Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

a co u p le months la ter , and yo u sho uld n' t co me back a t a mil e like tha t. I'd just gotten m y arm o ut of th e cast. Wh en I brok e it, th ey just set it and sent me home. T wo weeks la ter, I went to m y o wn doc tor a nd he said, " Yo u won ' t have 10 percent movem ent in your wrist if we lea ve it li ke tha t." So they had to rebrea k it a nd operate and a ll that. Meanwh ile, th e real p ro blem was your knee, ri ght? I di d n' t want to ge t the kn ee wo rked o n a t th e ti me because I kn ew how long that wou ld ta ke, I just figured if I rea lly worked o ut I co uld ge t it in sha pe, so I rode m y bicycle and ran and did everything trying 10 get where I could race wit hout having th e ope ra tio n . Bu t the whole rest of that year I'd be riding and m y kn ee wo u ld pop ou t. Then , a t H ousto n , a t the first race of the 1980 seaso n, it came o u t du rin g th e TT and I just went hom e a nd said, " O K, line me up." It took p rob ab ly a good two years a fter tha t to ge t back to where I was in good shape again. Boody started racing when he was eight years old, He f inished fifth in his f irst race , Markel , th e three- tim e Grand National Champion. H ow did yo u end up rid ing for Bart? Wh en I was a Junior, I went to th e b ig ra ce th ey had a t Northvill e Do wn s in Detro it. Corky Keen er had just go ne factory a nd quit riding for Bart , so I j ust went over to Bart a nd ask ed h im if he'd let me rid e his bik e. H e didn ' t rea lly want a Juni or o n hi s stuff, but , he said he'd g ive it a chance. I won the Ju nior main and go t second beh ind Cork y in th e Mich igan Cha lle ng e race they had for Experts a nd J un ior s. From that po int o n, Ba rt was sold. I rode for him all the rest of my Ju nior year and a ll m y rookie Expert year, th en I wen t wit h th e factory a t th e begin ning of m y second Expert season. Bart was in tight with them a nd I did a few thi ngs during those two years that impressed him , so he was pretty well so ld. Every time he'd talk with Dick O ' Brien, th e Harley team ma nager, he'd tell him I was the greatest th ing that every was. T hey o ffered me a ride fat the '77 season a nd I took it. I learned a lot fro m Bart , a lot o f ways to do thi ngs . . . a nd a lot o f ways not to do things. To go o u t th ere and do you r best was the ma in th in g, to never q u it trying. H e never q uits, a nd that's the o n ly way I' ve gotten as far as I have. At the time, the factory dea l was big money. The o n ly guy making mor e was Kenn y Rob erts, ridi ng for Yam aha , and hi s dea l was way better - two or th ree times the a mo u nt bu t sti ll , to be a ble to get a paycheck to 'go raci ng . . ', th at's what it 's all a bo u t. You won Nationals righ t off the bat, di dn't you? I wonmy first Na tio na l as a rook ie riding for Ba rt at the Po n tiac Silver dom e in Michigan . I wo n the short track a nd Steve Ekl u nd, who was a lso a rookie that year, wo n th e T'T, T wo rookies wo nthe who le th in g ! R idi ng for th e factory, I wo n Indianapo lis and Harrington th e fi~st yea r, but m y seco nd year I didn't w m one. And a fter that seco nd year, yo u were off the team. How did th at come about? It was a bad thing on m y pa rt. My mech a n ic, Steve Stortz, and I didn 't reall y get a long that wel l. It 's hard wh en yo u put a ll thos e people in th e sam e room a nd expect them 10 a ll work tog et her. And , o f course, J a y Sprin gst een and I were the who le battle at th at tim e for Num ber One, a nd nat ura ll y J ay go t a ll the n umber o ne st uff a nd I got wha tever wa s left. I d id n 't like th at because I was ou t th ere to win , and to th in k tha t I was ridin g seco nd - be s t s t u ff rea ll y bothered me. So we made it through the first yea r, but d uring the second year it just kept gelling worse. Fina ll y, before th e '79 seaso n , O' Brien ca lled a nd said they 'd bee n thi n king abou t no t having me on the team . I was you ng and wi ld and th ough t for sure I cou ld do it no ma iler wha t, so I said, " Fine, fin e wi th me, I'll just go a head a nd do it