Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

lIN icky Hayden is faster anyway - no way a round that. Singles Th is pert ains to the letter from th e fan who was critica l of th e singles being ru n as the ma in eve nt at Del Ma r. I c oul dn 't agree more. There w as no draftin g at all and very few close fin i sh e s . He m ent ion s th e S aturd a y sh o rt tr ack a n d th e g rea t ba t tl e betw een Meese and Ha yd en but fail s t o m en ti on th e outstanding effort of Glen Schnabel, who was eighth at th e end of the fir st la p and w orked h is way up to th ird. He was th e fastest man on th e tr ack. I th ink the reason for the absenc e of ser iou s parti c ipation by the ve n dors and th e small sho wi n g at the Concourse d'Elegance was a result of promoters' limiting th e involvement of longtim e coordinators Barbara and Andrea Ph illips. Still, it was about motorcycles and racing , so it was an enjoyable weekend. This was my first trip to th e West Coast, and I got to meet my heroes. Headrick, Leonard , Andres, Lawwill , Van Leeuwen , Odom, Mashbum, Mul · der, Romero. I can 't wait for next year. AI ChenaJl/e via the Inh?met w in , t h e d irt y tac tics will j u st get worse! Bad pu blic rela tions is coming yo ur wa y , Yam aha - be p repared . Brown is no one's hero th ese days! Who didn 't Br own take out la st sea so n? Br o wn ' s take- out move on An drew Sh or t i n Vegas was totall y di sgu stin g . T h ere w as enough tra c k ava il able fo r a ha lf a dozen bik es in that pa rt ic ular secti on. Too bad Ryan Hughes didn 't p ut B rown out for goo d last ye ar. I don't mean k ill ing h im , but bas ica l l y putting him o ut of a c a ree r i n m ot ocross. Befor e long. Brown 's hill b ill y tact ic s w ill d e stro y som eon e else 's ca reer. Mike B rown is m ore dang er ou s th an a drunk 10 year old with a stic k of dynamite at a campfire . JIm WIlkey Anaheim, CA Bad Bike? 11 track, supe rbike and motocr oss co uld race a Sup ermot o - at the Speedway! Dawn and Jay Shelton via the Inh?met M oney Talk Th ere's been a lot of ta lk lately on the subject of th e pro purse . in th e p it s and in print. Mot ocro ss Action ran an arti cle on it bac k in June , and I've seen several letters reg ardi ng the pro purse in Cycl e New s' letters t o th e editor. A lot of peopl e th ink the pro p u rse is a rip -off, but no one seem s to w ant t o do anyth ing ab out it , or m ayb e th ey feel helpless . A lso no on e see ms t o be ab le to pro vid e mu ch de tail around " T h e Purse." I would like to see an in-depth analysis don e on the supercross pu rse in particular. Mike Bell sa id he won $4750 for winnin g th e Superbowl of Motocross in 1978. I don't k now how far back th ey paid in 1978 or what the entire If I ha v e t o h ea r one more stupid compla int from Kenny Roberts J r. or John Hopk in s about their crapp y bikes , I am go ing to beat up my cat! Tell them to qu it str iking the ir employer ( re mem b er, the one who they get paid from ) and do th e best they can do with what they have. Besides , N ick y Hayden is faster anyway - no way around that. 11m P11g via the Inh?met Fir st pl a c e wou ld pay clos e t o $20,000 if w e had 1978 attendance I HAVE TO WRITE THIS E -MAIL IN ALL CAPS (CA L L E D " SHOUT ING" ) BECAUSE I HAVE A PAIR OF FOAM EARPLUGS IN MY EARS. WHETHER I AM RIDING A MOTORCYC L E OR NOT, I PLAN TO WE AR THEM A LL WEEK IN YOUR HONOR FOR GETTI NG T H E OTC EARPLUG L A W lev els and the purse just k ept up with inflation! I kn ow th at wh en I raced th e Po nti a c Silv erd om e Sup er cro ss in 1988 , I m ad e abo ut $ 160 fo r ma k in g it in to the 250 LCQ. T od ay a ride r in th e 250cc LCQ is gua ranteed to m ak e $5 00. A 125 SX r i de r in the LCQ i s guaranteed to m ak e $220. ( Do n 't forget the rid ers CHANGED . MANY THANKS T O BOTH OF YOU FOR M AK ING THE