,
Jay Springsteen 25th anniversary/Frankie Lamp benefit bash
o
O~
(Above) Around 200 of Scott Parker 's closest friends gathered at the Parker
compound in Swartz Creek to pay tribute to Jay Springsteen and help a friend in
need on the day of the rained out 1-96 Half Mile. (left) Springsteen, who
celebrated ~5 yea rs of Grand National racing , shows off some of his new wares ,
including his new pi' board and leather jacket. (Below) Anything for a buddy :
Frankie Lamp benef it coo rdinators Bob Nunley (far left) and Gordo n Schopieray
(far right), pose with Parker , Frank ie Lamp and Jay Springsteen.
SWARIZ CREEK, MI, AUG. 8
ild m e n . C razies. Pa rty-a-ho lies.'
Th at' s d irt tra ck racing's Michiga n
Mafia.
Ju st give 'em an y exc use to h ois t a
brew or fire u p a barbecue, an d they' re
there.
But sometimes there are reasons, good
ones and just ones, for good times . That
was the case on the day the 1-96 Half Mile
rained out. And it was for those reasons
that about 200 m em bers of th e fabl ed
Mich iga n clan gathered at the resid ence
of n in e-ti m e AMA G rand Natio nal
Cha mpion Scott Parker to celebrate one
friend and help another in a time of need .
Th e ce lebra tion w as to hon or none
o ther tha n th r ee -t im e A MA G rand
N ation al Cham pio n Jay Sp ri ngsteen ,
who w as m arking his 25th year in the
AMA Gran d National Dirt Track Series .
Th e 42-yea r-old Lapeer, Michiga n, resid ent h as rem a in ed a crowd favorite
almost since th e d ay tha t he turned a
tire on a race trac k as pro . He went o n to
earn tw o win s in 1975, his rooki e season,
captu ring the Loui sville, Ken tuc ky, and
H arrring ton, Delaware, H alf Miles . He
~
continued the yea r by claiming six podi iii um finis hes to ha nd ily ea rn the AMA
:::J
g> dirt track Rook ie of th e Year title.
«
Then came the glory years of 1976-78,
where Sp ringer coul d seemingly do no
8
W
w ro ng on a mo to rcycle. At age 19, he
won seven events a nd landed o n th e
podiu m 15 times to wi n the championship in '76, becoming th e yo ungest
Grand ational Champion in the history
of the spo rt. He repea ted the feat in 1977,
with six wins and 13 podiums, and dominated again in 1978, tallying another six
wins and another 13 podiums. His talent
wa s so tremend ous that it wou ld see m
that the only person that could ever beat
Ja y Spring steen was Ja y Spring st een.
Iro nicall y eno ug h, tha t is exactly what
happened.
It was no t some new king of the
sport, but ra the r a strange stoma ch illness that conti nues to bo ther him to this
day th a t ul tima tely cos t Spri nger h is
crown . O n the good d a y s , h e could
somehow manage to climb aboa rd his
factory Harley-Davidson and w hi p th e
pa nts off th e co m petition, a nd o n the
bad days, forge t it.
It has never sto p ped h im , ho wever,
nor d am aged the talent or tarn ish ed the
legend . His record speaks for itself: 42
G rand Na tio na l w ins - includi ng his
most recent triumph at the Hagerstown,
Maryland, Ha lf Mile, on May 8, 1999.
At th e party, Springsteen was p resented w it h seve ra l gifts fro m his
friends and sponsors, includi ng a cu sto mi zed leather gu n case em blazoned
with his name and National number, as
we ll as the slogan "Camp 308 - Nobody
lis tens, nobod y ca res," a reference to
Springsteen's fond ness for the .308 caliber deer rifle . He was also given a custo m knife to ma tc h th e case. Lea th er
. sponsor Real McCoys of Ja pan presented Springsteen with a new custom gear
bag, while Bartels Ha rley-Davidson, his
main sponsor since he left the Ha rleyDavidson fac tory team, presented him
with a 25th an niversary jacket emblazoned w ith a "42 at 42" logo, in reference to his age and his National win
tally. O' Brien Racing Products supplied
a custo m pit board th at boasted of his
th r ee Na t io na l w ins an d th e t hr ee
National number s (besi des the number
o ne) th at he ha s u sed in co m petition65X, 25, and 9. Fina lly, Harl ey-Davidson
Mo tor Co m pany sen t Spring st een a
com me mora tive wood plaque th at featured a n inset cutou t of an alu m in um
fuel tan k bearing th e fam ilia r ora nge
and black Harley -Davidson XR750 ta nk
logo. Afterward, Springstee n was a man
of few words.
"We survived, we made it," he sai d .
"I've had fun at it, and I'm still havin'
fun at it. Thi s is my only job. My budd ies ask me, 'Springer what are yo u still
d oin' out there?' I alw avs tell 'em, 'I'm
just goin' in circles.' " '
As to the ob vi ous question of how
much longer, w ell , d on 't worry a bo u t
seeing Springst een han g up the leathers
any time soon.
. ' '' I' m going to do it as lon g as I feel
like I can," Springst een said.
To which Sprin gsteen' s 14cyear-old
daughter, Am anda, ad ded : "He's cra zy,
but I'm proud of him . He wa s do ing this
before I was born . I can't imagine him
doing anything else. He a lways says
th at w hen he re tires, he's just going to
go fish ing or some thi ng . Bu t I can' t see
him retiring."
As if the 25th anniversary of a lege nd
wasn't eno ugh reason to party, th ere
were o ther just ca uses as we ll, as the
M afi a ra ll ied to th e aid of long ti me
frie nd Frankie Lam p, 38, a former professio nal mo tocrosser from the area w ho
has been diagnosed with ca ncer. Th e
benefit portio n of the party w as o rganized by lon g tim e Parker fam ily friends
and d irt track fans Bob Nunley and Don
Scho pieray, the latter the brother of forme r Grand National campaigner Gordon
Schopiera y . Thanks to ge nerous donations an d an impromptu auction of several H arley-David son collectible m iniatu res an d a T-shi rt autographed by all of
the Grand National stars in atte ndance,
incl uding Pa rke r and former Michiga nbred Grand National Champions Springstee n and Bart Markel, just over 53000
was raised fo r Lam p, w ho is se t to
und ergo a se ries of treatmen ts im med iatelv.
'This is jus t ho w we are," Scho pieray
sai d. "We' ve go t a tight famil y here. All
o f us have hu ng o u t w ith Parker an d
Springsteen forever, and if o ne of u s
need s help, it d oesn 't matter who it is or
w ha t it is, w e' re th er e for th em. It ha s '
been that way in this area since the '50s."
If yo u w ould like to send a d on ation
to Lamp, or just send a card or letter of
encou ragemen t, yo u ca n address it to:
Fr ank ie Lamp , c /o Fe n to n Ho me
Improvement, 1442 Torrey Rd ., Fent on,
M I48430.
C razies? Madmen ? Just a bunch of
