Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

AMA round and asked me if I would like to ride for them. Team manager Mark Blackwell didn't mention a class at the time and I later asked them if I could ride the U5cc series, Later I found out that that was the class they had wanted me to ride. "Having a factory ride seems to put a lot of pressure on you to do good all the time, but that's what I'm here to do. You can't really mess up. If you do, you better have a pretty good excuse why you did. " I guess that is one of the big differences. " said Mark, "between having a factory ride and being a privateer. As a privateer you can get awa y making a big mistake . of course you won't get a factory ride making mistakes. Being a team member gives you the feeling that you're somebody coming into the race . It gives you a definite up feeling and the attention you get is pretty nice too. " If you don't get a factory ride in your first year or two. chances are that you won't get one. It wasn't always that way , but now the factories don't want someone that has been around.. They keep moving toward youth and bringing a rider along their way. MarkBarnett Down but not out By Gary Van Voorhis "I gue~ I'll just sit around and wait for my shoulder to heal," echoed the dejected long distance voice of Mark Barnett from , his Bridgeview, Illinois home. "The doctor has me pretty well bound up so that I won't break the pin he put in my shoulder. There isn't much lean do." 22 . In one fleeting moment during the July 16 AMA /Mr . PiBB Atlanta National Championship MX Barnett had his dream of the 125cc title come to an abrupt end. A colorful streamer. one of the many used to mark the track boundary, became entangled in the rear wheel of his Team Suzuki mount , ultimately binding the rear brake and unceremoniously spitting Barnett onto the red Georgia clay. "I've fallen harder: ' said Barnett, "and taken more of a beating. But this was unexpected and I landed right.on my shoulder. I knew right away that there was something wrong because I could feel a bump under the skin. I just hoped that it wasn 't serious." But it was. Barnett flew home later that night after being fixed up with a traveling brace by the team doctor of the Atlanta Falcons football team . He then visited Dr . Luke Kolb , the team doctor for the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team the following day . The physician offered Barnett the option of allowing the shoulder separation to heal by itself or surgery to pin it. "I took the surgery:' said Barnett, "because I wanted to start out in as good or better shape than before. "That's the way it goes: ' continued Barnett. "It's racing luck, but not the good kind . I feel pretty good. I just have to wait it out. The .thing that really bothers me is that now (Broc) Glover will just have things his way with nobody to give him a run for the crnwn. That's a b,uJ'I)IJl~~ . • . • • . • • . _ • "The doctor told me that I should be .a ble to ride in the Trans·AMA Series, but he is not sure of just whe'n it will be . I get the pin out in four weeks. Once that's over. I can begin to strengthen my arm and upper body. "T o get back into shape I intend to ride a lot and perhaps workout with weights some. There are muscles that need to be trained . I don't want to rush the healing and neither does Suzuki. They said to let it heal and take it easy until I was ready. They want me to be 100% when I get back into racing. "T ha t's OK. I've got a long time for riding ahead of me ." Twenty -four hours before the accident , when the remainder of this interview took place, Mark Barnett had been anxious to go racing. A five week gap between rounds of the 125cc championship and a 46 point deficit to his rival - and defending champion - Broc Glover had left Barnett with an overwhelming desire to get back into the war and "bea t Glover and keep on beating him." . Barnett, in direct contrast to a majority of the riders in the National Championships, seeks seclusion on the day before a National. He is not a joiner', but more of a loner who avoids the pre·race crowd scene of riders, mechanics and other that accompanies sign-up, " I don't like all the action on the day before the race ." said Barnett eyeing , t~e.. p~r:king lot crowd fr~m. his fifth floor room in the Hampton, 'GA Holiday Inn. "I would rather hide in my room, look at television and take it easy, 1 like to be relaxed and rested on race day," Mark has adjusted to being in the public eye, but admits that getting used to all the publicity - like doing interviews - is still hard. However, he is the first to admit that he likes it and gets a charge out of seeing his picture in motorcycle publications or the daily press . Television, as it does to most riders. still causes a case of stage fright. The smoothness and ease with which Barnett adjusts to the tasks of answering questions. of being in the spotlight belies the fact that he is two months shy of his 18th birthday and has given up his schooling, " I've always had it really good in racing," said Barnett, "In fact , during the time I was a privateer I almost always had somebody to pay for the parts and sometimes other things as . well. That means a lot. "1 always think of what it would be like to have a factory ride ," continued Mark. " Bu t then I would realize that I really didn't know how to go about getting one. You know. do you go up to the team manager and ask for a ride or wait until they ask you? How long do you wait ifthey don't ask? "Luckily, 1 didn't have to wait too long. Suzuki approached me last year after I had won the 250cc Suppon class at the Unadilla. NY Trans- "Having a factory ride seems to put a lot ofpressure on you to do good all the time, but that's what I'm here to do. " J "1 was lucky . I won the 125cc AMA ' Amateur MX National Championship and then spent one season riding for ' Moto·X Fox ,' the top privateer sponsor on the circuit, in my rookie year in the 125cc championship, Now I'm here t riding for Team Suzuki, What else could you ask for? "Something pretty good would have , to come along to make me give up motocross. My job is about four hours a week on Sunday plus practice time during the week. That sure beats die eight to five punch-a-clock type of work. Some people would say that I was very lucky and I believe I was. But there was a lot of hard work involved. You don't get a bike one day and a factory rider three weeks later. It took eight 'yea rs of hard work to get where I am ." Barnett is no one to brag. but he feels that he is a very good 125cc rider and ' that with a little luck he could easily be the National Champion. " It takes a lot of talent to ride a one- two five as it should be ridden. You've got to know how to use the engine and gear box to the greatest advantage consistently, There are a lot of riders' in the I25cc class , but there aren't many racers." Like many riders, Mark likes to race;n as much as possible. He feels that it q keeps him in better shape both " physically and mentally, Therefore.:" the decision by the AMA to limit a ' rider contesting one National Charn-' , pionship class was not a favorite with him. " I feel that the AMA made a mistake in limiting a rider to only one rt championship class and I believe that d a majority of riders, both privateer and factory sponsored, feel the same way. I would like to ride both the 125 and 250cc classes . That way you would C be racing every week . As it is now the schedule has you racing for four or five weeks and then off for about the same amount of time. Then you have . another string of races to conclude the championship before a layoff until the

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