Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I Dirt Track Roundtable III . ; Again, where goest thou, dirt track? E opi~ion. H~rley) a~d By Gary Van Voorhis C') Smoke filled rOOms are great for getting. things done - politicians use them all the time. However, it wasn't politics that brought Harley-Davidson's Dick O'Brien, former racer/accessory business owner Neil Keen, former Grand National Cham_ . pions Gene Romero and -Mert Lawwill, Winston Pro Sen'es team ma.nager Dave a) Knight, shop owner/sponsor/racers' father Norm McDonald and later tuner Storme Wmters and Winston Pro Sen'es competitor Skip Aksland together, although in _ ~ asenseyoucouldprobablysaythat. l1) The reason for the get-together was a roundtable discussion on the state of .D. professional dirt track competition. Held after the Topeka Winston Pro Sen·es National, the meeting lastedfrom around mianight until 2 a.m. l1) Failure by the AMA Board of Trustees to take any action on a proposal to restn"ct ..... 750cc equipment in the Expert ranks (as is now the case in the Junior division) and ~ thus open the door to an influx of 500cd machinery was only one common bond l1) within the group. Cf':J In essence, passage of a restn'ctor rule would have slowed down the 750cc bikes so a 500cc machine - such as Honda's XR500 . woUld have a competitive chance. This, in tum, might have opened the door to pOSSl'blefadory participation by Honda, Yamaha and perhaps the rest ofthe Big Four. The Board's decision was to announce what the 1982 rules will be in September 1980. This effectively rules out, at least for two years, seeing (competitive) 500cc machinery m anything but TT events in the Expert ranks. In addr~ion each was concerned WI~h the CUTTent state of.the sport. While most AMA Grand National Championship events are not lacking for spectators, neither is the total groWIng. A decrease in n'der entry at many Nationals which began about .three years ago is also contInuing. However, I~ is the grass roots events which are of greatest concern. These local events are really buildrng blocks where Novices tum Into Juniors and Junio.rs tum into Experts. They could be likened to the farm system which major league baseball uses to hone the skills of its future players. Rider and spectator attendance - plus ever rising costs of putting on an event - have combined to signal that somethIng needs to be changed. Everyone present agreed that there is a problem and that things need changing. But is there one easy answer, is there a magical cure? No one really Jtnows the answer. There are those who would argue that not passing the proposed restn'ctor rule was a mistake while there are those arguing that passage would have been a mistake. However, all seem to agree that taking no action at all was an even bigger mistake. . The session started with each individual having approximately ten minutes to voice his opinions. Once that was done the interaction began. Pull up a chair and sz~ in. There are views and ideas from all pOInts ofthe compass. J:"oo C') S Neil Keen. Dick O'Brien. NK: It is my that American style dirt track racmg IS the most merchandisable commodity around. There is nothing around that could have withstood the mishandling that dirt track has and still draw some semblance of a crowd. What has happened is that.we have allowed the equipment rules and/or the rules making to get to the point where only the factories participate in the decision making. Therefore, the factories are having to support it singlehandedly and in dirt track tha't means Harley-Davidson. Dick (O'Brien) is basicl\lly giving parts to riders now that he wouldn't have sold them to five years ago because if he doesn't. the riders won't be able to have equipment that r u n s . · All of us in racing perhaps blame Harley-Davidson Jor things that are not really their fault. If you look at things properly, you have thanked God for Harley because we couldn't have any big time professional racing without them. Even though I basically consider them the enemy, everyone who works there is my friend. What really bums me up is that the Japanese companies who enjoy 90% of the sales in the American market are really parasites as far as contributing anything. They only take away and give back nothing. The significant thing is not that the Yamaha 750 isn't competitive· (on the dirt), the significant thing is that everybody thinks it isn't competitive. That is the tragedy. If we turned things around and had Dick O'Brien and Clyde Denzer (of Gene Romero. working for Yamaha domg development for them, why m two or three years you'd probably have racers saying that they didn't want to work on those old vee-twins. I would like to see the rules modified.. I, for one, would be the last one to want to see rules made that would benefit Honda's advertising department. For a great many years there have been people who have said if only we could get Honda into racing. Hey, Honda has enjoyed nearly half the sales market share in the U.S., yet they have not contributed one bloody thing to the American AMA style dirt track racing. All of the Japanese companies are basically in that same boat. Admittedly, the Yamaha people made an effort for awhile, but for various political reasons withdrew. I want it understood that I am not for making the rules so thilt you can not race or win with a HarleyDavidson. AMA big motor nonNational racing as well as AMA Grand National Championship racing is in one helluva mess. It is enjoying an alltime low both in the number of riders licensed, the number of races sanctioned and the number of riders entering. It is therefore critical that the rules be amended to encourage less . expensive participation by brands other than those now competing. NMD: I've been involved in dirt track racing, like Neil, for a long time. We've contributed better than $250,000 in building motorcycles, traveling to races and such. Now, when we fmally get within reach and Dave Knight. Norm McDonald. 20

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