Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dirt Track USA DIRT TRACK By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Gold & Goose MONTMELO, SPAIN, SEPT. 14 ast year's dirt track race on the grounds of the Kenny Roberts Training Ranch was viewed as a farce, more an exhibition than a competition, a show not a race. This year would be different. In an every-man-for-himself battle, Jay Springsteen showed he still has it, running down and beating teenager Tommy Hayden by a very scant 0.195 second to win Dirt Track USA before a capacity crowd of 10,000 at the immaculately groomed three-eighth-mile oval at the Roberts school. "I had to put' my head down to catch. him," said Springsteen, who's been coming to the Spanish dirt track races for four years. "I looked back a few times and saw he was right there. It was a great experience for him and all of us." After two years at a shoddy facility in Jerez, in southern Spain, the dirt track moved to the Roberts camp, an impressive $1 million facility built with massive government aid next to the Catalunya Circuit north of Barcelona. The main three-eighth-mile oval track was carved into a hillside, a natural amphitheater and seating on the front straight with grandstands built along the back. Just beyond the track is the smaller dirt track where students train on the 100cc dirt trackers in the shadow of the school and maintenance building. In the distance is the tail end of the Pyrenean foothills. It may well be the best purpose-built dirt track facility in the world. As always, it's an invitation-onIy race' and this year the invites went out to AMA Grand National Championship regulars Springsteen and Hayden, along with part-timer Ronnie Jones. Randy Mamola made an appearance as did Jimmy Filice, who's been working at the Roberts school and racing in Europe for much of the summer. The rest of the invited riders came from Spain and Italy with the two best from each country getting the loan of Sparky Edmondson-built Wood-Rotaxes for the two-night affair. The first night was mostly devoted to the Europeans, except for an exhibition by the Americans and timed qualifying. In a preview of what was to come, Springsteen took the pole, but just barely, from Filice. Saturday night featured a full race· program and then some. There was timed qualifying, heats, semis and a last chance qualifier, as well as a few special races. The first was the exhibition of the Americans and Kenny Roberts. Roberts and Springsteen had raced together in the mid-70s, when Springsteen was just starting out and Roberts had just finished winning his two Grand National Championships. And Mamola had never dirt tracked four-strokes, coming to Europe when he was 17 to foster his road racing career. Add to that veteran Jones and Tommy Hayden, who'd road raced in Spain for Wayne Rainey two years ago, but was now in his rookie Expert dirt track season. The plan was for Roberts to win, of course. But King Kenny screwed up. Leading across the line at the end of the third of four laps, Roberts saw a waving flag through his darkshield. Thinking it was the checkers, he slowed and rode high up on the cushion, only to see the other five riders speed past. By the time he got going he was out of the hunt and, at the end, it was a photo finish with Filice nipping Springer. "I saw a guy here wave a flag and I thought it was over," Rob~rts said. "I may b~ out of ~ job after tonight," Filice said after beating his boss. . The next big race was the six-lap winner-take-all Marlboro Challenge, with five Americans going for the 100,000 peseta ($813) purse. This one started out between Hayden, Filice and Jones, with Jones taking the lead at the halfway point and holding on to win by about a second. Springsteen moved into second on the final lap and nudged Filice back to third coming out of the final turn. Hayden was fourth and Mamola fifth. For Mamola, it was the third time he could remember riding a four-stroke. The first was aboard a Formula One 750 when he rode for the Suzuki factory in the early '80s; the second was aboard a Triumph earlier this year, then tonight. "I could stay with them in the first, second and third corners. It's just that little extra that they have getting out of the corners," Mamola said, adding that he wasn't as willing to take as many risks as he used to. "In the back of my mind, I know how bones break." He would be back in the main, having won the first heat race ahead of a passel of Europeans. The second heat went to Hayden, with Filice running second before crashing on the second lap and getting forced into the semi. "It was dry and slick and I ran it down low. I tried to get under Tommy (Hayden)," Filice said. The consensus was that the track actually was in better shape than the previous night. "The track got a little slippery," Filice would say after the final. To get there he had to go through the semi, which he won handily. The former AMA 2S0cc GP Champion was responsible for the racing surface and had been working on it for better than a week. "Me and Larry Dunnegan (Roberts' nephew) have been putting in IS-hour days," Filice said. "The work paid oft" "It was beautiful," Springsteen' added. "Jimmy worked hard getting it ready." After the Marlboro Challenge came the fireworks display, then the 20-1ap main, with more fireworks and just as authentic. Hayden got the jump from Springsteen and Filice, Jones and Mamola followed, then came the Euros. The front two made a slight break from the pack and on the seventh lap it was Springsteen taking the lead in turn one, the pair running side by side exiting turn two and for much of the race. Springsteen was working a slightly higher line than Hayden and it would work to both of their advantages when they hit traffic just past the halfway point. Coming up on them one at a time, the pair would split the lappers, one high and one low, neither ever losing significant ground. It came down to the final lap, each taking his distinctive line, and Springer wheelying to victory by a bike length or . two. "This is probably one of the best race tracks I've raced on all year," Springsteen said of the Roberts oval. "I couldn't get past him," said Hayden, who has raced Springsteen in the United States for the first time this season. Jones fell back from the leaders at th.e very end after discovering he couldn't keep pace. "There's just not much traction down Jay Springsteen (right) and Ronnie Jones (left) celebrate after finishing first and . third in the Dirt Track USA in Spain. The pair are being Interviewed by Dennis Noyes. low," Jones said. He said he was forced to run low because of the gearing he chose. "They had a little taller gearing and could run a higher line. If I tried running high, I'd run out of gear. If I was low it would slide. Once I realized I couldn't catch them, I was sliding around up high and throwing dirt on them." Filice came home fourth, never in th.e hunt and knowing that he would need a few more weeks of competition to keep up. "These guys do it week in and week out," Filice said. "They're amazing. Those guys hauled ass. I pushed it for a while." The final American was Mamola, finishing well in front of Spaniard Juan Bulto, the first European and the grandson of the founder of Bultaco motorcycles. That was the end of the program, though it could change for 1997. After messing up in his exhibition, Roberts said, "Next year we're going to race until I win one. It could be four or five races." CN Kenny Roberts Training Ranch Montmelo, Spain Results: September 14, 1996 DIRT TRACK USA, 1. Jay Sprtngsteen (KR); 2. Tommy Hayden (KR); 3. Ronnie Jones (KR); 4. Jim Filice (KR); 5. Randy Mamola (KR); 6. Juan Bulto (Kaw); ,7. Giorgio CeccareUo (H-D); 8. Roberto Ungaro (KR); 9. Lluts Massana (KR); 10. Agusti Vall (KR). Time: 6 min., 17.857 sec. Distance: 20 laps, 8.75 miles. Margin of victory: 0.195 sec. MARLBORO CHALLENGE, 1. Ronnie Jones; 2. Jay Springsteen; 3. Jim FWce; 4. Tommy Hayden; 5. Randy Mamola. Time: 1 min., 54.701 sec. Distance: 6 laps, 2.25 miles. Margin of Victory: .094 sec. 11

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