Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

board (o f trustees). " If Stu Peters (CMC p ro mo ter) was quoted corr ectly (in Cycle News' art icle last week ) you do in fact have a very interes tin g si tua tio n. Three com panies, who are th eoreticall y su pporters a nd members of the AMA, h ave gone to hi m (Peters) and specified exac t co m pe titive da tes (aga ins t th e T rans-U SA), which seems to be a real effort to do harm. Peters didn 't try to h id e anything. H e named th e three companies and sai d th ey ca me to h im as a group. " Fran kly, the other trustees I have talked to are astounded by it. The common comment is that they can't believe those people didn 't talk to their lawyers before th ey took that ac tion. The ramifications are enormous. If problems arose over that it could affect all sorts of things the AMA does. It could affect all forms of " I voted against the 125ccclaim~ng racing, and our mu tu al land use rule for 1983. When th e $4,.500clai m 109 rule went through, It was th e effort s, It would reall y, be pitiful if all straw that broke th e ma n ufacturers' this spilled over into our mutual backs , but th ere were other problems. government relations area s. So far it First, th e japa nese sh ou ldn't. ha ve seem s th er e has been an effort to keep sent reps to th e AMA meetings if th ey all these feel ings con fine d strictl y to couldn 't live with their decisions. motocross, and I hope it stays th at Roger DeCoster made commi ttments wa y. , for Honda, and th en Honda got bent " Wh en I was getting m y trip toout of shape and pulled out of the gether I did call about the possibility Trans-USA. Secondly, the AMA Board of meetings (with factory reps) and I of Trustees failed to realize the factwas told, 'Don' t bother. We don 't ories have committments to riders. want to talk to you. ' I was told by one When the board approved the 250 individual at one company.that they and 500cc National program for '83, wouldn 't talk to me under any cirthey turned a deaf ea r to the compancu mstan ces. If that really does represies. They should have had a one yea r ent the management's attitude, then reprieve before taking th e 125s out of they're not in any mood to try and the program. settle things." " T h e factories say they can't live (T his interview concluded on Thurswith the AMA due to tight budgets. day afternoon, Sept. 2. Youngblood What's going to happen in three told us to call him the next day at 4 years when there are 24 Supercross p.m. for some more important infor- . events and each factory has to field a mation. Following are his quotes separate Supercross team? Denver, from that call...Editor. ) Minneapolis, Orlando, Milwaukee, "T he reason I want to give you this St. Louis and Cincinnati are already m essage is that it's the kind of in line for events next year. announcement that is going to get " R ig h t now, the factories say they different kinds of interpretations all want a race season from Feb . I to July over the country, and there are going 31, and I also heard they don't want to be all kinds of rumors. There will to run any two-day Supercrosses. be a news release coming out of this The '83 Supercross schedule runs office first thing Tuesday morning from jan. 31 . to Oct. 22, with a (Sep t. 7). (Mike) , DiPrete has annumber of two-day events. nounced his intentin to lea ve as pro " G ive us a yea r to change! Don 't competition director. Di Prete has tell us yo u r decision is already hisannounced that he will leave the full tory l That's a good enough reason time employ of the AMA in pursuit of for Goodwin and Pace to sit down interests, effective Dec. 31, 1982. with Honda for the upcoming DiPrete tendered his resignation on meeting. Sept. I , but was asked by me to stay " It' s time to sit down and talk and on to the end of the year to direct final get the pieces of this puzzle together. planning and implementation of There are many opportunities for AMA's 1983professional competition stadium promoters right now, but . programs. we 'd sure like to see the AMA and the " DiP rete will continue as consultfactories get back together. The least ant to AMA for international compePace spent on putting together a stadtition. DiPrete has held a seat on the ium event last year was $371 ,000. FIM MX committee since 1979. We 're making big investments, and " I guess I have a job ahead of me. If we want to be successful. Maybe the anyone is thinking that DiPrete might AMA needs to postpone the situation be moving to make room for some('83 Grand National MX program) in body already selected, no, that defiorder for' a reconciliation." nitely is not the case. It isn't going to be an easy position to fill , at this Ed Youngblood, executive director of point especially. I'm going to need the AMA: " I read the last article in every bit of this time I've been able to Cycle News when I was out in Calibuy to the end of the year to fill that fornia. Chuck Larsen 's comments implied that the purpose of m y trip Position. " We asked Youngblood if any further to the West Coast was over this (Jap, legal action had been taken towards anese boycott of Trans-USA) and to an anti-trust suit against the three see attorneys. It wasn 't. I went to th e japanese companies. " None at all. World Speedway Final in LA , to see I've not obtained any additional inDr. Hurt at USC (helmet research formation, but I am talking to our lab ), to Las Vegas for the trade show legal co u nsel today. We may have and to Denver for a meeting with th e some additional comments for you Supercross promoters. I didn't talk to late on Thursday afternoon (Sept. 9, any manufacturers or attorneys. the same da y as -the Supercross pro" R igh t now we'r e just doing the moters/factory reps meeting). best we ca n with our own series Mike DiPrete, professional competi(Trans-USA). I have been doing m y tion director of the AMA: " Let me tell homework. Our attorney here has you what some of the (T ra ns-USA) been provided with all the material promoters are saying about the articoncerning the new series (CMC cle Cycle News printed last week. Western States Championship SerSome of them are saying it's negative ies). I'll seek his advice, but any action would have to be taken by our for us (AMA) il!}he sense that the Manufacturers to meet vvith Supercross'promoters; DiPrete resigns u-;' By Tom Mueller .