Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 29 JULY 21, 2015 P71 Astrodome as an example they used to draw 30-40,000 people. Then the singles came out and the crowd dropped and eventu- ally the race was dropped from the schedule as well because they weren't getting the people that they usually get. I don't think anybody really connected the dots to the fact that we quit running twins. They used the riders as the stars and it was the same riders, so they didn't put two and two to- gether. I'm not saying it's the only thing that caused that race to go away but certainly I think it had a big part in it. If we can get the riders in the series over the shock of riding a twin on shorter race tracks, which they used to do in the Houston Astro- dome without any trouble, I think they'll see the benefits of it and after a year or so of it you won't hear any com- plaints. I think it will help in all areas. What do you think the future holds for dirt track? Two things. I said I wouldn't be here if I didn't see the commitment and that's what I see now and that's why I'm here. There is really another thing—if I didn't think that we could really make a difference and change the sport for the better I wouldn't be here. I think the sky's the limit, honestly. When I was a kid people told me that I didn't want to race motorcycles. Those guys sleep in their van. They don't make any money. That's not a life. You don't want to do that. And I was like, heck yeah, that's me, that's what I want to do. There's always going to be people that say it's never been Maybe that's the good part of me being a racer in this position is that I know what it's like to face adversity, to have injuries and come back to racing, and to not have sponsors and find sponsors. I know that if you set your mind to something and you're passionate about it there's no limit to what can be done. We have a five-year goal of what we want the series to look like. And even that, entertain- ment's changing all the time right now. So we realized we have to sort of be a little fluid in what we expect in five years, but we have a step-by-step process. We've put a ladder system in place where we take a pretty good step this year, a pretty good step the next year. And then the next thing you know five years down the road, we may not look then exactly like what we think we want to look like in five years, that may have changed a little bit during that process. We're aware of that and we'll keep that in mind, but there's really so many good things happening right now. I just keep telling everybody, keep watching, keep paying atten- tion. You're going to see those changes and see the good things that are going on. And we'll keep trying to do the right things to not get in the way of that, and hopefully add to it. CN "THERE'S ALWAYS GOING TO BE PEOPLE THAT SAY IT'S NEVER BEEN THAT BIG OR YOU CAN'T MAKE IT, THERE'S TOO MUCH COMPETITION WITH OTHER FORMS OF MOTORCYCLE RACING, WHATEVER. I JUST DON'T HEAR THEM. I SORT OF REFUSE TO LOSE, SAME WAY I FELT PROBABLY AS A RACER." that big or you can't make it, there's too much competition with other forms of motorcycle racing. I just don't hear them. I sort of refuse to lose, same way I felt probably as a racer.

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