Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The following press release was issued by AMA Pro Racing in regard to its court appearance, in which it sought an injunction against Clear Channel Entertainment - Motor Sports, with regard to the AMA/FIM controversy surrounding the THQ World Supercross GP, and the role of AMA Pro Racing at the U.S. rounds, also known as the AMA Supercross Series. The release, issued on December 17, reads: .. AMA Pro Racing reached an agreement in its dispute with Clear Channel Motorsports over the 2003 AMA Supercross Series. Among other thll1gs, the settlement agreement. pending arbitration, resolves the dispute regarding specific roles of the various parties. 'AMA Pro Racing successfully preserved the sanctity of the AMA Supercross Series,' said AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth. Provisions of the settlement agreement include Clear Channel Motorsports' acknowledgment that AMA Pro Racing will continue to exclusively officiate the races in the AMA Supercross Series under the authority of the AMA Pro Racing Rule Book. Federal District Court Judge James L. Graham was instrumental in assisting the parties in reaching an agreement. 'We are pleased that the court will retain its jurisdiction over the settlement agreement,' said Hollingsworth. 'Our focus has always been the fans, riders and series sponsors. This agreement is a victory for everyone who follows AMA Supercross.' The 16-round AMA Supercross Series begins January 4 at Edison Field in Anaheim, California and concludes May 3 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, .. In a war of words that seems as though it may have no end, Clear Channel Entertainment - Motor Sports issued the following response, regarding the recent lawsuit and subsequent information released by AMA Pro Racing over the AMA/FIM supercross controversy, on December 19: "Clear Channel Entertainment - Motor Sports and AMA Pro Racing entered into an agreement on December 17, 2002 prior to a scheduled court hearing concerning the THQ World Supercross GP and the AMA Supercross Series. AMA Pro had claimed that it never agreed that the U.S. supercross events produced by Clear Channel would be part of a FIM World Championship Series and in late November filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to enjoin Clear Channel from advertising these events as part of the THQ World Supercross GP. Clear Channel responded by filing with the court last Friday an evidentiary submission proving that AMA Pro's claims were baseless. The evidence included an April 12, 2002 joint press release by AMA Pro and Clear Channel that was reprinted in the June edition of the American Motorcyclist Magazine, the 'official publication' of the AMA, which confirmed that the Clear Channel events would be rounds in both the AMA Supercross Series and the FIM World Supercross Championship Series. Clear Channel also submitted to the court an agreement signed by AMA Pro chairman P.J. Harvey on April 6, 2002, specifically agreeing that the events would be run in order to count as part of the world championship. 'AMA Pro had tried to avoid the clear language of its agreements with Clear Channel concerning the fact that the U.S. events produced by Clear Channel constitute rounds within the THQ World Supercross GP international supercross series,' said Ken Hudgens, vice president of marketing for Clear Channel. 'In fact. AMA Pro also alleged that the agreement signed by its Chairman of the Board of Directors in April of this year was "without authority," However, it soon became obvious that AMA Pro's attempt to retract its agreement on this issue lacked credibility.' Clear Channel Entertainment Motor Sports president Charlie Mancuso had the following to say: 'Since the AMA Supercross Series events produced by Clear Channel are part of the THQ World Supercross GP championship series, the FIM is reqUired to certify the events for that purpose. The FIM race director will be present at the U.S. events for the purpose of deciding whether such events will count toward the FIM Supercross World Championship. There was no dispute between AMA Pro and Clear Channel over which entity would provide the officials for the events, or the rules that would apply, The U.S. races will be officiated by AMA Pro and run under the AMA Pro rules that had already been adopted by the FIM with limited exceptions for fuel, all of which is consistent with the existing agreements between Clear Channel and AMA Pro. We would never have agreed to increase the AMA Pro fees by four times and not expect them to perform the very sanctioning services for which we are paying.' Hudgens also said: 'Additionally, AMA Pro unsuccessfully attempted to prevent us from advertising the world supercross championship as the THQ World Supercross GP. In that regard, we simply agreed that our promotion and advertising pertaining to the U.S. events th.at mention the THQ World Supercross GP will give equally prominent mention to the AMA Supercross Series. We have not violated our agreements with AMA Pro. The filing of this lawsuit did not result in any finding whatsoever against Clear Channel Entertainment - Motor Sports. The lawsuit has been dismissed with prejudice. The manner in which AMA Pro has attempted to "spin" the agreement reached Tuesday is inappropriate and not reflected by the facts. We had planned on follOWing our guideline of not commenting in public on business disputes, and just going about our business of producing top quality supercross events in the United States and throughout the world in conjunction with Dorna relative to the international rounds. However, as a result of continued misstatements of the facts, we are forced to publicly comment in order to accurately state what actually occurred in this matter. We believe the public recognizes that Clear Channel's 29-year investment of time, money and personnel has been a significant contributing factor to the enormous success and growth experienced in the sport of