Jimmy Filice
JIMMY FILICE
PROFILE:
As a factory rider, Filice was Rookie of the Year. As a privateer, he expects to do better.
William Schiffmann
For Jimmy Filice, the 1982 season was as bad as the 1981 season was good.
And 1981 was very good. Filice began the season as a full member of Yamaha’s road racing team, while riding AMA dirt events for the factory-backed but not-quite official Roberts/Lawwill effort. Filice shone in the Formula Two road races. He was second in that class at Daytona, ahead of reigning world class champion Anton Mang, fifth at Loudon, second again at Laguna Seca and the winner at Pocono. The Virago-based Yamaha 750 flat track machine wasn’t competitive but Filice gave his best, wasn’t disgraced and at the end of 1981 he was named the AMA’s Rookie Of The Year.
Filice appeared to be the classic understudy, ready for stardom, waiting in the wings for the day Kenny Roberts decides to retire.
Then came 1982. Before the season officially began Filice fell while play riding and broke several toes. Team Yamaha was officially in dirt track, with Filice the sole factory entry but despite a year of development and the efforts of top tuners, the 750 still wasn’t competitive. The bike won a wrestling match at Indianapolis and Filice’s wrist was hurt.
The factory seemed to lose interest in the flat track races. There were no engines, or the engines they had blew up. Back in Japan the top men wanted Filice to win the national Formula Two title again, although Filice had won it once already. He fell while leading Formula Two at Daytona. He won on the TZ250 when he was fit, but didn’t make enough of the events to take the title, while his injuries cost him the chance to ride in Europe, and lack of machines kept him out of the Winston Pro hunt.
Filice, who appears shy and withdrawn until he begins talking racing, brightens as he talks about his hope that things will take a turn for the better in 1983. And he sees himself, someday, bathed fully in the limelight his talent seems destined to bring him.
During the next decade, says Filice, “I’d like to be racing in Europe and^be contending for the world championship. There’s something inside of me that’s natural. I get on a motorcycle and everything feels natural to me. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve ridden so much or if I’m born with it. There’s guys like Jay Springsteen, Kenny Roberts, that have it.
“It’s just when I get on a motorcycle, I get a drive in me.”
Pushing it may have gotten him in trouble at Indianapolis. Running fifth on the V-Twin Yamaha tracker with a few laps to go, Filice left the smooth dirt up high and plunged into the battered groove, where bumps bucked him off the bike. His wrist snapped between the triple clamps and the gas tank.
But that’s ancient history, and Filice says he has the mental strength to put it behind him. “I try not to think about falling down or something happening to the bike. I believe that if I think real hard that I can win or do something, I can do it.”
Filice, born and raised in San Jose, California, recently followed his family to Ceres at the north end of the San Joaquin Valley. His constant companion is 18-year-old Jamie Matthews, a lovely young woman with a heartbreaking smile.
Felice’s intense dark eyes seem to light up as he recalls his introduction to motorcycling, via his father, when he was 9 “I wasn't doing too well in school, Isc he kind of got me a little incentive. He offered me a motorcycle if I'd go througn school. I tried a little harder and he got me a mini-bike.”
Filice got used to the tiny Yamaha 60, then took it racing on local dirt tracks. “I really enjoyed it, liked the competition, but I didn't do very well at first.”
Later, obviously, he improved. He raced dirt until about 13, then tried road racing for the first time, at Sears Poin on a 125.
“I rode it twice, fell off pretty hard and got leery of it. I didn’t want to do fi anymore.”
But at 17, after he was signed b) Yamaha racing manager Ken Clark, ht was convinced to return to road racing “They didn’t push me, but they wantec me to try it. I really enjoy it now.”
Clark recalls seeing Filice for the firs time three years ago. “I was impressed,’ he says now. “He’s a very talented youjjs rider, coming along very quickly.”
Clark is not as positive as Filice q what the future holds, pointing out tha young Jimmy is very green on pavement “He’s done very little road racing, ht*'; very new at it. I think he has the basic ability, but I think it will take a while U develop.
Size is something of a problem. I style, Filice rides as tall in the saddle a John Wayne, but in the locker room he' 5-foot-2 and 115 lb. On the 250 hi weight is a bonus as it gives him an edg in power-to-weight ratio in battles wit larger riders. But with the 750 miler atn the 500cc road racer, which must b push-started in grand prix events, Filie is at a distinct disadvantage. Tear Yamaha manager Ken Clark even
Filice on a physical training program to build up strength.
Clark and Filice would both like to make clear—this from both before the end of the ’82 season—that Filice is not a copy of anybody else.
“He’s not Kenny Roberts,” says Clark, “and he doesn’t want to be.
Sooner or later, in any discussion Filice, the phrase “Roberts’ protege” comes up. “I don’t think I was his protege,” Filice said after a moment’s thought, putting another myth to rest. “There’s a lot of talk about that, but he hasn’t helped me as much as everybody thinks he has. He does help me quite a bit when he’s at the race track, but he hasn’t beeen around too much recently.” Roberts, of course, has spent the last few years in Europe, picking up trifles like a trio of World Championships.
Like an Academy Award winner, Filice does have a list of people to thank, including Roberts, Clark and tuners Bud Aksland, Corky Keener and Gil Martin. A special thanks goes to Bill Spencer, who convinced Clark to visit Ascot for a look at a flashy 17-year-old.
And there’s his family, of course, parents, grandparents and a trio of sisters. “It’s always been a group effort,” he says of his racing. “The whole family’s been really into racing with me. They’ve been just great.”
Family support has come in handy. At the end of the 1982 season Filice’s contract with Yamaha wasn’t renewed. Mostly, it was a matter of circumstance: Filice hadn’t won the 250 title. He hadn’t put Yamaha on the Winston Pro map. He hadn’t gone to Europe for seasoning. Nothing personal, but the job of riding back-up for Ken Roberts for Yamaha in Europe went to Eddie Lawson.
Motorcycle sales were dismal last year and Yamaha’s racing program in the U.S. will be mostly motocross because that’s where the return on investment is the quickest.
Filice will be sort of a support rider. Yamaha will supply a 250 for short track and a 500 for TT races in the newly renamed Camel Pro series. Mert Lawwill has come up with two good Harley-Davidson XR750s for the miles and half miles, which means Filice can field a full effort on the national circuit.
Make that a fuller effort than most. If all goes well Yamaha will provide a 500 GP bike, customer version instead of team machine but still, a good bike, for at least five road races on the AMA calendar.
So Jimmy Filice is in a holding pattern, circling a chance at greatness. A year from now the verdict will be a lot clearer. E3
