FUNCHAL (Portugal), 20 June 2013 – During the Grand Prix of Italy around 250 people related to the world of motocross joined Youthstream’s President Mr Giuseppe Luongo to celebrate his 30th Anniversary as promoter. Maggiora was the perfect venue for such celebration, as it was in this track where Mr Luongo had his turning point in his professional career when he organized the 1986 FIM Motocross of Nations.
Mr Luongo commented: “Time has gone really fast, but it is full of emotions … I still remember when I started my career and when I see now how much everything has changed in these 30 years … it is unbelievable. We have organized events like the Masters of Motocross, the Motocross of Nations, Grand Prix events… it’s a dream come true, especially when you see the evolution of the sport. I am very proud when I see venues with outstanding infrastructures like the ones at the Grand Prix of Brazil and Doha and great race track like Maggiora and Matterley Basin for example, and I’m also delighted to see that every year we have younger fans coming to the races. When I see this progress I realize that this time was very well invested and I really hope to continue with this evolution, and bring the sport worldwide and to the main TV broadcasters, and also have riders coming from every continent participating in the World Championship. My goal has always been to make motocross better and bigger and it will remain my main goal until the day I decide to retire, but I hope there are still many years to come.”
Mr Luongo was born on 9th April 1960 in the South of Italy, in Latronico, and he used to play football in his free time, but since his sister gave him a Fantic Motor 50cc Motocross bike for Christmas when he was 15, Mr Giuseppe Luongo has always been spiritually connected with motocross. He still remembers his first ever motocross race as a rider and of course he will never forget the first race he organized in 1983 in Ponte Egola, Italy. The young passionate entrepreneur succeeded in gathering together the best Motocross riders of that time and about 20,000 people witness such unique event.
The feedback of that race was so positive that Mr Luongo decided to turn his passion into a professional career by creating his own company, GLO. From then he organized the Masters of Motocross, the SuperMotocross in Italy, he was also in charge of all the International Motocross events organized in Italy, and 1986 became the turning point in his professional career when he organized the successful Motocross of Nations won by the American “Dream Team” of Bailey, Johnson and O’Mara in Maggiora, Italy.
It was such a successful race that Mr Giuseppe Luongo received international recognition by most of the National Motorcycling Federations, riders, sponsors, the media and the fans, and Mr Luongo’s following step was bringing motocross to the main TV stations for the first time ever. Together with FMI he also created the Internazionali d’Italia and in 1987 organized 25 events, one being El Charro Stadium Cross de Paris, one of the best that year.
1988 was an important year for Giuseppe Luongo, as it was the year his son David, who is now involved in the management of Youthstream, was born. At the same time the Masters of Motocross series went from four to six events involving a large TV Coverage. The year after Mr Luongo created the Supercup – an evolution of Internazionali d’Italia – and he also created the Bieffe Suzuki factory team which took part in the 125 Motocross World Championship. Dave Strijbos, Pedro Tragter, Donny Schmidt and Stefan Everts were some of the riders who rode for Mr Luongo’s team, and it was already in 1991 that it won it’s first 125 World Championship Title with Scmidt. The year after the very young Everts claimed his first ever world title wearing the colours of Bieffe Suzuki team.
In 1995 Giuseppe Luongo organized the FIM Motocross of Nations in Slovakia. The year after, Mr Luongo signed a contract with the FIM to manage the TV rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship and it was the first time in the history of the sport that the series had a complete TV Coverage of the entire GP events. During the years that followed, Mr Luongo signed the contract with the FIM to manage both the Supercross and Motocross World Championships.
In 1999 Mr Luongo had the idea of organizing the successful FIM Awards in Monte Carlo at the Hotel de Paris, which would be organized again in 2003 in Dubai.
From 2001 the Motocross and Supercross businesses were managed by Dorna.
The following years were other important years for Mr Luongo; not only he did meet his wife Ursula, but he also created Youthstream with Mr Luigi Zompetti, Mr Eric Sevenet, Mr Philippe Rahmani and Mr Nikos Gounaris. With Youthstream they started by promoting the FIM SuperMoto World Championship in 2002, and at the end of 2003 Youthstream signed a new contract with the FIM for the promotion of the FIM Motocross World Championship. Since then Youthstream has been improving the series season after season and in 2005, and after many difficult years for the Motocross of Nations, this famous event made a huge come-back in Ernée, France. It was then in 2011 that Mr Giuseppe Luongo, with Youthstream, created MX-LIFE.TV, a new LIVE streaming and video on demand (VOD) platform to broadcast the FIM Motocross World Championship worldwide.
The following year Mr Luongo created a new event called the MXGP Festival, having more than 300 riders divided in 10 different classes racing during the same weekend: MX1, MX2, MX3, WMX, Veterans, Amateurs, 65cc, 85cc, 125cc and 250cc. The event took place in Matterley Basin, UK, and the parade lap with all the riders headed by Dave Thorpe was a moment that will last in the memory of everyone that was there.
2012 was also the year that Youthstream made a step forward in the TV production, broadcasting the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, which took place in Lommel, Belgium, in High Definition and using the latest technology such as Super Slo-Mo, GoPro cameras, Cable Cams and drones. Thanks to such improvements important TV broadcasters like Aljazeera and FOX are broadcasting the complete FIM Motocross World Championship during the whole 2013 season.
In 2013 the FIM Motocross World Championship celebrated the first ever night Grand Prix under the floodlights of the brand new MX Losail track in Qatar and a week after the Motocross World Championship went to Thailand for the first time. Returning back to Europe Youthstream presented the new ‘skybox’ to the Motocross world.
This year this unique businessman, full of passion and who has brought professionalism and value to Motocross, is celebrating his 30th anniversary as a promoter and he guarantees significant improvements are still to come in the near future. We wish you all the best Giuseppe!