Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126983
Interview: Cagiva factory road racer Duane Summers Desert racer turned pavement pilot By Anne Van Beveren . Photos by Tom Van Beveren, Kit Palmer &. Paul Carruthers If variety is the spice of life, .th en California motorcyclist Duane Summers is a pretty hot tamale. In the world of motorcycle racing, where everyone is a specialist and riders spend year s h oni n g th eir talents to a razor's edge 22• b' year-o ld Su mm er s IS usy breaking all the ru les. 12 In just a few short years, the young rider has made a name for himself in desert racing, switched to enduro ri ding long enough to grab a go ld medal at last year 's ISDE in Italy, and now he's at it again, making yet another switch - this time into the high pressure world of road racing. With the Cagiva factory , backing him all the way, Sum mers looks to be 'as successful in his road racing career as he has been in everything else. Less than six months after he sat on a street bike for the first time, the young racer from Torrance, California, has already started to climb throug h the ranks in the AMA Pro Twins Road Race Series and has finished second in the La Carrera Road Race in Mexico. And this, he said, is just the beginning. . " Where do I want to go?" asked Summers. "Well , I guess that I' ll be aiming for a World Championship in road racing some time in the future, but for no w I th in k a National Championship would be in ord~ in the next couple of ye~lTs." 'Yh~le. that may sound wi ldly opurrnsuc to many wou ld-be racers, Summers and the Cagiva factory are dea d set on mak ing it a reality. Summers is hard at work learn ing th e skills it wi ll take to hold his ow n on the circuit and Cagi va is hard at work too, producing a new bike that they ho pe will. carry their protege to victory in the AMA National Superbike Series. "Cagiva is developing a new engine for a new bi ke. T hey want to get involved in superbi ke raci ng," Summers explained. "They figure they can n urture me and teach me , to ride and tha t by the time the bike is ready I'll be mature enough to ride it. We've got a partnership going here and together we're going to make it to the top." Where did this new fish in the road racing pond come from , and what does u take to get the sort of break that he is gellin~ from Cagiva? To find out, we Visited the up-andcoming young road racer at Cagiva's American headq uarters in Ga rdena, California, where Summers works full time as a techni cal , service representative. T he first thing you notice about Summers is h is q uiet, almost shy man ner - off the race track he is neither bo ld nor aggressive. T hen you notice h is bui ld . At five-feet, seven -inches ta ll and weighing in a t 140 po unds, Cagiva's boy wonder is not go ing to give Hulk H ogan much of a run for hi s money. Bu t when you loo k at his trac k record in all forms of motorcycle raci ng, Duan e Summers obviously has somethi ng going for him. It takes more than luck to get where this young man already has been. • Summers ' motorcycl ing ca reer started when he was seven years old; with a Honda 50cc mi ni trail bike that he shared with th ree sisters. "Dad used to race in the desert so the family would go out camping every weekend," said Summers, "and it was just natural tha t we lea rn ed . to ride. Dad let me race from the time I was about I I, and, looking bac k, I have to say I respect my father a