Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

• 00 00 Q') ....-4 . Desert race r t urned Los Angeles motorcycle officer. Joanna Brownell. was starting to ra ce, As th e Nationa l karate cha m p took lO motorcycling with th e sa me tal ent a nd determina tion that she h ad di spl ayed in o the r sports , it was cl ear that Brownell was go ing lO be a force to be reckoned with. " My first ra ce was th e Ca lifo rn ia City Grand Prix and 1 seized th e b ike on th e seco nd stra ightaway, " Brow. nell recalls. "T he next time o u t was at th e Sunrise Grand Prix a n d 1 got a co nc uss io n at th at o ne. It wasn 't a very good start. 1 was always over a n xio us a nd wh eeli ed off th e sta rt . I'd end up on m y head all th e tim e." But Brown ell doesn 't call it qu it s every time so me th in g goes wrong. "When 1 first sta rte d , , would be dying a t th e en d o f th e first loo p with m y tongue hanging ou t, but 1 got used to it aft er awhile," she sa id. " I enjoyed racing and 1 think 1 wa s good at it because' was strong and jaggressive. Even now , often sta rt .laug h ing wh en I'm riding, wondering how' ever m an aged to save th at one. One leg up in from of th e bar s a nd stuff like that is not too uncom-· man for me." Brownell racked up more than 20 wins as an Amateur in 1984 and th en took on th e Women Expert cla ss with a venge an ce. "Once' go t up to Expert ,' decid ed to go for th e number o ne pl at e th at wa s in 1985'-' became obsessed with it ," sa id Brownell. " I've wo n Whiskey Pet e's twi ce, and 1 go t th e National titl e for th e AMA H are & H ound Ch am pi onship Series thi s year. The o n ly thing' reall y want lO do now is fini sh in th e top 100 a t Bvto- V, because it's never been done before (by a woman ). " I almost did it last year, but 1 ended up cra sh ing a nd nearl y kill ed m vself, " said Brownell. " I had a h alf hour lead abo u t 10 m iles from th e fini sh wh en ' 1 hit a ro ck a nd went sidewa ys. 1 flew 110 feet through the air - 'paced it off a fterwa rds - a n d ended up in a ro ck pile. .It ripped th e radiator off th e bike, put a tree branch right through one sid e of th e gas Lank and out th e o ther side and ripped my airbox off. There were reports of broken ribs a n d my boob gelling ripped off and everything, but basically ' was okay. 1 just had to sit there and watch until 7 p.m. 1 got to watch about a thousand people go by." Brownell says her reign in - th e desert is about lO co me lO an en d. " T h is year's B-lO-V will probably be m y last rid e - I'm not planning o n riding any m ore aft er this year." Brown ell said. '" had a Husky su p port ride in 1985 an d 1986 but th ey yan ked th e support from everyone in 1987 a nd ' ca n ' t a fford to do it a ny m ore. Kal-Gard ha s been reall y good to m e, a nd so have G rand Sport Tires, Bell H elmets and Speed. port. whi ch does m y welding. But I've reall y gone as far as , ca n go with this. There' s not much co m pe. tition for women -and 1.ca ri' t afford to ge t hurt a ny more, either. '" enjoy so me o f th e ra ces, but it gets prett y repetitive because th e riding a rea is limited now, so if , do a n yth ing it'll be something other th an th e District stuff. If , ca n get a bike I'll do Whiskey Pete's and th e Nati onals, a nd maybe th e Virginia Ci ty Grand Prix and Ros arito Beach Grand Prix, but that'Ilbe about it. "What will , do instead? Well , don 't laugh but I'm thinking about ma ybe laking up bowling and I'd like to do some more karate." Brownell a lso will be putting a lot of em p ha sis on her" new job. '" realized 1 wanted to be on a bike after m y first six months in th e field and m y poor partner got so sick o f h earing abo u t it - it wa s all I'd talk abo u t," Brownell laughed. "But it 's not a n ea sy thing lO do. Wh en' go t accep ted , it had been four years si nce th e LAPD 's last bike school and even wh en yo u've go ne t h ro ugh th e school th ey don 't j ust hand yo u a bike - you have to wait for peop le lO di e o r retire o r transfer. T he open ings ar e not a u to ma tic. " Beca use th ere are so many peop le wh o want to rid e a bike, yo u basicall y h ad to be a n angel to qualify for th is school - very liul e sick time. lilli e injury time, good productivity as far as tickets, drunk driving arrests , a nd th at so rt o f thing , an d ver y few co m p lai n ts a bo u t yo u from th e public." .Once through the select io n process, Brownell found that th e school is no pi cnic either. "There are