Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS AGO••• FEBRUARY 8, 1972 The Houston National IT gets under way on the cover of Issue 114, with a slew of rookies who helped keep the veterans out of the main in the lead, including Frenchie leBlanc, Darryl Hurst, Bill Schaeffer, Mike Kidd and !1.,®7;;J,">_ Kenny Roberts. Also -----~ on the cover, John Hateley rode his Triumph to the IT victory. Roberts won the following night's Houston Short Track and took over the series points lead... Gunnar Lindstrom (Hus) won the second round of the Florida Winter-AMA MX Series in the 250cc class. The Open class was won by Tore Jonsson (Mai) ... Ron Bass used consistency to win the Open Expert class, ahead of Brad Lackey, who crashed in the first of three motos and then won the other two, while Bass' 4-2-2 finishes gave him the overall... We rode the Suzuki TM-400J Cyclone motocross machine, and we were ecstatic. Reportedly, the machine was a factory racer, minus the magnesium, for a competitive price. r 20 YEARS AGO••• FEBRUARY 10, 1982 Honda's Donnie Hansen raced in a blur across the cover of Issue 114 after winning the sold-out Anaheim Supercross season opener. Jeff Ward (Kaw) led early on but finished second Kawasaki's best Supercross finish to that date since Gaylon Mosier won Anheim's season ender in 1979. Johnny O'Mara (Hon), Darrell Schultz (Hon) and Bob Hannah (Yam) rounded out the top five ... David Bailey (Hon) and Chuck Sun (Hon) swept the 250cc and 500cc Pro classes, respectively, at round three of the Florida Winter-AMA MX Series ... The AMA Amateur Supercross Championship Series' first round at Anaheim hosted more than 350 riders in 31 classes, and winners included Mercedes Gonzales (Women's Expert), Steve Piattoni (Open Intermediate), Greg Zitterkopf (Open Expert). Kyle Lewis (65cc 7-11, 85cc Intermediate) and Tyson Vohland (85cc Expert) ... Hondas swept the Pro classes at round five of the CMC Golden State MX Series, with Phil Larson winning the 500cc class, Jim Gibson the 250cc class and Johnny O'Mara the 125cc class. 10 YEARS AGO••• FEBRUARY 5, 1992 For the second week in a row, Team Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw flew across the cover of Issue 114, and deservedly so. Bradshaw stomped the competition in the 250cc main in front of 63,000 spectators at Anaheim Stadium. Honda teammates Jean-Michel Bayle and Jeff Stanton rounded out the to'p three. Peak/Pro Circuit Honda's Jeremy McGrath topped the 125cc main, ahead of team· mate Buddy Antunez and Phil Lawrence (Suz) ... Timmy Ferry (Kaw) won the 125cc and 250cc Pro classes, as well as the 250cc A class, at round four of the Florida Winter AMA MX Series. Bubba Stewart (Yam) won the Pee Wee class, while Matt Walker (Kaw) dominated the 65 and 85cc (7-11) classes, Ricky Carmichael (Kaw) swept the 85cc (12-13) class, and Kevin Windham (Kaw) topped the 85cc (14-15) class. PAUL CARRUTHERS T£ ••• "CYcle News has dropped the ball in covering the Clear Channel/ AMA split. Relying on press releases which, as anyone knows, mostly serve the interests of those who write them and refusing to ask tough follow-up questions in interviews, is a dereliction of duty. Why should the Orange County Register have information that Cycle News doesn't? To me, Cycle News is showing a lack of backbone. Give your readers the information they need to make informed decisions; give us the story behind the press releases and the spin." Reader Randy Olson is right. I believe we have dropped the ball on the current situation involving supercross, and more specifically the 2003 supercross season - a season that will be here sooner than we think, in spite of the fact that we"re currently enjoying perhaps the best season of supercross to date. To Randy, and everyone else who feels we've let them down, I apologize. I also take full responsibility. As the editor of this publication, I should have taken a stance on this issue by now - but I haven't. I haven't taken that stance because I don't really feel any emotion on the subject other than anger. I'm pissed. Pissed that things may never be the same with the most successful form of racing that we cover here at Cycle News. And I'm truly on the fence, siding with neither party on an issue in which I think that both the AMA and Clear Channel are in the wrong. Put it this way: I have yet to figure out the lesser of the two evils. When I listen to the AMA's side, they sound correct. Ditto for when I listen to ;omeone from Clear Channel. I wasn't in the meetings and I'm not privy to everything that went on prior to the negotiations that broke down between the two. I'm not going to say that I don't believe either of the two parties, but I will say that they spin things the way they need them to be spun. It's called doing business. Don't get me wrong - I'm not an enemy to either side. I believe that Clear Channel (more aptly the people in charge of the motor-sports portion of Clear Channel, many of whom are the same people who have been involved in supercross for a long time - no matter the name of the company writing the checks) has done a wonderful job in taking supercross to the next level. It's currently at a stage that it has never reached before. I know this because my neighbors know what supercross is; my kids beg me to take them to as many supercross events that I can; and my non-industry friends know who Jeremy McGrath is. And my phone now rings prior to each and every Anaheim round with people wanting tickets. I give Clear Channel a lot of credit for making this the way it is. I also believe the AMA has had a hand in the sport's success as well. They've sanctioned the races, kept the rules intact, made the playing field as level as they can ... well, they've done what a sanctioning