Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Susan Chapman This interview took place on the morning afteT Danny won the 'OOcc MX Profile: SOOcc National Champion AMA National Championship tl~le in the final round in St. PeteTSburg, Florida.. .Editor. o ~ ~ M V ..c o ~ u o 20 CN: How did you become interested in motocross and when did you stan riding? DL: I staned riding when I was about II. My father and I staned going out to the desert and he bought a trail bike. Ever since then the interest grew and grew and I·kept doing it. He started asking me if I wanted to enter races. I wasn't sure if I wanted to race or not. It was more scarey then I think than now, as far as being nervous. But I started racing and it just progressed. When I was 18, I had a decision to make - I could either go to school, or race, move out or work for my father. I had to decide something so I thought, 'Well, I'll give it a go in MX.' I rode locally for about six months and then got a ride in 1976 with Suzuki. It happened so fast that I don't really think I was pre,pared for it. I re.ally wasn't after it. I wasn't that serious about it, not like I am now. I've been getting more and more serious as time goes on as far as wanting to win a National Championship. CN: Your career with Suzuki began in 1976. What did you do that year? DL: In 1976 I rode the 125cc class. Bob Hannah and I were hired by Yamaha and Suzuki to beat Marty Smith. He had won the championship two yean and there wasn't much com· petition for him. Bob.won the cham· pionship that year and I missed beating Marty by one point for second. It was really close. In 1977 I rode the 125cc class again. I had a really good stan at the begin· ning of the year and halfway through I still had a pretty good lead. Then about two races before the fmish - it was in Michigan - a spectator ran across the track and I hit him. I lost quite a few points that day. Two weeks later in San Antonio, Texas, Glover and I were ten points apan in the final event and he won the championship. It was like Sunday'S race, only this time, I won. CN: I noticed on the last lap of the race, your pit crew jokingly held up a sign which read, "Let Broc by." Everyone was laughing about it, but it was very real in 1977. What was that all.about? DL: That's all part of team racing, but it has to be done in a different style than that. They can't show signboards and go crazy and say, 'Let him go by you.' That's altering the end results of the race. It's very political. It affects someone else and has nothing to do with all of the other people racing. Thqr could have had a little more tact when they did it. The magazines made a big thing out of it. I undentand it and it really doesn't bother me all that much. I think it hurt Yamaha more than it did me. CN: After losing such a close battle in . 1977 what did you do? DL: I decided to get out of the 125cc class. I thought I was a little too big for the machines. I weigh 165 pounds and most of the other guys weigh 140 or 150 pounds. So I went to the 500cc class in 1978. I started off really good again, but we had quite a few mechanical problems. After the fint race in Texas, I broke down maybe 10 out of 20 motos. That put me back last year. I only finished about half the races, but I won or got second in the others. I ended up fifth last year. CN: What was different this year? DL: Suzuki got serious this year with the machines. They told me, 'We have to win the championship this year.' I said, 'Yeah, I want to win the cham· pionship, too.' The way the machines were working last year it wasn't (X8ible and the year before when r ran the Nationals we didn't have what I have now in the way of bikes. We were running the stock moton because of the claiming rule. People were starting to claim the bikes and the factory was scared of letting someone claim a factory RA motor. So, I rode a stock motor, but Yamaha kept the factory motors. 1978 was the first year I thought I was really serious. I felt I had a good machine. It was a good machine, bUI there were a lot of changes in the dimensions of the bike and it just didn't work out. CN: What about this year's bike? DL: This year the bike was perfect. We had only one mechanical failure and I lost about 25 points in New York. I would have had maybe 35 points on Bell if that hadn't happened It would have meant less pressure on ~e. CN: How do you handle the pressure? DL: This was kind of an unusual week for me. I was sick in the beginning of the week. I had a chest cold. I felt really weak and I couldn't train very hard. I'd sweat very easily and my sinuses kept plugging up. So I decided I'd better just try to pump myself up 'cause I wasn't feeling well.' I had to forget about training so hard and get myself psyched up for the final. I wanted to win the first moto. That was my main goal - just to win the first race. If 1 had just tried to forget about the race, training hard would have burned me out. I psyched myself into it and I won the first race. It was such a narrow point spread just nine points. It was almost like being tied, anything can happen - and it did. In the second moto, someone at the stan clipped my front wheel and I had to stop and stalled my motor. I was dead last and with a track like this (Sunshine Speedway is rough and sandy) to stan off in last place with this kind of hot weather (temperatures in the mid 90's) is really hard. I rode extra hard. I was so pumped. Adrenalin started going through my body, I wanted to win so bad. I rodt' really hard for 10 laps and passed about 25 guys. While I was doing that I was catching Mike (Bell) and he was in the lead with nobody to pass. When I got into a position where I knew I could win the championship, I just felt so good. It was a big relief. It's funny - it's something I've looked forward to for so long. I've always thought about what it would be like to be the champion. To be the champ you can't have any mechanical failures. My mechanic, Pat Alexander, did a really good job. He worked SO hard for me that ) couldn't let him down. When I'm racing I get so tired sometimes that I just say I want to quit. Then I think about everything and say, 'No, I can't quit. I just have to ride this thing to the finish, no matter what my condition is.' CN: How do you like riding only one class? DL: I like it. It's the way the World Championships are run. You can't be jumping around to different classes. If someone is riding to win the cham· pionship and somebody else that isn't comes into the race, it doesn't do him any good and it just screws up everybody else. Hannah, Many Smith and I rode all three classes, Bob and I did it for two yean. We were riding 40 or 45 races a year and it was just too much. It was unfair because we'd get fint and second and we were always in the top and we weren't really even compe:ting for thl' title. But, now tbat I thInk about it, I guess we were. I thitik it's a lot better this way. CN: Do you like having two classes the same day? DL: No. When they have a purse now of, say, $10,000, they split it between the classes. The other way. one class got the whole purse and now we're getting half that much. Actually, I think it's about 40% less. I'd rather see them just run one National class and a support event. CN: When did you first come to Florida to race? DL: When I fint staned racing for Suzuki in 1976 I was working in the R&D shop. I menrioaed to some of the guys there that I'd like to ride the Florida Winter·AMA MX Series. 'Sure,' they Aid, you're Dot good enough to do that.' But rumors ltaned and I asked to go... aud Suzuki said I could. I took a stock biR aud plenty of spare parts and drove to Florida with a guy who now works for Honda. Brian Lunnis. The first race was in Jacksonville Beach and I did pretty well the fU'St moto . second, I think. But in the second moto my throttle stuck. I crashed and wiped out the whole side of my face. I went on to the next race and did real well and Suzuki decided to give me a factory machine. Billy Grossi was supposed to ride the Florida series but he was hurt so I started riding the factory machine. CN: What was the frrst ride on the factory bike like? DL: The fint time I rode the factory bike I got second place at the start and

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