Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Lell) Side by side , there appears to be little difference between the two tires , but there is 8 con troversia l difference In price. The Kenda (Iell) sells for S36to $38, while the Barum is 542. Detra cto rs of the Barum question hs cos t and ava ilability. (Right) Promoter/racer Brad OXley, wh ose family has run Intem ational Speedway Inc. and has bee n at the center of the American speedway universe for three decades, claims AMA"; and goes on to state (in sec tion C-7): "''Ven though a tire meets all the abot'e criteria, it will not be deemed legal unless it is readily available and competitively priced in the area in which AMA racing occurs ." There is nothin g in th e rule bonk to sug ges t that a tire mu st go through any typ e of formal approval process by anyone other than the AMA, and thus it was thou g h t that th e AMA wou ld ' m ake a ruling on the tire . Boyce said tha t, afte r co nfe rring with O xley, th e AMA co ncluded that the tire did meet the criteria as se t fort h in th e ru le book, citing sections C-5 an d C-6 as th e bas is for the Barum's eligibi lity in the U.S. National . . "It's a matt er of in terpretation of the rules, and wh o determines w hat tire is available, a nd th e cost;' Boyce says. "Ox ley h a s got hi s opin ion, and the AMA has go t theirs. We measu red the tires and we veri fied the availability. We look ed at the di stribut ors' cost, beca use tires will vary in price depend ing upon w here you bu y them. But we got th e Barum d istrib utor cos t, and the Ken da distributor cost, and found that there is only $6 di fference, so we d id n't feel tha t there was an outrageo us difference. The north has been us ing Barurns all yea r; the sou th h a s been u sing Ke ndas all yea r. Now they' re com ing togeth er for the Nati onal, and we felt that the riders should have the op portu ni ty to rid e on the sa me equ ipmen t that they' ve been riding on all year for th e Nation a!. We have no q ualms about th e p romoter exercising his promoter' s o ption for th e reg ular week ly show . Thi s (AMA d ecision) is for the U.S. National." It is no surp rise that this rul es debat e has spilled ove r to include the tire d istrib utors. O n the o ne ha nd, Kenda tire di str ibu tor Rochelle Abrams, p resident of A&A Racing, argues that the tire does not m eet the ru les a s h er co m pany understands them. "The thing th at we have a problem with is tha t the Barum says '3.75 x 19: and the rul e says that the tire mu st be a 3.50 x 19: ' Abrams says. "They' re not readily ava ilable. Bill Cody is only brin ging them in accord ing to his dem and. I buy 1000 tires at a time once a year. Our biggest fear is that we wou ld get to a Na tional and not have an y tir es. Th at' s just not an op tion. The speedway mar ket is very sma ll, a nd I put my ass on the lin e, and now I'm fo rc ed to compete w ith someone who o nly brings in 50 tires a t a time . We 've sold around 200 less tires this year, an d we've got almost 600 tires left in stock. This is jus t a bad deal all th e way around, and it affects the promoters, the ride rs, and me and my sales. The on ly people who come out of this unscathed ar e the AMA." Bill Cody, a lon gtim e U.S. distributor o f Jawa s peedw ay m o torcy cl es a nd s peed way raci n g produc ts, says th at Abrams' sta temen t tha t the Barum tire is no t readily available is false. "T hese tires are readil y available, and the re is only a differen ce of $4:' Co dy says. "I sell both tires, and I ge t $38 for a Ken d a and $42 for a Barum. I have only been shi pping the Barums in to meet the dema nd because only a few g uys were buyi ng them , but I can get as many tires as I need to meet any demand . All my sales w ere to no rthe rn riders. I never sold tires to the southern riders because of Brad O xley an d his ru les. It's the on ly OEM tire th a t' s in s peedway, and it's illega l at Cos ta Mesa. But Brad let them qualify for the Na tional with the Barums at Cos ta Mesa, and now Brad 's going to take them away. I don 't feel that ' s right. The riders shou ld have their choice. The bottom line is that we should d o what's best for speed wa y. To settle thi s whole that It Is his SOuthern California Speedway Control Board that makes the rules · not the AMA. (Below) Northern California riders such as Bart Bast (pictured) were the first t o run the Barums at the AMA Qualifiers, The northern riders and the AMA feel that the tires s hould be allowed In the U.S. National. thin g, I offer ed to buy th e rest of th e Kenda stock from A&A, and they never respond ed ." "I did not want to for a couple of reasons:' Abrams replies. "O ne, beca use I enjoy being in the speedway market, and selli ng to Co dy mea nt tha t wo uld no longer be the case. And two, it was our unders tand in g th a t he wan ted to buy our ex cl us ive agreement with Kenda, and because of so me of the things that we ha ve goin g with Kenda , incl ud ing ot her (non-speedway) tires in development, w e w ere not willing to do that." The qu esti on of wha t is legal, w hat is avai lable a nd what is co mpe ti tiv ely priced is certainly open to interpre tatio n, due to the ambigui ty of the rules. Oxley feels that the Ba rum is not readily available, based upon the number of tires that Cody is bringin g in. Oxley says that a ride r is allow ed one fresh edge per rou nd in the Na tiona l, which means tha t he could use five tires in a night. There are 16 riders and two reserves in the U'S. National field . Five times 18 is 90 and, Ox ley says, since Cody is only br inging in 50 of them at a time, there is no way that the ent ire field could run on Baru rns. But ma ny of the riders say tha t they only go through five fresh edges on three tires. Thr ee times 18 is 54 and, given the fact that some riders will likely not want to be on Barums, that