Letting the Good Times Roll

"One man, one movie. That's what did it to us." Thirty years after Marlon Brando terrorized a small California town in The Wild One, his hooligan image has dogged motorcycle racing, says motocross expert Larry Maiern. "Most motorcyclists are thought of as being people who rob, loot, burn, rape and steal, and that just isn't true."

Motocross is a sport in transition. It's fighting the leather jacket image, struggling to get accepted as a legitimate sport and desperately seeking the exposure to accomplish both. At present the sport is a schizophrenic blend of exciting racing, carnival showmanship and pure hucksterism.

Whether dirt bike racing can make the jump to the big time depends on the success of the sport's latest gimmick--a compact version of motocross called "stadium supercross," which made its only New England appearance of the year Saturday night in Foxboro's Sullivan Stadium. Supercross is sealed down, off-road motocross in which racers compete on a half-mile man-made course. Unlike indoor soccer or box lacrosse, supercross is not significantly different from its bigger, outdoor brother. It also boasts a number of features that have promoters, sponsors and racers licking their lips in anticipation of ticket sales.

Still, as David Bailey says, "The credibility of this sport has a long way to go." Bailey should know. Bailey took the motocross world by storm last year, winning an unprecedented three national titles and more than $1 million in prize money. This year he has become the sport's unofficial spokesman and media darling.

By one set of standards, Bailey fits the motorcyclist image. He has been racing for more than half his life, had to take correspondence courses to finish high school and admits that if he weren't racing he would probably be pumping gas or cashiering at a 7-11 store. Yet he says he has worked hard to be a positive role model for children and an articulate spokesman for the sport.

Handsome and soft-spoken, Bailey is not reluctant to raise his voice when he thinks promoters are exploiting drivers by making tracks too easy to give poorer drivers a chance, or cutting back on prize money to save expenses. "I'm brave enough and frustrated enough to speak out," he says. "I would like to help the sport in any way I can."

Ironically enough, Bailey's erstwhile opponents--the promoters--also have an interest in legitimizing the sport. They say this type of indoor motocross will be the key to increasing the sport's popularity. "It's a better spectator sport in some ways than traditional motocross," says Michael A. DiPrete, promoter of Saturday's race in Foxboro. "From the spectators' perspective, it's a great show because they can enjoy the racing from the comfort of their seats."

Stadium racing has another monetary advantage that promoters such as DiPrete hope to exploit television coverage. It's much easier to televise a stadium race than one on a three-mile track in the boondocks. Currently only one motocross event, the national outdoor championship in Carlsbad. California, is nationally televised. Promotoers say that for the sport to attract a wider audience, it must get more television exposure.

It needs television desperately Corporate sponsors won't come in unless there are three or four T V events a year," says Tom Mueller, a promoter for Wrangler Jeans, which sponsors a 15 race supercross series around the country. Wrangler sponsors the entire series and has put up $125,000 in prize money for the series championship, but Mueller says motocross needs to attract corporate sponsors for individual drivers and teams to get more attention. "We need team Burger King. We need team 7-11, to make this thing work."

According to Mueller supercross is a virtually untapped advertising market. He points out that while most of the 30,852 people who watched Saturday's races are not potential motorcycle riders, they are potential Wrangler Jeans buyers.

Bailey says that while most of the drivers are frustrated at their lack of exposure, there is a lot of disagreement about how the sport should expand. Riders seem to want the media exposure, but not at all costs. He worries that if the sport grows too fast it could backfire by making inexperienced drivers look foolish in the media fishbowl. Bailey, who is 22, says that because the drivers are so young--many are still teenagers and almost none are more than 25 years old--it will take time before they learn to give good interviews and present a good image.

He is somewhat unique in advocating careful growth and yet, like everyone else, says the key to motocross's future is in more television exposure. "It's not ready to get big yet," he cautions, and says the only way to change the public's perceptions is to race as often as possible in as many places as possible and maintain a professional image.

Large sponsors agree with Bailey, and they make their riders take correspondence courses if they haven't finished high school. Riders are also required to look clean-cut and cooperate with the press.

SULLIVAN STADIUM is best known as the home of the New England Patriots. The scoreboard at the north end of the stadium still reads Patriots/Saints from the last game of the 1983 season in December. During off season the field is usually quiet, except for the occasional concert or ethnic festival but about two weeks ago something changed. Workers covered the field with plastic and plywood and then dumped 600 truckloads of dirt on the field for tractors and bulldozers to sculpt into a motocross track.

Cynics say fans come just to see the crashes, but the race there last weekend indicated that as accidents go, they are pretty tame. A motocross crash has none of the explosive finality of an Indy car slamming into the wall at 200 mph. A rider loses control in a jump, hits the ground off balance, falls off his bike, picks it up and starts going again. Crashes serve much more as opportunities for passing than for broken legs. One of the most exciting parts of Saturday's action was in the second-to-last race, when leader Scott Burnsworth fell on the sixth lap and local favorite Jo Jo Keller swept into the lead.

Such thrills are the stuff promoters' dreams are made of. The whole night, however, is a carefully orchestrated show and still not completely a sporting event. The NFL changes rules and hires cheer-leaders to make football more exciting, but the hype and showmanship of a motorsports event is unique.

At times, a night at the races seems vaguely reminiscent of watching the Harlem Globetrotters play. Part of the problem is institutional. Races are short and the program drags midway through the evening, as obscure riders who lost in the first qualifying heats struggle to make it into the main event. So the track announcer screams and promotors import a variety of sideshows to liven up the evening.

After the last semifinal race Saturday Doug Domokos, the Wheelie King, came show boating onto the track and bet track builder John Savitski $500 he could ride around it on one wheel. He did it but it was an awful lot like watching Meadow-lark Lemmon run around with a waterbucket full of confetti.

During a race any time spent in the air is lost, as the bike is merely floating, not moving ahead. So drivers try to stay on the ground as much as possible. Promoters, though, try to play up the sport's dangerous in-the-air element. The most exciting part of this course was a large jump called the catapult; Diet Coke gives the driver who jumps the farthest a $1000 bonus. The fans love it, but it reinforces the idea that motocross is a show and not a sport.

Spectators love the spills and thrills, but as one young fan said during the pre-race parade of Miss Toyota. Miss Yamaha and local disc jockey Charles Laquidera hamming it up. "Christ, I just wish they'd get on with it. Motocross fans image is almost as bad as that of the racers themselves Promoters insist it is as inaccurate.

When fans ran on the track at the end of the night. Maiern, the track announcer for the night, yelled. "Hey come on, we can't have that. If you want us to bring supercross back to Foxboro next year, we can't have that kind of behavior." Foxboro police said it was hard to compare the supercross crowd to a football crowd because it was much smaller, but they reported only one fight and a handful of minor incidents. An average football game may send upwards of 25 people to the police station. Clearly supercross has a long way to go if it is to capture the hearts of the populace.