Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BY HENNY Rrv AeRAi s CHICANEBY ttNo Comment" J ust when you thought things at AMA Pro Racing couldn't get any weirder, our friends in Pickerington screw the pooch in a way that would make Dick Cheney wet his pants, then cloak it in a veil of secrecy that ld make Dick Nixon weep with ioy. Quite a twofer Scott Hollingsworth, the secretive CEO, brought in to tum around Pro Racing's fortunes, was shown the trap door last week- This was initially reported on a website run by a member of the Pro Racing board. ln a feat of stunning serendipity, the website's reporter hap- pened to call the AMA looking for Hollingswonh as the whole thing was imploding. What are the odds? Cycle News editor Paul Carrutheru fol- lowed up by placing a call to Tom Lindsay, the AMAS public information director, who conflrmed Hollingsworth's prema- ture evacuation by reading a statement, then shutting up like a bad clam, thereby directing the public that there would be no inlormation - the guy's good at his job. \rVhen lcalled on Honday morning, I got much the same response. Lindsay did say, however, that Patq/ DiPietro, the AMA5 executive vice president and chief financial officer, who engineered the palace coup, I think - her silence makes Charlie Chaplin look like Ozzy Osbourne - would be running AMA Pro Racing. ls she qualified? Of course not. Since when did that matter? The board found out about the shufile shonly before a competition committee conference call on lanuary 24. When the members rang in, they were told DiPietro and AMA president Rob Rasor would run the meeting. The Rasor srory is intere$ing in itself. An AMA lifer, in the best sense of the word, Rasor is now transitioninS to a more expanded role in the FlM, which was announced in late November. The person- nel move was given precious little ink in the popular press, but ma/ haye been a precursor to the Hollingsworth axing. Who will be running the AMA day to day in place of Rasor? Patty DiPietro. Presumably, DiPietro didn't act unilat- erally. The move would likely have been approved by the executive committee, a group of five within the ll-memberAMA board of directorc, then possibly put to a vote of the full board. The Al'4A website lists only one member as being on the executive committee. But it may not be the best place to get information on this story The headline on amaproracing.com, as of lYonday morning, lanuary 30, was "2006 AMA Hillclimb Championship Schedule Announced," a news nugget of only slightb/ less import than "CEO Takes A Powder." Nowhere on any AMA web- The communications department at both AMA Pro Racing and the AMA are abysmal and getting worse. Al-Qaeda does PR better. And this speaks to what could be the moti\ration for this whole liasco. DiPietro has long been the AMAS chief financial oflicer, She and Hollingsworth know the numbers and, sirce AMA Pro Racing is an allegedly Ior-profit enrity, they don't have to open the books- What l'm told by someone familiar with the accounting is that under Hollingswonh's watch, revenues have increased dramati- cally - on the order of 250 percent. But so did expenses, which made Pro Racing a not-hugely profitable endeavor that gen- erated a lot of negative publicity from people such as myself and others. And MotoGE also runs, among other things, the British Superbike Championship. Could they do worse than AMA Pro RacinS at running the AMA Superbike Championship? Can Pam Anderson see her feet? I remember once trying to differenti- ate beween Al'4A Pro Racing, which has provided ample evidence of being out of touch with the road-race paddock, and the AMA, which is owed a debt of grati- tude by anyone who rides a motorcycle. Why any motorcyclist wouldn't belong to the AMA is a mystery But the AMA5 membership department is at least as confounding as communications. The AMA "newsroom" lists 264,027 memberc as of January 31, 2005. Sound like a lot? The Harley Owners Group has nearly a million members worldwide, doubling membership in the past six years. The benefits aren't wildly different. The differ- ence is that Harley-Davidson males you feel llke you're part of a family. The AMA makes you feel like you're part of the Addams Family. So who's Gomez? One rumor was that Steve Whitelock, the motocross boss, was summoned to Ohio and asked to run the show. I'm told that, in a rage of staggering lucidit/, he declined. Vvlitelock is the most knowledgeable person in the entire AMA Pro Racing department- His experience at the world and national level is unrivaled. He is wide- ly respected and his decisions are informed. He should be put in charge of comPetition, The best candidate for the top job - the administrative iob, whomever that might be, if they even decide to fill the spot - won't get it. That's the American way. See Bush, George. l'd nominate Gary Mathers, the most successful team manager in the histor/ of motorcycle racing and a damn nice 8uy. Gar/ is currently enioying retirement in Asheville, North Carolina, with his wife, Denise, the always-cheerful blond who handles registration at the road races. Mathe6 had one 8o-around with the AMA, but he didn't like what he saw, so he left on good te.ms. Which is wtry they wouldnt have him back. He knows too much. He knows about budgets and per- sonnel. He knows how to form a consen- sus, how to make people work toward a common goal. He is one of them; he is one of us. Any chance he'll get the iob? Are you f--ing kiddin8 me? And why would I wish such a dysfunc- tional organization on such a genuinely decent human being? Becaue l'm a vengeful prick, Just ask the Pro Racing Board. Cll Could this be the dismantling AMA Pro turning the AMA b sanctioning body? Yes. S.olt Holfingrwonh: Oul ot AriA Pro nocing. repulsed. At the meeting, one board member suggested that the others should pull their advertising. What this episode illustrates is how someone could abLrse his position in the industry to further the

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