Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SPEEDWAY By Scott Ro usseau Photos by Bob Jones and Mike Basso i7'i ire wa rs are no thi ng new . Norm all y, they ar e .fou g ht o n th e race tra ck, as one rubber manufactu rer cons ta ntly tries to ou tdo the o ther throug h the int ro d uc tion o f better profiles or m ore r efi n ed compounds. Road racing has its Michelin v s, Dunlop con flict, mo tocro ss its Du nlo p vs. Bridgestone battl e. Now , American speedway has begun a tire war of its own a feveris h battle tha t has once again crea ted rifts in a spo rt so desperately in need of cohesion to ensure its survival into the year 2000. Just as the very spo rt of speedway itself is a no m a lo us (tu r n on the throttle to 's lo w d o wn, tu rn rig ht to go left, no brakes ), the fact that the tires over which th is lates t tiff is bein g thrown are perhaps at th e boltom rung of racing-tire techno log y in a ll o f mo to r ra ci n g is somew ha t iron ic. Less ironic is the fact tha t thi s battle inv olves the AMA and International Speedway Inc. - or, to put it m ore plainly, the Oxley famil y, which has bee n at the forefro nt of the America n s peedwa y ra cing sce n e for so me 30 years. In that time , lSI has always hosted perhaps its most trad emark event, the U.S. N ati on al Cha m pio ns h ip, w ith o r w itho ut the sa nction of the AMA . As a .resu lt of this tire war , th e 1997 version wi lJ o nc e again be a non-AMA· sa nctioned meeting. Comes the backgro und for the argu men t: It all started a t the beginning of the 1997 season, wh en a h an d ful o f No rthe rn Ca lifo rnia speed way rid er s bega n ru nning Barum rea r tires, which are OE on new Jawa motorcycles - the o n ly co mple te speedway mot o rcycle a vailable for sa le any where in the world. Those rid ers, top Nor Cal star Bart Bast among them , continued to purchase the ' tires for use in AMA-sa nctioned regularseason races each week at Fast Fridays in Auburn, Cal ifornia, an d at the new Sideways Sa tu rd ays track in Dixo n . In th e meantime, all Sout hern California riders co m pe ted ab o ard Kenda r ea r tires, whic h definitely fall under the cri teria set forth in the SCSCB rule book adop ted by the AMA to go vern speedway racing in the United States. The trouble began at the first meeting between the riva l regions - the first of the fo ur-rou nd 1997 AMA U.S. Natio na l Cham pions hip Qualifie r Series - when the Barum-.shod rid er s s howed up to Costa Mesa Speedway. The presence of the Barum rubber created a stir, as some riders, International Speedway promoter . Brad O xley among them , cla im ed no knowledge that the tire was being used . But faced with the decision of uph olding the rule - as he sees it - or allowing the rid ers to compete on the tire in the best interest of the show at hand, Oxley made the snap call to allow the Barums"Neither (AMA speci al-projects manager) Bill Boyce nor I were aware tha t th a t (Baru rn) tir e ev en existed," O xley says. "We .were both totall y in the da rk abo u t it . Wh en th e northe rn rid ers showed up for the first qualifier at Costa Me sa - we' re talki ng a t like 6:30 p .m ., and the race sta rts at 7:30 p.m. - with the wrong tire on their bikes, we - mea ning > ,..... .... OJ .g .... U o 22 The reason It all came undone: The 1997 U.S. National Speedway Championsh ip will not be sa nctioned by the AMA because host promoter Internationa l Speedway willonly anew.the Kenda tire (left) and not the AMA-approved Barum tire (right) to be run at the event. myself and Ga ry Hicks and my referee m ad e a hu g e m is ta ke. Ra the r t han enforcing the ru le right there and making them chang e it, we allowed them to use it, because we had n't had the qu alifiers in a long tim e and , in a sho w o f goodwill, we d id n't want those gu ys to have to go throug h the dram a and troubl e o f ha vin g to switch tires an hour before the race. But come Monday morning we we re go ing to take ca re of i t, beca use these tires aren't legal. It was a mistake on our part. It was a typo." The "typ o" that Oxley is referring to co m es from the su pplem ental regula tions that we re sent to the rid ers en tered in the Q u al ifier Se ries by the AMA. Oxley says that Boyce used an old sheet, o ne t ha t s ho w ed th e Barum a nd the Kend a as legal tires for the series. Oxley says that, a t the tim e that he read the sheet, the mistake slipped by him . " 1 was totally unawar e that there wa s a 1996 British League Barum availab le in this cou ntry," Oxley says. 