Small Miracle

SMALL MIRACLE

THE FURTHER REVIVAL OF JIMMY FILICE

IT HAS NEVER BEEN EASY FOR Jimmy Filice. They said at 5 foot 1 and 115 pounds, he was too small to manhandle a big Harley XR-750 flat-tracker. Yet he was the Camel Pro Rookie of the Year in 1981, and the record books show four national victories next to Filice’s name.

After a switch to roadracing that culminated in a runaway win at the 1988 250cc USGP, he was on track for a career in the grand prix ranks. Then in January, 1990, came a truck crash that nearly killed him. An eight-hour operation reset his multiple compound fractures, but don’t count on racing ever again, the doctors told him.

Six months later, he was back on a bike. One year later, against all odds, he won the AMA’s 1991 250cc national championship. But 1992 was a letdown, his Honda 250 unable to match the pace set by the Yamaha of eventual champion Colin Edwards, an 18-year-old flash from Texas.

This year, Edwards and seasonlong rival Kenny Roberts, Jr., have moved on-Edwards to a seat on a Vance & Hines Superbike, Roberts to the Spanish 250 series. Filice, 30 years old, took over Little Kenny’s Otsuka Electronics Yamaha TZ250, on a team put together by GP star and friend Wayne Rainey, and managed by former racer and friend Bubba Shobert. Unlike Daytona 1992, Filice was fast from the first day of practice, setting the pole time at a record 1:57.031.

Then, on the morning of the race, Filice crashed in practice. “It was my own fault. Cold tires and a right-hander,” he said sheepishly. Filice kept the boot on his injured right foot-he didn’t want to struggle to get it on after his foot swelled. Later, the diagnosis would be broken toes, but for the moment, Filice was focused on his race.

In the final, despite the pain, Filice raced with Rich Oliver, both men pulling away quickly from the field. Then Filice found fresh resource in himself, diving down into the 1:56 range to get clear from Oliver. Riding in third position by himself much of the race was Luis Lavado, younger brother of Carlos, the Venezuelan former world 250 champion. Behind them was a close, racelong contest for fourth, eventually won by Canadian Jon Cornwell. At the finish, it was Filice by 8 seconds, an eternity in 250-class roadracing.

Factory teams are too often fixated on hiring their riders young and super-hot. If a man’s career trajectory doesn’t lie along or above that of, say, a young Freddie Spencer, he is rejected. This is nonsense. The ability—and the heart-to win races cannot be arrived at by formula. It is where you find it.

Jimmy Filice is proof. Wayne Rainey and Bubba Shobert had the good sense to realize that.

Kevin Cameron