Three Faces of Motorcycle Racing

True or false, there are a few enduring impressions of motorcycles--and motorcyclists:

--If more than one motorcycle is parked in front of a cafe or saloon, don’t go in.

--If more than one motorcycle is parked in front of a doughnut shop, go on in. After all, it has to be safe with so many cops inside.

--If followed by a motorcycle with a rider wearing a gold helmet and gold-rimmed sunglasses, slow down. Not all cops can be parked in front of doughnut shops.

--If followed by a motorcycle with a rider wearing a life-sized tattoo of Lyle Alzado’s face on his forearm, don’t honk when he speeds up and cuts abruptly in front.

I admit these may be dated impressions, in that motorcycles are ridden to work by yuppies and to college by co-eds. Indeed, motorcycles are advertised on prime-time television along with soft drinks, shaving cream and high-tech conglomerates.

Motorcycles have progressed far beyond the days when they were ridden by either cops or robbers, and almost no one else.

However, they are still subject to misperceptions, particularly the motorcycles raced in the world of sports.

A few years ago, a promoter named Gavin Trippe was talking to a television network executive at a motocross event when he was hit by what was, to him, a puzzling question.

“Why,” he was asked, “wasn’t Kenny Roberts racing here?”

“Because,” Trippe responded, thinking the query a bit dimwitted, “he’s a road racer.”

So what, really, is the difference?

“The huge mass,” Trippe said this week, “doesn’t know the difference between dirt track, motocross and road racing.”

In the aftermath of that dumb question of a few years ago, Trippe got to thinking. Why not combine all those events--and all those riders--and come up with one?

Trippe did. It would be called Superbikers.

It must be working, because the Seventh Annual Superbikers All-Around Motorcycling Championship will be at Carlsbad Raceway at noon Sunday.

Thirty of the best riders in the world, 10 each from motocross, dirt track and road racing, will venture beyond what might be called familiar terrain. To put it into perspective, it would be like combining parts of the Indianapolis 500, LeMans and Baja 1,000 into one event.

“All these riders know one another and respect one another,” Trippe said, “but they never race one another. This is a way we can pitch them all in together. We’ve tried to lay out a course where all branches will be competitive.”

To accomplish this, Carlsbad’s race course will be part highway, part farm lane and part outback. As the riders make their way around the course, they will be traveling in and out of what might be called civilized terrain. It is the kind of course George Patton would have designed to train his tank corps for North Africa, Sicily and Normandy. The only thing missing will be land mines.

The difference, of course, is that the motorcycle is not quite as stable as the tank. A motorcycle can be turned into a whining tangle of metal and rubber by a mere stone in its path.

Naturally, some adjustments have to be made to these racing machines. A road racer designed to travel at 185 m.p.h. would last about as long as an Indy car in the Baja 1,000 and a cycle designed for the humps and bumps of motocross would fare as well on pavement as a four-wheel drive Jeep at LeMans.

Obviously, crews will come up with compromises here. They have to concoct a contraption that will zip on the flats without going zap when it runs into a pile of dirt.

“You’ll find most of the cycles will have tuned-up motocross engines with road racing disc brakes and dirt track tires,” Trippe said. “Even the motorcycles will have to incorporate a little bit of each style of racing.”

As might be expected, the machines adapt a bit easier than the men who ride them. Wheels are a bit easier to change than legs. The riders themselves have to venture into alien territory in this event.

In spite of what has been done to make this an equally competitive affair, the motocross riders have won five of the first six all-around championships. The only breakthrough was by road racer Eddie Lawson, and that may be because he has a dirt-track background.

It is likely that motocross riders may fare better because they don’t really have to adapt. They are so accustomed to being jostled and jarred that the flat part of the circuit seems to them like a sail on Mission Bay. A motocross rider, Kent Howerton, sailed to victory last year.

In contrast, road racers and dirt trackers are used to a flat course. They would figure to be as uncomfortable on the motocross course as Laffit Pincay Jr. would be on a bucking bronco. Neither horses nor courses are all the same.

Trippe hopes this year’s course will give all three disciplines an equal chance. In a practice run one day this week, a motocross rider finished first followed by two road racers, a dirt tracker and another motocross rider.

If the motocross crowd wins this event again Sunday, Trippe may have to drastically alter the course. Maybe the motocross segment should be the size of a pitcher’s mound and the dirt track the length of a long jump pit. Motocross riders are the junkballers of motorcycle racing, meaning speeding things up a bit would make them less effective.

Regardless, the majority of folks who line the hillsides and bleachers Sunday probably won’t know the motocross rider from the dirt tracker from the road racer. They are all the same to all but the purists.

“Why,” a spectator will ask, “isn’t Erik Estrada racing here?”

“Different type of motorcycling,” he will be told. “You’ve got to go to a doughnut shop to find Erik Estrada.”