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It's tough to listen to Jayce, he needs to learn how to interview people.
Outside of that, seems Bud was burned by Team Coombs, repeatedly, and decided he did not want to deal with that kind of people any longer. I get it. Moving forward, can they bury the hatchet and get all things in writing going forward? MXDN at Glen Helen 2025.......we can only hope.
You must be from San Diego/SoCal if you got that one. I was either going to go with Jacoby & Meyers (definitely low budget hacks), or the king of the ambulance chasers himself, Sam Spitale.
Nice post with lot of good info. Thanks!
but to be fair. GH could hold a National in a few weeks, as is and with all the National “make up” it would look every bit as good or better than Pala that doesn’t even have a proper restroom or much else besides a few sets of Tee Ball bleachers that hold about 30 people each. I am thankful for it but it’s not a place I encourage my friends from La. to come out and watch a National unlike what I tell them about GH and how the National was there.
It was a power play and Coombs Sr seized it. Coombs Jr is just following in his footsteps.
I don't blame Bud one bit.
Even so, water under the bridge at this point.
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I clearly listened to a different podcast than the two of you. I don’t get you guys feel this way.
Coombs Sr. Passed away in 1998…
Weird post of the day…
Thought of you while watching “Lost in Translation”. 🤣
Hope you are kicking ass and smiling.
Manny
Not sure if I love that movie, or if I just love everything with Bill.
Unfortunately, suffering a slow recovery from surgery, but will be kicking ass soon. Always smiling.
Well, and the fact is, none of us (me) were (was) there, so its probably not fair on my part to make a judgement call.. Coombs Sr. might've been a very nice man, and I don't know what actually transpired back around 1980. So, I can only say that what has come of the move by the Coombs family has benefitted the sport.
I thought I heard it in both of the interviews. Thanks for posting and making things clear.
I believe his point in saying the bad stuff about GH's appearance was to point out what they looked like when they have held Nationals in the past. Those images were taken at the nationals he references in the post. He was not saying that the track could not be made to look amazing. Just that even when they had Nationals in the past they were not making it look amazing and putting on their best like the other Nationals do.
I've never been to GH, but I have been to 6 other Nationals multiple years in a row. Southwick for over 20 years . Unadilla , Highpoint, Budd's Creek, Steel City, Broome between 04 and 12 or until they stopped having a National . And all of them were always better the next year than the previous year as far as facility's go starting around the time MX Sports got involved. I remember hearing that there were required upgrades at each track , a certain amount of change per year. and other things that the people that were running Southwick back then were not super excited about having to spend the money on. I was racing locally and at local races every weekend back then from March -November when I was not at a National . I'm friends with some of the people who have run NESC over the years so I've been able to hear some of the inside things that go on locally with races. But it looks like it was all worth it now. I have never heard anything about the current people that run Southwick having any complaints , but I also have not been around local races like I used to be.
I hadn't really thought of it before but Glen Helen is kinda a dump aesthetically compared to most the other Nationals. I'm not just talking about lack of greenery either it's SoCal can't expect much, but the facility itself isn't on "niceness" level of the other Nationals I've been to.
Genuine Question, we know the relationship between Bud/Glen Helen and MxSports is bad, but how's the relationship with Infront/Luongo's? There were a few GP held at Glen Helen (2010, 2015 and 2016) and the 2017 MXoN was supposed to be held at Glen Helen, before it was cancelled and scheduled to Matterly Basin...
I think Bud shot himself in the foot on this one now to. When he scheduled the first GP in 2010 it was a screw you to MX Sports. Even to the extent he was offering AMA riders extra money to skip the National. (Thinking about the NPG should be more upset about this than anything.)
But now, MX Sports and Youthstream have agreed to work together, so the MXoN or any MXGP will be organized through MXSports per my understanding. Could be wrong.
Anything that has its genesis with the AMA is going to be a shady deal.
from Cycle News:
INDUSTRY NEWS - Will Daytona Group Keep Properties?
By Henny Ray Abrams
More Groups 3/7/2008
The Daytona Motorports Group (DMG) won the bidding for all AMA Pro Racing properties except for Supercross, but will they keep them? Probably not.
A source with knowledge of the agreement said the plan was for the DMG to sublet most of the properties, while retaining hands-on control of just Superbike.
The group most likely to get the motocross nationals is the National Promoters Group (NPG), which was one of the most prominent bidders, along with Youthstream, the organizers of the Motocross World Championships.
The Daytona group may have wanted to keep motocross, but their plans conflicted with the AMA’s Supercross contract with Live Nation, which runs through 2019. The plan under consideration was to run motocross races at NASCAR Sprint Cup facilities, but a clause in the AMA’s contract with Live Nation prevents anyone from promoting motocross races in facilities with more than 32,000 fixed seats.
Apparently the article was wrong...
Yep.
But that was the sentiment at the time, so you can see Bud's astonishment when it changed direction and went to one of the partners of NPG entity?
That was an opinion of whoever wrote the article at the time...it proved to be mostly wrong....at the end of the day time has shown that Bud is a lone wolf and difficult to deal with and who is someone that constantly wanted to change the deal/agreement...DC bent over backwards to try and accommodate to no avail....Time to move on as there won't ever be a national at GH as long as Bud's around...
Pit Row
And 16 years later he still isn't over it....meanwhile other tracks are making millions putting on Nationals.
Oh well.
Interesting details from this 2012 MXA interview with Bud. The NPG bid to the AMA was only $2 million and now MX Sports has to come up with $1 million a year to pay DMG for the license before anything else happens. We dont know how much DMG invested in '08 but thats alot of money today for a name.
