nikki
Moto Junkie
- Apr 21, 2000
- 5,802
- 1
From www.racerxill.com
Late last week, Racer X Illustrated editor Eric Johnson was invited to visit the site of what will soon be the new Competition Park. Located precisely six miles from the current location (which will ultimately close its doors), the new venue – which is located on land owned by the Soboba Mission Band of Indians – will also serve as the site of the 2002 Motocross des Nations on Sunday, September 29. During the visit, Johnson was able to sit down with primary promoter Malcolm McCassy Sr. and partner Jim Facciuto. The end result was a 5,000-word interview which will appear, in its entirety, in next week’s issue of Cycle News. Here’s a quick look at part of the interview.
Malcolm, I’ll jump right into this with the most important question: How did you end up with the responsibility of producing and promoting the 2002 Motocross des Nations?
I have a longtime friend named Jim Berry who used to own a Yamaha dealership in the 1970s. Ten years ago he moved to Belgium and started to produce race fuel for his company, Howard Fuels. Through his business, he travels all over Europe and does a number of different things involved with all types of motor racing. About a year and a half ago, about the time Dorna got involved in Grand Prix motocross, he called me to see if I would be interested in producing a World Championship Grand Prix. We had Competition Park up and running at that point, and even though we were putting 20,000 riders and spectators a month through the facility, I knew it was too small for an event such as Grand Prix. At that same time we were negotiating with the city about expanding the park and, concurrently, Dorna was working on getting the GPs organized, so we kind of dropped the subject. About two and a half months ago, I received another call asking me if I would be interested in doing the Motocross des Nations in 2002. I said yes. Then Jordi Pons [a director of Dorna’s marketing department] called me, and we talked about the proposed event, and he liked the whole program I was working on. Soon after, Jordi and three other people flew out to California and we spent three days going over everything. I showed them the full color illustrations I had done and how the event would look.
Since word broke that the event would be at – or near – Competition Park, there’s been a lot of talk about just what type of track will be created for the event. Do you have the land and terrain available to make a world-class motocross track?
Well, there have been a number of people out there that have taken a negative approach to all of this from the moment they heard about it. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. The track we will build will not be a traditional, hillside race track. I raced on that stuff and love it to this day. However, much like supercross, Dorna wants high spectator visibility for this event. They believe that creating a track that the fans and TV cameras have full visibility to will make it successful. 112 countries will see this event on television! We’re not sure who will carry it here yet, but Dorna has a relationship with Clear Channel Entertainment, who has a relationship with ABC and ESPN. Dorna wants people – both at the race an on TV - to be able to see every corner. They know what they are doing: The MotoGP series has been a huge success. The races in Spain get upwards of 200,000 fans, while the races in Italy and Holland and Germany draw nearly 70,000. And in some cases, the crowd counts at MotoGP events are bigger than those of Formula 1. I’ve been told that there is the potential that half a billion people will see the Motocross des Nations on TV. It will be a phenomenal challenge, and we will have to work out tails off to make it successful, but we think we can do it.
So it is official, you do have the contract to produce the Motocross des Nations?
Yes. The FIM officially announced it last week. Basically, my partner Jim Facciuto and myself had a contract in our hands about one and a half months ago. However there were a number of addendums that had to be addressed. Having said that, the world should know that Dorna bent over backwards to get this event in the United States. They approached all of this the right way. I mean, they got on a plane to come and meet with a complete stranger. They were able to see that it was not a farce. We worked hard on the presentation and plenty of information to present to them.
Has the International Track been built yet?
No. We’re awaiting the track specifics from the FIM and will build it accordingly.
How big will the track be?
1.5 to 1.7 kilometers in length. The track will be fairly short. Lap times will be a shade under two minutes.
Be sure to check out next week’s Cycle News for EJ’s full interview.
Late last week, Racer X Illustrated editor Eric Johnson was invited to visit the site of what will soon be the new Competition Park. Located precisely six miles from the current location (which will ultimately close its doors), the new venue – which is located on land owned by the Soboba Mission Band of Indians – will also serve as the site of the 2002 Motocross des Nations on Sunday, September 29. During the visit, Johnson was able to sit down with primary promoter Malcolm McCassy Sr. and partner Jim Facciuto. The end result was a 5,000-word interview which will appear, in its entirety, in next week’s issue of Cycle News. Here’s a quick look at part of the interview.
Malcolm, I’ll jump right into this with the most important question: How did you end up with the responsibility of producing and promoting the 2002 Motocross des Nations?
I have a longtime friend named Jim Berry who used to own a Yamaha dealership in the 1970s. Ten years ago he moved to Belgium and started to produce race fuel for his company, Howard Fuels. Through his business, he travels all over Europe and does a number of different things involved with all types of motor racing. About a year and a half ago, about the time Dorna got involved in Grand Prix motocross, he called me to see if I would be interested in producing a World Championship Grand Prix. We had Competition Park up and running at that point, and even though we were putting 20,000 riders and spectators a month through the facility, I knew it was too small for an event such as Grand Prix. At that same time we were negotiating with the city about expanding the park and, concurrently, Dorna was working on getting the GPs organized, so we kind of dropped the subject. About two and a half months ago, I received another call asking me if I would be interested in doing the Motocross des Nations in 2002. I said yes. Then Jordi Pons [a director of Dorna’s marketing department] called me, and we talked about the proposed event, and he liked the whole program I was working on. Soon after, Jordi and three other people flew out to California and we spent three days going over everything. I showed them the full color illustrations I had done and how the event would look.
Since word broke that the event would be at – or near – Competition Park, there’s been a lot of talk about just what type of track will be created for the event. Do you have the land and terrain available to make a world-class motocross track?
Well, there have been a number of people out there that have taken a negative approach to all of this from the moment they heard about it. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. The track we will build will not be a traditional, hillside race track. I raced on that stuff and love it to this day. However, much like supercross, Dorna wants high spectator visibility for this event. They believe that creating a track that the fans and TV cameras have full visibility to will make it successful. 112 countries will see this event on television! We’re not sure who will carry it here yet, but Dorna has a relationship with Clear Channel Entertainment, who has a relationship with ABC and ESPN. Dorna wants people – both at the race an on TV - to be able to see every corner. They know what they are doing: The MotoGP series has been a huge success. The races in Spain get upwards of 200,000 fans, while the races in Italy and Holland and Germany draw nearly 70,000. And in some cases, the crowd counts at MotoGP events are bigger than those of Formula 1. I’ve been told that there is the potential that half a billion people will see the Motocross des Nations on TV. It will be a phenomenal challenge, and we will have to work out tails off to make it successful, but we think we can do it.
So it is official, you do have the contract to produce the Motocross des Nations?
Yes. The FIM officially announced it last week. Basically, my partner Jim Facciuto and myself had a contract in our hands about one and a half months ago. However there were a number of addendums that had to be addressed. Having said that, the world should know that Dorna bent over backwards to get this event in the United States. They approached all of this the right way. I mean, they got on a plane to come and meet with a complete stranger. They were able to see that it was not a farce. We worked hard on the presentation and plenty of information to present to them.
Has the International Track been built yet?
No. We’re awaiting the track specifics from the FIM and will build it accordingly.
How big will the track be?
1.5 to 1.7 kilometers in length. The track will be fairly short. Lap times will be a shade under two minutes.
Be sure to check out next week’s Cycle News for EJ’s full interview.