myself, a nd I'll go road raci ng a nd I'll do this -and do that and I' ll just kick your ass." That was wrong, I should n 't have do ne that. I' d have been a lo t further a lo ng if I' d have stuck it o u t. Bu t I was 18 o r 19 yea rs o ld, a nd a t that time, wh en you're doing good and yo u're Lip there like that, there's a mi lli o n people around tell ing you that if you went wi th th em , the'y'd giv e yo u the worl d. They tell you how th ey'd reall y help you, how they'd do th is and do that, a nd then the m inu te your situation changes, there 's nobody there! It was rea lly wild. With a lo t of road races on the sche d ule and a lot of Ca mel money to be wo n , a com bined roa d race and dirt track progra m look ed rea 11 y good o n pa pe r back in 1979, an d you took a pretty hea lthy shot at it , di dn't you? I took everyt hing I'd saved in th e time I rode for th e fac tory and spen t it o n road rac ers. I figured, " Hey , a co u ple of road ra ces a nd I ca n pa y for tha t stuff." It was a good th ought a nd it co uld have wo rked tha t way , I su p pose, but it ended u p wor kin g the o ther wa y. • I did good, I was runni ng fift h at Da ytona wh en the carburetor stuck and I had to pull into th e p its for . , three laps to get it fixed. I ended up 20t h o r somethi ng. T hen a t Atlanta I was run ni ng third, I was go n na be in th e wi n ner' s circle a nd was doi ng just fin e with no tvery man y laps to go and the ig nition q ui t, two cylind ers q uit and I had 10 p u ll off. T hen a t Lo udo n I'd worked up to fourth o r fifth and a guy fell off trying 10 pa ss me a nd rook both o f us out, a nd that's wh en I go t hurt real bad. It laid me up for a whi le, and it' s only in th e lastfew yea rs that I'v e felt really good since that crash. What all did you break? I didn 't brea k a lot o f bo nes - co uple of fi ngers a nd m y w rist a n d a dis loca ted elbow. I a lso screwed .u p m y nec k, and two years later I found o u t I'd broken it too. I went 10 a ch iro p racto r beca use I was feeli ng rea l sti ff and he sai d, " I see yo u've had a broken neck ," a nd I said , " O h , I di d n ' t know that." Bu t the big problem was kn ees. It messed them up pretty good ligamen ts, tendons, cartilag e - a nd I had to have a complete reco nstructio n do ne. It took a bo ut six months o f operating on one side , lett in g th at heal , the n o perating o n the o ther side a nd letting it heal. I'm still not 100 percent as far as ra nge of motion, never will be. Boody's seen here stylin ' on one of the short - lived Bill Kennedy American dirt track bikes. Boody was a Harley factory rider in 1978. H o w long were you out? , Not very long, tha t was part o f the p roblem. I came back a t Indi ana polis Desp ite a1l that, you ca me back and did so me more road racing. Mostl y what I did was test" twostro ke oi ls for Ch evron, We used the TZ750 Yamaha road racer to do that. I went 10 Laguna Seca lat er tha t summer - 1980 - a nd mad e omething like 200 or 400 laps or so mething testing th ese o ils. I co u ld hardl y sit on th e bik e - I co uld n' t bend m y knee - and I su re wasn 't in good enough shape 10 go out there an d race , b u t I was trying a nd th e best way to get it 10 ben d was 10 ride, beca use yo u di dn't notice the pain as much . After tha t I pre tty much hung lip road raci ng u ntil '85, when I finished second in th e Camel . Pro Series sta ndings. Do ug Sears at Co llege Bike Shop in La nsi ng bo ug h t a T Z for th e' first co upl e races o f tha t season, but it didn 't wo rk ou t. We tried 10 go the cheap ro u te a nd to go o ut th ere and co mpete. T ha t's like trying to bu y a cheap Ha rley a nd go co m pe te at these Ca mel Pro half mi les a nd mil es, it j ust doesn't work. So we ma de a deal, with Mik e Bald- \ win and I got one of his bik es at a prett y good p rice a nd I rode th at a nd it worked good. But I was having to ge t used to ridi ng a 500 a nd just' getting back into road rac ing, T he best race I rod e was Mid-Ohio, th e last race o f th e year, and my last la p of that racewas th e fastest la p I ra n

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