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/127291
eDIRT TRACK The SoCai S eedwayscene ~ Southern Californiasays, . "Bye, Class C track," now speedway rules! flat By Ch uck Clayton hen Ascot closed, AMA raci ng lost its last , best , and only Class C ca li ber ova l d irt track in sou thern Californ ia. But growing in th e shade of famous Ascot and its Rolling Thunder half mile sho w are half a dozen sma ller Class A speedway tracks dotted aro und the lower left corne r of America. Now tbe Ascot crowd turns to them for their raci ng needs. There is no other cho ice. T he question is, can speed way fill the ga p? To find out we went to "Speedway Cen tral," Ken Maely's Ho tshoe Manor near Corona , California. Ken 's little ad in Cycle News promises " Everything for Speedway," and it' s no lie. From steel shoe to new and used speedway bik es, methanol raci ng fuel to a well groomed 10th-m ile practice trac k out W 6 back, Maely's is the one-stop shop for every speedway racer 's need. Wha t would he advise a young racer wh o wants to be a speedway sta r? " Get a used speedway bik e to start with ," says Ken . " Even a 10-year-old ESO has more pow er than you Can imagine." Speedway tec h nology h a sn 't cha nged mu ch over th e decad es. T hey a lways were full-out race bikes, bu ilt for just the one job : World Class profession al dirt track power sliding. "With about $2000 worth of eq uipment , Y0t! can run a seaso n or two and see how you like it," MaeIy says. H e offers used bikes for un der $1000 and . the all importa nt left foot steel slider , the hotshoe - for $85 wi th a lifetime gua ra ntee (Ken's lifetime, that is). T ime on the practi ce track costs $25 a day per rider . The track is a duplicat e of th e po p ular Oran ge County Fairground speedway. After learni ng the fine art of crossedup power control and th e faster ways of getting aro und a 10th-mile di rt oval, you can go raci ng up to five nigh ts a week in season withou t leaving the Los Angeles area. "J ust do n' t expect to win a lot of mon ey at it ," Ken caut ions. At Oran ge County Speedw ay last week 24 racers tried to qualify for a purse of on ly $4000 with $500 of that goi ng to the sidecar winners. . The severa l local spee dway race promo ters are fiercely inde pe nde n t entreprene urs. Most of th eir events are AMA sa nc tioned . T hey run a fast paced progra m of p ure heads-u p raci ng that th e crowd loves. It 's a fami ly cro wd , a lbeit a slightl y rowdy fa m ily. Fan s fill the sma ll stadi ums rig ht to the edge of the tra ck where th e dirt flies in thei r faces. These are not car tracks lik e most Class C ven ues, so the spectators can get up closer to the ac tio n. What you see is th e purest form of flat track racing - no brak es, no groo ve, no mercy. Crashes are frequently spectacu lar but seldo m fatal. Run in sna p py four-la p elim ina tio n races, th e sho w builds interest to th e main event climax . "T hey. don 't ca ll it Class A for nothing! " ent h uses one fema le fan . Lacking factor y backing and expensive promotion, speedway will remain our little secret. T he sport was bigger than Class C once (still is, in the rest of the world ) and can be agai n if the CN righ t combi nation is ever found.