leaves more than an adequate supply. But w hat abou t cos t? Pro ponents of the Barurn claim that the tire is $42, and th at a $6-8 p rice d iffer en ce co ns titu tes co mpetitive pricin g . Detr actors claim that the rift is too great, and many fear th at the allowance of the Barum co ul d set a pr ecedent and pave the way for the . more expensive FIM Barum s and Dun lops, wh ich are currently running $50 to $60. Given the cu rre nt clima te of speedway in the United States, those tires-are considere d far too g rea t an expense whe n contrasted with the po te n tia l return in purse mo ney . But the biggest question looms in the way that tires in ge ne ral are approved for A merican speedway competition. Oxley says that the AM A h a s never approved a tire, and that the sanctioning bod y ha s a lw ays d o ne w ha t was a pproved by th e So u them Californ ia Speedw ay Control Board . Boyce says that the AMA has always been the o ne do ing th e appro vi ng, based upon the recommend ations of the SCSCB. Surpris- ingly eno ug h, Boyce also said that, technicall y, the Kend a is not on any of th e AMA's paperwork as an AM-approVed tire, but that it has been allowed for use becau se of an ag ree ment made with A &A Racin g that th e cost of the Kend a would be kept as low as possib le. An d since the Barum is o n the AMA's list of (six or eig h t!) AM-a pprov ed tires , by this definiti on, it, too, is legal for use in the Nat ional. Bu t th e rea lity of th e s it u a tion a p pea rs somew ha t d ifferent, as th e Bar u m ti re be in g u sed in the Uni ted Sta tes is not cu r re n tly FIM-a p prove d, havi ng been su pers eded by th e more ex pensi ve 1997 FIM-approved Barums a nd Dunlops, b oth of which ha ve a much gre ater sho re hardness tha n that of th e tires used in th e United States thi s year. If a rid er showed up a t a n FIM meeting with the '96 Baru m tire as used by the No rthern Ca lifornia riders in the qualifier series, then he would be excluded from com petitio n at tha t eve nt. "The FIM has made a ru le cha nge, effective in '97, because of th e rid er' s strike we had at Coven try (Overseas Final) las t year:' Boyce sa id. "The pr esident of the AM met wit h the rid ers, and they came to the ag reement that if they co uld co me up w ith a harder tire, but still keep the sipes, then the riders would agree to it. The tires meet the same specifications as (in) our book, except it says that they mu st ha ve a minimum sho re hard ness of 70. Both Baru m and Dunlo p have made new tires that have a mi nimum shore hard ness of 70. The British League has adop ted th a t rule. I ha ve ordered in two of the new Barums and two of the new Dunlop s. I gave one each to Bobby Schwa rtz and to Bart Bast to try out, just so that we coul d ge t an idea if we need. to go to a minim um hardness of 70." But Co dy, the p roponent of the $42 ed Barurn , says tha t the new A M-approV Barum is a $60 tire, and that as a Baru m distributor he wou ld not like to see that tire brought in to the Uni ted States. But that is nei ther here nor there. The AMA has specified that the Baru m be allowed for use in the 1997 U.S. National, a nd Inte rna tional Speed way h a s absolutely refused. The Ll.S, Nati on al on October 4 will no t be sa nctio ned by the AMA, and it will be an invi tational. The mo ve has alrea dy hurt some of the riders, Northern Ca lifo rnia's Chad . Felicio being one of them, as Felicio has been bumped from the spot for w hich he qualified in the AMA Qualifiers to first reserve in th e U.S. Na tiona l fie ld after cu rren t 1996 World Ch a m p io n Billy Hamill elected to ride late in the game. That in itself ma y provide more of a real clue as to w hat's going on than any ques tion over eq uipment legality. For, wh ile it may be a t th e forefro nt of the dispute, the tire ar gument appears to be a shield for the struggle for control of the sport between the International Speedway - which has gui ded the speedway thro ugh an impressive heyday w i th landmark historic prom ot ions suc h as th e 1982 World Fin al and the Wo r ld Team Cu ps of 1985 and 1988 - and the AMA. There has been talk for some time tha t th e o ne-d ay U.S. Na tio nal format , lik e th e o ne- day World Fina l fo rmat before it, has run its course, and that a ne w N atio na l format si mila r to th e World Grand Prix system is read y to be set in place. The AMA has shown interest in a Na tional Grand Prix , but International Speedway has resisted this unl ess rigid gu idelines are met. The pervad ing fee ling is that Internatio nal Speedway does w hat it wants, w hen it wants - and in the big picture, tire po litics are a small par t of the iss ue. Ox ley d oes not hide from it. "I am ye ry jealous of my business," Oxley says. "Speedway is my bu siness, and my sport. There is no precedent fnr this decision by the AMA, and I am not go ing to let one person at the AMA, who hasn' t eve n been to a speedway race in Sou thern Ca lifornia in three years, make a decision like this and th row out all of the years of hard work by a lot of really good peo ple. I really like Bill Boyce, and you kn ow what. I may no t be right on this tire thing, but all I can do is hold to the line that I said I was going to ho ld on this one. I'm not su re whet her this (tire decision and its resu lt) is the right thing for s peedway, bu t it's righ t for Costa Mesa Speedway, and that's wha t I have to lo o k at it w hen it co mes d o wn to deciding whethe r or no t I'm going to close my doo rs or run next year." Logic dictates tha t the only recou rse for the AMA would be to stage an alternate Na tion al at an alternate ven ue - this year. Bu t w he ther o r no t th at will o r s ho u ld ac tu a lly happen is currently a no ther su bje ct of great d ebate . Stay tuned. (~ ...., .... aJ .0 .8 u o 23

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