L& Mc Racing Shuts Doors for 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013 | 1:40 PM
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PrintTeam Press Release (Updated Release)
Los Angeles, CA – L&Mc Racing, LLC will regrettably commence team racing operations for the 2013 season, immediately, as the result of circumstances beyond the team’s control.
L&Mc Racing principals, 7-time Supercross champion Jeremy McGrath and Team Manager, Larry Brooks, as well as their rider Andrew Short, are committed to running a program with the utmost level of professionalism however, recent unforeseen events outside of the team’s control have prevented that from occurring.
Larry Brooks and Jeremy McGrath wish their friend and colleague Andrew Short, the best of success in 2013 as he continues on with his career. According to McGrath, “We did our best to keep Andrew out on the track but forces out of our control dictated that we conclude the season much earlier than we anticipated or planned. Andrew is a class act and we wish him success throughout the rest of the season and beyond with his new team.” Added Larry Brooks, “Andrew has proven himself to be a great rider over the years, and my hope is that 2013 be no different for him.”
Jeremy McGrath and Larry Brooks wish to thank the current L&Mc Racing sponsors, Chaparral, Honda, WPS, Bel Ray, MMI, FMF, ODI, Talon, Dubya, Matrix, and Ironclad for their tireless support, exceptional loyalty and unwavering commitment to the L&Mc Race Team.
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On a much smaller scale, I had my motorcycle shop closed due to economic conditions beyond my control in 06, (lack of income), so I feel your pain MC. I hope Andrew can find a ride on such Short notice...
Short probably already has something lined up, if not he should be calling KW and The Rock . . . or Decoster.
FC Honda/Planet Fitness Andrew Shoooooorrrrrrrrttttt !!!!!!
Thanks KW14 !
It's the RacerX cover curse...oh wait a sec..
Who's the new team?
"L&Mc; will continue to support their rider, friend, and colleague Andrew" How? By telling him what a great guy he is? That just seems like a weird thing to say when you're pulling the plug.
I hope he finds a spare Honda. KW's ride seems like a natural spot, but things are often more complicated than they may seem to us. He was looking pretty solid this year. Not quite at the pace of the top guys, but consistently beating most of the rest.
You wouldn't think MC would have problems like this seeing as he is Mr Supercross. Goes to show what shitty times were living in. Hopefully one day we'll look back at these times and be thankful our little sport survived. I for one can't wait for that day because this sucks big time.
I don't understand this sometimes. I mean, yeah the factory rigs are super nice, but they are not a necessity. You mean to tell me you can't use a smaller truck to get to the races. Ok, so it won’t have as much ‘pizazz’, but who cares about that except for 8 year old kids. Hell, I'm sure some people would be willing to drive the thing all over for free just about. Shorty's good enough to get sponsors to at least give him free stuff, what am I missing? The recession was an inconvenience yes, but some people act like it's 1933 sometimes. It’s not! People still go to the malls, drive their SUVs, etc. Why can't a team like this (or JDR) downsize a bit and still make it to the races? Help me out fellow readers, what am I missing? I feel like when teams go under it’s because of poor management. Semis, salaries for superfluous things, air travel, etc. I feel like when teams go under it’s because they can’t maintain their relatively lavish way of doing things, and then they say screw it. Wasn’t there a time when factory teams used box vans?
"new team." who?
I agree with a few guys about the high dollar semi's and all the bling.. It isnt neccasary to have all that to go racing.. Why do you need a factory like semi and all if you arent that big a team.. Would scaling down at the start of the season saved the team?? Probably not but we dont really know.. I would be shocked if Short isnt on the Geico 450 this weekend or next..
Stosh635
Great point! I couldn't agree more.
Matthes just tweeted that Andrew has something lined up and there will be an update later today.
