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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE M ike Kiedrowski was not a complete unknown when he stunned the crowd at the Gator- back AMA Motocross National in March of 1989, but let's just say moto-journalists were still trying to figure out how to spell his name when he made headlines with an unexpected victory in the 125cc National that day. By the start of the 1989 season, Kiedrowski had shown enough potential racing with Kawasaki Team Green support to earn a fac- tory ride with Honda. But when you strictly look at it on paper, his ac- complishments in the pro ranks up to that point were relatively thin. A trio of podium results in AMA 125cc Regional Supercross and twice runner up in 125 SX (once in West and once in East) was his claim to fame. Thin or not, when the '89 season kicked off, Kiedrowski suddenly found himself a factory Honda rider. Kiedrowski was pegged by most experts to serve a factory appren- P110 NUMBER 762 TO NO. 1 (Far left) Rookie Mike Kiedrowski (762) was the surprise winner in the 125cc National MX at Gainesville. It was his first national win of his career. (Left) Kiedrowski went on to win the 125cc National MX title with three points to spare over Damon Bradshaw. He wrapped it up at the final round at Unadilla. PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATE RAUBA Gatorback (in Gainesville, Florida) was sort of an unusual outdoor na- tional in that it ran in March, right in the middle of supercross season, normally the weekend before the Daytona Supercross. Kiedrowski was racing 125cc East Supercross that season and there'd only been a couple of those rounds of that series before Gatorback. Kied- rowski finished fifth at Miami and third in Atlanta Supercross 125 East rounds, but keep in mind most of the rest of the West Coast 125 Supercross riders would also be coming over to race the 125 National at Gatorback, so by all rights, based on his SX results, you might expect Kiedrowski to finish somewhere from fifth to 10th in the MX opener. At the start of the first moto Kiedrowski was behind all his Honda teammates, with 1988 AMA 125cc MX champ George Hol- land leading on the A-team Honda ahead of a three-way battle for second between the other Honda ticeship in '89. While he was being paid by the factory, he was really a B-team member, along with Guy Cooper and Larry Ward. Kiedrowski recalls he wasn't getting all the trick HRC stuff that George Holland was, but on the plus side, he was getting suspension and engine help from Mitch Payton. From the sidelines it would be easy to mistake him for a rank privateer or local rider with his Honda sporting the number 762. A lot of people have wondered over the years, why was a factory rider, who had twice finished runner up in AMA 125 Supercross running 762? Turns out the answer was pretty straightforward. "When I got my AMA license that was the number that was given to me," Kiedrowski explains. He would certainly do the three-digit number proud. Coming into the '89 AMA Na- tional Motocross season opener at Gatorback, there was not a lot of in- dication that Kiedrowski was going to be a title contender. Back then