Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P149 believed Americans could not compete in road racing at the world level. San Diegan Cal Rayborn (also a flat tracker) began to dismantle that theory in the early 1970s with his amazing performance at the Trans-Atlantic Match Races in England in 1972. Pioneering road racers Steve Baker and Pat Hennen further eroded European road racing superiority in the mid-1970s in the 500cc World Championships, but it was Roberts who shattered the myth completely when he won the first of his three world titles in 1978. After Roberts' instant success American riders raised on flat-track racing became hot property in the World Championships. Louisianan Freddie Spencer viewed himself first and foremost as a flat tracker and secondly a road racer, even though the lucrative living he made from the latter pre- vented him from ever seriously pursuing a career in flat track. Spencer was the next American after Roberts to win the 500cc World Championships (which would later be known as MotoGP). Then Southern California dirt trackers Eddie Lawson and Wayne Rainey won, between them, seven out of 10 world titles during the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Like Spencer, Lawson and Rainey's flat track careers were cut short when both took big contracts to road race. Beside world champions other leading GP rid- ers had their roots in flat track racing. Riders such as Randy Mamola, Doug Chandler and Bubba Shobert (who along with Chandler, Roberts and Dick Mann were the only riders to complete the AMA's Grand Slam, winning all forms of flat track racing—Mile, Half-Mile, Short Track and TT and a road race national—all were among the world's best road racers in the 1980s and '90s. Then there was Arkansas native John Kocinski, another rider with deep early roots in flat track racing, who won the 250cc World Championships in 1990. The popularity of American flat track racing was such that Roberts opened a camp in Spain that taught European racers how to broadslide on the dirt ovals. Exhibitions races were also held in Europe that brought over this country's top flat trackers like Jay Springsteen, Scott Parker and Ricky Graham and the roots of today's revival were planted. Now we have the cross-pollination phenom- enon known as Superprestigio. Marquez has embraced AMA Pro Grand National Champions like Brad Baker and Jared Mees. It appears that World Superbike legend Troy Bayliss will race AMA Pro Grand National Miles this summer and don't be surprised too if you see other big-name stars from various forms of motorcycle racing try their hand at flat tracking soon. The venerable AMA Pro Grand National Cham- pionship has struggled to come out of a spin as it watches its aging fan base get less and less enthused about leaving the house and sitting in the dusty grandstands for four or five hours. But with AMA Pro Racing (aka DMG) focusing on building Grand National racing and bringing in new people and concepts to help the sport grow, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for America's original extreme sport, which will be included in this year's Summer X Games. For a short time there was even talk of reunited road racing and flat track to revive the old AMA Grand National system of road racing points included in the championship a well as flat track. Now with the separation of road racing from the DMG, that prospect seems to be a non-starter, but the point is people continue to think about ways to bring flat track back to its former glory. And now more manufacturers are showing inter- est, Yamaha-based machines are rumored to be coming to the series this season. If the Yamaha platform proves as successful as Kawasaki, look for Big Blue to enter the sport in a bigger way. The seeds for flat track growth are there. Whether or not they take hold, sprout and bear fruit remains to be seen. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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