Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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JULY 19, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 40 suffered from similar problems to road racing because it was the same people. But even in spite of those problems it kept moving. That ball is rolling and it's rolling at a pretty high pace. Now there's a lot of out- side entities coming in that want to have teams. And I think that's what we need here. Right now we're all paying for it. We all would love to have somebody else come in and pay for this, because it's very expensive. So for me it needs to get mainstream and we need to have a bigger vision and a broader vision and it's going to not just be about the leadership of the AMA. We've got to change our thinking too and our riders and staff and all those people have to change their thinking just a little bit, if they want what everybody else has got. Sakakura: My opinion is, I think we have all the ingredients here to build an excellent show. We have the highest level of technology in the motorcycle industry in this series, in Superbike. People like to see that. People like to see the exotic machines and the sound of the machines, etc. Plus we've got great rid- ers, great personalities, great equipment, everybody 's involved here, but something is just choking us back. But I have to agree with Mike [Preston] - a lot of it is just an organization, a leader, a leadership that we can follow, that we can all follow. Right now, I think we all feel we're missing that. Everybody has their own agen- da, but there's no goal for everybody to follow. We're lacking that. Where would you like to see it, in an ideal world, in five years? Sakakura: I think you can grow it as large as the Supercross and the motocross categories, I believe. I think if you get spectators out to watch this racing and see how exciting it is and see what the guys can actu- ally achieve on these motorcycles, on two wheels, it's quite incredible to see. I think most people don't real- ize that. It's a matter of bringing the spectators in at a premier venue. I mean, this [Miller Motorsports Park] is a good example here. So they can witness that first hand, to see what the guys are doing on the motor- cycles and I think we'll get them back - that's my opinion. Bodenbach: I don't want to oversimplify, but I think in five years it could be much bigger if a few things were done. But as Chuck said, as Mike said, Keith and Don, if we split this up, the AMA needs to decide what they want for the property and sell those rights for a number of years to a promoter. And later on, after that term's over, they decided that they sold it cheap, well then they can sell it for more later and let it grow. We need rules that, one: make for closer racing, so one brand isn't winning every weekend. Because I firmly believe that if different brands are winning dif- ferent weekends, everybody's sales go up, because people are loyal to a brand, but sometimes people don't want to go out and buy brand X because brand Y is winning all the time. But if they can go buy brand X and it might win one or two races a year, they can at least feel proud that they own that bike, so every- body wins when everything sells. So I think that needs to be done. I think we need to come up... when we have rules that are more standardized and anyone can win, there won't be all the secret stuff and you can have better access. People can see what's going on with the bikes more. You won't try to hide as much from the general public. They can see more. Because the American public, all the sports that do good, is where you can see everything. NASCAR does good because you see the whole track. Supercross does good because you can see everything - indoor sports. The American pub- lic does not want to go watch one turn. So promoters put up more big screens so you can see everything. You go to the F1 race in Montréal, people pay a pre- mium to be on a corner with the big screen so they can see the rest of the track. There's all these little things that don't take a lot - I know I'm oversimplifying a lot - that will build this sport. With it taking six months and we still don't have a true leadership going on here, I see it basically being the same. We'll be sitting here five years from now talking about how we can improve things. Miller: Everybody's kind of mentioned about all the areas, but I'm excited about the future because I think sales and motorcycling in the United States continues to be strong. We have more motorcycle riders than we've had in 15 years, so that's a good sign. But much like everybody's already talked about, number one, we need an improved vision, we need a three- and five-year business plan in how to grow this sport and what we can do. This is what AMA should be looking at. The rules process, the committees, the individuals, and how we can improve that is another area. Consistency in those rules and the decision making in all areas has to improve, because it has been incon- sistent some weeks. Some disciplines it's okay, and other disciplines it's not. And also, then, professional- ism; and inside professionalism in AMA, you can stem it from communication, to the decision process, to the technical inspections, to paid people that work for AMA Pro Racing vs. volunteers. You're going to get a better product with a paid individual. And I have noth- ing against the volunteers, we use volunteers in Honda Racing. But I don't let volunteers build a race engine or put together a race machine, or I don't let a volunteer drive a truck. And if AMA looks at all of those areas and puts real professionals and empowers those people, I think we can move the sport forward and in a very fast time frame. We're all here because we care. We're at a state-of-the-art facility that we dreamed about. If we could have six or eight of these facilities around the country, we can make this sport... I'm in awe of MotoGP when I watch the people and the competi- tiveness. I'm not worried about making sure there's 35 or 40 guys on the grid of the Superbike. I would much prefer to have 18 guys going for the lead in every turn and working it that way, and then using our support classes that we've talked about to fill those grids and allow everybody to move to that Superbike level. Right now, sometimes having 40 people on the grid is the most important thing and that's not important to the spectator the manufacturer or the riders. Preston: I think one thing that Chuck said is an example here, this facility [Miller Motorsports Park]. Someone has a vision here. In America, worldwide as well, but America's where we're at and this is all of our markets, but in America, racing, in general, motorsports is going out of control. It is climbing at a steep pace. We need to be on that. Unfortunately, road racing is not. And, like Don said, to have safety and tracks, we've got one. But this event here, in three years, if we don't step up our show and like Chuck said, make this an event like Laguna Seca, where it's a happening place to come, these people aren't going to want us either. And there's going to be other tracks being built because it's a vision and a place to make money for racing. But we've got to have a show to put on. It's like Supercross, Keith said, 50,000-45,00 a week. People want that.... Laguna Seca. Everybody, all the aftermarket people are sign- ing up to go there, because they know that that's a show. We've got an opportunity here. I want to be part of it. We need some change. CN Road Race Team Managers: Part II Don Sakakura