Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Danny Chandler The new smooth Magoo By Tom Mueller The Danny "Magoo" Chandler of past and present seem to be two different riders. In the past the name Magoo was connotative of high speed, high elevation crashes., When a spectator attended a National hel she would keep an eye on two . Th I d dM peopIe. e ea er an agoo, because Chandler was always 10 good for a spectacular crash or two. The new Magoo is smoother, faster and more competitive than ever before. He's still good for a few clickers or straightaway bail·offs, but it hasn't affected his domination of the TransUSA MX Series 500cc Support class. Magoo has learned to thrill the crowd and win as well. He claimed the title with ease. We had a chance to pull Magoo away from his busy schedule in the LOP pits at the Unadilla Trans-USA round. His new riding style is exemplified by his good spirits. Chandler is sitting on top of the world for the first time in his l!l year career. "I've been riding since I was five and have been racing since I was nine, pretty much all of my life," said Chandler concerning his roots in the spon. "The closest place for us to race was around Sacramento (Chandler is a California native)." Chandler has gone by his nickname more than any other rider. "My dad nicknamed everybody in our family. There's my mother, two sisters and myself, and my oldest sister has red hair, I have red hair, and my youngest sister has black hair, He calls my mother Big Red, my oldest sister Little Red, me Magoo and my other sister Blackie, I kind of hated the name at first when I started racing, but everyone started cal1ing me that," If it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at alL So it went for Chandler from the start of his career. Every time you heard about him it was a crash related story. Was he really that big of a crasher, more than other novices? "I didn't figure I was off to a poor stan. I think I got a lot of bad press. When I fell everybody noticed it, but when somebody else fell it wasn't publicized so much. I did fall a lot, but at least I was giving it 100 percent and more. I've always had the drive to win, and I tried my hardest .. sometimes too hard. I crashed a lot and the press printed it a lot." Magoo went down hard numerous times, but kept pushing, always near the front if up and going. "I wanted to win really badly. Everybody out-horse· powered me so I figured I could make It up through the turns or off the jumps, so I tried." Most of Chandler's crashing was done on a Maico. He was hired by the German company through 1979, then parted ways with them when a dispute arose over a racing agenda. "It was a friendly parting, They told me I wasn't going to get works bikes, and that for the money we were spending they wanted me to ride on a local basis. They said they'd still pay all my expenses, of course, but to sit out (the Nationals) for the rest of the year. I didn't want to, so we just had a little agreement and dissolved the contract." This season Chandler attacked the 125cc Nationals, supponed with bikes and pans from Suzuki and assistance from Pro-Trac Trailers, He finished up ninth overall, shon of his expecta· tions. "I wasn't satisfied, I had a lot of bad breaks. I DNF five motos, and I broke my finger at the Kansas City Supercross (on May 2). That put me out for one race, two motos. I was running fifth or sixth up to the halfway point and then I broke my ftnger." Maybe Chandler wasn't satisfied with ninth overall, but it was a drastic improvement of his results from previous years, It all began when Danny staned the season in 'SI. "I basically got turned around at Golden State (California MX Series in January) this year. Yamaha gave me help, and then Suzuki came up with a little better deaL Then LOP came up with a lot better deal than that. If it wasn't for LOP I'd be home right now, not even riding the Trans-USA. "I'd like to thank Suzuki for all their help, and LOP and Honda, Thanks to Hi-Point, Even when I was in a downfall and didn't have motorcycles, HiPoint totally gave me everything I needed. "I could be winning two or three classes at home, making some real good money, but I wouldn't get any recognition, I'm not really losing any money coming out here (to the East) because Honda's paying a real good bonus, and I'm getting recognized, n Honda and Magoo seem to be making a deadly team. In the past Chandler had a hard time staying on a 250, but nowadays he drops the clutch on 4SOcc's and wrestles it to the winner's circle. "My Honda is box stock. The only thing we've done is modified the shock a little bit, We put a stiffer spring on it because the spring we had was too soft. I like it (CR4S0R) a lot, I'm really happy with the power, it's really smooth and all usable .. that really helps, It isn't a time bomb and it isn't a turd. n Outside of racing, Chandler, like other MXers, takes time off for hobbies and other recreational activities. Unlike other MXers, Chandler's main hobby is unique, "Gold mining, it's just this little thing I do. I have a friend close to my house and he rides up. I get up early in the morning and go running, and of course we go riding. Where I live I can ride off my back porch and take off -we live in (Eldorado) National Forest. "When we go onto the Last Chance Trail the only way you can go in is horseback, hike or motorcycle, Some spots you have to get off the motorcycle and totally lift the rear end around the turns because you can't ride them, It's really a gnarly ride. It's 15 miles in, and when we get to the river there's an old swinging bridge, it's really spooky. Then we hike up two or three miles with the sluice box, packs, and fold· up picks and shovels. We pack a little lunch and leave at II and don't get back until around five. "I take my sluice box - it's four feet long and about a foot and a half wide with plastic grooves in it - and set it in the current of the water. Then we go up and dig around rocks, wherever you think the gold is going to get caught. When you fill your pack you go back and dump it into the sluice box and the current pushes all the big rocks away. When gold hits the water it hits bottom. Usually we run eight or nine packs through and find two or three pennyweights of gold. That's worth sixty or seventy dollars. You make some money, but I've never sold any of it, I just keep it for my own pleasure. "I also do some snowmobiling in the winter. LOP told me they'd buy me a new Polaris (snowmobile) this year if I win the series, They're pretty fast, I do a lot of fIShing, and that's basically it." Quite a bit of talk in the pits at this year's Trans-USA has centered around Chandler. Is he really through crashing? Is another winning rider surfacing on the circuit? These are some of the questions which have arisen, questions Chandler acknowledges but puts in perspective. "I've always had goals for myself, it's just that the Suppon class isn't that big a deal. I don't see why everybody says 'Wowl He won the Support class!' Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good riders in it, but it's nothing like if I was winning the International class. I'd rather be doing it in the Interna· tional class, but evidently I'm not, so at least this ought to show people I've settled down .. I hope. n Chandler will take on the ways of a married man when he weds girlfriend Tracy in November. Instead of putting racing aside after the wedding Danny says it will make him go even faster, "It's not going to slow me down, it hasn't so far and I'm married right now, really. I've been going out with Tracy three years. She's really the cause of me getting it together. I used to do a lot of crazy things, I was living life in the fast lane, She's pulled me out of the fast lane and put me in the slow lane-socially, not on the track. I used to be out until two or three in the morning, and now I'm in bed at nine or ten, depending if there's a good movie on, I'm at home every day, she doesn't work, I don't work. I work staying out of work! She's really settled me down, "My girlfriend's parents have an ex· cavation business, and I worked with them for a year when I broke up with Maico, I got to know a little about the biisiness, so if I don't make it in motocross I can make it there, But I am going to make it in motocross, so I don't have to worry." Though Magoo can project himself into the role of excavator somewhere in the future, he feels he has a long way to go before his motocross career concludes. For Danny "Magoo" Chandler, the sky's the limit, "Motocross is my life, I'm going to make something of it, I'm only 22, and I feel I have a long time left. I haven't reached my potential. People ask me how fast I can go and where my limit is, and I tell them I don't know and therp. is no limit. I ride as fast as I have to. I'm crazy on a bike, I guess, I'm so used to riding at home with my friends. I'd cross it up and jump far and everybody liked it. I didn't realize what I was doing, it's a habit. Now I've tried to break the habit, I've realized I've got to keep it straight. I'm basically pretty much what everyone says I am, except for the crashing. That's a thing of the past." •

• Cover