Market Value

Market value

TDC

Kevin Cameron

THE AMA HAS COLLAPSED THE WAVE function of speculation into a certainty that U.S. Superbikes will remain at l000cc until 2008. Good going. Will we now see the hoped-for collision of five brands, head-to-head? Well, uh, you know, budget, blah-blah, policy, sales curve, threatened Chinese currency devaluation, blah-blah. In other words, maybe.

And American Honda’s embarrassment at doing less well in AMA Superbike than they’d hoped after cutting their HRC apron strings and choosing to develop their own CBR1000RR? Officially all is wellas we know, the late Grand Advisor Mr. Soichiro Honda always taught that there’s more to be learned from failure than from success. Frankly, I’m embarrassed for them, and I wince as each pre-owned explanation is trotted out. Okay, they don’t want to tell us what’s going on, so we can only speculate. HRC bikes too rich for their blood? Last rumor was $850,000 lease price per seat, which is starting to look economical compared with the PR impact of finishing behind privateers running Superstock versions of the same bike. Maybe it’s opaque internal politics? Is HRC mad at the U.S. outfit for any reason, or vice-versa? We’ll get James Bond on it right away. Meanwhile, HRC bikes are doing fine in British Superbike. Something interesting is happening here— we just don’t know what it is.

For contrast, think of Gary Nixon’s famous straight-shooter reply when a fan asked him why he’d only finished third in his last national. “Whaddya mean why? Two other guys rode better’n me, that’s why!”

Having recently seen the Houston round of Pro Stock motorcycle drag racing, I am sensitized to the growing and successful presence of women in motorsport. Now comes Danica Patrick, qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 at 225 mph, leading the race for many laps, and then finishing fourth amid intense interest and some whimpering from fellow competitors that she doesn’t weigh 200 pounds. Syndicated sports writer Jim Armstrong’s column on the race points out that Ms. Patrick’s drama has momentarily reversed a long fall in the 500’s TV ratings, and he describes open-wheel racing as otherwise a dwindling dot in NASCAR’s rear-view mirror.

Could it be that racing has more to do with people than it does with valve lift? This raises questions in our own sport. How could it be that the late Dale Earnhardt had a dozen “trinket trucks”-large tractor-trailer rigs selling Earnhardtsignature belt buckles, beer mugs and T-shirts all over the country-while our own potentially equally promotable racing personality Miguel Duhamel has zero trinket trucks?

When I ask about this, I’m told that maybe AMA riders have to agree not to market themselves in a similar manner? Does this mean they sign over the right to make that money to someone else? Or does it mean that nobody makes that potential income and no one derives that potential advertising value?

Now I think about the Barry Sheene Effect. Suzuki Great Britain used to be quite offended when the English press would report “Sheene wins again!” rather than “Suzuki wins again.” Certainly manufacturers deserve their fair share of the limelight, but the real question is, how big is the show? The late, great Sheene enormously increased the public appeal of roadracing in Britain. Yes, often his name got top billing and Suzuki’s second, but the total number of people who saw the Suzuki name associated with success was vastly increased.

Pro Stock drag racing has grown rapidly because of two factors. First is the inclusion of the “Harley-like” Vance & Hines and S&S mega-inch motors, giving the zillions of Big Twin fans something to care about. And second (not necessarily in importance) is the novel and frequent success of women in that sport-something that has appeal far beyond the National Dragster subscription list.

This is the point: By promoting people and issues (personalities, man vs. woman, Milwaukee Vibrator vs. Rice Rocket) a sport reaches out for a larger, more general audience, because people are more interested in people than they are in things! Few people even know what kind of car Danica Patrick drove (Hondapowered Panoz PZ09C), but her drama and her fourth place have focused national attention on Indycar racing. Suddenly people care what happens in the next episode. This enlarges the audience for the advertising messages that pay for this kind of racing. Every advertiser in that sport benefits from Ms. Patrick’s presence.

The “spectacle” of six or eight identical-looking motorcycles, operated in close formation by men largely unknown to the public appeals mainly to loyal subscribers of Roadracing World. Hailing this as “a ding-dong battle” or assuring the viewer that “you could cover the lead seven with a blanket” does little to ignite new interest or make a wider audience care which unit happens to be ahead at the end. Hollywood publicists know that being a movie star is less about acting than it is about the celebrity-personality game. They know that when a career dips, it’s time for a trashed hotel room or a juicy divorce to lift it into the public eye again.

The point is not that motorcycle racing needs an injection of bad taste, but rather that it must examine the examples of NHRA Pro Stock and the post-Danica Patrick IRL series. Also instructive is the current intense rivalry between Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibemau in MotoGP. It forces people to take sides, to view racing as an expression of their own feelings and attitudes. Was gentlemanly Sete wronged by Rossi’s hard pass? Or did Sete himself err in leaving the door ajar? People care about this and the press blows hard on the embers of their feelings until it flares up into wider interest in the sport. Maybe this process is a bit crass, but it’s how our world turns. The alternative is a modest sport that remains essentially private forever. □