P110
CN
III FRIENDLY FIRE
BY STEVE BAUER
I
f you do, please tell some
of your friends, because the
attendance at Levi Stadium in
Santa Clara was by far the low-
est of any supercross race that
I've ever been to, and I've been
to a few. It's not that surprising
when you consider that prior to
last year's event, the only con-
nection that our sport had to
Silicon Valley was when venture
capitalist Mark Kvamme took it
out for a test-drive back in 2004.
Mark created his MDK Speed
brand out of thin air, bought
a few motorcycle dealerships
and sponsored a supercross
team that amazingly evolved into
KTM's official factory 250 effort
within a couple of years. Yes,
money talks.
It was a solid program until
the economy went bad in 2008
and Kvamme ditched the sport,
leaving behind a trail of bankrupt
businesses, unpaid bills and bro-
ken promises. The fragile eco-
nomics of our niche sport were
not built to weather the start-up/
go bankrupt/try again busi-
ness model, and when Kvamme
bailed out of the industry (and
California!) to take an appoint-
ment as Ohio's job czar, there
were some moto folks left in the
lurch. Maybe Silicon Valley and
supercross is not such a great
match, I don't know.
What I do know is that, barring
an unimaginable calamity, Ryan
Dungey will be the 2016 Mon-
ster Energy AMA Supercross
DO YOU KNOW THE WAY
TO SAN JOSE?