supercross for the benefit of motorcycle enthusiasts, riders, sponsors and others that are involved in the super- cross industry. Moreover, the FIM has been extremely cooperative and flexible with respect to the creation of a world supercross series. We are completely confident that no one has any intentions to "take over" AMA Pro's role in the national series. Why would we allow that? For years we have been, and remain, AMA Pro's best and highest paying customer.' " Police confirmed a report in the La Repubblica newspaper which claimed that Rossi had been threatened and wamed to leave the Honda Repsol team with whom he swept to victory in the 2002 MotoGP World Championship. Repsol is a Spanish fuel company. Police added that they had taken steps to ensure the security of the Italian rider without elaborating on the measures involved. In a possibly related development. Spanish police said on December 12 that they had defused another bomb sent by mail from Milan and received at the Barcelona offices of the Spanish newspaper EI Pais. According to a press release from Blackfoot Racing, the Canadianbased team will not participate in the 2003 AMA Supercross Series. "We are, of course, very disappointed that we will not be taking part in the American Supercross Series next year," Blackfoot Racing co-owner/team manager Jason Mitchell said. "However, we're looking forward to rejoining the series in '04 and are continuing with our plans to open a U.S.-based Blackfoot Racing division. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been working closely with our team, for all their efforts to date and look forward to continuing our relationships. I am sure we are only one of many support teams in the infrastructure of the U.S. Supercross and Motocross Series that finds it somewhat difficult to secure strong corporate sponsorships for their team. We regret any inconvenience we may have caused any persons along the way by the decision not to campaign the '03 championship." The Blackfoot team will campaign the Canadian National CMRC MX Series, the 125cc West and 125cc East MX Championships, and the Montreal Supercross. Jean-Sebastien Roy has signed a two-year contract with the Blackfoot team, though Damon Huffman and Travis Elliot have been officially released. Elliott, however, has since signed with the TRE team. Aprilia's MotoGP team has not backed off on its testing schedule, running yet another session of winter tests right after the two sessions in Jerez de la Frontera. This time the venue was the Comunidad Valenciana in Spain, the week of December 17. The two Aprilia works riders for the MotoGP 2003, Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga, were out on the track, the latter just back in Europe after his wedding in Japan. But the whole work group is in Valencia, with the technicians from Noale, and so is Jan Vitteveen, who mentioned some of the first details about the new features of the 125 and 250cc bikes from the Racing Department in Noale. Heading the MotoGP work group is Ing. Gigi dall'lgna, who commented on the first day of tests in Valencia: "We were helped by good weather conditions - even though we were expecting slightly milder temperatures - and successfully completed today's work schedule. Colin Edwards used the RS Cube 2003 to continue the work on the settings he had started in Jerez, while Noriyuki Haga used the 2002 configuration like last time. The Japanese went for two harmless slides that slowed down the tasks to be carried out by his work group, but we reckon we'll be able to make up for lost time tomorrow. At the end, we'll be able to take stock of the situation after this third round of winter tests." Edwards rode 75 laps, with a best time of 1:34.8. Haga rode 36 laps, with a best time of 1:36.1. BMW Motorrad has announced the appointment of Dr.-Ing. Herbert Diess, 44 as president of BMW Motorrad, effective January 2. The present BMW Motorrad president, Marco Frhr. v. Maltzan, 47, will be moving to the board of directors of BERU AG, Ludwigsburg, and will become chairman of the board there on January 4. Diess studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Munich and was awarded his doctorate in 1987. The enthusiastic motorcyclist entered the world of industry in 1989 at Robert Bosch GmbH and moved to BMW Group in 1996. Various management functions led Dr. Diess to England in 1999 where he headed the management of the Oxford plant in the year 2000. Due to the promoter's bailing out. both the FIM Australian Speedway Grand Prix and the provisional date for New Zealand in 2003 have been withdrawn from the 2003 FIM Speedway Grand Prix Series calendar. This leaves the SGP with nine Grands Prix in 2003, just one less than in 2002. "It's clearly disappointing when someone fails to honor their contract." said John Postlethwaite, chief executive for Benfield Sports International, which holds rights to the SGP. "We are especially disappointed, as this is the second time we have been let down by a promoter in Australia. I believe the only realistic solution is for BSI to open an office in Australia and promote the series down there ourselves. I don't think it's fair to the speedway public for local promoters to enter into agreements that they are unable to honor. We will start a feasibility study immediately into promoting the event ourselves; however, it's too late for us to do this in time for the 2003 dates. I look forward to wei- World Champion Valentino Rossi has come under threat, according to reports in European newspapers published on December 16. According to those reports, a bomb sent to the offices of a Spanish airline also included threats aimed at Rossi, police have confirmed. Italian police defused the bomb which was sent to the headquarters of Iberian Airlines at Milan airport on Saturday, the second such device after one was sent to the company's offices in Rome on Friday. cue I ... R e _ S • JANUARY 8, 2003 1 I....J ,........ ~ J 'J ] 'I I J l

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