NEEDS OF CALIFORNIA MOTORCYCLISTS HEARD. OR NOT, A S TH E CASE MAY BE. MARKTUTTIE Ven tura, CA Wait until you see what a mistake Yamaha of Troy has made by picking up Mike Brown . A s th e years go by and M ik e becomes more desperate to th e promoters and $ 1, 120, 00 0 for the ri ders. Te ll m e th er e ' s not a lawyer o ut there so mewhere who wouldn't want a pi ece of that class act ion law su it! The only way th in gs are go ing to change is for the riders to take action. I've never been a fan of unions, but it's ob v iou s something needs to be don e. T he AMA has had plenty of time to ste p in , and th ey haven't. T he AMA sho uld be ashamed of it self for allowing th e rid ers t o be taken like this . I'm not so sur e th ere isn 't a co n flict o f i n t e re st go i ng o n betw een AMA ( the nonpro fit ) an d AMA Pro Racing (the for -p rofi t corporation ). I purse wa s, bu t I hope someon e at one of y our fine publications would be abl e to h elp me o ut with that. I do kn ow that f irst p la c e n ow pa ys $10,900 for a 250cc supercross win . Ba ck in 1980, I paid right around $ 1200 for a new RM125 . Today that price i s about $4800, or four times Peace And Quiet Bad Brownie? $7 0, OOO! Put another way - th e promoters g et o ver 95 p ercent of the take fr om ticket sal es while th e riders get le ss than five per cen t. Ov er the 16- race series that's $ 22 ,880, 0 00 for Tuttle, the edi to r of Ri der Magazine, sent the ab o ve letter to N ic k Hari s, AMA Western St at es Rep resentat i ve and S en at or Debra B owen . In his response to Tuttle's thank you letter , Haris wanted to ma k e c er ta in th at AMA m ember Marc Danz ig er wa s also g iv en some credit f o r helping th e cau se... Editor Daytona Schedule And wouldn't it be great if on Sunday at Daytona all the rid er s from di rt what it cost in 1980. Even though the popularity of su percross has grown exponentiall y, the pro purse has not even k ept up with infl ati on. did n 't want to see th e sp li t between AM A Pro Racing and Cl ear Ch ann el , bu t I t ho ug ht it w ou ld Fi na lly brin g better p ay to the riders. It didn 't ha p p en, so here w e are . I w onder h ow Clear Channel and AMA Pro Racing sp li t all th at m on ey ? How mu c h do yo u thi nk t hey w o u ld b e w i lling t o give up if the riders refu sed to go to the lin e until th ey got a raise at Ana heim I? 8J1/ Abrfgo via the Inh?m et had to pay $ 100 to sign up !) T o d a y 's ri ders are b e i n g t a k en ad va ntage of while Cle ar Channel and AMA Pro Rac ing are making m ill ion s! Averag e supercross attendan ce is up to 50,000 spe ct at ors per event with chea p seats going for $30 each whil e premium seats are $45. Cl ear Ch an nel rak es in over $ 1.5 million dollars fr om ti cket sa l es alone p er e ve n t ! Start addi ng up the m on ey they get from t itle sponsors , sec ondary spon sors and ESPN advertising , and we're talkin g a lot more m on ey. As lo ng as the ri der s don 't wis e up , Cl ear Cha n nel can k eep this golden goose all to t h emse l v e s . Th e t ot al purs e is $7 0 ,00 0 per event. That m ean s if we on ly co nsi de r tic ke t sa les , th e p ro moter get s $ 1,430, 0 00 wh il e th e rid ers wh o are ri sking th eir lives get on ly cue I e Not to si de with the p rom o t er s, b ut wh ile we toss ou t numbers o f how mu ch m on ey they m ak e , w e m us t al so r ememb e r h o w mu ch they spend. The last time I ch ecked, ren ting Edison Fi eld wasn 't cheap . As is t he case i n runn ing any bus iness , th ere are expenses that go along wi th making those rac es h appen . To be fai r, those expenses als o need to be p o inted out. Th ough without seeing Clea r Ch anne l's boo k s, we have no i de a what th o se e x p en ses am ount to... Editor n .. _ S • N OVEM B ER 5 , 2003 5

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