Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

• aVI ana His best year eyerT By Gary Van Voorhis David Aldana hopes that this year will signal a rebirth of his somewhat dormant career and prove to one and all that he is one of the most underrated road racing talent~ in the U.S. When Aldana burst on the AMA 'Grand National Championship scene he was brash, boisterous and very, very AId8na Ia . . to ride DeytonII on • Bob Work and Don Vesco-prepped TZ7&O. ... so good. 1970 was the year and rookie Expert Aldana was giving everyone a run for the money. He won three Nationals .. the Talladega 200 road race, Indianapolis Mile, and Terre Haute Half Mile .. and was in the points battle right down to the final event. Parts of that season were chronicled in the film On Any Sunday including his crash at Sacramento which ended his chances of being the first rider to grab Number One as a rookie. "1970 was a very good year," says Aldana in retrospect. "However, I didn't really have much of a chance that day at Sacramento. Gene's (Romero) bike was running super and it would have taken a lot of luck .. mostly bad on his part .. for me to have beaten him." Aldana is relaxing and sipping a beer. He is in Houston with his wife Sue to spectate at the Astrodome Nationals. In his early seasons when he was a factory rider for BSA and through the mid·1970's Aldana earned a reputation for crashing .. not so much from making mistakes, but from crossing the thin line which separates acceptable and unacceptable risk taking, "Sure I crashed a lot. I'm not racing to finish second. Maybe I should have thought a little more about things and settled for consistency. I wanted to be a winner. I always have and always will. However, I had other problems also. I let a lot of people give me advice. Looking back, that was a mistake. I shouldn't have taken a lot of that advice because it really hurt me more than helped." With the demise of big bucks racing by Triumph/BSA/Norton, Aldana was thrown back to privateer status. He rode, sometimes good, sometimes bad in both dirt and road racing. The results were mixed. Aldana did not have exceptional machinery most of the time, but when he was on a bike that was up to his skills he was squarely in the hurit. Sadly, those rides were few and far between. The flame that kindled 10 brightly in his first year all but died out as the seventies started to swing toward the eighties. Still, it was during those years that Aldana became a road racing hero. It wasn't here in the U.S., but in England where he raced in the Transatlantic Trophy Easter Match Race Series (pitting a team of U.S . road racers against a team from Great Britain). Aldana has been a member of the U.S. squad since the se.ries inception in 1972 and has gathered quite a loyal following for his performances. In fact, he met his wife while racing across the pond. His performances in the series garnered him offers from European promoters to race and thus be established a following there and the reputation for being a resourceful and hard rider who never gave up. Aldana received Kawasaki factory sponsorship for last year's Superbike Championship. Although he finished fourth in the standings and made five appearances in winner's circle .. his highest placing was a second in the Talladega round .. he was clearly unhappy with the situation. Before the series was halfway over, Aldana was privately and not 10 privately displaying his frustration with his ride. On more than one occasion even after good finishes he was heard to say, "Give me a shot on (Wes) Cooley's Yoshimura Suzuki and I'll show them all how. to ride a SuperltiJr.~;'

• Cover