'That SR wa s taken from ba ck in ' 87 to '89, w hen I won my National Championship and we were all riding Barums. Tha t wa s a special tire that was stamped 'USA' and was made by Barum just for us (the America n ma rket). For three ye a rs, that wa s the o nly tire that was used exclus ively. Tha t's th e Baru m th at wa s o n Bill Boyce's SR: ' Nonetheless, despite continued backg ro u nd d isc u ssion, the 199 6 " British League" Barum tire was allowed to be run by nor thern rid er s throughout the remain in g fo u r qu alifiers ~ including Paso Robl es, wh ich was ano the r O xley promotion. Bobby Schwartz was the top man in th e Qualifier Se ries, ridin g a Kenda . Bart Bast wa s th e top Barum rid er, finishing third ove rall, and everyo ne loo ked fo rwa r d to th e Na tio na l, wh ich co u ld be consid ered the m ost "fair" field in years, as it was once again derived by a tru e qualifying sys tem. But things heated up wh en, just tw o weeks before the U.S. Nation al, Oxley sent out a memo to all the rid ers in the field, stating that Barums will ilOt be allowed on th e tr ack a t Cos ta M esa fo r th e U.S. Na tional. Ox ley says tha t the 1996 Baru m in ques tion is illegal accord ing to the AMA rule book, which he says is actually the Sou thern California Speed way Co ntro l Board ru le book. The rul es, he says, have no t been rep rinted s ince before 1996, when the new Barum su rfaced. "The tire tha t we 're talkin g abou t is st amped ' '96 Briti s h League: " Ox ley says. "No tire has been submitted to the Southern Californ ia Speedway Control Board in that time." But jus t who is the Sout hern California Speed w ay Con trol Board? O rigin ally, th e boa rd co ns is te d of the promo ters from the four Southern California speedway tra cks - Co s ta Mesa , Victorvil le, Glen Helen and Perris - along wi th Rich Kin g a n d Ted Scrug gs, the forme r Northern California promoters of Fas t Fridays in Auburn, plus four rider representatives - tw o from the north and tw o from the so uth - and a few other int erested mem bers, such as the AMA's repr esen tative, George Rich. But the SCSCB was effectively dissolved in 1995 when the Glen Helen , Perris and Victorville tracks seceded from their wo rking relationship wi th the AMA and Costa Mesa to form th e United Speedway Association, running under the ir own rules. It sho uld be noted tha t toda y no ne of those venues are in operation. Yet according to Oxley, the SCSCB has never go ne away he prefers to refe r to the board as "fluid," and it reconvened in Jun e, after the first Na tional qu alifier was held . This new bo ard co nsists of Brad Oxley, his sister Laurie Oxley, Cary Hicks, Ceo rge Rich, Brian C alvin, and rid er represen tatives Bobby Schwa rtz and David Lynch. The re is no re pres en ta ti on from th e no rth. Oxley said tha t at that first mee ting and a t s u bs eq ue n t mee tings, the problem of the Barum tire was discussed but th a t no vote w a s e ve r ta ke n to a p p rove or p ut a ha lt to th e situatio n, beca use, in his words "everyon e pretty much felt th at th e tires were illegal." Boa rd member Da vid Lyn ch , a thirdyea r seco nd -di vision regular on the program at Costa Mesa, tells a different version of the story, however. "The tire thing came up rig ht before the su mmer break :' Lynch says. "Originally, we were told by Brad that the difference in pri ce between the Barums and the Ken das was $10. The way that I saw it at the time was that I did n' t wa nt to see this ge t ou t of hand, so I thou ght that the Kenda was fine. But the d ifference in price is only $6, and that's not a big deal - $36 (for the Kenda) isn't bad , and $42 (for the Barum) isn' t bad." Price does matter, as it is on e of the concerns tha t have been given conside rable w eig ht in the AMA - o r SCSCB ru le book . And just what is in the rul e book? Th e relevan t ru les governing tires, and mu ch of the fuel for the tire deb ate, are fou nd on page 27 (section 9, B-3) and rea d as follows: ·"Rear tire must be trials universal trL'tld only, maximum 350 x 19 or 23" rear as per supplementary regulations for a particular meet (at promoter's option)." But th e ru le book also contradicts itself. Further down' the pa ge (section C5), i t s ta tes: "Maxim um width of tire is 100mm (approximately four inches) and the tread profile as specified for a normal tire"; it also states (in section C-6): "tires must be readi y available and in current supl ply to meet the demands of riders and reasonably priced. Su bject to the approval of the

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