Barrick not Happy

"I'm more disappointed in how Willow Springs handled his than in actually losing the date," says AMA Roadrace manager Ron Barrick. Barrick called AMASuperbike.com last night to reveal how things played out on the AMA's end in the Willow saga.

"We received a fax from Stephanie Huth, track manager at Willow Springs, on the fifth of this month. She said that she was overwhelmed with many things at Willow and that she just didn't see any way she could promote the race. It wasn't that the race wasn't profitable or there were other problems, it was just overwhelming for her to try and do it. She asked us to try and find someone to promote the race there."

According to Barrick, he  then talked with Huth and asked her to hold the date and said he would be back in touch with her soon. According to Barrick, she agreed.

Barrick said that he instantly started looking for a potential promoter to come in and rent the track and do the event. He had two immediate parties who were interested.

He started calling Willow Springs to get figures on what it was going to cost to rent the facility and see what sort of services were available through the track. He tried in vain to get in touch with Stephanie Huth. Barrick was able to reach Chris Huth who said he had no knowledge of the AMA race not happening at their family's racetrack.

Barrick thought he had a person interested in promoting the event and continued to try and get in touch with Stephanie Huth, who was reached successfully on the 17th. Barrick informed her that he needed some numbers on what this was going to cost and according to Barrick, Huth told him that she or someone from her staff would be back with him with numbers by the 22nd.

On the 22nd, according to Barrick, he waited to hear from Huth and finally called her at 1:00. She was not in but called him back an hour later, and told him that the date had been given to PACE.

"She said that she had had a meeting with Gary Becker (PACE's CEO) last Friday and they had finalized the agreement on Monday," Barrick said.

It's well known that PACE's Bill Syfan, Mike Kidd and Becker were in Southern Califonia last week visiting manufacturers and presumably Willow Springs before going to the World Supercross event .

"She burned me," Barrick said in a telephone interview last night. "I had (a) promoter very interested in taking over the event and in the end he expected me to come back with some financial numbers and I instead came back and told him that they had given the date away. I've been doing this since 1994 and it's the most unprofessional conduct by a track manager I've ever seen." Asked if he mentioned this to Huth, Barrick replied in the affirmative.

"She made me look stupid," Barrick said.

Repeated attempts have been made to contact Stephanie Huth for comment regarding this situation for several weeks, including again today; all attempts have been met with a dry silence from Willow Springs.  She has not offered one comment to clarify her position.

In the track or Ms. Huth's defense, it bears mentioning that she was never contractually obligated to have the AMA event, because the AMA normally does not have multi-year deals with promoters. As owner and or manager of the facility she is obviously within her rights to do with it what she pleases.  -- Dean Adams