Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Springsteen goes lor three The champ By Gary Van Voorhis Apply the saying "T he more things change, the more they stay the same" to season '78 and you have the formula for figuring out the chase for the championship. In 1977 the question was ca n Jay Springsteen successfull y defend his titl e? For 1978 that question becomes can a nyo ne stop Springsteen from winning his third consecutive cha m pionship? . There are many who would like to take Springer's place . Realisti cally . few rid ers have a chance and that number ha s d im inished by one with the department of Kenny Roberts to GP road race warfare acr oss th e pon d , Springsteen will find th a t his position ha s cha nged littl e from last yea r. If anything , th e pressure ma y be even greater. Beat Springer will be th e battle cry a nd ba sis for all stra tegy. It will be easie r sai d than done. The battleground 8 Twent y-eight.N arionals, including a few new locations like Denver Colorado and Des Moines, Iowa , mak~ up the circuit for 1978. Intia lly the AMA considered 32 eve nts, but cancellations, resched uli ng and other problems red uced the number. Travel-wise the schedu le is wor kable. However , a problem exists in rega rd to open da tes sho u ld an event or even ts be ra in ed out. Pu rse moni es were boosted con s~derab ly. fo.r '78 and shou ld keep the riders WIthin range of th e increased costs of ca m pa ign ing on the cir cuit. . Last year's mid-season r~le c ha nge to pay S50 to 48 qua lifiers at all dirt tra ck programs did not succ eed in add ing to . ent ries at events where ride r aucndan ce was down . Howev er . it did put mon ey in rid er 's pock ets and will be in effect again this year. With five T'Ts. ten half mil es. seven m iles and two short tra cks a mo ng the 28 Na tiona ls on th e sched ule: th e chase for th e cha m pionship will still be a d irt rid er 's b allga rne . It has become increasingly one -sided in recent seasons as spirral ing costs have forced riders to concentrate on racing where they can m ake a living. Five roa d rac es. down one fro m last seaso n , fill ou t th e sched ule. A cham pion ship co ntender who road races has ~ he pot ent ial to make a big di ffe re nce In th e outco me . The situation exis ted las t yea r , but no rider was a ble to take full advant age of it. For 1978 a ll 750cc road race machinery mu st use a ca rburetor restricror plate un der AMA rul es. As of th is writ ing , the AMA had sti ll not made a firm deci sion on when p la tes would be required on dirt a lt ho ug h the May 7 San Jose (Ca lifornia) mil e ha s previousl y been mention ed as a target date . In principle the restrict or s red uce speed t hereby prolonging th e life of ' the engi ne and other com po ne nts . Tests have proven the idea work s on ' roa d racers a nd a lso on dirt tra ck machinery. However. t he dirt tra ck co mmu nity is hesitan t to ha ve th e idea i~itiated d uring t he season since many rider s and tu ner s feel that it would obsolete most speed work (flowing rh e heads etc .) done to p repare for the season , Turni ng toward th e brighter side of things , R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Corn pany/Camel Filters are back with another $100 ,000 in point fund mon ies to sweeten life a b it. You don't break up a winning combination and that is exactly what Jay Springsteen and Harley-Davidson tuner Bill Werner are . Springer will be ou t to becom e th e first rider to win more than two con secutive \ ha m pionships since Carroll Resweber ( 1958 ·61 ) turned the trick four times. Since turning Expert th ree short seasons ago , Spri nger has won nearly one out of every fou r dirt Nationa ls (15 of 63) he has ent ered. That consistency has grudgingl y won the ad m ira tion of every competitor who races against him . If 1976 was a yea r of g lory for Springsteen . th en last year must be looked at as a yea r of maturing . of honing his formid able skill s to a fine ' edge. In that light , 1978 will tell th e tale of whether Springer is bearable. However . he may not have a say in th e final tall y. Springer ca n not a ffo rd t he luxury of not bein g abl e to co n test roa d. ra ce Nati onals much lon ger and co nt in ue to luck ou t as he ha s in the pa st. Sooner or later th e od ds a re bound to shift and when they do he will have his hands tied . Road ra cin g or , more accurately, th e lack o f co m petitive eq u ipme nt fro m H·D . see ms to be th e on ly ch ink in Springer's armor. When th e going gets tough , the tough get going (to borrow a n overused p hrase) seems to describe hi m best. He doesn't really function u nt il the chips are down. Then he somehow wrings 110% out of himself a nd his machinery. Under pressure , Springs teen is the bes t. The challengers Wi th Kenny Rob erts out of the pic tu re this year · a lt ho ug h it shou ld be ment ion ed th a t he does pla n to ride a few dirt Nationals at the end of th e of season . the list " known threats to Springst ee n has narrowed to two riders: T ed Boo dy and Gary Scott. T ed Boody, Springer'S team mate at Harley-Da vid son , was con sidered on g of t he spoilers in last yea r's titl e chase. Instead, Boody ended up as the most formidable cha llenge Springer faced all season. _ Boo d y was hungry last year, He was the new kid on the block at Ha rley and had someth ing to prove. Although he co uld be acc used of being over -eager and of ma king mis takes that cost him dea rly, Bood y proved his po int. '~ After studying Spri nger for a year ," Bood y is ready to ma ke h is move. He has spent his off time keeping in shape a nd ice racing; sharpening his talenu and hopin g to have an edge on every : one whe n the season starts . However , Bood y like Springer won't ga rner a ny road ra cin g points he's Lightweight ra nked . At H arl ey-Da vidsonthe name of the ga me is every rid er for himself. There are no team ta ct ics. You ca n bet Bood y will renew his vow of last vea r to " m a k~ Sprin ger number two ." Six Nat ion al victo ries a nd third place in th e fina l sta ndi ngs woul d bt: ca use for cele bra t ion for a ny rider except Gary Scott. 1977 was a frusrraring yea r for Sco tt who ha d pr eviou sly never finis hed out of the top two since he began co ntes ting th e cha m pio nshi.e,in 197 2 . Scott . pl ann ing on his road . ra n ' program to pr ovide him with added point s ca me awa y with non e. His sho rt track pr ogram was n't mu ch be tter a nd his tradem ark of co nsistencv on t hr' mi les and h alf mil es faded ba'dlv as his six Nat ion al wins wer e offset b}' eight' fin ishes in tenth pla n ' or below . Bu t Scott still rook t he ba tt le for th e t it lrright to th e last eve nt. J I Ba cked ag a in by sponsorship fron~ Evel Knievel, Scott will t rv 'HI strenghthen both his road ra c.... an ,l short tra ck program whi le searching t8 regain d ie consistency th a t had become his trad emark . rl > > : The best of the rest Assuming th at th e to p three positions in t he final standings are

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