@Stosh635. My sentiments exactly. To be a top level guy, you need to have an excellent bike, a well maintained practice track at your disposal at all times, and a great fitness program. Andrew has a factory Honda, tracks at both his home and at the Honda test track, and he's always one of the fittest guys out there. In Honda's eyes, Shorty wasn't financially worth keeping on their factory team, so now he's the sole rider in his own semi? How does that work? If your team is going broke, don't use a semi to haul around your lone rider. Shorty's only win came when he was working out of a box van. Teams need to put their money towards paying their riders and staff and bettering their riders's results (which will in turn bring in sponsor money), not drive back and forth accross the county in a giant, gas-guzzling tractor trailer for the sake of presentation.
Short got screwed ! Anyone think the economy is good your a fool ! If Mxer's cant do it No one can !
Title should read !
Screwed with out a kiss !!
It's true about all the big spending. The teams spend like they're NASCAR, and they're simply not. Motocross and / or Supercross will always be a niche market. So I would agree with the "poor management". Furthermore, how hard is it to create a budget and present an agreement for a full season? I think some of these teams are just winging it, making promises they can't keep. Result is guys like Shorty get hung out to dry. P.S. @Sloan, have you taken your meds yet today?
I'm thinking that Larry Brooks word does not mean sh!t. He continually says everything is fine and then the next day shuts down shop. I can see it happening once but this is not the first time Brooks has pulled this.
The common denominator here is Larry Brooks....
This is a BUMMER. I hope Shorty and L&Mc; soon land on their feet.
What nobody is talking about much is what's happening to our sport.
SX has a FEW guys making millions and the rest of the racers just trying too get by or not getting by at all. I don't want to take anything away from the top guys but when the "second class citizens" can no longer get a ride or make it to the races what kind of racing will we have? Eight guys in the Saturday night program will not do much for motorcycle racing. I think it is time for the racers to standup for themselves. The stadiums sell seats for twenty bucks or more times how many thousand? The TV contracts are paying somebody some pretty serious money. I know there is a cost of doing business, the risk taken, track construction, stadium rental, etc... But if the powers that promote this sport don't start sharing the wealth with the guys who put it on the line every week our sport will vanish as the fields shrink, then nobody makes any money.
So Short is hung out to dry ?? No more paychecks ?? Thats just lame.
Remember the good old days when a contract ment something. Now days you can just walk away from them and not get sued.
Hopefully Short can take that factory Honda over to Gieco or Tow Two !
With a all the millions McGrath has like the Stewarts,Reeds and alike.. Really !! I dont think people are as rich as one might think.. I think player RC should bring the man who will be there a shot at a ride at least thru SX ! Bummer for Shorty !
Some Happy 5th birthday for EMMA dad doesnt have a ride !
"L&Mc; Racing, LLC will regrettably commence team racing operations for the 2013 season." Somebody buy these guys a dictionary. "Commence" means START!
Motomushman, nobody is getting any money from TV contracts. Both the Supercross series and MX Nationals PAY the networks to air their content. Think of it as an infomercial...
My guess is that Ziggy has room for Shorty over at FC/GEICKO Honda. It would be a great fit and Kevin had all of his own gear and helmet deals, so Andrew's FLY deal wouldn't conflict...
Best of luck to Shorty, Larry and Jeremy...I think the hardest hit will be the crew members.
"L&Mc; Racing, LLC will regrettably commence team racing operations for the 2013 season"
Commence means to begin. We should all be thankful that they are finally showing up to race. I can see why they cant stay in business, they dont know the difference between "beginning" and "ending".
Short to RCH?..although, I'd think he want to be on Hondas.
These teams not securing all their funding before the season starts is ludicrous.
Brooks... pahhhhhhaaaaaa.
I used to have a race team, and a semi, and a big name under the tent. Unfortunately, it is all about the billboard that IS the semi. Then the scale of the value of the contract is related to the rider under the tent. No Semi = No Contract. A title sponsor (who really funds the team) will not pay a dime for a Sprinter with their logo on it. The Semi is the ticket to the parking spot at the stadium. The parking spot at the stadium and the billboard will get you the contract. Ever seen a Sprinter back to back with a semi?
You can tell from RC's comments about Short during the broadcast that he would never bring him into his team.
