Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW AMA Dirt Track Manager Bruce Bober , By SCott Rousseau· g 34 t could be argued that for the past two years, Bruce Bober has faced one of the toughest challenges in AMA Grand National Championship motorcycle racing. No, the reserved 42-year-9ld Franklin Park, lllinois, resident isn't homing in on Scott Parker's record of 67 National wins, nor is he on the cutting edge of dirt track engineering like a Bill Werner or a Skip Eaken. But if men like Parker, Werner and Eaken can be considered figureheads in the sport, then Bober must certainly be part of its backbone. As the AMA's Dirt Track Manager, it is Bober who is looked upon by everyone connected with Grand National Series as the one who holds the keys to the fate of the sport, for his job is to oversee all aspects of it, from the rules to the race track to the riders to the promoters. Bober is the one man charged with the task of holding all the fabric together, which sometimes means being the· equivalent to nothing more than a human complaint box. As such, he has been both praised and criticized. Talk to Bober himself, however, and it becomes apparent that he willingly accepts the job before him, and that he possesses perhaps the one thing that will continue to benefit both his relationships with the various principals in the Grand National Championship Series and the program itself - honesty. Right or wrong, he calls it like he sees it. How long have you been involved with the AMA Grand National Championship Series? I started in 1981 as Assistant Tech Inspector. What is your official role now? You're not just the referee. I am the Dirt Track Manager. One of the things that [ saw over the years was a lot of managers come and go, and two referees come and go. In my opinion, there w·as always dissension between the manager and the referee. When the manager came up with an idea and took it to the referee, if the referee didn't like it, he wouldn't even try it. So when Roy Jansson came to me and offered me the position, one of my stipulations was to eliminate the referee. At the time, he didn't think that we should do that, because there was always a referee out there. But I told him that there was enough pressure in this position that you don't need to be arguing with one of your co-workers about a decision. If I'm there, I feel comfortable enough that I'll be able to make a decision for the rider and the promoter at the same time. Roy told me that he would give me a year to try it. It has worked excellent, in my opinion. You don't work out of the AMA's Ohio offices, but rather out of your home in Illinois. Are you a sub-contractor? Are you a full-time employee? I was a subcontractor until November of '94. Then [ became a full-time employee of the AMA, but I am still working out of my home. , What have you found to be the most difficult part of your job thus far? Probably dealing with all of the different personalities. I have to work with the promoters and participants, and the officials. And it seems like when you get one thing working well, a new set of . problems will arise. We've seen some great racing on the circuit this year. We've had 11 different winners and three of those were firsttime winners. We've also seen several new faces on the podium, alI of whom are potential winners down the road. To what do you attribute this? I can sum it up in one thought, but I don't think everybody will agree with me. But I think that the elimination of time trials and going to qualifying heats has been the major cause for that. The reason is that we're getting these young guys racing with a Scott Parker, a Chris Carr or a Steve Morehead in a qualifying heat, and in that four laps, they may beat 'em or run right behind 'em. But it's giving the new riders so much extra track time and extra confidence that they believe they can beat the Scott Parkers. I truly feel that way. You take a Kevin Varnes for example. All of a sudden .he gets a lot of confidence when he beats Scott Parker in a qualifying heat. Then it turns into the fastest qualifying heat. Then he wins his heat race, and all of a sudden he's sitting on the pole for the National. He went from a midpack guy all the way to a polesitter. That's neat for me. Because I truly love the dirt track program. [ used to ice race and ride amateur dirt track. When I had kids, my wife said that [ should probably give that up. But I wanted to stay involved. One thing led to another, and here we are still. I'm already on a record as the longest-running manager. You don't want to touch on the lack of a JuniorlNational support situation? We can touch on it briefly, but I don't want to get into a 600 versus 883 debate. Without mentioning that, then, where do you see the new talent coming from? I feel that going to a Pro-Am starting on a 250 will help our farm system, because I think that the cost of a 600 was way too expensive for people just getting started in dirt track. We went from seeing little Johnny-on an 80, which costs maybe $1500, to a 125 and a 250. Now all of a sudden he's got to buy a $13,000 Rotax. I think that was just too big of a jump for people just to try. But you can have a competitive 250 for $5000. That's not that big of a deal for some families who want to try dirt track racing. Since you brought up Pro-Ams, let's also touch on geography in terms of the Regionals. The Regionals are all on the east coast. There just isn't much activity west of Illinois. What, if any, improvement can be made to build up a Regional series in the West? I think it's really just a matter of contact- ing the promoters and getting their confidence that they can make money at this again. And I. honestly think that they can. I think that our shows are getting better and better, and the way that the National thing has improved over the years is trickling into the Re$ional program now. The Regional referees have commented on that. It's taken a couple years, but every change does. Are you seeing an increase of participants on the Pro-Am level? Well, the 250 thing is growing. It started in March when we ran through the Daytona week and then through a handful of Regionals where we only had nine or 10 250s. Then we went to Dayton (Ohio), which was in June, and we had 23 250s. So the interest is there, but it's just like everything else - it takes time to build. We wouldn't be doing it if we figured we were beaten already. .Dirt track racing seems to be benefiting from a lot of media coverage again, especially on television, where races have been shown on TNN, Prime, and even live on CBS. That's pretty stout when compared to the TV packages for

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