Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

38 like [FIM President Francesco] Zerbi or [FGSports President Paolo] Flammini that oversees it all, you can then put a group together that everybody discusses all these pros and cons, whether it be traction control, whether it be class structure, whatever it might be. And you've got then five entities to come up with a group that we can have a decision and they're all not going to believe the same thing. But the manufacturers can cover the support teams and the groups there. And the sanctioning bodies, the AMA, and they've got their own interest that they're looking at. The pro- moters group: they're talking about the track and their input. And the aftermarket: let's not forget the Dunlops, the VPs, the Pirellis, the Parts Unlimited, all these people that bring the money and other pieces of the puzzle here, listen to what their needs are. But if you have five people, you're going to have five votes and either three or four or two, or whatever it might be, one way or another we can get a decision made. And it's not always going to go my way, or Keith's [McCarty] way or Mike's [Preston] way, but at least we all agree with the direction, we all agree that this is what will follow and make the best of it. We told you guys 45 minutes and we're coming up on that. Let's go around the table and talk about the future. Where do you see this going and where do you want to see it in five years? Preston: Where do I see what? Where do you see the sport of road racing? Preston: It's a difficult question. Here in AMA, it's been a very, in the last years... Chuck, you might be younger than me in road racing as far as involvement, but it's been a struggle with the AMA. I believe, again, it's back to the original question or answer – it's lead- ership, direction, and communication. We've had nothing and it's gotten worse. It's been a real problem because all of our manufacturers and maybe some of the things Chuck mentioned, all of our associates and affiliates, the tire companies, the fuel companies, Parts Unlimited, all of us are prosperous. We're making more the last few year years. We're all growing. We see club racing, the activity, track days, all of that is growing. But we don't see the active or the vision of AMA Pro Racing for us to get better for us to put on a bigger show, to get better television, more promo- tional rights, any of that. I don't see it. But I see the potential is huge. We can look at one race, Laguna Seca. They brought the GP guys there. It was out of control there were so many people. The potential is there. We have a big series to sell, but we've just got to have some leadership, some organization, to do it. Current state: I don't know where it's going to go. I can tell you that motorcycles in general and for the companies that are setting here, we're going to grow. There's no stopping us, we've got a vision. We're going to grow, we're going to produce motorcycles. Hopefully, we can continue to promote them here in America in this fashion and get bigger and better. I don't know what it is with the AMA. McCarty: I think probably the thing that I don't see is, is I don't believe that road racing is mainstream enough in America yet, largely due to what Mike just said. There's not been a lot of growth. He cited Laguna Seca, which is a great United States road-rac- ing event for sure. I don't know what the number was, 30 or 40,000 people a day, not just the typical way we count road racing, times the same 10,000 times three days; we call it a 30,000 people event. But going to the Anaheim Supercross you get 50,000 people there in one night, not over the course of three days. I don't think it's any mistake, I have NASCAR guys calling us – I'm sure we all do – wanting to do teams. And they're not asking to do a road-racing team. That's kind of odd because that's the thing that most simulates what they do at one of these big venues, but they want a Supercross team. And the reason is that Supercross is now main- stream. It's in lots of publications outside of the motorcycle industry and the guys are approaching rock star kind of attitudes. And all of that is here - it's the best kept secret that we have. And that's kind of frustrating to me. My background is in motocross and I got involved in taking over here. And it is exciting, there are a lot of things here for the racing enthusiasts, but what we need to make this, is for the non-motor- cycle enthusiast, the new guy. That's who we're going to sell products to. That's the guy that comes to Supercross. He comes because it's a happening. He can bring his trophy girlfriend and go around and see people and they treat him with some respect and they make time for autographs and things. There's a lot of things that we don't do, it's, kind of, some of our problems here that we don't make time for the people that we're trying to get in the gate. We don't embrace them. So I think just the culture of road racing is a little different. I think that has to change a little bit if you want to be mainstream. It comes down to making yourself available, smiling, taking pictures, kissing babies, whatever it takes, that's kind of what got Supercross to grow. Plus, it's exciting and they do a great job with the entertainment factor of the event. That's the vision we were talking about. Preston: Do they have any leadership over there in Supercross? McCarty: I guess they've had enough, they've had the right vision. They've had different leaders. They've Road Race Team Managers: Part II Tom Bodenbach JULY 19, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S Mike Preston ]

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