Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126073
after a long hard driv tex a s' rhinestone ' cow Kent's attitude h as always been his biggest attrib ute. He is both fear less and d edica ted. Howert o n has become a thinking man's racer. In 1975 his late charges at the end of the m ot o when the other riders were barely hanging on . totally de moralized his opponents. Coming from behind is a much a Howerton trait as it was trying to break into the big-time, local races paid the bills. From racing at tracks like Sayers and Lo ckh art . Kent allowed himself to keep going. But, riding the local tracks against.triders who couldn't keep him, in sight let alone challenge him, and riding zen m in u te motos were not enough. To a Yamaha 360 for San Antonio's stay in shape for serious racing, Ken t International Cycle Sales, Kent became began a program of' riding every day, one of the kings of Texas MX, but his doing calaisthenics, and racing as many Yamaha could never keep together long classes as possible on Sunday. enough to give him the big win. Most of After a beginning that saw equipment the time spent in the lead was followed failures playas importan 1. a part as skill, by a period of time pushing his dead Howerton found life on Husky to be.,a mount back to the pits. real b lessing. Howerton rode basically In 1973 Howerton showed his first box stock Husqvarnas, maintained well flashes of b ecoming a "{ational caliber but no t exotically. "You got to finish to rider. That was d uring the heyday of the win," says Kent, and you k now he Tex-AMA series with all the factory believes what he says. . guns tree king th ro ugh the Lon e Star Howerto n's switch from a Husky State fo r seven weeks of racing. Kent, privateer to a Husky factory rid er d id again on a Ya maha, 25 0cc this time, ' not bring abo ut a m aj or change in the finis hed fifth overall in the series and e q ui p me n t. K en t 's m ech an ic, Eric second Texan b eh ind blooming Steve ' Cr ipp a, main tains the stab le o f factory Stackable, b ikes that are neither flashy nor one-off. In Texas mo t o cr oss circles, Howerton Husky is one of the last European teams was the third largest name in 1973 . The to still field a co m petitive team for legandary hol esh o t artist Wyman Priddy American racing. and the claiming rule came first, Yo ung lanky Steve Stackable is not one of their maj o r fears. was second best known and Kent was Howerton's bikes are not stock, but third. Both Wyman and Stack were fully they are closer to production equipment sponsored, while Kent remained a than anything the Japanese factories are shop.supported· privareer, In an attempt fielding : _ to equalize his unreliable equipment Desire, practice and equipmen t are disadvantage, Howerton joined major ingredients in m aking a successful S tackable on Bill Daniel's Action motorcycle racer. but you also need a Supply team. With Stack and Kent on showpla ce. The showplace Kent the U.S. Sports AMP/CZ's, Team Texas Howerton used to step into the was at ir's most potent , but Howerton limelight was the 1974 Trans·A.\IA only rode the A.\IP mobiles twice, Support class. For a rider .w ith Kent's including a sixth in the Rio Bravo talent (he had finished seventh in the National, before deciding that CZ International class at the Houston wasn't his cup of tea. Many riders would Trans-Asf A the. year before), riding the have come home disillusioned when the Support class would allow him to gain golden fleece turned ou t to be syn thetic both experience and recognition. Too wool, but Kent came back to _ many riders try to move ' to the upper privateering and made the best de cision echelon too soon and are crushed in an of his life . environment where only the strongest A friend ' of Howerton's, Ray Poacher. survive.· Kent made the righ t move and, was a d yed-in-th e-fleece Husky freak quickly dominated the 250cc Support and he offered Ken t' a ride on his 250 . cla ss. Only Honda's Rich Eierstedt Later Ken t added a Husky 400 to the could match his pace, but not for long stable and began to attack two classes a as Kent clinched the series win with week at the local tracks. The rash of several races left . 'to go. To the ON Fs cleared up and with Poacher's moto-press it was like an overnlgh t tuning an d Ken t 's h ard charging sty le, success, but to Kent it represented the culmination of five ' years of nickel , and 1974 saw the h on or ro ll of Texas mo tocrosse rs change; Stackah le was dime races. shoestring racing b udgets, beating factory riders. traveling and first, Howerton second and Wyman Priddy was third in the hearts and minds sacrificing. of the young. Husky has been good to Kent, and he Howerton's rise to fame had not been has reward ed them richly. In 1975, he meteoric. It has been paved with broken almost clinched the 250cc National bikes, nickle-and-dirne wins and hard Championship, bu.t before he could get work. Three things have seen Kent rolling in the later 500cc series he hit a thro ugh to th e top; attitude, practice spectator while racing at home in Texas and equipment. on an off ~eek-end. He was slow to By Jody