Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

" ' . .DIRT TRACK · What's it cost? ve or By Scott Roussea u Photos by Donn Maeda hen Da vey Camlin flash ed a cross th e finish line a b oa r d his Skip Eaken tuned Harley-David s on XR750 to claim the victo ry at the 1994 DuQuoin Mil e, he d id more than just : ' " AMA Grand N ational earn his first Championsh ip w in . From a fis ca l standpoint, ·t h e m oney that Cam li n w on made hi s seas on, because at the end of the yea r, tha t's abo ut all he was worth. W h ile o ther for m s of AMA-san ctioned profession al com pe tition b ask in the fina ncia l glow of high -buck corporate America - the top facto ry road racin g and mot ocross tea ms, for exam ple, start ou t with a tre mendo us am ount of capita l each season and then ad d on such associa tes as 1-S00-C olle ct o r Srnokin ' Joe' s to p ad their ou trageo us racing budgets - it seems that dirt tra ck, the native so n of professiona l motorcycle racing in the U.S., has been left out of the loo p. Depen ding on which rid er or tun er yo u ask, there are any number of rea sons for the la ck of m oney in th e spo rt, so brin gin g up those d iscus sion s woul d be a moot point. Despite their shoestring budgets and never-ending p rivateer sta tus (there is one factory rid e av ailable, but it is cu rrently occu pied by so me Michigan fellow who has managed to string together a few N ational ch ampionships), d irt track's boys of sum me r still manage to p o ol e n o u gh m on e y to hit the road every year, s lidi ng and dra fting th eir way across the country on the "fairs cir cu it" and somehow earning jus t eno ugh mon ey to make it to the next N ational. Or do they? Jus t what does it cos t in rea l dolla rs to field a competitive team in the GN C series? Wh at d o th ey spend ? What do the y make? Can a top 10 guy make a living racing d irt track? Is it all wo rth it? We wanted to kn ow, so we contacted Camlin to see if he w ou ld tell u s. H e agreed .to "op en h is book s." Ditto for C a ml in ' s tu ne r, Skip Eaken. As we woul d le a rn, e ven in the ou t w a r d ly si m p lis tic worl d o f d ir t tr ack ra cin g, th ere is a lot m ore involve d th an ju st showing u p at the races an d twisting the thr ottl e. In ad di tion to topping DuQuoin, the 25-year-old from Rock Island, Illinois, earned Sl GNC p oints in '94, g oo d en ough for 10th in the se rie s' fi n a l standings. Carnlin's ranking alone made him an id eal candidate for "auditing," bu t there were other intriguing variab les, like the fact that Camlin is teamed up with a Grand National Championship-winning tuner, Eaken, and is unargu ably riding one of the best-pre. pared privateer Harley-Davidsons on lI) th e track. Finally, Camlin is a perfect 0\ study because finances are the reason 0\ that he and Eaken teamed u p in the first lI)' place. Afte r finis hing out of the top 20 in '93, Camlin and his father Don decided I-l to call it a day. 0.. "Skip's the main reason for m y cu r

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