Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

part y over there , and there just happens to be a r ac e going on . Q W hat made you wa nt to sta rt this series? Was i t ju st t h a t t he re we re no supe rc rosses i n the area ? I had retired at what I conside red a young age from dirt track , I was 3D, and I had always said from the t ime I turned pro that I di dn 't wa nt to race past 30. I wanted to stay invo lved in moto rc ycles, so I decided to start a promotion compa ny, d ue to the fact that I had so many contacts. I didn't want to go sell real estate be cause I didn't know anyone in real estate, but I knew ev ery one in the motorcycle industr y . I' d always been rai sed around promoting m y dad had been promoting rac es in the '70s and ' 80 s - and I k ind of knew th e concept. W atc hi ng what had been done from a rider's perspective, sit t in g in th e p its, I wo rke d very c lose w ith R.J . Reynolds when they we re in d irt track doing P.R. It was somethi ng that st ruck m y interest. A Q A Wh Y do you th ink t he crowds at supercrosses tend to boo when a rider gets taken out, but at an Arenacross it 's cheered? T he supercross fans reall y k now and understand w ho the stars are, an d a lot of the fans w ho come to A renacross - proba bly half of them - ca me fo r the th rills and sp ills. A ll th ey wa nt to see is th e bumping and gr inding . They see from t he first race how close the rac ing is. In supe rcross, th ey do n't see it that much, and when they do , it's us ually at the fro nt of the pack with top names. It's k ind of good to boo the fast gu y. Q W h O do yo u t hi n k was th e f i rs t Arenacross st ar ? I wou ld say th e first star w e had was Dennis Hawth orn e. Kawa sak i has al ways played a m ajor ro le in A renacross from da y o ne , and Dennis rod e for Team Gr een. His co n t rac t was to compete in th e Aren across series, and he wo n it five y ears . He was our first star. Denn is k ept it quiet how much mon ey he w as ma king, because I don 't think he wanted the com pet iti o n kn ow ing abo ut it. But some othe r guys started stepp ing in and runn ing one or two ra ce s, then all of a sudden they found out, " Hey, there 's money to be made here. " Once we started getting ri ders c om ing in, and the word got o ut , teams started coming together, and it became eas ier to ge t good name riders to come to Arenacro ss. What we did was get the new kids com ing up and get t he g uys who maybe po inted out of the 125 cc class in supercross or the guy who's semiretired and do esn 't want to qu it y et, and th at 's good f or us bec aus e those guys h ave good names . They ' re very recognizab le. That happened with Gu y Cooper. He sta rte d running so me, and it wa s good to advertise we ha ve Guy Co op er. And Buddy did a grea t job for us . He han gs ou t w ith th e right peop le and talks ve ry good about Arena cro ss, bu t th e ne xt guy is Josh Demuth . He's very focu sed , and th at' s what it tak es. A Q A HOW did th e D ash For Cash co me along, and how d o yo u ge t th e cro w ds to pony up the cash? We ha d don e th at fro m da y o ne . Go ing ba ck to th e d irt track da ys , we woul d hav e a Trophy Dash . It was th e top fo ur qu ali fier s, and it might pay $200 to win . Well , th e first Arena cr oss we did, I wa s trying to figure ou t wha t t o do during intermission that could be kind of cool. I thought it 'd be c oo l to do a Dash For Cash , bu t then I tho ug ht, Wh er e am I go ing t o g et th e mon ey for i t ? So I w ent to th e anno unce r, and I explain ed I wanted the winner of eac h heat r ac e , I' d pu t up $ 5 0 and get donations from the spect ators and throw a W inn er -Take -All race . In th e earl y da ys, we were getting up to $1000 . It got im port ant for the riders to mak e th e Das h Fo r Cash . That's a chance at a good payday . That's what we still do tod ay . Th e fans and motorcycle dea le rs get into it. Q A Have you ever thought at any point that it was getting too big too fast? N o . I t h i nk w e' re alm ost to the po int tha t we need something new. I don 't kn ow what , but I think we need something that 's goi ng to ge t Are nacross back into the fo refront. It just seems like we ' ve lost a lot of buzz . I thi nk we're go ing t o get very crea t ive with so me of o ur halftime inte rm issions w ith riders doing au tog raph sessions where th e fans get to meet t he riders in th e early part of th e afternoon o n the track. I' m