brooks Team Manager Yamaha is the only Japanese motorcycle manufacturer without a member on the AMA Board of Trustees, a result of a lawsuit filed by the AMA when the manufacturers collectively pulled out of the Trans·AMA Series in the mid·'80s. Some feel that this fact would allow Yamaha more flexibility if it became necessary to choose a series to contest. We spOke by telephone with corporate Yamaha's communications manager Bob Starr on Thursday, November 8. Yamaha public relations manager Brad Bannister was also on the conference call. Despite Ricky Carmichael's success this year, the single rider whose name is most synonymous with the sport of supercross is still Jeremy McGrath. Though he is nearer to the end of his career than he is to its beginning, McGrath is definitely planning to race in 2003, when the AMA's contract with JamSports is scheduled to go into affect. Because he owns the team for which he races, McGrath's situation is somewhat unique, as he has more control over where he races than does the typical factory rider. It is not unconceivable, for example, that Clear Channel could offer McGrath money to contest its non-AMA- What is your initial reaction to the news? The first concem is for the fans. Do the fans know or necessarily care who the promot· ers are. as long as the show is the kind of show that they're either accustomed to, or the kind of show that they want to see for supercross racing? Will the fans get the same kind of show, or maybe will it be better? I don't know. That's our concem, as a marketer of motorsports products. Because the fan base has grown so much in the last few years, that's something that can't be ignored. That credit's got to go someplace. That promoter that's been doing it - although there's been shifts in staffing at that company - the promoters over the past few years have done a pretty good job to get supercross pretty good recognition, both on-site and on television. That's our concern: Will the fans lose out? Are you surprised by the announcement? [Hesitates] Not if it's going to get better exposure. If it's going to get better - sure. I haven't read this release, but if the AMA's objective to get better exposure, to get more fan base at the events, to get more and better television coverage - if they are, that's great. Are you familiar with JamSports? The truth is, I hadn't heard of them before yesterday ...On this bio that we got, it says that JamSports is a division of Jam Productions. Skimming through it, their resume lists rock concerts...This Michael Held guy has experience with Bell Helmets and Simpson, and then he worked with Newman-Haas Racing and Bobby Rahal and Penske. That's on his resume. but that can't be taken to mean, "I have produced motorsports events." How will Yamaha make its decision as to which series it follows? I don't think we know enough yet to give you an answer. Seriously, our main concem is for the fans. Our product-line growth and our sales growth over the past few years have been dramatic· for everything, but specifically for off-road, play bike and motocross-line products. Yes, we've had new TIR, great new two-stroke YZs, great new four-stroke YZs. However, the exposure that the sport has gotten both on-site and on television, and in publications such as yours, I feel, has really helped. So that's our first concern: Is that going to be at least as good or better in this new environment? If it's not as good, we have a concern. Yamaha is unique among the manufacturers in that you don't have a member on tbe AMA Board of Trustees. Will that fact playa role in this issue? Right now, I'm going to say probably not. Again, it's strictly based on the fan issue. Other manufacturers have said they probably wouldn't field two separate factory teams for two different supercross series. Yeah, there's no way. It's a multi·, multi-million dollar deal for us to go racing, and there's a finite number of riders. There's no time. There's no time, and no budget, no manpower, and no riders to do that. sanctioned series. We spoke by telephone with McGrath Racing's team manager, Larry Brooks, on Friday, November 9. What was your reaction to the news? Not really surprised. I mean, it's kind of been coming. I think Clear Channel didn't want it to happen, but I think in negotiations, it just kind of fell apart. They have not been seeing eye-to-eye for a while - I think right after their contract was signed for seven years. I thought they would work it out, but I wasn't really surprised that they didn't. Were you surprised by the timing of the announcement? No. They had to announce it at some time. The farther in advance that they could announce it, it would help them a little bit - in getting their series together for whatever they're doing in 2003. I don't know why they would do it so early because it could have a little bad blood through the 2002 season. If something was underlying the whole 2002 series, I think that nobody would have been comfortable. This way, it's all out in the open, and at least they can talk about it in some capacity. It seems there's a decent chance 2003 might be the final year of Jeremy's career. Do you know which series he would go with? I wouldn't necessarily say that's even going to be his last year of racing. It could go longer than that. He's feeling that he can go a lot longer now, since he's kind of changed some things in his training and different things like that in his lifestyle. I guess a lot's going to [depend] on what Yamaha wants to do, what they're thinking, because they're a big influence on what we do. But we do have the freedom to go to a different series. I guess we have to sit back and look at the package that they're going to have from television to the stadiums, different things like that. How is the series going to be run? Because I guess we could be called a free agent in that we could go wherever we wanted to go. I guess that puts McGrath Racing and Jeremy McGrath in a really gO

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