I know our sport is a niche market, as was brought up earlier, but it seems like a natural fit for Mountain Dew. They have Pepsi money market themselves as an extreme drink. I know its is to late now for them to adjust there budget, just seems like a natural place to look or are they afraid of upsetting Monster...Coke would make a good Honda sponsor, color match, biggest companies of their genre, again just seems like a no brainer..but that's what I have been accused of "no brain."..
I agree with Motomushman, there is a lot of money being made in this sport and the riders (that are thr most important part of it) are seeing very little of the cash being made. There are about 10 or 12 guys that are making a great living and the rest are just getting by. These guys risk their lives about 20 times a lap every weekend. Anyone who thinks Feld is paying networks for infomercials and is just scraping by is kidding themselves. Feld is profiting huge from SX! Larry and MC have made millions from this sport and I doubt either of their bank accounts have gotten smaller these last 2 years. The only way I can understand any of this is that they have Andrew set up on K-dubs ride. These riders are so under paid (except for the top stars) for the amount of risk, hard work, schedule and the amount of money and 15 years of injuries it takes just to get to that level. That has always been my beef with JS7, since 2008 he has raced 20% of the races and taken half of the available money that is there for all the riders. In the last month we have lost, JWR,JDR,L&Mc; and a few smaller teams. Another thing that has been unfair is the purse is smaller now than they were 20 years ago. How can these promoters justify that. The TV viewership and live attendance has steadily grown yet these guys get chump change for a win. When you have bowlers making a hundred times the purse of MX/SX you know something is seriously WRONG!! Shorty has done so much for this sport I sure hpoe he gets taken care of. It only makes sense that he gets K-dubs ride!!!
@ BD25
Moonshine sounds like a good fit........... LOL !!!
I saw Mr-Mx in the Windham and McBrooks camps LOL!!!! MAYBE THEIRS SOMETHING TO THAT... By the way Mr-Mx thanks for the $ 40 spot !
Coke and Honda goes good !!
Sloan Tell Mr Mx he is welcome...lol..look forward to seeing him in Texas..
I dont know about him but I'm going to Houston ............
Great replacement for KW at Geico. Short is a class act and will get results.
Good timing for Shot that K dub retired.
Short's results never helped the team's cause, except for the one SX win last year when everybody else was hurt. Nice guy, but time to make room for other riders.
Wont be long and sport will be dead.
To expensive.
The problem with MX and SX is that too many riders accept to race for no money. SX wouldn't exist without the semi-professional riders that show up every weekend to fill up the gates. Can anyone imagine what would happen if only the guys well-paid riders showed up at race? What would we have here? A race with maybe 10, 15 riders at most?
It does seem very wrong to be assed out after the 3rd race of a 17 race season. That means they have been holding out hope beyond hope that something was coming that just wasn't likely to come. Would have been best to come to grips with that say around last October and let Short not have to deal with this turmoil. It does seem Geico is happy with the returns on their sponsorship so I am surprised other big companies have not jumped in. I wonder if the teams are requesting too much money to be title sponsors? I also wonder if a Larry Brooks is trying to pull a huge salary out of a team or if he is just doing it for the love of it? Maybe the idea of fielding a team that isn't profitable is the issue? Whatever the case, it shouldn't fall apart 3 races in.
"circumstances beyond our control"
Come on. Owners of the team are the ones responsible for the control. If you're not in control...who the f.... is? Be a frickin man and take the blame. Shame on you.
Commence? I think they meant cease.
Circumstances beyond our control....well that was enlightening.
I must admit, I read then re-read the statement and could not understand how they could say commence racing operations and the later on say they have end the program.
Short will join chad! That's why he had a long meeting with Honda as everyone said it was out of character and also Honda could not fund a second bike for chad but now that this team is gone they can move the bike across to chads rig. Thoughts?
I feel bad for Short...Hard worker, unfortunately this bussiness venture did not pan out. I hope he has better luck where ever he ends up.
TWK you make excellent points!!!
My question is this, After all the crap that went down with James and Larry Brooks all the journalists implied they knew what happened but not one have let on.
