Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

n every spo rt th ere tends to be a forgetting of peop le, a loss of the key spo tlight as pe rha ps their fortunes wa ne a little, th e wi n is no t always th ere a nd some of the wor king press view any thi ng less than first place as never enough. T here is always " the new kid on the bl ock " the o ne wi th flash , das h and speed, and sometimes rea l talent, a nd people key on hi m. In speed sport raci ng there ha ve always been a very few th at whatever happened in th eir careers, as seasons ro ll on , it does n't matter. T hei r fans remain lo ya l. In ca rs you think insta n tly of A.j. Foyt or R ich ar d Petty. In m o to rcycl es it 's Jay pri ngs teen . In each man th ere are similari ties, a deep a bid ing love for th e spo rt they became cha mp ions in , stro ng perso nalities, a great sense of loyalty, a nd a bel ief in themsel ves. If th ere is a "soul" of th e Harl eyDavidson rac ing program it wo uld have to be J ay Springs teen. Som eh o w yo u would never think of Sp rings teen without au tomatically imaging th e black and ora ng e of Harley-Davidson. What makes a cha mp io n? What makes a star? There a re differen ces. Many things contribute to a person becoming a cha mpio n - eq u ip ment - a good helping of luck - talent, of course. But th e indefinable thing is in th e pe rsonality of the man. It cou ld be ca lled just pl ain g uts. They have the abi li ty to do it. Just do it! T hey don 't choke because of physical or emotiona l pain; th ey go on when even all th e odds are agains t them . J ay has th at "star" quali ty, and even if he didn' t have th e mos t impressive set of records in th e book ever compiled by a di rt track racer , he'd still be a star. It' s an undefinabl e somethi ng th at comes from wi thin ; whe n you see it, you kn ow it. O ut of all th e riders who are o u t on the Ca mel Pro circuit today, th e crowd roars the loudest for Spri nge r a t introduction tim e. And thi s man has no t won a Na tiona l since 1985. Hi s last Na tiona l titl e in 1978. T here a re man y current fans of hi s who weren 't in the sta nds when he fir st ca me cha r g i ng o nto th e Nati onal race scene as a roo kie Ex pe rt in 1975 and into a mercil ess spo tlig ht that would ha ve quailed a less mortal. In sp ite of th e dog a nd pon y sho w going on arou nd him , J ay had and still has, one thing for e mos t on hi s m ind . Ra cing . Wh at 's goi ng on with th is race a nd when's th e next o ne. Even before he turned Ex pert we'd heard abo ut him . In the Ascot press bo x o ne nigh t, a n AMA off icial ha p p ily informed me, " We' ve go t a not her o n e comi ng o ut o f th e Mich iga n woods wh o 's goi ng to kn ock your socks off. Wait 'til you see him." In those what seemed to be happier da ys in raci ng the Ascot regu lars - ride rs who had grown up th ere a nd mostly do mina ted d irt track racing for a few seaso ns kn e w w ha t Ascot was a bo u t; a d ifficu lt track to learn. It was the tangibl e intangible of the circuit a track th at mad e grea t names do stra nge th ings . Even th e grea t Bart Markel had tak en hi s lumps th ere. It always ca used a certain amount o f glee a mo ng th e West Coast co ntin gent, so we all murmured pol itel y a nd loo ked forward to seeing th e newest memb er -of th e Flint Flyers (or Mich igan Mafia, depending on your choice of words) on the Ascot oval. O riginall y th ere were two Spri ng. steens o n th e tra ck, Jay and hi s o lder brother Ken . As Juniors th ey usuall y ra n o ne- two with J ay leading, but Ken was no slo uc h . Wh en th ey tran sferr ed to Expert, as Jay says of Jay Springsteen his brother, "He just couldn't ge back to cha rging as hard. " What 0 Ken now? "He's having a great tim racing o pe n wheel modified cars an doing well at it. " The '75 seaso n started. Gary Sco t and Kenny Rob ert s were abou t t ~ sta rt th eir deadly serio us du el for th ~ number one pl at e. King Kenny ha ~ wo n it two years in a ro w a nd Scot ~ was the ch ief contender. First rae ~I of th e year was the Astrodome IT so methi ng Roberts had tried for fou ~ years to win , and th is year he did > Not mentioned in the Cycle N euis ~ story was J ay Spri ngs teen in 14th. b Then wha m. J ay won back-to :r back Nati onal Half Mile races a e, Louisville a nd H arrington'. H e wa a high school junior, just barely I a nd th e younge st rider to ever wi a National. Anot he r one for th book s was he was the first roo kie i 20 years to win two in a row ; Bra Andres h ad been th e la st. Ri c Gawthrop 's Vista Shee n was hi sponso r with Jimmy Clark handl ing the wrenche s. They were ecsta tic a the firs t win. ' '' I kn ew we'd do it," whooped Clark. " But I didn 't know how soon." Next race was Columbus and he got third but had th e fastest tim e trial , he a nd Kenn y Roberts being th e only two to time in under 26 seconds! The press was now calling him the rookie sensa tion. Still, there .' was cautio n a mong th e people who had many yea rs of th e sport under their belts. From Bart Markel: " He's fast. He's clever a nd he doesn't a ppear to rattle easily. H is tal ent lies in his a bility to read a track , pi ck th e best lin e a nd to ada p t to whatever surface." From Dick O'Brien , mastermind of th e H arl ey raci ng program back then: " It 's my job to keep a n eye o n J ay. It's a little early yet for serious cons idera tio n but he's do in g some fin e ridi ng." Still, Harley-David son was featuring ads showing Jay in a feet up, fu ll lock slide with 65X on hi s number plat es. The circ ui t turned west a nd a t the Ascot National IT he promptl y fell off in th ose notorious esses whi le chasing Gary Scott. Same ni ght Mert Lawwill bit the dust too. But the night before had been th e Gardena C old -Cup H alf Mil e, and it 's a neck tingling experi en ce wh en you see so meone like Spri ngsteen o ut on the ova l for th e first tim e yourself. It was the re. Corky Keen er won it (first nonCalifornian to do so), Jay was second and J ohn H a teley on a Tri um ph fini sh ed thi rd. Keen er, wise to the wa ys of the Grand Na tio na l circui t, becam e a good friend , as was Jimm y Clark, Ja y's tuner who had spe nt 20 years wor king o n H arl eys a nd was a n exrace r hi mself. And J a y, havin g come u p th e hard wa y was no slo uch turning wrenc hes himself. At Ind ianapolis, th e legendary Ca rro ll Resweber was heard exp lai ning some fin er po in ts of riding th e m ile to Spri nger. People were happy to help him, but no o ne had taught him how to be the o n ly rider on a mile who cou ld keep th e throttle on, pitch th e bike into the turn a nd hold it th ere at 100 mph ! That came gen eticall y. At that particula r Indianapolis race he a nd Corky Keen er were hard a t work on th e last lap sorting out who was going to get th e win , when th ey had the mind altering experience of Kenny Roberts going by them hanging onto the infamous howling " Bo mb, " th e Yamaha TZ. By July, Jay wa s a member of the factory team . Gre~ Sassaman unfor_ tunatel y go t injured , a n d Di ck O 'Bri en 's earlier words on caution not w iths ta n d i ng, Springer was given th e berth for th e rest of the year. := ..'- .. -' .":.~ ...1 .... Jay Springsteen and his four-year-old daughter Amanda . The man they call Springer By Maureen lee

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