Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Roberts. Basically, all jay had to do was to beat Scott in th e ra ce to get the plat e. T rue to hi s abili ty a nd pe rso na lity, he mad e a rea l go o ut of it in sp ite o f dis loca ting a fin ger in a practi ce sessio n cras h. He went for th e wi n and not j ust th e points, Ascot has n' t been the sa me si nce, it was stuffed wi th so ma ny peop le the fire ma rsha ls were nervous and people trying to ge t off the freeway a nd into the parking lo ts were wo rse off. When the race ended Spri nger wa s the win ner over Alex j orgen sen and he was th e cha m p with Gary Scott seco nd in th e poi nts chase . T he you ngster was so sto ked it 's a wo nder they didn 't pu t roc ks in his pockets to keep him from floa tin g away. H arl ey had thoughtfu lly hidden a red Sportster in a van "j ust in case" a nd itwas p resen ted to a deli gh ted j ay who thr ew his arms arou nd Dick O 'Brien a nd hugged him lik e a father. T here he was , a ll that enth usias m a nd love o f racing that cou ld light up a room, long hair a nd spa rkling eyes. We as ked j a y if he th ought it a ll had happen ed too fast. " Yeah. Now I do. It happened so fast and I didn' t kn ow wh at it was like. I was la o you ng to handle it co m fortab ly; I j us t d idn 't kn o w eno ug h." ' Did Harl ey try to help him with ho w to live o n the circui t, how to cope wit h it a ll? How to handle hi s mo ney, even to start thi n ki ng ahead to tha t it wouldn't be forever a nd he had to look a head a litt le? " No, I just went raci ng for them. That was a ll. It was my dad who wa tched over me and d id the ot her stuff. I cou ldn 't hav e done it with o ut hi m. He pai d m y bi lls and look ca re of the book wor k so all I had to do was get from race to race. I on ly th o ught abou t racing, bu t he made su re I d idn ' t blow it a ll." T he factory d idn' t tak e ca re o f the ex pe nses? , " No. Under my cont ract th ey took ca re o f th e bik es a nd stuff a nd paid me a sa lary. OUI o f that I had to pay for everyth ing else. All the travel expe nses , everyth ing ." There was a lillie pixie gr in in the voi ce, " Yo u could ca ll it a bit lo w-budget." T he racin g world seem s to as k a lo t of its you ng, in man y ot her spo rts th ere's a farm club o r a universit y g ua rdi ng th e u p war d progress of its you ng stars as th ey matu re. We just kind o f ch uck 'em o u t there, sin k o r sw rm . We go t 0 1110 th e su bjec t o f heros. He was mod est o f co urse. Obviousl y he rea lizes tha t he is a hero to a lot o f people, and a lwa ys has been but he does n' t hit yo u in th e chops wit h it. Did he have a hero or heroes? " Yeah, I had on e. (Ga ry) Nixon, you kn ow. He was my hero. When I got the Number One he ca lled me, I rea lly though t a lot o f that , Tha t was n ice. And (Ch uck) Palmgr en too . I a lways followed wh at he was doing." Today, Sp ri nger carries the n u mb er 9 o n hi s pl at es, two -time G rand Na tional Ch a mpion Nixon' s o ld number. If a ll thi s happened so fast, wha t was it like o u t there on th e circuit if Sp ringsteen didn 't hav e an yone with him ? Did a ny of the ot he rs put their hands o u t to help? " O h yes! In California (the re was) Dave Aldan a and he to ld me a lo t, especia ll y abo u t bei ng ou t th ere. And Palmgren . A lo t o f people were rea l nice . But me and (Steve) Mor ehead, we're th e only ones left wh o kn ow wh at racing was really lik e. H ow hard you had to work com ing up and how much th ere is to learn. Wh a t you have to go th rough. " Whe n I started o u t I had to lea rn to do a lot o f th e stu ff m yself. A lot of kids today do n' t know how to do that. If you gave them a wrench th ey'd hit themselves in the hand with it , then ha nd it back a nd say th ey ca n' t do it. I lik e to work on bik es. Me a nd Werner fin all y had to co me to a n understand ing abo u t that ," H e laughs. " I fina lly told him o kay I won ' t touch 'e m if you wo n 't ride 'em ." Actua lly, Bill Wern er is no slouch on a bike h imself. P eo pl e may t h ink th e th ree straight championships were relative ly easy g iven the eq uip me nt " Usua lly the bear season start s 'the same time as Syracuse ," jay found himself in clinics in '79 in Houston, Lo s Angeles and th e mighty Ma yo Clinic. " T ensio n ," th ey said. They o ffered mild sedatives a nd antacids. Sti ll no rea l he lp. One doctor thought he might hav e a form o f di abetes so hi s wife, Debbie, went to a specia l schoo l to learn how to coo k for suc h a conditio n. To jay's credi t he even talked to a psych iatr ist . .. he wanted to get bett er. Here again we see part o f wha t C a: ~ w J: a: w al > al (J) o .... o J: c, Jay Springsteen began racing professionally as a Novice in 1973. Sp rings teen had, but not so. All the rid ers o u t there were mor e ferocio us ell masse than th ey a re tod ay. Since records started bein g kept in the '30s on ly three ha ve done it. Ca rroll Reseweber is th e o n ly man ever with four stra ig ht , the n Kenny Rob ert s wi th three. vja y, and most recent ly Bubba Shobert. No, factory rid e o r not it was no t easy. And it still isn 't easy. Now ano ther problem ca me along. Sp ri ngs teen became victim