Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

..... :.: .... ~ .. Mean green and on the gas By Terry Whytal Photo by Mark Kanya One of the fastest rising stars in the motocross world today is 21-year-old Warren Reid. In three years of racing in the AMA 125cc MX Nationals he has often been overshadowed by Brae Glover and Mark Barnett, but still remained a threat to the crown with consistent top five finishes. 20 Occasionally Warren has shown signs of true brilliance as with his series win in the Trans·AMA support class in '78 and near victory at the Anaheim Supercross in '79. Two weeks after Anaheim, Reid dazzled the spectators and ABC cameras at the inaugural Superbikers race, leading much of the event before falling and finishing fifth against some of the best riders in the world. The beginning of the 1980 season found Reid carding several placings in the top four in Supercross competition, as well as a third and a: fourth in the first two 250cc Nationals of the season. Since the early days of his career Reid has been mounted on Hondas and mOlt fans associated the bright red machines with the lanky southern California rider. So it was with considerable surprise that the motorcycling com· munity received word that Reid would be competing in 1980 on board a Kawa- saki Uni-Traker. Rumors flew about but Honda would say little and Kawa· saki kept a low profile. With talk about lawsuits, contract obligations and bad feelings circulating, we thought it best to get Warren's side of the story. What Reid told us was more than just a tale of changing loyalties, because it provided us with a better insight into the relationship between the factory and its riders. Why did you decide to leave Honda? Let me say right away that I never had any problems with Honda management in all the years I was there. Things were always really good with them. But every fall they would say they were coming out with new bikes for the next year and they would be very good. But by the time we got them it would be too late to test for the Nationals or any of the big races and they wouldn't be quite good enough. We'd work really hard on them but by the time we got them right it would be the end of the season. Why did you decide on Kawasaki? Well the Kawasakis seemed pretty nice. They had most of the development work done and they were running really fast and things over there looked good. When did you first make the decision to ride for Kawasaki? I went to talk to Kawasaki back in September and they showed an interest in me. I said I didn't just want to ride 125s and they said they would check on the 250cc or Open class for me. During the entire Trans-USA I didn't hear from them so I figured they weren't interested enough. So you began negotiations at Honda... After the Trans·USA Honda had me come in and talk about signing a contract. I went, and everything sounded pretty good and the money was right. They have five parts to their contract and I signed three of them and we were going to work out the details on the other two. So I went home and guess who calls? Steve Johnson, the team manager from Kawasaki and he said they'd like to work something out. He asked me if 1 had signed with Honda and I told him I was pretty much committed but I didn't mention that I had signed three parts of the contract. Johnson said to think it over during the weekend. What made you change your mind about Honda? Well Johnson told me everything they had to offer and it was a pretty good deal and I thought they were more stable than the offers from Honda. They said their new bikes would be ready by December and it didn't really need much development - already a proven winner. I talked things over with some friends and other people and weighed all the decisions. I called Johnson back and said that I would like to sign with Kawasaki but I already signed three parts of the Honda contact. I didn't know if I could cancel the contract before it started or go to court or something. So you went to Honda to talk? Yeah I called up Gunnar (Lindstrom, Honda's Team manager) and he said to come in and talk. I told him everything and he was pretty mad. He couldn't figure out why I wanted to leave and he thought it was pretty bad to partially sign with them and then try to get out of it. I re,ally could see his point and I felt bad but I figured I had to look out for myself. I knew I was taking a chance on bowing out on something I said I would do and making myself look bad, but I thought it was best. I figured if for three years I had failed to come through with any good results they wouldn't have hesitated to fire me. There wouldn't be any loyalty from them because they had to look at it as a company and I figure I have to look at myself as a company, too. They gave me a good start and got me going as a Pro, but the bikes were never right and I have to look out for my career. At the Anaheim Stadium race there was some confusion over who you were riding for. Naturally Kawasaki wanted me to ride for them but I wanted to finish out the

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