Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126073
r; • • ~~[}~~ ~ E A look. at the man who built AMA #1 Jay Springsteen's motorcycle (,0 f' O"l ...-i ~ (,0 ...-i drawn a lot of atte ntion. Th e bl ue Dodge with Wisconsin pl at es belong s to Bill Wern er and th e b ike being loaded for the trip ba ck ' to Milwau kee ca rri es th e familiar number 25 ide n t ify ing it as J ay Sprin gsteen's, " lias it be en a long sea so n?" a bundled object' asks while edging closer to the van ' fo r a look inside as t ires ; tools and asso rted o ther objects arc loaded in . "Y ea," answers Bill with the patented smile he re serve s for talking about racing o nce the job is d on e and it 's time to rel ax , " its been long , but definitely rewarding." As the 'bikes are being load ed ano th er quest ion floats through t he air, th is time asking if th e bike being load ed .. the one o n which J ay had earlier w on the Race of Ch ampions .. wa s the sam e bike that h e h ad w on the Gran d Na tional Champion ship with a wee k earlier at Asco t. " Indeedi t was ," answers Werner offeri ng that b ecau se the engine had seeme d ti re d J ay decided not to run th e support program , . Shuffling our way over to a sun ny spot, I co m ment that wrenching two d i ff ere nt riders to Grand National Championships in two years isn't too shabby a reco rd . "Hey. I've been lucky," he says with a twinkle in his eye. Success has not spoiled Bill Werner. I ask about ,the story drat he got his job th rough an ad in the pape r; he answers that it's true. " Strange as it m ay . seem , I actually an swe re d an ad in th e pape r , had an in terview and was hired as a mech an ic in th e racing d ep artme nt. That was ten , no, ten an d a half years ago. It wasn' t glam o ro us. T h ey h ad four gra des of mech ani cs (A, "B, C, D ) an d I starte d as a 0 grade and wo r ked my way up thro ugh th e ranks to an A grad e. Now I'm j us t one of the boys. " It was qui te a d iffere n t program th en. Harley never really ind ivid ualize d o ne mech an ic, with o ne ride r . We all had a hand in prep arin g the bik es: Three years ago Dick (Dic k O 'Brien, Harley 's racing b os s) th ough t it mi ght b e good to team a ride r with a mech an ic. It ·s a little l-; V .c a v - > 0 z - e asier , to m ainta in to uc h with the eq uipme nt and th e rider ra the r th an everyb od y hav ing a p iece o f the act io n . It's also easier to figur e wh er e the blame ge es .. yo u get a p at on th e b ack if yo u do good and a kic k in the p ants if yo u don 't ." I Fo r th ose wh o think th at the job is all a n d trave l; it isn't. g la mor Con servatively ,"" croer works 50 ho urs 3. week . Re ad ing be tween th e lines. tha t means seven ' d ay s a week whe n th e season ge ts int o full swing .. a pe rio d of about six mo n th s .. and that 50 ho urs only mea ns p lant time not what he does ai the track when it's all hustle and the c hips are down . There's only one answer. . .\\-'emer loves racing : )' " By ~ary Van Voorhis A cold .wi nd blowing and ,the afternoon shadows are creeping from the horse barns at Louisville Downs out onto the vans scattered 34 IS a l o n gsid e while rid ers a n d mechanics hustle to get equipment loaded and get on the road toward home, The Race of Champions and its support progr am ar e ove r and for most , if not all those bundled up aga ins t the ch ill, that me an s th e en d of th e sea son ; a t ime to rela x an d kick 'back. The activity aro und o ne van has "The k'ey to the whole season is using you r ti me righ t. You can gung -ho one race and wo rk y o ursel f into a ho le fo r the rest of the year. I was reall y panicky at the beginning of the season because J ay had absolu tely no equip me nt at the firs t co up le of races. A ll we reall y had was o ne bike and I had no t im e to make any backup eq uipme nt. It was p an ic ci ty until things sta rte d to smoo th o ut." Var ious time s durin g th e last h alf o f the sea so n Bill wo uld co mmen t th at J ay WdS right o n schedule o r pe rha ps beh ind or a head . It see ms th at