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RACE WATCH
Privateer power
This year might mark a turning point in professional motorcycle racing. On one hand, the major manufacturers are cutting back, trimming their factory racing teams to the bone. But the cash that is being saved will go straight to the privateer, making 1987 a banner year for contingency awards that will be available to non-factory riders. Although this list is by no means complete, here are some examples:
HONDA: Last year, Honda considered its VF500F Interceptor series a big hit, so this year, the company is sponsoring a 600 Hurricane series and putting $ 174,000 up for grabs.
In addition, VFR700 riders at the club level can look forward to a possible $ 1 10,000. Add to that $ 1 3 1,250 in Superbikes and $40,000 in 250 GP classes, and you have a formidable roadrace program.
On the dirt side, Honda is posting $7950 in each national dirt-track event, plus a total of $292,500 in
Supercross and $219,600 in outdoor motocross. Money also will be available in ISDE qualifiers and national hare scrambles, while a number of other amateur and non-AMA events will offer gift certificates for Hondamounted winners. All tolled, if Honda were to have a phenomenal year and win everything in sight, it could cost the company as much as $2,088,625. Success isn’t cheap.
SUZUKI: Should an amateur racer be paid to race? And if he is paid, is he still an amateur? Suzuki struggled with that question and came up with the solution of giving U.S. savings bonds to amateurs who win on Suzukis. Altogether, Suzuki is putting $336,920 worth of saving bonds up for grabs to non-expert riders in events such as the AMA Amateur Championship, CMC’s
Golden State and Trans-Cal Series, the Florida Winter Series, The New England Sportsman Club (NESC) Championship and several others. Cash will be awarded to the Pros at these events as well as at AMA nationals and Supercrosses, bringing Suzuki’s Pro level support up to $1,265,485.
In roadracing, Suzuki will again be behind the GSX-R Cup races to the tune of $5000 per event. At the series final, Suzuki will put up $60,050. Drag racing is included in Suzuki’s program, too, but the details there are still undecided.
KAWASAKI: Motocross remains the number-one priority at Kawasaki, with $913,650 available to KX riders this year. The MX events covered by the company’s contingencies include the AMA’s Supercross, National and Winter series, the CMC Golden State Series, the GNC finals, the NMA World Finals, the AMA Amateur Nationals, the Mini Olympics, the Silverdome Spring Series, and several others. For the straightline crowd, Kawasaki is offering $ 1 16,340 at IDBA, NHRA and Dragbike! events. And if your racing is done on more than two wheels, Kawasaki has $ 104,500 for you. Four ATV series will have Kawasaki backing; SCORE/HDRA, AATVA, AATVA Cross-Country, and Mickey Thompson’s. And a total of $436,000 will be available in AMA. ARRA, WERA and AFM roadracing.
YAMAHA: A YZ-buck used to be something that happened when your Yamaha’s shock blew a seal. Nowadays, it’s a certificate that’s redeemable for merchandise at any Yamaha dealer. Yamaha will be giving away 463,760 YZ bucks to amateur racers in 11 events or series in 1987, including the CMC Golden State Series, the AMA Winter and Warm-Up Series, the NESC series, the Silverdome Spring series, several NMA events and others. Pros haven’t been forgotten, either, with a total of $80,500 cash available at those events. On the outdoor na-
tional level, there will be $280,560 for Yamaha riders, with $432,575 set aside for the Supercross series.
Roadracers will be duking it out for $61 1,400 in endurance racing, club racing and the Yamaha Western 600 series.
CASTROL: No matter what kind of oil you use in the 250 GP roadraces this year, you’ll be in contention for Castrol’s $40,000 in prize money. The entire sum goes into a seasonend point fund, and to be eligible, a rider just has to display a Castrol patch and sticker. First place is worth $ 10,000 cash, and there’s money all the way down to 15th overall in the series.
CAMEL: R.J. Reynolds, makers of Camel cigarettes, is staunchly behind motorcycle racing. And to prove it, the company is offering $475,000 in rider awards for 1987— a $200,000 increase over last year’s amount. Camel won’t be sponsoring every single AMA national this year, though. Instead, the company is go-
ing to concentrate on nine dirttracks and nine Superbike races. At each of those 18 events, there will be a new feature, called the Camel Challenge, wherein the six fastest qualifiers will be pitted against one another in a five-lap dash. The winner gets $ 10,000, and the remaining five divide up $7500. That’s pretty good pay for a five-minute job.
Bailey injured
David Bailey, considered by many to be the smoothest rider in motocross, was seriously injured on January 1 1th at Huron Cycle Park in Central California. Bailey was on his second lap of pre-race practice for the second round of the CMC Golden State Series when he landed a few feet short of clearing a double jump, crashing hard. Eyewitnesses claim Bailey appeared to be riding at a moderate pace and apparently didn’t realize he had to clear a second jump. At this time, he has no feeling below his chest, and doctors are uncertain about the level of recovery he can expect, although he and his family reportedly are confident about his eventual return to racing.
Racing goes on restriction
Ina controversial decision, the AMA will require intake restrictors in Honda and Harley flat-track engines, beginning with the first Camel Pro Race of 1987. Restrictor diameter will be the same for both Honda and Harley at 33mm.
Two arguments have been advanced for the use of restrictors:
First, restrictors will make racing more affordable by reducing power at high engine speeds, encouraging tuners to develop engines that don’t turn so fast that they have to be rebuilt after every race; second, different restrictor sizes could be used to equalize the performance of different engines. By requiring Honda V-Twins to run smaller restrictors than Harleys, the large number of existing Harley XRs could be kept competitive with the few Honda VTwins that dominated dirt-track racing in the last half of 1986.
For at least the 1987 season, only the first argument applies, though any dirt-track engines other than Honda’s or Harley’s will not be handicapped by intake restriction, at least until racing results have demonstrated their competitiveness. ®
