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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INTERVIEW STEVE MCLAUGHLIN P112 instead of working against each other. Flat track racing contin- ues to have its challenges in terms of attracting the manu- facturers to race and support the series. In your estimation, what's the future of the sport? Dirt track has gone through tough times no question, but I see all these green shoots. The last several years I've gone to Pomona, the Indy Mile and to the Daytona Short Track and you see young people coming. This is not just old graybeards, it's beginning to change. And I have to say dirt track racing has a bet- ter chance of going somewhere than road racing in this country at the moment because of the confusion with the future of road racing. And you have strong amateur racing programs in Cali- fornia, like the Lodi Motorcycle Club and the excellent flat track series put on by Eddie Mulder and Gene Romero, so we have a solid base under us. What are your plans to at- tract younger fans? We are going to do an exten- sive survey at the event to see who we have. There's no ques- tion the audience for flat track is an older audience, but not exclusively, so part of it is how we communicate to young rid- ers. And I think instead of the tagline "Bring the Spectators Back," I think it should be "Bring a Friend" or "Bring a Kid." To that end I've made children under 12 free in the Standing Room Only sections and half off for any other ticket, other than the Turf Club. We're bringing in Jumbotrons to help keep their attention. I think if you can bring kids in to see great racing at a young age you can make a fan for life. Have you gotten any feed- back on the event's ticket pric- ing, which is higher than most other Grand National races? I think that's been an issue with flat track racing, we've his- torically undervalued these rac- es. These are the top athletes in the original extreme sport. Take a look at other sporting events, MotoGP or concerts or any pre- mium form of entertainment. I think we are doing a disservice to our racers if we undervalue the tremendous skill and bravery it takes to compete at this, the highest level of flat track racing in the world. The other consid- eration in a race we're doing in conjunction with the California State Fair is that the Fair has a lot of impact on the price. We've come to an agreement with the Fair for a five-year moratorium on ticket prices and we were able to get from the facility free parking, SRO tickets with children under 12 free and a free souvenir pro- gram because we want to get the information out and provide good value to the fans. Do you plan on continuing to promote the race in the future, or is a lot of that de- pendent on how well the race does this year? My plan is that this is not the last race there. This is not a thing where I'm going to go out of busi- ness if I don't make a fortune. There's not a fortune to be made, but everybody does need to pull together and recognize, do they want the Mile race in California? If they do, they need to come. Have you had any luck get- ting sponsors behind the event? We just signed Miller [beer] as the event sponsor and we did that on very short notice. My background is commercialism, whether it was back when I raced or when I did the marketing for the Superbowl of Motocross. I think there are opportunities out there, but I think we have to get through this first event, survey our audience and look at every- thing, then you can position the product properly to sponsors. Right now it's not done properly and hopefully we'll be able to communicate with some of the other flat track promoters and share best practices and ideas. One of the things that makes Su- percross so successful is that it's a brand. It's like going to Holiday Inn or McDonalds. Yes, it's an exciting sport, you can't take that away, but I have to say Mile and Half-Mile Grand National racing is pretty bloody exciting. Yes it has to be packaged properly, but one of the things that differenti- ate me from some of the other promoters is that I'm a marketing guy, it's what I do. I find nothing more exciting than marketing a sport I love. CN