Usgp: Dorna's Disappointment
USGP: DORNA'S DISAPPOINTMENT
ROUNDUP
WHEN ROADRACING fans in the Midwest first heard that the 1995 U.S. Grand Prix was coming to Road America in Wisconsin, many of them said it was too good to be true.
As we now know, unfortunately, they were right.
What went wrong? The short answer is that track modifications mandated by the FIM could not be completed. Progress was proceeding ahead of schedule until late February, when Dorna received the FIM’s final homologation drawings. They called for the additional excavation of 120 feet of hillside—with a huge jump in expense.
“With the Army Corps of Engineers and an unlimited budget, you can do anything,” says Dennis Noyes, vice-president of Dorna, the Madridbased company that organizes the GP series. “But by the time we learned about the (additional work), the project had run 100 percent over budget.” Neither Dorna nor Road America was prepared to absorb the extra costs, and the project deflated like a slashed tire. The race was taken off the schedule, and the two companies signed an agreement to hold each other blameless.
On a bigger scale, the Road America event imploded for the same reasons as did the USGP at Laguna Seca. Namely, not enough sponsorship money to pay for the cost of the race.
Dorna is in good company, though. Other victims of the USGP curse include former world champion Kenny Roberts and racing promoter Bernie Ecclestone-they lost millions in the Monterey Peninsula.
Compute the costs of transporting race teams and equipment from all over the world, add on track rental, start money, promotion and administration, and the total price tag for putting on a GP becomes staggering, upwards of $3 million. Factor in the another half-million or so in track modifications to meet FIM standards, and you’ve got one expensive weekend of racing.
“Because the overhead of the championship is so high, roadracing enthusiasts can no longer pay the tab to bring the show to town,” Noyes says. “To operate a (GP roadrace) like ours, you need a title sponsor in the $800,000 to $1 million range, plus a 35,000-spectator crowd, just to make your expenses. Nobody in the United States—other than Kenny Roberts-believes enough in grand prix racing to invest any of their own money in it.”
If a lack of sponsorship money was a key factor in the cancellation of the 1995 USGP, is the outlook any better for next year? Noyes says Dorna wants to put on a race in the United States, but not if it has to subsidize the event.
“The USGP has been on life-support from Dorna,” he says. “We’re not giving up...but it's time for a rethink.” —Michael T. Burr
THANK GOD FOR ESPN
Although there will be no USGP in 1995, race fans across the country will get to see Mick, Kevin, Luca and the boys the old-fashioned way: on television. Dorna and the cable-television network ESPN have arranged to air the complete schedule of GP races. ESPN’s most recent air dates for the 1995 grand prix series follow. All times are Eastern, and programming is subject to change. (Okay, so 1 a.m. is past your bedtime; isn’t it about time you learned to program that VCR, anyway?)
Japanese GP, 5/12, 1:00 a.m. Spanish GP, 5/26, 1:00 a.m. German GP, 6/23,1:00 a.m. Italian GP, 7/7,1:00 a.m. Dutch GP, 7/28, 1:00 a.m. French GP, 8/6, 12:30 p.m. British GP, 8/11. 1:00 a.m. TBA, 8/25, 1:00 a.m. Czech GP, 9/19, 1:00 a.m. TBA, 10/7,1:00 a.m. Argentine GP, 10/12,1:00 a.m. European GP, 10/22 1:00 a.m. Year in Review, 12/1 1:00 a.m.
