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Hall of Famers converge on Springfield
The racing was outrageous, the payout unparalleled and the attendees—competitors past and present—unprecedented. Motorsports personality Dave Despain’s dream of creating a dirt-track homecoming at the sport’s mecca in Springfield, Illinois, materialized this past Labor Day weekend.
This year, the 15th round of the 1998 AMA Grand National DirtTrack Series became a two-day flattrack extravaganza. It included the induction of the first 24 members into the Dirt Track Hall of Fame, a $50,000 Hall of Fame race and an infield midway packed with fans, motorcycle gear galore and autographsigning past champions.
The legendary Springfield Mile was originally a one-day event-a finale to the Illinois State Fair that, in its heyday, saw a reported 70,000 fairgoers pack the infield and now-defunct, track-circling bleachers. So important was the venue that from 1938 to 1953, the Springfield Mile alone determined the AMA Grand National Champion. This year, with more than 12,000 fans filling the grandstand and infield, old timers said the event reminded them of the glory days of “The Mile.”
Promoted jointly by Despain and the Illinois Motorcycle Dealers Association, the homecoming was prompted by the deaths of three of Despain’s friends: Dick Andrae, a retired racer and the AMA Illinois referee who died of a heart attack in 1996; Roger Reiman, the 1964 Grand National Champion who was killed last year at Daytona during the Legends race; and Ricky Graham, the three-time Grand National Champion who passed away in a house fire early this year.
Their deaths, Despain said, made him realize that a Hall of Fame needed to be established. In February, Despain wrote a check for $2000 and sent a letter to everyone he knew in the motorcycle industry asking them to match his contribution. He hoped to raise $50,000 in the six months before Springfield, to create an event that would rival his enthusiasm for the sport and fund a record Hall of Fame race purse. In only five days, he had $56,000.
Inspired, Despain continued his fund raising, clearing enough to guarantee a $50,000 purse for the ’99 event and to bring the initial Hall of Fame inductees to this year’s show. Thirteen of the 19 living inductees made the trip to Springfield, including 102-year-old Jim Davis.
Davis was the 1917 Class A national champ, and won the 2-mile race at Springfield in 1916. Other inductees included the 1946-53 Springfield champions and all the Grand National champs from 1954 (Joe Leonard) to 1993 (Graham). Past champs still competing were excluded.
A hot, late-summer day greeted fans for Saturday’s Hall of Fame racing. Appropriately enough, the winningest rider in Grand National history snared victory in the commemorative event. Sixteen riders qualified for the 10-lap Hall of > Fame race, having earned the right via a top-four finish at any of three qualifying events held earlier in the season. Still-active past champs were offered provisional spots, but neither Scott Parker, Chris Carr nor Jay Springsteen needed them-they all qualified.
The 16-bike field needed fewer than 6 minutes to knock off 10 laps. In a bruising battle around the super-fast facility, defending series champ Parker finished just .036 of a second ahead of Rich King and the nearly siamesed Chris Carr, after drafting past in a drag race out of the final turn. Parker’s victory earned him $15,000 of the $50,000 purse, the largest single payout in Grand National history.
Centenarian Davis, on hand for the afternoon’s events, almost missed Saturday night’s inductee banquet. Taken to the hospital that afternoon for heat prostration, he was told by medics that he had a higher temperature than anyone who had ever visited their emergency room. “So I guess I’m still setting records at age 102,” Davis quipped.
On Sunday, a sell-out crowd watched ’92 GNC titlist Carr make the ’98 title
chase even more interesting. Miffed at having so narrowly missed victory in the Hall of Fame event, the transplanted Californian narrowed the points chase by capturing the 25-lap main event. Carr finished .2 of a second ahead of King, with Parker coming home fourth.
Despain continued his tireless fundraising efforts amongst the spectators during the Sunday event, netting enough to post a $ 100,000 purse for next year’s Hall of Fame race. With such funding and enthusiasm behind the event, Springfield is well on its way to recapturing its glory days, and becoming a must-attend for motorcycle faithful.
-Paul Seredynski
Motocross in flux
The newly crowned AMA 250cc National Motocross Champion may not defend his title. Yamaha’s Doug Henry, 29, clinched the title in August but is undecided as to whether he will return. According to Team Manager Keith McCarty, Yamaha doesn’t expect Henry to make a decision anytime soon.