- On Thursday, Sept. 9, representatives from ] Pace Management and Mike ' Goodwin's 8 Stadium Sports Promotions will meet with ~ representatives from Honda, who will report~ fr cr; edly also represent Suzuki and ' Yamaha to discuss the state of . . MX a.nd ' S upercross racing In . Amenca III 1983. In an unrelated mo ve Mike DiPrete, professional com pe tition director of th e AMA , submitted h is resignation on Sep t. 1. T he story which is unfolding con cerning th e affairs of th e AMA , CMC, manufacturers and promoters is changing virt ually by th e hour. Honda , Yamaha and Suzuki's decision to pull out ofthe Trans-USA MXSeries has created a ba rrier between the AMA and those companies which, without proper mediation, could carry over into 1983, where two National series and a split in the stadium format could result. At presstime, negotiations between the AMA and the three japanese companies were at a standstill. Some suggestions, included in the quotes which follow, were made as possible solutions to the problem. The Supercross representatives who will attend the meeting with the factory representatives are also looking to reconcil e the AMA with the manufacturers. Following are the mos t recent quotes from those who arepivotal to the recent controversy. C.E. Ahman, Pace Management: "T h ere' s going to be a meeting the latter part of next week between the Supercross reps and th e japanese in Los Angeles. Mike Goodwin arranged the meeting in order that the two main groups (AMA and japanese factories in question ) might get back together. Honda representatives will be speaking for all three companies. The companies refused to speak with (Ed) Youngblood (execu tive director of the AMA ) and wi thout communication, none of the problems will be resolved. Everyone needs to come to th e table and talk. If we don't, it looks like the factories are going to sanction with a different group (CMC) in '83 . ' 16 " Pace has no intention of sanctioning with anyone but the AMA , but if the factories don 't want us to run are the factories slapping the AMA's wrist? Or are they trying to expand on their opportunities? " The stars of today ar e as much the motorcycle as the individual. When th e Yamahas are working', Bob Hannah is th e champion. When the Suzukis are working best, Mark Barnett is on top. I spoke to Brad Lackey, and he said he wouldn 't ra ce the Trans-USA if he could because he wouldn't be competitive wi th ou t a works bike (othe reports in d icate Lackey may ride th e CMC series). Who 's th e star, Lackey or th e motorcycle? Why should yo un g riders today get into racing when they don 't have a factory ride? Why should they fight the system? The promoters alone can't provide the salaries, housing, transportation and equipment needed ' t~y, like the factories are,doing. factories have left and gone to a separate series. I th ink it (th e bo ycot t) will hur t the promoter on the West Coast (Sears Point-Trans-USA ) most because he has a race going directl y against h is. "I've discussed a new format for the Trans-USA with all the promoters a nd it loo ks like we'll be going with three 20 minute motos at the series. The facto ry riders might not have liked it , but it will give the privateers more of an opportunity to race and do well. We 'll probably have a press release next week including that information. I think we 'll see some great racing under the new format. "As far as m y plans for '83, I don 't have anything firmed up yet. There are a couple of offers I have to think over, but I'm still open to new offers. I'd like to stay inside the industry and work as a representative for one of the companies associated with racing." Larry Maiers, president of Hi-Point Racing and announcer at Supercross and National MX events: " I' m not in th e position to point fingers and ' name names, but I will gi ve you some observations. It 's m y feeling that .th e japanese factories in question are not only interested in slapping the AMA and showing their strength, but are interested in wrecking whatever it is th e AMA can do. They're paying support riders to go out to California to race (the CMC series which runs against the Trans-USA). They're taking the maximum number of big name riders they can get, and sucking them out to California, all for a $3000 purse (pe r race ). "I have not talked to one person in the industry who doesn't want to see Barnett race Hannah and Hannah Hansen, but the factories don't want that. Instead the Japanese want to go with the CMC, and where is the CMC when motorcyclists have problems? When the AMA was in Washington fighting helmet laws and land closures, where were they? The AMA fought those things, all of the japanese could go and race with the CMC. "Y ou have to back up and take a look at things. A few years ago Mike DiPrete was forced by the factories to make a decision. The told him if he didn't get rid of the claiming rule they wouldn 't race . Mike felt it was best to go along with them. Right' now, if I hire Bob Hannah and I have four million dollars I couldn't come up with a winner. You can't beat the factories. "Now the factories want to regain control over everything that's done. That's where we are right now, and I don't know where that's going to take motocross in America. . "What I think we need to salvage this whole thing is a restructuring ~f the AMA's professional departments. I don't know if that means people or the physical structure, but some changes need to be made so the AMA can go back to the factories and listen to their problems and restore some order. "An immediate tool which might be available is an independent board comprised of persons selected by the japanese factories and the AMA , four, to six persons, no bigger. The persons the AMA picks would be nonAMA related. I would hope that I could be on the board, and maybe Dick Miller (of Motocross Action magazine) because motocross is his life , day in and day out. "The board could have independent meetings, first with the factories in California, then with race promoters, and then with the AMA : The board could then return to each group and air the problems the other groups have. If the groups still don't want to talk to each other the board could start all over again. The board is

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