Giuseppe Luongo. Photo from www.motocrossmx1.com
Dear MXA,
I read a press release on a European motocross site that said Giuseppe Luongo wants to hold a USGP next year and would even like to hold two GPs in the USA in a single year. It also said he wanted to move the MXDN here on a rotating basis. My question is: Where would Luongo most likely hold these races?
Luongo's Youthstream organization is desperate to get a foothold in the USA...and is currently looking for American race tracks to hold future events at. He is starting with the MXDN at Lakewood, Colorado, this year, but also says that he wants to bring the MXDN to the USA on a regular basis. If all of this is true (not that Luongo hasn't announced USGP races before only to cancel them later), then he will need a minimum of three or four well-known and well-regarded American tracks to give him instant credibility. Why does he need so many tracks? A couple are for GP's and he will need more for bi-annual or greater MXDN's.
If we were betting men, and we aren't, MXA thinks that Luongo's Youthstream organization will begin looking at current or former AMA National tracks (which is why he went to Lakewood for the MXDN). AMA National tracks are very famous in Europe and, if Luongo could snag some premier AMA tracks away from the Nationals, he would be on the rebound in the USA. Luongo would do himself a disservice to go to unknown or jerk-water tracks...he needs to land a big fish track (well, actually three or four big fish tracks).
The goal for Luongo is to take over American motocross...which he tried to do during the AMA bidding process (that bid eventually went to DMG for less money than Luongo had offered). On the farfetched side: With three or four big name American tracks holding the MXDN and GPs in the USA, Giuseppe could leverage the FIM into giving him the rights to run his own FIM outdoor Championship series (and the AMA would most likely have to give its blessing because they are a signee to the FIM charter). Under this strategy, there could be two competing outdoor series running at the same time...and we would end up right where we were with the Supercross series seven years ago...which the FIM won.
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