Should Henry retire, Yamaha may
be shopping for two riders. Kevin Windham, who finished eighth in the 250cc series, may jump ship to Honda. At press time, Windham was in legal limbo with Yamaha over contract concerns. At least Chaparral Yamaha has settled on a squad: Supercross champ Jeremy McGrath will return to the team, along with former Team Honda standout Steve Lamson.
Former AMA SX and MX champ Jeff Emig will continue to contest both the indoor and outdoor series on a Kawasaki. Emig will be joined on 250s indoors by Ricky Carmichael, who will only defend his 125cc Eastern Region Supercross title if he doesn’t fare well on the 250. Carmichael, who recently wrapped up his second AMA 125cc National Motocross title, will return to the 125cc ranks for the outdoor series. Damon Huffman will also return to Team Green, riding a KX250 in both 250cc series.
Honda’s ’99 lineup will consist of four “well-known riders.” Word has it that two Frenchmen, Sebastien Tortelli and Mickael Pichón, will become Red Riders alongside existing team member Ezra Lusk. Stefan Everts, > having lost the World Motocross title to Tortelli, may also compete in the U.S. Ditto Tallon Vohland~ currently the sole American MXer overseas. Suzuki is expected to field Robbie Reynard, Larry Ward and Greg Al bertyn, while former Kawasaki facto ry rider Ryan Hughes will head to Europe to replace Vohiand as the American abroad. That leaves only ex-Chaparral Yamaha rider Jimmy Button without a ride.
Paul Seredynski
Aprilia to front spec roadrace series in U.S.?
Most Americans probably think of Aprilia as a small Italian motorcycle manufacturer whose 250cc Grand Prix team has repeatedly humbled Honda in international competition. Yet the Noale-based firm shipped more than 260,000 machines last year. Now, the company has introduced the RS 1000 V-Twin, for which it has Su perbike racing ambitions. That bike is priced to sell, too. Clearly, something interesting is happening here.
So far, all this has occurred without access to the supposedly essential U.S. market. That is about to change. April ia has a public-relations firm here and is setting up a U.S. subsidiary, expect ed to be in place in Atlanta, Georgia, by November. Of particular interest is a plan to foster a spec roadracing se ries, much like those run in Italy, Spain, France and Germany.
Zero Gravity's Glen Cook is charged with setting up the series, which will run Aprilia's street-legal (in Europe), two-stroke RS250. "It will be like IROC car races, except the bikes will be individually owned and prepared," Cook explains. "You can't modify the engine, but Aprilia will supply a kit with pipes and other parts. It’s a contest of riders, not machines.”
Because two-strokes aren’t emissions-legal in the U.S., Aprilia Cup Challenge bikes will be shipped sans street equipment and imported as racers. Whereas the company’s championship-winning GP bike uses a twin-crank, rotary-valve V-Twin based on the Austrian Rotax Type 258, though, the RS is powered by a hotted-up, 69-horsepower version of the liquid-cooled V-Twin found in Suzuki’s domestic-market RGV250.
Cook presented his proposal to the AMA, who rejected it. A call to the AMA’s pro competition director, the ever-affable Merrill Vanderslice, confirmed that the AMA is constantly hounded by manufacturers who want to run spec series, but there is only so much time on race day. Cook remains undaunted, and with good reason. Roger Edmondson’s NASB/CCS has both a regional and a national presence, which Cook believes would work well with his plans for the Aprilia series.
Cook is clearly impressed with Aprilia; he calls it a company of young, enthusiastic people. He even used the word “passionate.” When I mentioned the poor parts/service reputation of some previous Italian-bike importers, he replied that Aprilia’s business style-out-source many parts and assemblies, then specialize in assembly and marketing-has never permitted the company to get behind with suppliers, a primary cause of poor product support.
All is not, however, wine and roses. In the past, U.S. 250cc GP racers have tried to campaign Aprilias, and have found themselves in a vacuum. In the absence of an importer, they were unable to gets parts or tuning information. Rumors of better days to come or special, “I-know-somebody-at-the-factory” insider deals haven’t been followed by any wins. Amongst racers, this has created a thick crust of skepticism; who wants to jet down when there are no pistons in the spares box? The new importer will have to overcome this, through someone who understands the scene and the history, and has the authority to take action.
An Aprilia spec series is a great idea, but questions must be answered. Who will sanction it? When might the series begin? Will it find a sponsor, with so many other series also seeking the same? We will wait and see.
Kevin Cameron
