Joined Oct 2012
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Crab Key
Apropos of nothing much at all, I dug out an old copy of AMCN (Vol 41 No. 12 Nov 1-14 1991).
The cover has Magee on the Peter Jackson OWO1 after winning Leg 1 of the PI SWC race and coming 2nd in the 2nd leg (some old fruit called Phillis got 3rd in that leg BTW).
Anyway, page 7 has a news article titled "FIM FLEXES ITS MUSCLES".
Some extracts:
"Open warfare has broken out in grand prix racing with two opposing world GP championships now being organised for 1992. The FIM world congress in Christchurch, fired its opening shot against the rebel World Series organisers on the first day when it expelled IRTA, which supports the breakaway series. The next day it dropped a bomb as it reneged on a provisional $60million agreement with Bernie Ecclestone and other world series backers which would have preserved a single world championship series. Last Saturday, the closing day of congress, the FIM fired two major weapons against the rebels. It announced that the four Japanese manufacturers had sworn to support the official FIM road racing championships, and it imposed a black ban on circuits that - like Eastern Creek - host World Series meetings.
The FIM will set up a permanent Grand Prix Bureau to improve organisation of the GP championships.
...
...
The next day Vaessen (FIM President) began his address to the General Assembly by giving the background to the conflict between the FIM and the rebel series, which is largely backed by Formula One Supremo Bernie Ecclestone. He gave details of a "provisional agreement" or "letter of intent" that had been signed at a meeting in Barcelona in September. Vaessen outlined the advantages of the compromise framework - better image for the sport, more money for the riders - and the delegattes assumed he was going to ask their endorsement of the "letter of understanding" to retain a unified GP world championship in 1992.
But late in his speech Vaessen veered suddenly off this track and called on delegates to repudiate the arrangement.
His main fear was that the FIM would lose control of the GPs...
...
The letter of intent provided for 14GPs a year, a calendar to be proposed by Dorna and Two Wheel Promotions but with the FIM retaining the right of final approval. Dorna would have television rights for 10 years and the FIM would get $6million a year. TWP would have management rights.
...
Race regulations would have their basis in FIM rules; Dorna and Two Wheel Promotions would have the right to make proposals for changes but FIM would retain right of veto.
...
"...Vaessen said "The teams and the riders would like to earn much more money.
"Grand Prix Racing has entered the top of world sports. It can be compared with, and competitive with, tennis, football and Formula One car racing....."
....
But, Vaessen said, this agreement gave away too much power from the FIM....He believed Ecclestone wanted complete control over motorcycle racing...
....
One reason was a series of unpopular moves by Vaessen and Zegwaard (FIM Road Racing Commission President), including removal of the television rights contract from present holder Bernie Ecclestone to motorsport newcomers Dorna, and the proposal to switch the premier 500cc class from the current two-strokes to slower four-strokes. These triggered IRTA, pushed by some of the sponsors, into approaching Ecclestone to put together an alternative world championship...
There was another attempt at a breakaway series in '79...but that, like this one from 20 years ago, went nowhere. In the end, all the players made their Faustian bargains...and we are where we are.
The cover has Magee on the Peter Jackson OWO1 after winning Leg 1 of the PI SWC race and coming 2nd in the 2nd leg (some old fruit called Phillis got 3rd in that leg BTW).
Anyway, page 7 has a news article titled "FIM FLEXES ITS MUSCLES".
Some extracts:
"Open warfare has broken out in grand prix racing with two opposing world GP championships now being organised for 1992. The FIM world congress in Christchurch, fired its opening shot against the rebel World Series organisers on the first day when it expelled IRTA, which supports the breakaway series. The next day it dropped a bomb as it reneged on a provisional $60million agreement with Bernie Ecclestone and other world series backers which would have preserved a single world championship series. Last Saturday, the closing day of congress, the FIM fired two major weapons against the rebels. It announced that the four Japanese manufacturers had sworn to support the official FIM road racing championships, and it imposed a black ban on circuits that - like Eastern Creek - host World Series meetings.
The FIM will set up a permanent Grand Prix Bureau to improve organisation of the GP championships.
...
...
The next day Vaessen (FIM President) began his address to the General Assembly by giving the background to the conflict between the FIM and the rebel series, which is largely backed by Formula One Supremo Bernie Ecclestone. He gave details of a "provisional agreement" or "letter of intent" that had been signed at a meeting in Barcelona in September. Vaessen outlined the advantages of the compromise framework - better image for the sport, more money for the riders - and the delegattes assumed he was going to ask their endorsement of the "letter of understanding" to retain a unified GP world championship in 1992.
But late in his speech Vaessen veered suddenly off this track and called on delegates to repudiate the arrangement.
His main fear was that the FIM would lose control of the GPs...
...
The letter of intent provided for 14GPs a year, a calendar to be proposed by Dorna and Two Wheel Promotions but with the FIM retaining the right of final approval. Dorna would have television rights for 10 years and the FIM would get $6million a year. TWP would have management rights.
...
Race regulations would have their basis in FIM rules; Dorna and Two Wheel Promotions would have the right to make proposals for changes but FIM would retain right of veto.
...
"...Vaessen said "The teams and the riders would like to earn much more money.
"Grand Prix Racing has entered the top of world sports. It can be compared with, and competitive with, tennis, football and Formula One car racing....."
....
But, Vaessen said, this agreement gave away too much power from the FIM....He believed Ecclestone wanted complete control over motorcycle racing...
....
One reason was a series of unpopular moves by Vaessen and Zegwaard (FIM Road Racing Commission President), including removal of the television rights contract from present holder Bernie Ecclestone to motorsport newcomers Dorna, and the proposal to switch the premier 500cc class from the current two-strokes to slower four-strokes. These triggered IRTA, pushed by some of the sponsors, into approaching Ecclestone to put together an alternative world championship...
There was another attempt at a breakaway series in '79...but that, like this one from 20 years ago, went nowhere. In the end, all the players made their Faustian bargains...and we are where we are.