Bud said he ASSUMED NPG would negotiate with DMG about licensing the motocross series after the AMA Pro Racing bid was lost, well we can all see what happens when you assume like that. No NPG meetings on licensing MX rights after the failed bid?
https://motocrossactionmag.com/bud-feldkamp-breaks-his-silence-on-why-g…
I for one am happy and feel lucky with where the Nationals are right now with the current organisers and promoters. We have a fantastic series to watch. I was worried about the decline of the nationals a few years ago. It’s where the true fans who buy motorcycles are, and incredible to watch.
Think what you want of DC, with rumours and stories, but he comes across genuine, and his passion for the sport is what we need at the helm. It’s a business, businesses need to make money. It’s a hell of a lot healthier model then MXGP.
We don’t need Bud and GH. As cool as it would be, it’s just one track. His vet nationals provide enough entertainment with its comedy of errors year after year.
My point was more that Pala is no different. They put lipstick on a pig there too. Sure there are some nice big blue culverts/tunnels but there are naked jersey barriers every where, thrown up chain link fences and 100% porta John’s. He tried to paint the picture that GH was a shithole whereas Pala is nearly the same. Been to Washougal, red bud, gatorback and freestone and for the most part they are all the same in raw form. It was a shitty stab is basically my point. They are motocross tracks fro crying out loud.
I never once mentioned, nor intended to draw any comparisons, between the infrastructure at Glen Helen and Pala in my previous post. My comments were simply about the appearance of the Glen Helen facility on national race day. I have attended every one of them since 2006.
But if you want to go there - lets do it!
Lets first point out that (last year) Pala Raceway built a large 3 story permanent VIP tower building at the finish line. It is pretty nice inside, and houses several viewing rooms (with AC!). This is extra nice for the event production crew, which includes the timing and scoring crew, the live event announcers, course control, TV people, etc. Yes, they also had a temporary one right next to it, but that is because there was a ton of VIP tickets sold.
Also at Pala is the Fox Pro shop, which is a nice new permanent building and looks good, and is always a fun place to visit. They also have small, well kept playground / mini moto track for the kiddo's, as well as a newer track office building over in the back that was recently built. They keep some fresh artwork on the sheds (which is designed by Fox Racing) as well. The entrance to Pala is clean and mostly free of garbage, the pavement and dirt roads are smooth and in good shape, and the various gates around the facility are not bent or damaged from people breaking chains and trying to open them.
Oh, and the fences are painted (white) and in pretty good overall shape. Yea, they have Porta Johns, but they dont have a septic system onsite, let alone one that could handle the needs of 20,000 fans. I didnt see much, if any, Jersey Barrier at the national this year. But the Jersey Barrier that I did see (over by the freestyle track or whatever it is on the right side when you pull in), well, it wasnt all banged and broken up around the edges from being moved around with a dozer. Furthermore, they didnt have buried Jersey barrier along the finish line straight, and they made a big effort to fill in alot of the rain ruts around the facility and grade smooth alot of the areas surrounding the track.
The only major improvement at Glen Helen in 20+ years that I am aware of - and please correct me if I am wrong - is the TLD Museum building that was built in ~2014, which is just an empty metal building that they dress up and host some VIP stuff. That was indeed a nice addition for the national. But the rest of the place is darn rough around the edges!
Dont get me wrong - Pala is certainly no Redbud or Ritz Carlton, but the facility is cleaner and better taken care of then Glen Helen ever was. And they are making small improvements every year.
But before someone freaks out, I am NOT talking about the track itself, just the presentation and maintenance of the facility!
The lack of attention to infrastructure and investment at Glen Helen is obvious to anyone that visits that place. Yes it has some great elevation changes - but given the financial resources that Dr. Feldcamp is said to have, its surprising to me that the place looks the way it does. He obviously has the $$ (at least according to this thread) to make investments, if he wanted to. I assume his various medical practices are clean, tidy and well kept - but he could easily do much better for his riders and fans that attend his racetrack.
It's difficult to follow Bud's side of the story.
If shady stuff went down between the AMA, DMG and MXSports, then that's a real bummer and I would be upset just like Bud. However you can't change any of that now so the question is whether you take your ball and go home or accept it like all of the other promotors.
If running a national at GH is more expensive than at other venues, and MXSports is unable to make exceptions for Bud's "side hustle" ideas (for lack of a better term), then maybe some other concessions could be made/negotiated to make it financially feasible for Bud while still being acceptable for MXSPorts?
Dialogue is key methinks. But then again, I don't know the whole story and the above is little more than speculation/conjecture.
This article is clearly flawed and there is a very close relationship between Jody and Bud so that makes sense. "Executive positions" of the NPG? As mxnick described, that was the track owners who maybe met once or twice a year and Bud was only there a few times and left early often. Not sure that constitutes an effective leadership strategy.....but regardless they AND MXS lost the bid. This is not hard to understand.
I am curious about how AMA Pro ran the bidding process? All or none? Bids for one series or multiples?
Pala is ten times nicer than GH. Just driving to Pala and smelling the orange grooves and being in the green mountains with the ocean breeze blowing up the valley is awesome.
GH is surrounded by one of the dirtiest and worst areas in California. Plus GH is always 15 degrees hotter in the summer or 15 degrees colder in the winter. I just wish they could put the GH track at Pala. That’s what we need
Not sure why you got downvoted, but this is correct.
Post a reply to: Gypsy Tales/Glen Helen/ Bud Feldkamp Interview