to bo u ts o f vio lent stomac h ill ness. No one co uld seem to help. Peop le started talk in g a nd wri ting end lessly of what it might be, and how it co uld be helped. In som e in stances dar ker problems were wh ispered abo u t. One know-it-a ll told me a ta le one nigh t a nd I looked him straigh t in the eye a nd told him he'd bett er be ab le to prove it because a man does n' t ta lk abo u t a no the r th at wa y. A rather hast y retreat was bea ten a nd we ha ven't really excha nged a word since excep t polite nod s. But then people lik e to think the worst. j a y was ag ain o n th e track in 1979 a nd won three half mil es in a row a nd the Peoria TT, while sti ll getti ng sicker. By th e end o f the season , Steve Eklun d , a quiet, privat ely spo nsored Ha rley rider from San j ose eme rged wit h the cha m pionship with 270 points over jay's 229. The illness was taking a terrible to ll. Wha t was done? According to Sp rings teen, every th ing. He took o ff from racing because so many do ctor s, wh en th ey cou ldn't find a ny th ing ph ysicall y wrong told him it was in hi s head and to quit racing. :'1 went bear hunting that seaso n ." he sai d. i mak es Sp ringer, Springer. Instead o f saying, " O h th e hell with it , I'v e tried eve ry t h i n g , I 'll jus t quit co mpletely," he didn't. H e continued to try to find out what was wrong a nd firml y refus ed to beli eve he was the o nly person wi th that p roblem. What wasn 't brought ou t a t th e time was th at th e ill ness wasn 't so me thing new. . " No, it didn 't just start as m y career went a lo ng. I had some th ing like it wh en I was a lot you nger but it never rea lly bothered me. It just got worse as I go t o lder and, of co u rse, as the pressu re increased. Peopl e wro te that it wo uld hit me just befor e a race so therefore it had to be th e p ressure. Wrong. I'd been up north with a co u ple o f buddies h untin g a nd I ha d just go tte n o ut of my sleeping ba g in tim e. It would co me o n a nyw he re, not just arou nd th e races a nd not o n ly during th e racing season." In 1981 he was back o ut aga in, III o r not, racing was too important to give up, He had a co u p le of sponsors a nd th en ended up with who has been behind him for a few years now . Bill Bart els. It was a good match. Ba rt el s and H ar ley- Davidson' s Bob Conway had spo nsored several lesser riders over th e years, on a sm a ll basis. " Mini spo nso rsh ips," says Bi ll. " We rea lly weren't getti ng a ny w he re a n d o ne da y Conwa y me ntioned that they needed someone for j ay o n a full time basi s, So , I thought, o kay !" I'm a Springer fan too, so me a nd Mike Moc kbee (who bu ilds the eng ines even though holding down a full time job in the air research industry) became jay's sponsors. Bartels ow ns one of the largest Harley shops in the coun try, Bartels Harley-Davidson in the Los Angeles a rea, is well known among th e racing frat ernity and the street riders, and who is cu rre n tl y get ting another claim to fam e as being the shop that sells Harleys to the Hollywood pe ople. He is a super neat person and goes back many years in th e annal s of th e so u the rn California race program s, o n th e tra ck and o ff it (a nd some ti mes head first in it ). " I never as ked if they were going to pa y j a y o r not, none o f m y business, but th ey were willing to give us a part spo nsorsh ip," says Bartels." Betw een Mik e a nd I we had .enough engi ne s a nd Harley ch ip ped in some o ld frames of j a y's th at had been tagged a nd were in storage in Milwaukee . . . so . . . we went racing. I think we helped jay's co nfiden ce because so me o f th e other people h e rode for wer e reall y bothered by hi s illness. We kn ew it was liab le to happen but th ey j ust co uld n ' t sta nd it. They were depending on him to be there and we were n 't. We'd be th ere for him and he'd be there if he co u ld. We were j ust g lad to help. T here was a lot of gratification to be part of racing for Springer. Wh en he's well , he's hell! " I loved th at quote but it turns out that it's not reall y Bartels' but rather Bill Werner 's wh o co u ld come up with some good ones . Like th e o ne o n j ay's illness but sai d with a touch o f sad ness , " Well, it's o ne wa y of nature to g ive th e o the r guys a cha nce." And so seasons went a lo ng, with Springsteen still hanging in there. Comes this year, 1989, and things were sticky. j ay had always had fan s in the facto ry, even a mo ng management, Bob Conwa y always supported him although as personali ties th ey do not seem particularly fond of each other as in sid ers will tell yo u; still he's a Springer fan . There is another person, a mechanic, at the factory Bartels talks a bou t. "AI Stangler. He helped us so man y ways. H e was th e guy on the end and well . . . he knows what he's do ne and we want him to know how m uc h we appreciate it." Sta ng ler worked on jay's eq uip ment at ho me, afte r pu tting in a fu ll day at the facto ry in th e rac e sho p. . One needs to be careful abou t revealing' a ll secrets of interna l wor kings o f lar ge com panies. But o ne of the s tre ngth s of HarleyNational Junior Champion, 1974.

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