"We're always looking five or even 10 years down the road while trying to stay a step ahead." The Big Picture looked promising, even if it wasn't always popular. The downside of the growth, however, led to larger, less personal events that were simultaneously DC Sr.'s dream, and nightmare. Large events are great in theory, but pulling them off without a hitch is next to impossible, and with the advent of the Internet and the introduction of the "information age," the hitches were being widely scrutinized and publicized. The problem with the Coombs family's "Big Picture thinking" approach is simply that it's sometimes a little too forward for the masses.
The Coombs family's rise to the top certainly wasn't easy, and staying on top has proven equally difficult. In 2003, in order to give the family businesses the required attention, Carrie left law and agreed to oversee the day-to-day operations of Racer Productions and MX Sports. On top of that she assumed various roles within the Coombs family's numerous other projects. On the ATV side of things, the NPG business and growth plan was met with mixed reviews. Everything seemed to be changing at once. On one hand, things were certainly getting more professional looking and numbers were going up across the board; on the other hand, the speed at which the changes were taking place shook the base. ATV racers were scared of the power shift, and the seeds of dissent were sown.
The last two years have been especially challenging, as it seemed like just about all of the Coombs's properties were simultaneously under attack. On the ATV MX side, the upstart WPSA ATV Tour was gaining momentum, and its slick packaging, factory backing, lucrative purses, high-profile TV package and newly created Quad Terrain Challenge discipline pretty much decimated the ATV MX Nationals' numbers. As if that wasn't enough, on the two-wheeled side, the AMA's plans to sell the AMA Pro Racing properties (including the Outdoor MX Nationals) created an international bidding war for the rights to American MX as we know it. European-based Giussepe Luongo's Youthstream was making a serious run at MX, while the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) and various others were jockeying for position Stateside. Dissension, deceit and betrayals made the story of the last 24 months more compelling. The proverbial rug was being pulled out from under Carrie and her associates' feet. Like any good story, the plot continued to thicken, and by late 2007 it looked like they were on the ropes and ringside observers were predicting a KO... But as often happens in memorable fights, just when it looked like they were out on their feet they came back swinging.
"We weren't going to give up, the thought never crossed our minds; we were prepared to fight," Carrie Coombs-Russell says of the trying times. And fight they did. On the ATV side, key players (Stephani McIntyre and Justin Anderson) were brought on board to implement major series changes and to help win back the hearts of the ATV MX crowd. In addition, they invited the very pros who had shunned them to race on the biggest stage in the sport's history, the 2007 Steel City MX Outdoor National. For the first time ever, pro ATV racers would have the opportunity to race in front of the pro dirt bike racers and, more importantly, the pro dirt bike crowd. The Steel City race was a huge success and history was made once again by the Coombs, and the ATV crowd took notice. What happened next could never have been predicted; it was both sadly anticlimactic and completely shocking at the same time. Two of the contenders in the four-way fight for control were simultaneously knocked out. The WPSA, which had been the main threat on the ATV side, filed for bankruptcy, while the bidding war for AMA Pro Racing was won by the DMG, which immediately sold the MX portion to MX Sports.
Today's challenges for the Coombs's properties are a little less direct or personal; they're the same challenges the rest of the country is facing: a weak economy, high gas prices and a weakening dollar. It's a tough time for any business, especially one based on a hobby, yet you'd never know it from talking to them. A high-profile TV package on NBC, live streaming video on the Internet, gigantic changes to the dirt bike Outdoor Nationals, side-by-side racing at the GNCCs, a refocusing on the grassroots regional-based ATV racing, comic strips, the "Racer X Show," trail reclamation (the Racer Productions team repairs and reseeds trails and facilities after each event), plus a plethora of other changes are in the works. The big picture is clearer than ever to those who can envision it; ironically, it's clearest to the person who seemed to be looking for it least-Carrie Coombs-Russell. Just don't try to give her praise or credit; she deflects it, avoids it and disperses it quicker than you can thrust it upon her. "It's not me, Rita is my boss, and everyone at Racer plays a huge part. That is how we manage all of our series-group effort. No one person makes the major decisions; we have a lot of talented and creative people around us, and they are our best source for ideas and development."