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/128608
T By Fonner Grand National Champion Gene Romero poses for a photo aboard the type of bike that he hopes will open the doors of dirt track racing to a whole group of riders in the West Coast Flat Track Series' new 250cc Novice Modified Production class. SCOTT ROUSSEAU ou may think you know what this motorcycle is. You may think you have seen it before. Whatever the case may be, West Coast Flat Track Series promoter Gene Romero is hoping that you will rethink it. Here's the setup: About 10 years ago, the AMA took a look at stimulating the growth of its waning dirt track racing program by converting a few motocross bikes more or less to dirt track specs by lowering the existing suspension and adding a 19inch front wheel/tire combo. The machines were affixed with the label DTX, and testing was conducted by none other than Chris Carr, a factory Harley-Davidson rider and Grand National Champion in the making. Carr approved of the equipment, and for a while it looked as though the DTX class would deliver on its promise of offering potentia I dirt track competitors an easy way into the sport, while at the same time providing the brand diversity that the AMA so desperately wanted to see return to dirt track racing. Heck, Cycle News even went so far as to build its own DTXer out of a stock Suzuki RMX, and former Cycle News 28 ~ White Brothers Yamaha YZ250 Novice Modified Production Flat Tracker APRIL 12, 2000' cue ... associate editor Brian ~ Catterson had loads of fun racing the bike at local short tracks around Southern California. It would seem that DTX was the wave of the future. The problem, and many will argue the point, was that the AMA missed that wave. Instead of maybe being a way to reinstate professional noviceclass racing at the National level, the DTX class was left to the local and district promoters as an optional class at best. And with no push whatsoever, it was a brilliant idea that failed in its execution. Or did it? Every year at the AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships in Indianapolis, the grids are filled with motocrossers that have been converted to dirt track bikes. During the week-long amateur race program, these 80cc, 125cc and 250cc machines often fulfill all of the ne""s --""" promise that was long- ~go envisioned. Hondas, Kawasakis, Suzukis and Yamahas battle for supremacy with European marques, such as KTMs and Husqvarnas. The racing is fast, close and as safe as possible. Paints a beautiful picture, doesn't it? And to think that all of the great potential that DTX racing provides has been lost at the professional level. Until now, that is. What started as an addendum to the equipment that was going to be eligible for Romero's proposed 250cc Novice division has since exploded into a full-blown class of its own: 250cc Novice Modified Production. That moniker is about a mouthful, but perhaps it best describes the thought that has been put into the new class, which combines several of the positive elements of DTX racing with a few twists that are unique to 250cc Novice Modified Production, and especially unique to Romero's burgeoning e-moola.com West Coast Flat Track Series. "What we are trying to do with the 250cc Novice Modified Production class is we're trying t~ target an audience that may not have a lot of dirt track racing experience, but they do have an MX or off-road bike," Romero said. "What we have decided to do is create a low-dollar, spec racing class aimed at one of the largest potential motorcycle markets, which is 250cc off-road and MX bikes, offering the individual a low-cost way of testing the waters of dirt tra!=k racing where they can race amongst themselves on the same formula of equipment." According to Romero, when he started leaning toward the notion of a 250cc class that was based upon existing modern motocross and offroad bikes, skepticism was easy to come by. "In my approach to racing I've always been a bit unQrthodox," Romero said in his defense. "Fortunately some of things that I have attempted have later become orthodox. I know that this idea had been