Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The Competition Park MXdN Disaster • American who organizes the fuel for the MX GP Series), Dorna got in touch with McCassy and Facciuto. Dorna reportedly came down from its $650,000 asking price for the Compo Park duo, supposedly to about $125,000 plus "back-half" money (fees paid after the event), and McCassy and Facciuto signed on the dotted line. Dorna granted them the Motocross des Nations without ever seeing a track (as it did not yet exist), and for a much-reduced initial price tag compared to that which was offered to Jobe - or any other promoter, for that matter. REALITY CHECK The ris.e andlaU Otthe Competition.pQ*MXdN~ .STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE Cox verybody, it seems, has felt some hesitancy about this year's running of the Motocross des Nations (or Motocross of Nations, as we're supposed to be calling it now). Some doubts started when an unproven track (Competition Park, in San Jacinto, California) was chosen as the venue. Even more surfaced when it was announced that the race wouldn't be at the Competition Park that Southern Californians have come to know, but at a new facility a few miles away. Many felt upon first sight that the new venue wouldn't suffice ("It's too flat," "It's too small," etc.), and still more thought that there was no way that the facility could be prepared in time. Hardly a day has gone by that our office hasn't received calls from some readers wondering whether or not the event would really go off. As it turns out, it was none of these single reservations that killed the event, but rather a sort of combination of them all - and then some. Let's start from the beginning. E OUT OF THE GATE Inspired by attending the sold,out Anaheim Supercross one year, Jim Facciuto and Malcolm McCassy, two Southern Californians who had come to know one another through their 32 OCTOBER 2, 2002' cue • children's sports teams, decided to open a family-oriented motocross facility. The duo located the old, closed Rainbow Motocross Park in San Jacinto, California, renamed it Competition Park, and reopened it. They built a rather successful local track, but their success began to outgrow their facility, which, according to Facciuto, is when they went looking for new grounds - before the Motocross des Nations was ever even considered. They found the land on the Soboba Indian Reservation, and that's when things began to go awry. They signed a "management agreement" with a few members of the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians (those members were Ernie Salgado Jr. and Sr., as well as two of Ernie Jr.'s sisters). The agreement would eventually see McCassy and Facciuto develop and maintain the Salgados' property for use as a motocross park, and in return the Salgados would get paid. And then Dorna came a-knockin'. Dorna, the Spanish promotion company that produces the FIM's World MotoGP, World Motocross and World Supercross Series, was looking for a new venue for the Motocross des Nations, since it reportedly raised the sanctioning fee so much that Georges Jobe opted to give up his chance at running the race in Belgium. Through mutual acquaintance Jim Berry (an n • _ s e Meanwhile, McCassy and Facciuto were due to renew their licenses with the city of San Jacinto to operate their original track, but they let those lapse in June of 2002, since they figured their new track would be open soon enough. So, one would figure that if they just made the new Competition Park into a "world-class venue" in time, MXdN history could be made. But a number of events would conspire against the gung-ho promoters. First, on September 3, after opening their new park for practice to the public, a rider was killed. That is a horrible thing to have happen to anyone anywhere, but the person who died at the track on the Soboba Indian Reservation was a key member of the Soboba Indian Band. Four days later, on September 7, during a previously scheduled meeting of the Indians, they voted to close down the facility. The death and the vote may not have had anything to do with one another, but it definitely couldn't have helped. Following the meeting, Robert Salgado Sr., reportedly the acting chief of the tribe (and Ernie Salgado Sr.'s brother), announced through a local newspaper that the track needed to be shut down immediately. Finally, on September 19, Robert Salgado Sr. reportedly delivered a notice that all activity at the potential venue needed to be stopped within 24 hours, and on September 20, when the workers arrived at about 6:30 a.m. (conspicuously enough, Facciuto, McCassy, and the rest of the operation heads weren't there), the gates were locked, and a notice was posted proclaiming that anyone working inside the facility would be arrested. To make matters worse, at least one worker (a former motocrosser by the name of John Turner) says he hadn't been paid for his work in quite some time and that he was owed a lot of money. We don't know how many other workers were out there gratis, but Turner insists he was - and not willingly. The only reason Turner gave for continually showing up was that he wanted to see the event go off - and, of course, he was repeatedly promised that he would be taken care of. When asked about the payment situation the day before the facility was shut down, Facciuto replied, "How many workers do you see out here today? If we weren't paying our workers, I would imagine that we wouldn't have any out here. I wouldn't imagine we'd be three days ahead of schedule. I wouldn't imagine we'd be able to pull this race off. Our management agreement with Ernie Salgado [Jr. and Sr. J has been prepaid." Prepaid, according to Facciuto, for "about a year." Reports were also received, true or not, that the promoters had agreed to pay about $50,000 to one of the law-enforcement agencies for race-day security and/or traffic support, and that this bill was also never paid. It is unclear when the payment was due, but only one week remained before the festivities were set to begin. SHUT·OOWN Even after Competition Park was shut down on September 20, the promoters insisted that things would get sorted out after they met with the Native Americans. Actually, throughout the whole ordeal, the promoters seemed to push ahead as though there were no insurmountable problems. Ask anyone involved (except, of course, any workers who claim to not have been getting paychecks) about any of the negative rumors, and the answer was generally of a things-just-couldn't-be-better attitude. The bottom line is, the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians shut Competition Park down, and with it, the Motocross des Nations. The tribe took on Dorna, the FIM, McCassy, Facciuto, and whatever lawyers the two could scare up, and they won. This is how the Native Americans did it: The Soboba Indian Reservation is on federal land. California State laws don't apply on reservation land. The reservation land is distributed by the Indian council and assigned to various tribe members. The Ernies Salgado were assigned the land on which Competition Park would ultimately be built. When McCassy and Facciuto signed the "management agreement" with them, it seemed like a done deal because tribe members are allowed to run a business on the property, to build a house on it - pretty much whatever they want. The only thing is, because it's

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