This Racer X mag is pretending to be journalism. Steve, Jason and crew get off your butts and bring us the story!!!
Yes sadly Andrew Short has lost a ride (whic sucks cause he seems like a truly great and deserving guy) but you STILL haven't told us why....YET AGAIN!
Don't even pretend you don't know.
IF people knew what happend with the L&M fiasco with James (not sure who is to blame there....STILL) perhaps the new MCbrooks team might not have happened or sponsors, staff etc could have gone in to the situation better educated.
So not only do I think Feld are ripping off the riders(and perhaps the teams) I believe Racerxonline is not doing there job properly either.
Perhaps Steve and co could write a story that just might enlighten us despite upsetting a few industry people for awhile..... FOR ONCE!!
Sorry to bag you guys, because mostly you do an amazing job.
Okay, slight correction...this story is not a story...it is a team press release....
I still challenge you guys to bring us the full, unadulterated story though!
The other article says it will be a "new" team!? So as one team can't find funding and folds, another team pops up to take it's place? With the same rider? Glad to hear it and excited to hear the details. Will it be a team with sponsor funding or a rich dude spending his money?
Josh Hill, career over...sorry bro. Welcome Shorty to RCH. Yea that was Mathes scoop...
heres my 2 cents, If you want to start a team and seek out a rider and sit down and agree for hime to ride for your team you better be prepared to annie up the fukkin guys want to start a team just to get publicity but yet they have no plans what so ever on paying any money out of pocket like reed had to so as soon as their sponsor pulls the rug out from under them him and larry are looking at each-other like "I'm not paying for this, well neither am I ! oh well I guess we'll just shut it down" these guys are a joke these fly by night SX teams need to just stay away they don't do any of the riders any good now short has to find another ride when he's already accustomed to the honda
That sucks! Andrew is a class act. Maybe it's the Sports Illustrated curse? He did make the front cover of Racer X this month.
I do not understand what the deal is here? I mean, how could this happen? Didn't Larry Brooks tell everyone that there was no problems and the bad rumors surrounding the team were untrue and unfounded? Here is what seems to be the truth; Larry Brooks took advantage of a guy (Andrew Short) that could possibly be on a financially sound factory or factory-supported team. Instead we have Short (a top 10 rider) left stranded, and a contract left unfulfilled. Lets look to the past to underline what has occurred here. Larry Brooks was only found success as a team manger on three occasions: McGrath, Reed, and Stewart. Is it not odd that even with races and championships won with all three, the later two ended their experience with Brooks on very bad terms. Its telling that two; now three, of Brooks' riders will escape him with a bad taste in their mouths. It is a fair bet that Brooks promised Short the world, knowing full well the team would be playing "catch-up" financially from the teams beginning. The idea of "over-promising and under-delivering" has to be ringing through Shorts mind right now. Past, and present show that it is advisable that any rider in the future should stay clear of the "Larry Brooks experience", as three of his last four deals have all ultimately ended in failures. This is only an opinion coming from completely outside the industry with no "inside" source, so take this for what it is worth.
I do not understand what the deal is here? I mean, how could this happen? Didn't Larry Brooks tell everyone that there was no problems and the bad rumors surrounding the team were untrue and unfounded? Here is what seems to be the truth; Larry Brooks took advantage of a guy (Andrew Short) that could possibly be on a financially sound factory or factory-supported team. Instead we have Short (a top 10 rider) left stranded, and a contract left unfulfilled. Lets look to the past to underline what has occurred here. Larry Brooks was only found success as a team manger on three occasions: McGrath, Reed, and Stewart. Is it not odd that even with races and championships won with all three, the later two ended their experience with Brooks on very bad terms. Its telling that two; now three, of Brooks' riders will escape him with a bad taste in their mouths. It is a fair bet that Brooks promised Short the world, knowing full well the team would be playing "catch-up" financially from the teams beginning. The idea of "over-promising and under-delivering" has to be ringing through Shorts mind right now. Past, and present show that it is advisable that any rider in the future should stay clear of the "Larry Brooks experience", as three of his last four deals have all ultimately ended in failures. This is only an opinion coming from completely outside the industry with no "inside" source, so take this for what it is worth.