not looki ng at cha nging purs es or points funds, but ways t o g et the fa ns closer to A rena cross . We 've hid den t he riders t o o m uc h, and if you get t her e at 7 :30, you neve r ge t to see t he riders' faces . Q lt co uld be argued that you sta rted freestyle - or at least helped it al ong a bun ch - by having t hose j um p -offs. Guys like Cliffo rd Adoptante and Mike J ones used to win those a lot w he n they were racing Arenacross. What do you think of that? T h at was som ething that we ad ded probab ly aro und '87 . What kind of g ot m e turned on to it was t h e se g uys were d o in g some pretty neat tricks during t he ra ce , and I thought that'd be kind of neat to do a contest. The first one we did, we took two PVC pipes and ran a ribbon ac ross and tied a $100 bill on it , and we said t he first rider who can t a k e th e money c o u l d keep it. We had lik e t hr ee riders who did it. It was coo l because the spectators got int o it , but it was too hard . It too k too long , so I ann ounced at t he riders ' meeti ng the next n ight that it wasn 't su ch a good idea, and we 'd do a j ump -off inst ead . I think we had six or seven g uys, and it took o ff . We had a meeting with some promoter s in Califo rn ia pro bably around '94 or '95 about starting a fr eestyle tour, and I said I go t m y h ands full with Arenacross , and I think it' s a great id ea, but I'm not interested . And t he thing did ta k e off, and we lo st so m e of o ur good jumpers be cau se now it's a se ri es of it s o wn. A Q lt' S kind of hard to iden t ify with th e rid ers with th eir helmets on - it's almost like, to the fan , that th ey 're not human . T hat' s tru e. I can remember when I rac ed, I' d be in troduced and peop le wou ld be surprise d, like, "That' s Mike K idd? " A nd I see that today . Peop le wa nt to meet Josh Demuth, and I say , "Well there he is. " " O h , that's Josh?" That's one thing the sponsors are looking for is fans getting closer to th e rid ers. A Q Where do y o u see the futu re of Arenacross ta k ing us? A T here's always been talk of Arena cross being a qua li fier for people to get their supercross licenses - that's been on and off the plate for five or more years. We'v e heard it from the indust ry , from th e AMA, and we'v e tal k ed abo ut it, but it' s never been im plem ent ed . It's alrea dy wo rk ing wit h Regiona l Arena cro ss qua lifying to race th e Nationa ls. Th en they co me in and sta rt rid ing t he N at ion al A rena cr oss Series, get rid es and even t u ally mov e o n t o Supercro ss. So it's alr eady wor ki ng; it's j ust not really official. eN Q A D i d n ' t the jump -offs ca u se c onfli ct w ith t he AMA? w ell , t he y ban ne d 'e m. Th ey to l d m e I c o u l d n ' t d o it. I fle w o u t and talk ed to some AMA reps an d told t hem it wasn 't part of th e eve nt , it was an intermission . If I had somebod y co m e out and bl ow themse lves up wi th dy nami t e, th at ' s th e sa me t hi ng . Th ere' s no p o ints k e pt. It 's a sta n d-alon e interm i ssi on. Th ey st ill sai d I co u ld n' t do it , b u t I h ad to get the ri der s to s ig n a se pa r a te w a iv er and releas e. Q A Wh Y did y ou decide to hav e tw o cl ass es c ount to ward one ch ampionship? I want ed to put t he t op riders o ut on the track more. Our rac es happen so quick, so if Buddy A ntu nez went ou t and wo n hi s he at race , the fan s got to see him for three minutes. Th ey wouldn' t see him aga in 'til th e ma in event. So , I sai d we 're going to do co m b ine d points, and I won 't have to have two poi nts funds - and th e rid er s wa nted t o ride bo th classes anyway because th ey like th e do uble payday . Q W hat have you att em pted with th e series t ha t you wou ld de em un suc cessful ? lf it' s not broke, don't fix it. We' ve never reall y gone aw ay from th e elements th at work . We used to run quads and three-wheelers ba ck in th e '80s, but th ey never hit. Th e bik es co uld alway s j um p furth er, and pa ssing was ver y to ugh. We j ust quit doin g it. It was just hard to p u t on a go od show w it h t h e qu ad s ind oo r s. We'v e tri ed markets that didn 't work , but other than t hat it 's been very succ essful. A e Two of today's Arenacross stars - Josh Demut h (r ight) and Brad Ha g seth (left) - ce lebra te on the podium at la st weekend 's Albany Arenacross opener. y e I e n e _ S • NOVEMBER 19,2003 19

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