Dirt-trackers attack the asphalt at Mid-Ohio

July 24 – There's a long history going back to the days of "King" Kenny Roberts in the 1970s of dirt-trackers making a successful jump into roadracing.

And at least three of the racers taking part in the amateur AMA Road Race Grand Championships that end Thursday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, want to make that jump as well.

Take Danny Eslick (right), a 17 year old who won the Springfield (Illinois) Mile in the Harley-Davidson Sportster Performance Series May 25. Or Jake Johnson (below), 19, who won the AMA Progressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championship Sharon Speedway Half-Mile in Hartford, Ohio, on July 5.

Or Nick Cummings, 16, who won the AMA Pro Racing Pro Sport 505 Mile at the AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships at the Springfield track on July 5.

"I've been dirt-tracking since I was 5, and this is my third year roadracing," Eslick says. "I want to be a roadracer. I'm ready to graduate to it."

His long-term goal?

"I want to be the best roadracer, whether in AMA Pro Racing or MotoGP," he says.

Johnson hopes to ride in the Pro roadraces being held at Mid-Ohio this coming weekend.

"I eventually want to get into professional roadracing," Johnson says. "I have some down time from dirt track so I thought I'd come down here and have some fun. I like the track with its pavement transitions and stuff. It feels like a bumpy dirt track."

Cummings, who suffered a blown motor on Wednesday, said he felt good going into Thursday's races.

"Today's going to be hard," he says. "Those (other racers) are running really good, pushing it an pushing it."

So did Cummings give his friend Johnson any advice on how to attack the technical Mid-Ohio track?

I didn't give him any tips because I've still got to figure out the track myself!" Cummings says.