Weisel Photos by Charles Morey and Gary Van Voorhis Kent Howerton is ·t h e .new 500cc 'AMA National MX Champion, a title he earned after a hard fought . s~ as o n-Iong duel with Kawasaki's Gary Semics, Howerton, from San Antonio. Texas, is a motorcycle racer by choice. b ut b y fate he has been a frustrated co mpetitor. I n 19 75 Ken t started the season enthusiastically and began to zero itl on the 250cc National title. Team Suzuki's Tony DiStefano was his .adversary that year, ana by riding co nsist en tl y and remaining free of mech an ical p ro bl em s, T o ny 0 won th e title even though Ken t rode h is hear t o ut at the series event on the rugged Lake Wh itn ey course to win h is third National of th e five race series. , In 1976" Kent H owerton started the season very well, winning the fi rst two 5 0 0 c c Na tio nals a n d ta king a co mman ding poi nt l e ad. B ut, remembering h ow he had lost the 250cc war a year earlier, Ken t began to ride conservativelv. Rather than ride all out with his Bengt Aberg bars-in-the-sand styl~, Kent tried to finish well and not take any chances. Gary Semics had nothing to lose following a slow start early in the season, and began to get on the gas as the 500's came down to the wire . In an ironic twist of fate. Howerton won the 500cc title in the exact same way that Tony 0 had clinched it from him a year earlier by placing high enough in the final New Orleans showdown to guarantee victory. As Kent had won three Nationals in 1975 and still not taken the title, Semics also won three Nationals in 1976 and lost. The difference in lq76 was that Howerton was on the gold receiving end . Howerton had begun his motorcycle racing career seven years before in the small, central Texas town of Sayers. Like many towns in the Texas tradition, Sayers had 'b o t h city limits signs on the same p o le , retractable sidewalks and a m o to rcycl e track. Kent borrowed a 125cc Yamaha from a frie nd: entered the Expert class and finished third behind anothe r Texas unknown, Steve Stackable. Howerton . can 't take you over to his house to . sec 36 his trophy collection because he never entered aJunior class in his life. ' Kent Howerton's early Texas racing career was one of frustration. a frustration that would pl ague his knobby t rac ks up until the joyous day. in New Orlean s seven years later. Riding recover fro m the accident. Still, he we nt into the 19 75 Battle of New Orleans as one of six riders with a chance to become 500cc National Champion . But it wasn't his day. Husky offered to send Kent to Europe in 1976, but Kent turned the offer down. He still had business to take care of in America. 1976 started slowly for Kent. In the MIA Supercross Series, he was fined for a pushing incident with Jim Weinert if' the pits following the Texas Stadium race. Still, he closed the gap and was within striking distance of the series title when the zate dropped for the fmal at the Superbowl. Kent crashed and was run over, again by arch-rival Weinert and had to retire. In the 250cc National Championship series he couldn't get going and rode listlessly. Many people were counting him out, saying his desire was gone and that Howerton had seen too much frustration in his career. But at 21 years of age, Kent was far from burned out. When the 1976 500cc Championship events started, Ke nt was off like a ball of fire winning the first two Nationals of the se ven race series. Just when things were lo o king up and the Ame ricans interrup t their 500cc ser ies fo r th e U.S. Grand Prix at Car lsbad, Kent was in for a no ther d isap po in t ing shock . Husky ord ere d him to ride the Sup port class. H owert on was upset. He was the fastes t, hottest 500cc class rider in America, and his ' Swedish sponsors were asking hi m to ride the second string at a race he k new he could win : It was ' a frustrating day. Kent crashed several times. but still got up to win both ' motos in a walkaway. When the action shifted back to the -5 0 0 c c National series, Kent rode tentatively. He no longer turned up the gas and went all out for the win. He rode well enough to hold his lead. yet each week it got smaller and smaller. Coming into the final event in New Orleans. Kent's once uncatchablc lead was down to a slim six poin t margin over Kawasaki's Gary Semics. If Kent had been depressed about the possihility of watching another Championship slip from his grasp, it didn't show in New Orleans. The worried and even scared Howerton 0 f the prior wee ks was now confiden t, enthusiastic and smiling. He lo o ked like a winner . The frustrations of lost glory. injured p ride. heartbreak and disappointment weren't going to be riding with Howerton on h is Eric Crippa tu ned H u s k y i n th e bayous of Louisiana. And after .the race, the shackles were off. Ken t Howerton, 1976 AMA 500cc National MX Champion, w ill never have to sit oil the line wondering about the 'fat es. "I did it!" he said resting in the shade. Howerton had not only beaten the rigo rs of m otocro ss, b ut the fates of frustra tio n. The ro ll call of Texas and America's motocrossers now starts 'with _ 't he name: Kent Howerton.