four cone pa uerns you have to mak e it through a nd wh en 1 first started , wa s knocking co nes down all over the place ," said Brownell. "My poor mother was running around, standing cones up everywhere for me , and ' was saying ' lO m yself 1 was nev er going lO make it. , used sorneone's old movie bike to pra ctice on and , crashed it regularly. " Whe n you can complet e th e four maz es, th e next thing to concentrate o n is th e power pi ckup. You have : Brownell . who was the top-ranked f em ale desert racer in AMA/District 37. has given up racing to p ursue her police career. lO be a ble to lay th e bike down and stan d it ba ck up again while it 's still moving. You learn lots of br ak in g techniques and · th e rest is m ainly control work. We did a lot of riding in th e dirt too and' lov ed th at. With all m y desert riding' was a lot bett er at that th an all th e o the rs were." "Riding th e bike is grea t,' said Brownell. '" ge t some pretty bizarre lo ok s from people, but' love wh at I'm doing, plus we get bonus pay of 'I percent for riding and a free tak e-h ome bike too . You ca n ' t beat it ,' , Another benefit of police work is that eac h day is different, according to Brownell , who is c u rre n t ly a ssi gn ed lO investigatin g tr affi c acc ide n ts a nd writing tickets. " Whe n you leave for work, you never kn ow wh at 's go ing lO ha ppen- lik e last J anuary wh en , was working by m yself in a police ca r," sai d Brownell. " I sto p ped thi s guy in a jeep in th e Wil shire area a nd tol d h im he was speeding. H e was rea lly dr essed n ice, Rol ex wa tch a nd every th i ng , but wh en , turn ed arou nd lO tak e him back to th e car he go t in to th e jeep a nd took off. We ended up h aving an eig h t-mi n u te pursuit down by Wil shire a n d West ern through ru sh h our traffi c. , wondered wh y so meone would run a way from a speeding ticket but it turned o u t that he had $4000 in wa rrants an d a car full of coca ine. As we were going alo n g he wa s throwing kil os of .cocaine out of th e window, H e ended up crash in g into a parked car and when he leaped o u t, he left th e jeep in gear and it went into a ca r wash. The coca ine he threw out the window had a street value o f $1,200,000 and it was brought in by some citizens who were passing by. Now that was an interesting day : '" And th en th ere was th e day she had th e blue light in stalled on th e from o f her b ike for ex tra visibit it v a t night. . " T he guy hooked it up with a sh ort in it. 1 pulled up a t a traffic signal and th e siren went o ff by itself a nd wouldn 't turn o ff," said Brownell. " My partner got em ba rrassed , took off, an d left m e th ere. , had lO dis connect 'a ll th e wir ing to ge t th e thing to shut o ff." B rownell d escribes h er p olice ca reer as relativel y uneventful lO dat e. " I' ve never had a n a lte rca tio n in si x years," sh e said, " I' ve stu ck my gun in a few faces but I'v e never shot a n yo ne a nd I'v e 'never had to h it a nyo ne with my sti ck, either. 1 hear from some people th at I'm pr etty intim ida tin g wh en " pull yo u over. 1 guess that 's because 1 have a lot of co n fide nc e in m yself. '" don't reall y think abo u t th e danger aspect of th e job - if yo u sta rted th in ki ng abou t tha t yo u wouldn't go o ut the re. You j ust have to laugh about everythi ng." Realizing her dream of being p art of th e LAPD's mot orcycl e sq ua d is not go ing lO sto p Bro wn ell from pushing a hea d . She ha s lot s of goals left to fulfill.. '" wa nt lOget involved wit h dru n k dr ivers. They a re so obnoxio us. " said Brownell. " T he y crea te so much more damage a n d dea th th an a ll th e ro bbers a nd murderers th a t yo u ca n im ag in e a n d th ey ha ve no rem orse eithe r. Th ey ca n run right o ver people and never ca re. Working in accident investi gation, , a lways got th em a fte r th e fa ct - they h ad already pl o wed into three or four cars before' saw th em. I'd lik e to have a go at gelling th em before th ey hurt somebody. And then, mayb e o ne day , I'd lik e to become a motosergeant." But in th e meantime, Brownell will be out on patrol, writing tickets and gelling shocked look s from all of her " victims," " I' m reall y enjoying m y job - it's fun," she ' said. " But you 'd better wat ch ou t. They expec t us to write more tickets when we're o n a bike b ecaus e we 're m ore m obil e , so behave yo u rselves o u t th ere, o kay?" . 7

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