Bill, wh ose co n fid ence in J ay kn ow s no b ounds (" I almost inst icrive ly know wh at he wants before he as ks."), pl an ned the m o ves it wou ld t a k e fo r Jay to win the cha mpionshi p j ust like you w o uld p lan a tr ip fro m point A to point B. "J ust for kicks. one nigh t aro un d " Asco t tim e (A sco t TT August i), my wife an d I sat down and p roje cted a sche d ule of what we tho ugh t J ay w ould do t he rest of the year alo ng with the same projection fo r ' both - Gary Scott an d Kenny Rober ts since the y would be p rett y m uch the ' to p three in 'th e run ni ng for th e ch am p io n sh ip . "We added up th e res ults of each af ter we finished to see where each wo uld pl ace. It tu rned out, accordi ng to our sche dule, th at Jay wo uld w in seven Nation als an d that he w o uld w in the last four in a ro w incl udi ng As cot at the end of th e year: We figured th at Jay and Kenny w ould end up tie d for th o champ io nshi p with the title going to Jay because he had w on more Nationals. Gary w ould b e 'abou t 10 points be hi nd. I prett y well knew wh at Jay co uld .d o , but Gary and Kenny surp rised me . " Ken ny w as ac t ually wa y off my sche du le o n b o th t he sho rt tr ack s and th e TT's . I pl aced hi m a lot higher an d th at 's what lost the title for h im since he is better at that type of racin g th an either Jay or Gary . On the m iles and hal f miles he was pretty m uch on schedule. "Gary is a tough co m pe ti to r who raced this year like every day was his last. He wanted to repeat as ch am p io n very bad . His m ain problem was the short tracks where h e did rather poorly altho ugh he did better than I ' p rojected at Talladega. Strangely one 'of his reasons for leaving liar ley was that he felt th at we didn ' t have an adeq uate sh o rt tracker yet througho u t the seas on he never beat us once. UI guess Peor ia was a tu rning point for us. Everyone knew Jay was h ell on the " m ile an d hal f mile and really good on racing short tr ack, but nobody believe d th a t he was a TT rider to be reckoned w it h . Peoria made bel ievers of so me people (Po ntia c did also) and lent mo re c re dibility to o ur effort . Agai n the co m pa riso n o f wren ch ing for G ary and J ay p opped up . " The differences between w orkin g for Gary and for J ay are lik e night and day . Gary had alrea dy had a few y ears o n th e circuit under h is belt where J ay wa s a 'fre sh ' rider wh o 'd id n ' t reall y have an y 'bad' habits. J ay is main ly a ' Yo u fix it and I'll ride it type of com pe titor;' a so r t o f 'I have eno ugh faith in y o u to do it right if yo u hav e en o ugh faith in m e to do it r igh t ,' type of p erson. Tha t was it. " He eliminate d a ll the hassles tha t yo u can ge t in to .. th e ' move th e Iootpega sixteenth of an inch' or the 'take a , q uarter inch of foam rub b er o ut of the sea t' problems. If thi ngs aren't going perfe ct J ay d oe sn ' t ge t d own o n me, the bike or hims elf. He just says, ' lIey , we 'll wo rk it out .. let's try a little d iffer en t combination: He's always optimistic an d that made the entire year an up p er . \\rhiIe the season was an obvious upper fo r Bill, there were instances during the last t wo cr ucial Nationals of th e year (San Jose an d Ascot) and at the Race of Champions wh ere it was obvious that de spite wo rking with Werner for two yea rs , o ne o f wh ich p ro d uce d th e Gr and Nat io nal Ch ampio nship, Gary Scott was no lon ger even re mo te ly frie ndly and, at time s, eve n ope n ly h o st ile. "Latel y many p eople have tol d me th at it 's easy for us to w in and that should make it nice .: That 's true , b ut I can honestl y say th at I' ve had fun an d enjoyed racing and work ing w ith guys who didn 't w in . " The key to enjoy me nt is w ha t kind of per son y o u 're working w it h . You can' w i n a ll th e ti me an d still have a miserable tim e if the guy is a jerk. Winning isn' t th e key, the person is the key _ That 's th e whole reason fo r d oing th e job .. j ust to be arou nd go od pe ople :' •