Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

to pay for a license or a membership to go test the waters. It's not going to cost them a bunch of additional fees to go and participate. Then how do you plan to classify the riders, or at least police them in the event that somebody is in over his or her head? With t:hffi f?,?,at, there won't be Novice, Junior and Expert divIsIOns. This will be an "A" dIVISIOn. This will be like anything else (auto racing)... I really want to focus on this for a second. Motorcycle racing is the only form of racing where everything is broken up by rider experience and in conjunction with the displacement of the engines. When I went out and drove a USAC Midget for the first time, I was out driving with Pancho Carter, Johnny Rutherford, Johnny Parsons and Sleepy Tripp - and that was my first race! When I signed up, I wasn't an expert, but I had to race with them. Then, what we did was, we went out and qualified to position everyone in the heat races. That's-what I'm going to do with this format. Each class is going to make a show. I'm trying to revive this dirt track racing, but I'm coming at it from the platform that I need to sell tickets in order to do that. That's why I chose this format, and I believe that it's going to be good for the riders, and it's going to be good for the spectators. That's also why this is a non-sanctioned event. The association (AMA) would not condone this. This is going to be unique because we're combining Novice, Amateur and Expert riders together; we're combining 350cc, 500cc, 650cc and 750cc machines together. The tracks will feature all of the saiety features, such as the hay bales, etc. Saietywise, there will be no difference between this and a National event as far as I'm concerned, but when you combine all of t:hffi talent, you might run into a few situations. Prior to • practice, we will be having a riders meeting, and we will let it be known that anyone who our scrutineers feel is a hazard to himself or to others will be sat down for the night, refunded his entry money and pit passes and all, and will be our guests for that night with the intent that he can come back and ride when he shows that he has gotten it together. Honestly, I don't think that it's going to be an issue because I don't think that we are just going to get people coming in off the street who want to come and learn how to race. But we want everyone to know up frOI\t that rider safety is our most important concern. We don't want to see anyone get hurt. Q A You've made a pretty conscientious effort to clariQAMA-sanctioned Coastyear. Trackyou want to not fy that the West Filit Series will be this Did be AMA-sanctioned? Did you approach them with your plan? Let's put it this way: At this level of racing that I am trying to particpate in, the AMA doesn't have anything to offer to me. Their structure is too restrictive, with certain limitations that would deny certain people the opportunity to ride. If I'm going to continue in my attempts, then I had to figure out a way to open it up to A Here's the deal • Each night will start with two practice sessions for each division. starting with the Open class and alternating with the Open Vintage class. There will be one hour of practice. followed by a 15-minute break before time trials for both divisions. • Riders in both divisions will be placed in the heat races based upon their times in the time trials. • The first five heat races of the night will be for the Open class. Each Open heat will be eight laps and contam a maximum of 12 riders. Only the winner of each heat race will transfer directly to the Open A main. Positions two through seven will be divided into one of the two eight-lap semis. Positions eight through 12 will take part in the Open last-chance qualifer race. • After the five Open heats. the first of three successive Open Vintage heats will take to the track. Each heat will be six laps. with the top four in each transferring directly to the Open Vintage A main. Postions five through eight will go to the Open Vintage B main. and the rest will go to the Open Vintage last-chance qualifer. • The Open LCQ (eight laps) and then the Open Vintage LCQ (six laps) will be run in that order. The top three in the Open class will transfer to the semis. and the top three in the Open Vintage class will move into the Open Vintage B main. • The six fastest Open qualifiers from time trials will allow more participation. It is my belief that it would not be condoned by the AMA. Therefore the series is not AMA-sanctioned. back at Perris Q You'reSpeedway but Auto for two shows this year, you're not going to do Bakersfield? We were in negotiations with Bakersfield, bu t those negotiations fell apart. Then we were going to go to Calistoga (in orthern California), and that looked to be all set. We had a great promoter there, but then there was a conflict with the date that was unbeknownst to either him or myself, and there was no way that we could have motorcycle' races and tha t other event going on simultaneously. We're hoping to get back in there next year, because that whole part of Northern California is an untapped market. :The only (non-National) thing that is running up there is Lodi. But we are going to run at Watsonville and at San Jose, and as far as Perris goes, I expect that we are going to do much better as far as spectators and riders. All the venues