Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Howe"on bUltsloole in Supercro.. action. where he holds le,cond in the points. Kent Howerton "It sure leels good to be National CbaDip again!" By Terry Whytal Photos by Charles Morey T he year 1979 was good to Kent Howerton. He piloted his factory Suzuki RH250 (0 within a few points of the AMA 250cc National Championship MX Series, almost catching Bob Hannah in the last half of the season. "I really thought I had a chance to beat him," remembers Howerton, "but I had a little bad luck at the start of the year and couldn't quite catch 10 him." Howerton's next trick was to pull an amazing come-from-behind win at the U.S. round of the 250cc World Championship MX Series, and he was just getting warmed up. Climbing aboard an Open class RH, the former 500cc National Champ rode with the poise and consistency of a competitor who knows what it takes to win a tough series and added the Trans-USA title to his list of racing credits, Two weeks later Howerton won the final stadium race of the year at Anaheim. His victory was no easy task as he fought up from a ninth place start, held o££ charges by Yamaha's stadium specialist Mike Bell and took the lead away from a flying Warren Reid in the cloaing laps. Nota Howerton: "The stan is really important in stadium raQng; you need a lOp five stan to win, Kent and Jill are almost always together at the races. maybe top 10 if things go your way. At Anaheim, I had Bell pushing me, and we worked through tra££ic pretty quickly . We caught up to R eid after he had been leading for a long time, and I think he wasn'l expecting it or had lost his rhythm. It would have been harder to pass him earlier in the race." The greatest challenge of '79 still awaited Howerton. The inaugural running of the Superbikers to be held at Carlsbad Raceway included 40 of the top riders from around the world competing on a course with pavement, flattrack and motocross sections. The excitement was high, the competition fierce and as the ABC :Wide World of Sports cameras watched, the checkered flag came out. Kent Howerton and his Suzuki flashed across the line to be crowned the world's first Superbiker. "I wasn 't surprised we won," notes the blondehaired Texas flash, "Motocrossers are the best allaround rjders, and we have by far the best stamina. The track was really set up for TT riders, and that's how we set our bike up. Disc front brake, ,Goodyea r dirt track tires and everything lowered a bit. II was a real neat race to win l " Howenon fint made his mark on the mococrma . world in 1975 rilling an"OpeD cIa. Husky. Kent had some trouble that first year but went on to '.. in the 500cc National title in '76. His bikes were clearly underpowered against the new Japanese prototypes, and Howerton's trademark soon became the berm-busting technique of fanning the clutch halfway through a turn. "I had to use the clutch a lot," points out Howerton, "just to keep up with the bikes from the big Japanese factories. Those Suzukis that Tony DiStefano rode were so . much faster than my Husky, it was ridiculous!" Recalling his days with the Swedish Marque, Howerton explains, "1£ I knew then what I now do, I wouldn't have ridden one minute on a Husky. You wouldn't believe how little I got paid for winning that championship. I had so much trouble in '74 and '75 that I should have left Husky and ridden a Japanese bike for the '7 6 season. The competition was so much less back then that if I had been riding a bike like DiStefano I could have won many more races, maybe as many as Hannah did in '78." . Suzuki added Howerton to their factory team in 1977 but the next two years were filled with small injuries that kept him from displaying his real talents. "It's tough to do good when you're hun a lot," says Howerton, "You kinda become timid and ma,bejust a little afraid. You have to

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