Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

F I LED RI NERFELD 1 ROBERT E • DAVID E1.S~kNKE . HINERFELD & CAHILL 2 DAV;] ~: TROY SU S THORNTON. et 3 MURPHY, t h Figueroa s ~re 9004 1 Califo rn~a 7447 Nor 4 Los Angeles , SEP 231982 5 for Plaint iff SOCIATION 6 AttOrn:~sMOTORCYCLIST A~atiOn AMERIC&U' rofit corpo 7 an O io nonp h 8 UNITED STATES DI 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT 10 11 ASSOCIATIO N, MOTORCYCLISTnor at i on, AMERICAN npr of i t cor r 13 an Ohio no Plaintiff , 12 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Trans-U SA controversy explodes; AMAsues Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha ·By Dale Brown LOS ANGELES, CA, SEPT. 23 U.S: Suzuki Motor Corpo ration, a n d Yamaha Motor Corporation U .S.A. T he action is based u pon co n sp iracy in restraint of trade, co n spiracy unlawfull y to monopolize, co n sp iracy to breach fiduciary duty an d conspirac y to interfere with contractual and adv antageous business relationsh ips. " AMA seeks damages arising out of recent events concerning the AMA Trans- USA Motocross Racing Series AMA in a press conference that aft erand interim and permanent injuncnoon. tive relief to prevent Honda, Suzuki, Read ing from a pr epar ed sta tement, and Yamaha from entering those AMA Boa rd of Trustees m ember and motocross riders which they ha ve treasurer J ohn H asty made the anwithdrawn from Trans-USA Series nouncem en t: co m peti ti o n in an y competi ng event, . " O n beh alf of th e Board of Trusor otherwise competing with the tees for th e American Motorcyclist Trans- USA Motocross Series or using Association, ac ti ng o n a u th o r i ty any unlawful pressure to coerce AMA granted on Sept. 21, 1982, I wish to to a lt er it s lawfully adopted racing announce that AMA has, this mornpolicy for 1983. AMA also seeks puniing, filed an action in the United tive damages in the amount of States District Court, Central Distri ct $ 15,000,000. of Ca lifornia , in Los Angeles, against " Cop ies of the Co m pl a in t are avail. .... . :;r_ a -,~~e!ican !1onda MO~;..r....Co•,_I n c ";...........;: ble for you along with copies of this In a move unprecedented in American motorcycling h istory, the American Motorcyclist Associ ation filed a $15 m illion anti-trust suit against three of the m ajor motorcycle manufacturers - Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha. The suit also as ks for an injunct ion prohibiting those facto ry motocross 18 riders , who entered the n withdrew fro m th e Trans- USA Ser ies, from riding in th e Continental Motosports Corporation 's Trans-Cal Series, "or o the rwise directly or indirectly co m peting with AMA 's 1982 Trans-USA Series." The AMA 's suit, filed in the Central California di strict of the U.S. Distr ict Co urt on T h ursday morn [n g , Sept. 23 was announced by th e news release . We feel that the Co mp lai nt more th an ad eq uately explains the fac tual matters giving rise to th is action. We do n o t feel th at it wou ld be app ro priate to co m ment furth er on th e factua l matters involved in the court proceeding at th is time. " It is unfortunate this action is necessary; however, problems ari sing out of the trustees ' unani mously adopted 1983 Motocross Forma t between th e AMA and the three n am ed manufacturers has left the Association no choice bu t to protect its and its members' interests. T h e AMA has been constantly involved in attempts to resolve these problems since May of this year. These attempts continued up through Tuesday of th is week . " For more than 50 years AMA has been devoted to the pursuit, p ro motion and protection of the interest s of motorcyclists in this country. " We deeply regret any h ards h ip th is situation has caused the motor racing public, it s members, and its Trans-USA promoters. T his action h as been ta ken by AMA to protect the orga ni c princip les of th e Association. " AMA appreciates the support that it h as received fro m its members an d th e m o torcycling p ublic in the past a nd - as ks a nd seeks th e co n tinued support that it has enjoyed during these most difficult times." After reading the statemen t, H asty field ed questions from th e reporters p resen t. We 've in cl ud ed some o f th e p ert inent questions below, fo llowed by Hasty 's answers. We understand th e Co lorado TransUSA race has been can cell ed by the promoters, and that the Sears Poin t race will probably cancel as well. The promoters for both Sears Poin t a nd Colorado have ca ncell ed th eir events as of this time. I can not tell yo u whether they will reopen them or . not, but as of this time, they are cancelled, yes. T h e AMA has issued a p ress release prior to this abo u t possible fines im p osed agains t riders if the y particip ate in any of these races. Wi th this filing against th e manufac turers, 'do yo u stilI p lan to follow that course of action against an y riders wh o participate in the C MC ser ies? I' ve had several calls about tha t m yself. Let me make it very clear right now. If you 'll look at th e wording o f that press release very carefully, you'll see that the AMA has n o t said it will take punitive action against the riders. T h e news release points out that the rules provide that a rider who sign s a co n tract to ride an AMA even t and then breaches that contract to ride another event is subject to a fine. We felt in this situation it was nec essary that we inform the ri ders, most of whom are very young as you kn o w, of the rules. We have not made any decision at this time as to whether any rider will be fined a t all. It was simply a notification of what the rule provides for. O f course, at this time it would be premature to consider the matter at all, since there is n o th in g that has occurred that would give ride to it in the first place. In the state of California we had that si tuation before when the Cartwright Law was de veloped and I don 't th ink the AMA should p ursue th a t. The Cartwright Act yo u referred to is the state of California's anti-trust' law. It provides that you simply can 't fine somebody or revoke their license just because they ride another event. That is not this case. We would not fine any rider just because he rode another event. In th is particular insta nce, ho wever , if a rider has signed a n agreem en t with us, a n en try, to ride o ur event, and he ca ncels th a t agreement for the sol e purpose of rid ing a competing organization 'seven t, he wo uld be subjec t to th e fi ne. I

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