@bauer - Supercross/Motocross do not pay the Network to air there shows. The Network pays them to air the show. Basically Studios produce TV series and then sell them to networks. Sometimes networks develop their own shows, but the money is still shuffled between divisions. They then sell commercial time on the shows to make a profit. This is why shows with low ratings get canceled - they often lose money because advertisers don't want to air commercial on shows with few viewers, so they can't make up for the cost of buying the show.
Source - My uncle works for FOX
This kind of thing shouldn't happen, a budget should have been identifed, committments made and a full season completed before funding for the next season becomes an issue. Operations had to be managed by a couple monkeys... Sorry for Shorty and hope he gets KW's spot, otherwise what's out there?
Wouldn't shed a tear if SX went away, would cry a river if MX went away.
Bring back the two-stroke bikes and allow them to run anything up to 450cc. They can keep up with four-strokes and are much cheaper on the budget. I run four-strokes in desert racing. Let me tell you that an engine rebuild is not cheap! I average 20 hours a month per bike. I've been stretching my rebuilds to 60-80 hours. But I'm religious with oil changes at 10 hours and clean air filters. Motul oil seems to be the ticket. These big teams are so miss managed considering the amount of money they receive. These teams also should more time in preparing the riders. There are only a select few in the top five every weekend in Supercross. Why, they are more prepared and determined than the others. Yes, granted there are exceptions like natural talent, but look at James Stewart. He's the best, has the best equipment and is always struggling. Ama and FIM need to help the priviteers more...
Andrew oughtta dust off the Hodaka, load her up in the 78 dodge, grab a few tires that ain't too bald, and get er done.?
@joemotocross589- I will second that! Cruising the countyside in a van with a Hodaka SuperRat would be good publicity for Andrew.
Besides all the previous comments, Best of Wishes to Andrew, hopefully he will find a ride for the rest of the year.
You guys are idiots,they closed shop bcuz that POS Matt Cook who's a FRAUD just google his company bloosky interactive, llc scam and read how this scam artist is being sued by everyone.The dudes a POS who buys his friends,just ask Jeremy Twitch Stenburgh...Who do you think paid for his truck ride?The douche bag Matt Cook did He backed out of there Sponsorship agrement...& I doubt Larry has enough cash,to where he could finance a team without any return on his investment...and why would he or anybody want to...McGrath could probably afford it,then again he didn't make it to just throw away.+his wifes illness has to play a huge roll in his decissions....And Andrew Short is a great guy good role model but lets face it he's not winning any races anytime soon...And yes they do need a Riders Union of some kind bcuz they're not getting paid shit for 4-20th i think 5th place 250 lites is like $750 wtf thats a joke....And I'm sure RCH will be closing the doors within the next 2 years Carey's to Punk and Carmichael's to Richie Cunningham for that Ultimate team to work
Amen on sharing the wealth; I have been saying this for years. They need to run it like a business like the NFL and the NBA (revenue share) who pay their performers. you will be lucky to get your entry fee back for your winnings."they" are greedy and try to monopolize the winnings along with MX sport. I hope this changes soon as riders fight for their dream and put their life on the line every weekend.
God Bless all riders and keep them safe
Amen on sharing the wealth; I have been saying this for years. They need to run it like a business like the NFL and the NBA (revenue share) who pay their performers. you will be lucky to get your entry fee back for your winnings."they" are greedy and try to monopolize the winnings along with MX sport. I hope this changes soon as riders fight for their dream and put their life on the line every weekend.
God Bless all riders and keep them safe
Honda is supporting both Geico and Chapmoto. With Kdub out, why in the heck would they support 2 teams with 1 450 rider between the two of them?
Did Honda pull the plug on L&MC; forcing Short to fill in for Kdub since Gieco is their premeir support team outside of the factory effort and they need a 450 rider?
Who really knows, at this point it's all speculation.