Cycle News

INTERVIEW JOHN ULRICH P88 organizations were enthusiastic about it." As with any first ventures there is a learning curve involved. So while at the end of the day Ul- rich met his goals and the first two rounds have been seen as a success – not by just Ulrich, but those participating as well – the imperfections were looked at as a learning experience. "There were some pieces that didn't mesh quite right," Ul- rich said. "If I had to do it all over again I would've taken the entry form that the Miller guys [Utah Sportbike Association] came up with and made everybody use it. The other thing that was more complicated about Fontana was that Saturday was a Fast Track track day and the Sunday was a WERA regional race, so actually for that event we had two organi- zations to deal with at the same time. Here in Sonoma I just had to deal with AFM and with Miller I just got to deal with Utah Sport- bike Association. "But the basic concept was find a place to drop in a Super- bike race and a Sportbike race and bring in a TV crew and film the thing and we did that." Because Ulrich wears many hats, he brings the perspective of team owner to race promo- tion. "Well, look we've been doing Team Hammer Advanced Riding Schools for 20 years or some- thing so we knew the basic work- ings of an event," Ulrich said. "The big deal was that I knew what problems these teams had when the sanctioning body went from the historical average of 10 event weekends a year to half that and I knew what the impact would be on them [teams]. "So we're speaking the same language. I knew they had the same problems that I had with that and I knew that they needed more events. It was easy to com- municate exactly why this was an important thing and every- body understood it. Otherwise they wouldn't have showed up. Because when was the last time you saw full factory teams go to any event that wasn't sanctioned by the AMA? The only time I can remember was the early '80's… Team Honda went to the AFM Six Hour at Ontario and entered it. But as far as sprint racing goes or Superbike racing goes, it hasn't happened since I started pay- ing attention in '73. It never hap- pened. They didn't go to Formula USA. They didn't go to NASB. There's a reason why they came to this." But as the saying goes, before you judge, walk a mile in the other person's shoes. So did the event promotion give Ulrich a better ap- preciation of race promoters? "You mean specifically like AMA Pro Racing," asked Ulrich? "No. This experience made me question more than ever why there weren't more AMA Pro rac- es on the schedule. Because, obviously, if you want to make something happen and you want to have a TV package, it is pos- sible to do it because we did it. The biggest thing it did was raise more questions in my mind. What is the problem here? And I don't know what the answer is." CN " THIS EXPERIENCE MADE ME QUESTION MORE THAN EVER WHY THERE WEREN'T MORE AMA PRO RACES ON THE SCHEDULE. BECAUSE, OBVIOUSLY, IF YOU WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN AND YOU WANT TO HAVE A TV PACKAGE, IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO IT BECAUSE WE DID IT. "

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