Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

tried before, but I just felt that it hadn't been tried the right way." Romero may have a point. After all, several of those same critics thought that the former AMA Grand National Champion and Daytona 200 winner had gone bonkers when he began touting his vision of grassroots professional Saturday night flat track racing to take place at venues throughout California and other portions of the western United States. And they really thought that he should be committed to a sanitarium for running wide-open professional and vintage classes with little regard for equipment rules other than those pertaining to safety and a few engine displacement mandates. Romero stuck to his guns, however, with the West Coast Flat Track Series running four rounds per season for the first two years, all the while gaining favor among competitors and diehard fans. For the 2000 season, the series has more than doubled to include nine events in the upcoming summer. Even better, Romero's series has been recognized by corporate America, as eCommerce firm e-moola.com has stepped up to give the program credibility as a viable motorsports property with backing from outside the motorcycle industry. According to Romero, the formula for this new class remains consistent with the idealogy that spawned his series in the first place. "It's all about giving guys an opportunity to race, regardless of what kind of equipment they have," Romero said. "We don't want to alienate anyone, and in previous seasons we had no place for 250s, but with this new class, we now have what we feel is an excellent feeder system for the series, which makes it a well-rounded program." That said, it might seem easier to simply offer a class for riders with existing 250cc equipment that utilizes the familiar specialized dirt track-only frames. Better yet, some say, both types of equipment should be allowed to run together. But Romero offers a reason why they will not - at least right now - the explanation underscoring his gency money on the basis that the motorcycles that are winning at the race track are easily recognizable as motorcycles that are being sold on their showroom floors. It's the same trend as in motocross. With this class, we are trying eliminate a major stumbling block for the individual which is cost - and for the manufacturer who is looking to sell motorcycles - which is brand recognition. We have opened the doors for people who want to come in and participate with modern, readily available equipment. This is something that flat track racing hasn't seen in years. We love tradition, but we also want to evolve with the times, and interface both." After hearing the pitch and taking a look at what Romero's series has accomplished in a relatively short amount of time, we got to thinking that maybe he is onto something here after all. And after consulting, and counciling, him on the rules formulation for the class, we decided to commit to a project bike for the series. It just so happened that the 2000 Yamaha YZ250 in our test fleet had been the victim of a nasty loopout that had completely trashed the rear subframe, among other components. With no immediate plans for it other than to repair the damage, we decided to go for it if, and only if, the following criteria could be easily met. • Make it cheap: Despite the fact that our vintage/sportsman project Yamaha TT540 was an overwhelming hit with the majority of Cycle News readers who might be interested in the subject matter, we have to admit that there was a bit of controversy with regard to the cost of that bike. This project was going to be different. If our YZ could not be converted into a decent-handling dirt track racer for around $500, we were going to pull the plug and go motocrossin'. should make the class more attractive. • Make it look cool: If, in fact, the OEMs and more motocross-oriented aftermarket companies were to ever consider getting involved in dirt track racing, logic dictates that the motorcycles should retain an appearance that makes the various brands easily identifiable. Furthermore, the plethora of aftermarket graphics on the market could be used to give the bikes a hip, contemporary look. Finding a company that is wellversed in modern motocross machinery and that has an affinity for dirt track racing might sound impossible, but there is one shining example out there, anyway. In addition to celebrating its 25th anniversary as an aftermarket parts manufacturer and supplier, White Brothers is also named after Tom White, who, along with brother Dan, was an Expert flat tracker of fair reputation during the old Ascot Park heyday of the '60s and '70s. Tom White lives motorcycles and loves dirt track racing. In fact, White Brothers already has a considerable amount of experience with similar projects, both recent and from long ago. Besides that, our timing couldn't have been any more perfect. White Brothers was looking at ways to show off its revamped suspension division and expose the talents of Steve Searcey, the new "valvemeister" at White Brothers. So once we had the go-ahead from both Yamaha and White Brothers, Searcey and White Brothers' special projects coordinator Gary Jones (the latter a former dirttracker and speedway racer, and three-time AMA 250cc National MX Champion) got to work. The striking machine that you see here is the result of that collaberation. Searcey wasn't going into the project blind, as he made several similar modifications to a fair number of motorcycles back in the '80s for the ABC Superbikers series, not to mention that he has handled several Super Motard conversions in more recent times. Based upon his wealth of experience and the criteria for the project, Searcey knew just what we were after. After running a few numbers, Searcey calculated that a travel reduction of approximately seven inches on both ends would get the bike in the ballpark. He started by disassembling the shock and adding a custom-made aluminum spacer to limit the shock travel. "We went with an external spacer • Make it work: This one was maybe the tallest order of the bunch, as the 250cc Novice Modified Production rules call for the use of the stock 21-inch front wheel in order to keep the costs low and give the bikes a unique look which differentiates them from an otherwise identical DTX machine; the use of the stock 21 - inch wheel eliminates the need to lace up a 19-inch front hoop. The way we have it figured, the extra $500 cost of that modification would have doubled what we wound up spending (but more on that later). The rub was that we would need to find a really good, hard-terrain front knobby or a suitable "trials" tire of some sort in order to get the front end to handle somewhat like a standard dirt track racer. It should also be pointed out that somewhat is the key word here, as the absence of "framer" bikes in the class means that we theoretically will have to deal with the same handling characteristics as everyone else - a sort of built-in parity. • Make it a convertible: Romero is hoping that the 250cc Novice Modified Production class will be an excellent place for would-be dirt trackers to get started racing. That includes motocrossers, off-roaders and trail riders (don't expect to see series champions like Ronnie Brown and Jeff Johnson cherry-picking in this class). But if you don't have two bikes, then how do you compete in the West Coast Flat Track Series one weekend and at the local motocross races the next? The answer may be that many riders won't even bother to lower their suspensions, which is perfectly okay, but for those intent upon chasing the series, week in and week out, having the ability to convert from dirt bike to dirt track and back again at the end of the season without permanently altering a majority of the suspension components attempt to incorporate ~~~~~""~~ii:i~~ii some long-range strategies into this portion of his show. "We want to create an all-new class that will allow any local motorcycle dealer to get involved, just like the old days when I was coming up" Romero says. "This class eliminates the need for building a specialized motorcycle that could take weeks to prepare. If we are successful, we hope to be able to encourage the various manufacturers and pitch them on posting contincue I e n e "" S • APRIL 12. 2000 29

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