Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127927
SPEEDWAY The 29th Japanese Autorace SpeedwayCham nsh pio ip rather stric t requirem ents, roughly 1500 app licants are grad ually whittled down to jus t 24 who, with a bit of luck , coul d end up financially set for the rest of the ir lives. And let' s not forge t the testing proced ure, most of w hich has nothing to do wit h riding a motorcycle. The first test is sim ply one of intelligence. Then comes a physical exa m. Th e th ird requires deft eye- hand coordi nation, as well as speed and th e ability to judge distances. The a b il i ty to rid e a m otorcy cl e ? Not a req uirem ent jus t yet. Those 24 w ho are selected are abo u t to u n der take a co m ple te ch a n g e in lifestyle. They are shi pped off to a training schoo l at the mountainsid e track in Tskuba for 10 months - allow ed to venture home only twice during that time . By Barry Briggs 30 magine living in a compou nd for 120 days a yea r, working alo ne in what is essen tia lly nothing more than your ow n private cage. Around you are 100 other men, all in their own cages, wit h the sa me d riv ing ambition : to beat y ou an d everybody else. Yet you've already won jus t to get to this poi nt, as you actually ha d to earn a spo t in your own cherished cage. Ne xt to yo u si ts the local pop star id o liz ed by th e yo u ng a n d th e man beh ind nu merous number-one hits. He's a millionaire, yet he turned his back on th e po p cha rts to satisfy his thirst for danger in ano ther arena. Now he's also a caged man , one of abo ut 600. But who are these caged men ? And w here exac tly a re th ey caged? More im porta ntly - why are they caged ? Ente r the stra nge world of Japanese Speedway r acing , where s ta rs pull d own in excess of $1 million a year th an ks mostly to legali zed ga m bling, whi ch has taken the racin g to the levels of horse racing. But it wasn' t alwa ys like it is today. When America n sho wma n Putt Mosman brought his stu nt team to Japan in 1934, the re wasn't any speed way racing to spea k of. Then it began. ln itiallv, th e races were held o n dirt ovals, but too many riders wer e getting hurt - a fact that didn't please the gamblin g establishme nt. Pro mo ters sim ply cou ld n' t affo rd to have their stars sitting around, injured. Thus, in 1968, dirt track sp eedway racing was banned and the dirt ovals were paved with asphalt. But the racing surface d id n' t prove to be th e o nly s ho rtc oming of Japanese Speedway racing . An y form of g am bling is susce ptible to abu se and corrop-tion, and Speedwa y in Japan proved to be n o ex ce p tion. With huge s u m s o f mon ey being waged, the racing a ttracted a cr im i n a l e le me n t, including a Mafia -like o rga n iza tion . Am on g th e problems that surfaced was race fixing, with sever al rid ers jailed . And some of those who crossed paths with the local gan gster s a lleged ly en ded up on th e bottom of Tokyo Bay. The pro blems led to changes in the sp o rt, and thing s are much different today than they wer e in the beginning. Now rid ers ar e under very strict control. All six tr acks s tage me etin gs for nin e da ys each month , with each meeting lasting from three to five days. Dur- (Above and right) Japanese Speedway is about much more than lus t racing. It's about money - big mcney in both purse amoun ts and In the amount gambled by the loca ls. (Left) Racers wear different colors to help gamblers differentiate between them. The initiation is tough, with the trainers typicall y ca lled "the ins tr uc tors fro m hell." Discipline is the key wo rd . Lea rn to rid e - pi ece of cake, righ t? First things first , and the riders are first ta u g ht to b u ild thei r own bikes a nd e ngi nes . Orig ina lly , th e se w ere T ri umphs, but th ose were replaced so me thr ee yea rs ago by special 650cc Suz uki machin es. Only after the students have learned the art of mo to rcycle main tenanc e are they fina lly tau gh t to ride. The newcomers are given 500cc Suzu kis on which to lea rn , and th ey'll ride those smaller bikes for their first year of competition. . RACE TIME It is noon in the Japan ese city of ing this time, rid er s are hou sed with in th e s ta dium, a n d no co m municatio n w it h t he o u ts ide world is a llowed . Before each race, the riders leave the pit area outsi de the track to do three laps, the last of which is timed . All tracks are 500 meters in length, and lap times are di vided in order to g ive each rider a 100-meter tim e th at is u sed to classify them; the timed lap is also used by the gamblers to see if a rid er is on fornj. Followi ng the timed session, tTie riders re turn to the com pound, where they ca n make last-m in u te ad justme nt s to their motor cycles. Th en th ey a re u shered in to an underground room, where the tension is so thick yo u could cut the air with a kn ife . They strad d le spa rse wood en sea ts, sip gr een tea and focus on the task ahead . Meanwhile, the ga m- bIers have 40 minutes to pla ce their bets. Make no mistake abo ut it - Japan ese Speedway is big busin ess. The Japa nese love of ga mbling is well-kn own, and the Japa nese Ministry of Trad e and Industry pockets billi ons of d ollars annuall y in proceeds fro m th e six trac ks . The go vernment pulls no punches and openly states that "A u to race speedway is for ga mb ling, not bikers." So how does one ge t into positi on to sit in the underg rou nd room and sweat out th e fa st-a p p roach ing race? The a p plicants mus t be si ngle, mal e a nd Japan ese, and between the ages of 16 and 22. On e mu st also be the right size: no sho rter than 5 feet, 2 inches and no lig hter th an 143 p ounds . Appli cants mus t also live in one of the six cities that play host to the races. While those are Isesaki, and a stea dy flow of top-of-theline Mercedes , Tovo tas, BMW s a n d Porsc hes flow through the pit gate at the local speedway facility . The me n dri ving those high -dollar cars are the very same men who are sched u led to com pete in the Japanese Cham pionship. Securi ty is tight, and the riders must be checked in by 1 p.m. the day pri or to the first qua lifyin g races . With every rider dream ing of winning the "richest motor cycle race in the world," no one arrives late. Earli er, at daybrea k, five semis had passed through tI:!ose ve ry same ga tes, transportin g the machine s and equi pment for the finalists from their respective home tracks. Eighty-eigh t riders will try for victory in the 29th Jap anese Autorace Spee dw ay Cha m pions hip, scheduled for the next five davs. The qual ifi cation process appears somewha t complex: A rid er races in one race on each of the five days; all rid ers start on equal terms on the first d ay, but qualification ge ts progressivel y tougher. The fourth da y is the crucial one, w hen