A National Champion
A NATIONAL CHAMPION
ROUNDUP
Racing and history were at the core of this week’s office debate. It started when Joe Scalzo sent in his article on 20 years of racing for the January 20th Anniversary issue. And it hasn’t ended because the letters have just started coming in about Scalzo’s comments, so if anyone missed the story, go back and check it out.
The two points that keep coming up are that today’s racers aren’t as exciting as racers back in the good old days and that the factories ruin racing. Neither comment holds much water, but there are reasons for them nonetheless.
A reader wrote in that “Scalzo’s assertion that the Japanese and British bullied the AMA into rule changes advantageous to them seems strange. But then he’s probably not old enough to remember when H-D owned the AMA ... I think it only fair that you might mention the old 30-in. ohv, 45-in. flathead, 8:1 compression ruling that gave H-D such an advantage on mile tracks.”
Okay, there’s a little truth here. When the AMA was in trouble Harley stepped in with support and got, for its support, perhaps more influence on the rules committee than seemed fair. Whether it would have been better for racing and motorcycling for H-D to ignore the AMA and let the AMA die is debatable. In any case, that influence didn’t last forever and in the long run it might not even have helped Harley-Davidson.
Take, for example, what happened when the influence changed and the rules were changed so that Harley didn’t have a size advantage for Class C racing. The British companies could then use engines with more power than the Harleys, which enabled them to win races and they promptly went out of business and left racing. Harley responded by designing the alloy XR750, an ohv 750 that has become more successful than any of its competition or predecessors. Would Harley have been helped if they had come up with the> ohv design earlier? Or could Harley have developed the XR earlier?
Then the Nipponese factories became interested in Class C racing and asked for another equivalency formula, this time restricting the 750s so 500cc Singles could compete. Racing organizations like factories because factories have money and tend to bring publicity and other types of support with them. So the restrictor rule was favorably received. But then the factories that requested the restrictor rule came out with their own 750 V-Twins and the fuss over restrictors just faded away.
Now for the firSt time in years there will be three full factory teams competing for the Winston Pro title. Last year there were almost three factories involved, but the peculiar arrangements between Yamaha and the Mert Lawwill racing team couldn’t exactly be called a factory team.
Next year the competition between the three factories could be closer than ever. Harley is sticking with two former national champions, Jay Springsteen and Randy Goss, those two being the strongest team. Yamaha is now directly sponsoring Jim Filice and Yamaha’s racing manager Kenny Clark expects the factory team to get better results from its XV750 milers and half milers, while the Yamaha short track and TT machines are already winners. Filice also might get added points from road racing, where he can win and Yamaha has winning machines. No other factory team has this same ability. Honda, which could field road racing equipment, is supporting current national champ Mike Kidd and rookie Bill Herndon, the first and only rider to win a race on the NS750 miler when he won a junior mile race at San Jose last year. Honda has good short track and TT bikes and Kidd feels that the NS750 is far more competitive than its collection of last place finishes would indicate.
All of this factory involvement hasn’t seemed to hurt privateers and may increase the supply of bikes and parts to privateers, as well as increasing the number of paying rides. And having three different brands of motorcycles, all using somewhat different production-based equipment, on the track should make for more exciting racing.
What about riders? Are today’s riders less exciting than those of a generation ago?
On the track, absolutely not. The national championship has been decided at the last race of the year for the past three years. And in those three years a factory rider has only won the title once. In addition, the number of riders capable of winning any race or even the championship has grown. There is more suspense and racing excitement than ever before. What isn’t visible as much today is the character of the racers. Twenty years ago there were riders like “Black” Bart Markel or Bugsy Mann and there were stories of rent-aracers being driven into swimming pools and riders missing practice for important races because they had been out riding enduros for fun.
If there are fewer stories of racers act ing like racers, it’s partly our fault. Nov there are motocross series, supercross SÄ ries, roadracing series and quite a feu other types of professional competitior that didn’t exist 20 years ago. With more races and more racers to cover, it gets harder to follow them all because race coverage is getting filled with race results
Time also helps stories. The mo^ bizarre stories frequently don’t get circu lated right away because they would be too embarrassing. A few years later the) become tales of terror that are common knowledge. It also takes time for wild be havior to happen. Everybody knows Dav< Aldana is a wild and crazy guy. It’s easy imagine Jay Springsteen being just as fui loving, though he’s had a little less time do it. But it’s hard to imagine wild storie: about Jimmy Filice, though 10 years fron now there will probably be good Filici stories.
Where does all this leave us? Only wi^ more riders and more bikes capable winning Class C races this year, with seve former No. 1 riders still riding and with rider being an obvious pick for next year championship.
Our pick would be Springer but nev< mind that for now. Instead, check tl schedule. If you possibly can—and therd a Winston Pro race within reach of near| everywhere—go to the races. You’ll the best show on earth.