that we're going to are premium venues. A many riders th~t would Q Oh, I would be seriesdid you ahave year?you35 to 40 consider to regulars last say that we of fluctuate a but, as a rule, had A riders. It would from the hadlittlegoodinbase600cc Iclass some great support 883s, and the HOW I had the Lonnie Pauleys and the Steve Mayfields, and the tough guys from that group. I believe it was a solid base. So in order to develop this, one would think that you would like to see guys like Pauley and Mayfie return so that you have a few names to promote and you can develop a few "stars" of the West Coast Flat Track Series? Exactl y . It's a two-way street. I'm offering these guys decent money to corne and compete, and I'm giving them a good, safe race track to run on at a venue that they've not been to before. We have the ability to open up the doors to some of these car tracks that they haven't experienced before, and these guys are going to get exposure to fans where they might normally not, and they're. going to get themselves a name. This is a win-win for all parties. And we have a $5000 series point fund, which we hope is going to help us have A vie for a share of the four-lap. $350 Open Dash purse. whether those riders qualify for the main event or not. First place pays $ 100. The Open Dash has absolutely no bearing on the main events. • The remaining unqualified Open riders will take part in the two eight.lap Open semis. Positions one and two will transfer to the Open A main. Positions three through six will transfer to the Open B main. • The six· lap Open Vintage B main will be run next. with the top three transferring to the Open Vintage A main to complete the lineup. • Then comes the Open B main (10 laps). which trans· fers the top four to the Open A main to fill out the field. • The Open Vintage A main will be eight laps. • The Open A main is the grand finale of the evening's events. It will be 16 laps and pay a $2400 purse. with $500 going to the winner. • There is a 55000 series points fund of which the series champion will receive 51000. In summary. Romero has basically modified and adapted an open-wheel sprint-car/midget-racing format to fit for motorcycles. While it might at first be confusing to longtime motorcycle dirt track fans. Romero is banking on the fact that it will be friendly to the riders. other participants and motorcycle-racing fans. and. most importantly. automobile-racing fans who decide to come out to one of the tracks on the West Coast Flat Track Series schedule for a look at something different from their normal weekly car program. some continuity in the series but is also our way of saying "thanks" to the riders who support the whole thing. Nobody that I know of is putting out that kind of money at the grass-roots level right now. We've got the riders' interests at heart. Nobody is getting ripped off here. U you look at the prices that we're charging in exchange for what we're giving back, you'll find that we're lower than anyone else. The only way that t:hffi can work is with rider support. If they don't, then this will be the shortest series in history. But I wouldn't even be sticking my neck out this year if it wasn't for all of the great support that we got last year. And one of my biggest supporters was a guy named Elliott Iverson, who works at Wood Rotax. He's worked hard to get the word out for me. And my name is getting pretty well-established, too. People know that we're trying hard to make this work, and they're jumping on board to help us in '99. We've gotten tremendous support from Rod Lake Racing, K&N Filters, Motion Pro, A&A Racing, Skip Van Leeuwen Enterprises, C&J Racing Frames, Wood Rotax and Saddlemen. If you look at those names, you'll see that there's a lot of "old-schoolers" who have been involved in dirt track racing for many, many years and want to see it grow at any level. There are also people that have only been involved for a few years but have just fallen in love with the sport, and it's sure easy to do that. If run more races? so sure this program, then why not Q I'd you're have lessofraces and make them premium rather A racesthem be bada and drag the whole thing down. than have large amount of races and have some of There is a lot of potential in the future, where we could maybe have 12 or 14 of these races, and maybe have a $25,000 or $30,000 series points fund. We know there are some markets where this will work and some where it won't, but hopefully we can pick the right places and then just give it 100 percent. I would love to branch up into the Washington and Oregon areas, and there's a lot of interest to do something like t:hffi up there. It has a lot of potential. Really, all this is is a return to some good old Saturday night racing where a guy can make a few bucks, get some exposure and have fun. That's what this is all about. I believe that we've lost that. My feeling is that when people talk about grass roots, they're talking about grass-roots professional racing. I think that this particular format is going to be like a shoe, an!l.l'm hoping that it will be a one-size-fits-all. CItI • S ~ ~ lIIii III ... ~ ~ 1999 West Coast Flat Track Series Schedule Q Round 1 - Perris, California, April 24 Round 2 • Perris, California, June 1 2 Round 3 - San Jose, California, June 26 Round 4 - Watsonville, California, July 17 D. « 25

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