body should do. All I want is for both of these parties to continue to do exactly that - the jobs they are supposed to do. I want Clear Channel to promote. I want the AMA to sanction. I want the two of them to be a check-and-balance system for the other. Promoters promote, sanctioning bodies sanction. Seems pretty simple to me, but apparently not to them, as both seem hellbent on crossing over into the other's territory. Blame it on the almighty dollar. Clear Channel spends a lot of money to promote the supercross series. They also make a lot of money from the supercross series. Don't think for a minute that they are going in the red when they suddenly opt to make the purses bigger. The money is there. Always has been. Now they are spending more of it, and that's a good thing. The AMA doesn't make as much money from supercross as they apparently believe they should. But how much should the sanctioning body make? They should get their sanctioning fees, their license money, etc., but apparently that's no longer enough. They want it all. They want to promote their own races (well, along with their new promotional partner JamSports) and make it all. But is this the way it's supposed to work? I think not. I think the AMA should continue to ensure that the sport is played fairly. They should be there to make certain that whoever is promoting the sport doesn't stain it in the way promoters sometimes can. I don't want a promoter suddenly deciding that Ricky Carmichael should start the race facing the other direction - just because someone upstairs thinks it would make for a better show. I want the sanctioning body to make certain that this sort of thing doesn't happen. Ever. And they should make some money. I want them to make enough to help subsidize the rest of the AMA - the portion that works diligently for the rights of motorcyclists in this country. Basically, I want the AMA to be there to watch over Clear Channel. And I want Clear Channel to be there to. watch over the AMA~ to keep spending' its money, to keep promoting supercross and making it bigger and bigger. It's worked until this point. Why change? And I know the FlM wants it that way as well. Solid sources have told me that the FlM doesn't particularly like the AMA, or actually AMA Pro Racing, being a promoter. They think their racing federations should worry about things such as rules. They think their federations should spend their time getting their young racers groomed to move on to intemational racing careers - that's what most federations do. Interestingly enough, the FIM has now jumped in the sack with Clear Channel - via its new deal with Dorna (the FIM's strongest commercial partner) to promote the World Supercross Championship in 2003. Don't think for a second that they did this unknOWingly. Trust me, it wouldn't have happened eye. e n if the FIM was all cozy and warm with AMA Pro Racing. I believe the FIM connection is really the most interesting aspect of this entire mess, especially now that next year's World Supercross Championship will likely feature most of its rounds right here in the U.S. They'll also have a few rounds elsewhere, likely in Japan, Paris, etc., but the key is the rounds that will be held here. Those races will be FIM World Championship rounds - not just Clear Channel supercross rounds. This works for the good of both Dorna and Clear Channel in two ways: A series (the World Supercross Championship) that really had zero in the way of prestige suddenly gains exactly that; and the proposed 2003 Clear Channel Supercross Series gains instant respectability via its World Championshjp status and FIM affiliation. A double whammy, so to speak. Now, what happens if the FIM demands that the AMA sanction the Clear Channel/Dorna-promoted World Championship? The AMA will, of course, say no. But not many people realize that the FIM has the power to basically strip the AMA of its status as this country's national federation. So saying no may not be an option. The FIM's code also dictates that national federations don't hold national races on the same day as World Championship events in said country. And we already know that both the AMA and Clear Channel have said that next January 4 will mark the opening round of both their respective series. The question is: Can the AMA hold a national round on the same day, and basically in the same city, as the first round of a World Championship? I doubt it. So now what happens? I believe that Clear Channel's sudden involvement with the FIM is an implicit threat - it could make the AMA completely irrelevant in terms of supercross. And perhaps, in the long term, even more than that. As always, the manufacturers hold the key to either series' success. They decide where the riders go, or at least the factory riders, and what they end up doing will likely determine the outcome of this war. Again, Clear Channel's alliance with the FIM through Dorna adds a new dimension to this as well because the door is now slightly ajar for the manufacturers to go Clear Channel's way and have a political reason to do so - hey, it's the FIM, right? Unfortunately, the iii feelings between the AMA and Clear Channel may have reached a point of no return. I hope not. Right now it's a marriage gone bad. It makes you wish that the pair could go to counseling, repair the damage and move on together - for the kids' (in this case, the rest of us) sake. That's what I want to see, and I still believe there's a chance it could happen. I believe that Clear Channel can be magnanimous enough to allow enough of an openjng for the AMA to squeeze through, giving us supercross the way we want it - the way it is today. eN e _ S • JANUARY 30, 2002 67

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