Editorial

EDITORIAL

The dirt-track dilemma

FOR MY MONEY AMERICAN MOTORCYcle dirt-track racing is the most spectacular motorsports show in the world. It’s also dying at its roots.

Every year there are fewer events, and fewer riders choosing to enter the sport. The fading of amateur and low-buck semi-pro races is reflected in the top professional ranks: Even though there are more American Motorcyclist Association dirt-track Nationals than ever, the number of riders with AMA professional licenses is at its lowest in several decades.

Reasons for dirt track’s decline are easy to find. One is motocross, which in the last decade-and-a-half has been formidable competition. For a few thousand dollars, anyone can buy a refined, competitive, ready-toride motocross bike, whereas even the most basic single-cylinder dirttracker is likely to cost twice as much. Even then, what that larger amount buys is, at best, a kit whose assembly requires much more mechanical ability than simply knowing how to mix oil and gas at the prescribed ratio.

Beyond machinery, motocross has had another appeal: With its high level of motorcycle-factory involvement, it has made stars of its top riders, and very rich stars, at that. Fame and fortune are powerful attractions, and have encouraged many teenage motocrossers to dream of someday being another Rick Johnson.

Then, too, the paying audience for local semi-pro dirt tracks has shrunk. Entertainment in America is very different now than in the Fifties or Sixties; cable TV, VCRs and a much wider variety of free-time activities are toppling such cultural icons as the drive-in movie, and are tough competition for motorcycle racing, as well. The only local motorcycle sports that have enjoyed much success (such as roadracing and motocross) are those capable of operating on a more purely amateur level, funded largely by their participating riders.

Whatever the reasons, dirt track is in a bind right now. On the national level, attendance at dirt-track events is holding its own, but factory support is at an all-time low, and there aren’t many true professional riders, riders who can race without also needing to hold another job.

Machinery-wise, there are a few hundred Harley XR750s floating around that could win half-miles or miles, but only if prepared with rare skill and loving attention. Honda 750 V-Twins are the privateer machines of choice for miles, but they hold less of an advantage (if any at all) on half-miles, and there are only a dozen or so in existence. There are, however, several hundred Singles out there, most of them either Hondaor Rotax-powered, dominating Novice and Junior racing, as well as Expert short-tracks and TTs.

But at this stage, the Singles aren’t able to win on larger tracks; and the cost of running a competitive Honda or Harley 750 exceeds the potential financial rewards for all but the most winning of riders. So, it’s not surprising that the sport is rapidly shrinking.

Whatever dirt track’s problems, I don’t have the solutions. I’m not a participant, or a sponsor, or in any way actively involved in dirt-track racing; I don’t know enough to fix it.

But I am a fan.

And as a fan, Em not happy with all of the rule changes in the past few years. Some offend my fan’s sense of fairness, the idea that racing is a competition between men and machines on a track, not something contested by a committee in a meeting room.

I know, of course, that rules must be made by someone. The AMA’s method is to have a dirt-track committee suggest necessary rule changes to the managers of professional racing. But this democratic process involves a lot of people who are resistant to change, and the result has been the strangling of attempts to upset the status quo.

A few years ago, for example, when Wood-Rotax 660cc and Honda 640cc Singles threatened to be competitive on half-miles, the AMA restricted Singles to 600cc. Now this year, the AMA has introduced a separate 600cc-single-cylinder-only Expert class and prohibited Singles from running in the Camel-Pro miles and half-miles.

There’s something perverse here: Should 750 V-Twins, heavily burdened by the handicaps of excess horsepower and displacement, not have to compete against Singles of any size? That seems a shame, considering that Suzuki has just released a 750 Single that might make an ideal dirt-track engine; that Yamaha is experimenting with a five-valve, liquid-cooled 750 Single for the ParisDakar race; that a Wood-Rotax 600 qualified fifth at the Ascot half-mile national this past fall.

The fan in me is equally disturbed by the adoption of intake restrictors, a move that clearly seems intended to impair the Honda V-Twins and keep the Harley XRs more competitive. And I was appalled by a suggested (but, fortunately, not approved) rule that would have disallowed any Twin whose bore-to-stroke ratio were more oversquare than the XR750’s. If Harley wants to stay competitive in dirt track (and Scott Parker and Chris Carr keep proving that the XR750 isn’t finished yet), it should improve its own motorcycle, not use its influence within the AMA to attempt to have competing bikes restricted.

But those are a fan’s complaints. The AMA, which has to deal with the overall health of the sport, has bigger problems. It knows that there isn’t enough purse money out there to allow all Experts to switch to some new $20,000 V-Twin (or 750 Single), even if someone were offering one. By slowing change, the AMA is trying to keep its professional riders, if not solvent, at least not broke.

I wish the AMA well in promoting dirt track, in keeping a great sport alive. Ed only suggest that life without change isn’t possible.

Steve Anderson