Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ 5, a nd a son, Wester, 3) and in th e pr ocess of that, she cou ldn't go. ~_ . In '84 things sta rted falling apart , so to speak. Sh e th ought I was keepi ng her barefoot and pregnant and not wantin g to do anyth ing with . her. I j ust wa nted to go and do my job, which is race mo torcycles. She likes traveli ng as much as I do. She likes th e limel igh t as mu ch 00 as I do. It became a pparent she wasn' t 00 going to be ' in it anymore. T his O"l started causi ng discomfort between I""""'l us - jea lousy is the worst emotion ~ ever inven ted. 00 In 1985, when I go t th e sponso rI""""'l shi p from Starfire, I th ink she started ;>- getting a little bit of a handle on it C\l - th at this was going to be her way of life. Then th e acci den t happened. She did an excelle nt job. I left th e . hospi tal a month early because she. took care of me. T he probl em was, I needed emo tional support (but) because of the accide n t, she go t in to th e chi ldren. H ere I a m lying almost dead in the bed - for four days th ey told her th ey didn't kn ow if I was going to live or not - so she had - to have som ething to cling to. Sh e took th e ch ildren to cling to. She clung so much to th e ch ildren, .and I needed some of that tim e back. U nfort unately, we cou ldn 't get th at straigh tened ou t. Sh e co uldn' t give me th at tim e back. So we became more a nd more a part. In February o f 1987 , w he n I stopped worki ng for Continental , I said to her, " Na ncy, I'm goi ng to go back racing." She raised hell. A month later I sai d, " Na ncy, I want to go back raci ng. I need to for me. " She said, " Okay, double your life insurance policy," so I went o u t a nd did th at th e next da y. I came back and said, " I've got it don e." Sh e ra ised hell aga in. About May of '87, I said, " Na ncy, I'm going to go back ridi ng. I need this for me. I need to be happy." She took her finger and poked me in th e chest, and said, " You 've been such a (jerk ) lately , anything to. get you back th e way you were." We went and saw co unselors and all that stu ff, I wouldn 't say th e marriage is totally broken up, but it needs give and tak e on both sides. I don 't think one of the "gives" that I need to throw into the kitty is th e removal of racing. Were you frightened or did you feel at home your first time on the race track after the accident? It was August 14 (1987) at Willow Springs. It was an 'AFM sprint and I was riding (Team Suzuki's) 1100 Suzuki. I came back the same way I went o u t - on the ground. I crashed. . I was very, very shocked at how well I could still ride. I felt co mfortabl e riding at speed. It didn 't bother me at all. When I left racing, riding the superbi kes, there were probably four of us that would run up front. Coming back into the GSXR Series , th ere were 10 guys all running right there. Mentally, I had to get prepared to run with the people again. That's one of the reasons I fell off, I was running with (Cal) Ra yborn at the ti me and we came across turn four, at the top of the hill. I tried to go underneath him, but he came across my front end. I backed off the throttle and I ended up watching him instead of myself. Then I was back hard on the throttle again, because I cou ld see him accelerating awa y. I wasn 't feeling the tir es and I lost the rear end because I was leaned over so far. I picked it up on th e pipe and lost traction. It wasn 't that the technique wasn 't there. I just wasn't back into th e process of running with people. I 20 know I'm not the same person I was : ::;E Veteran Cooley offers some words of wisdom to Team Suzuki's Jamie James. Cooley is riding part time. for the endurance team. -. when I left racing. I know I have to start over at ground zero. Everybod y has advanced the last couple of years. There are new kids on the blo ck.-Pve got to be abl e to come oack and race as if nobody ever kn ew me to begin with. What are your plans for 1988 and the future? Th e industry is in a sh r in ki ng period. There's not a lot of extra money floating around. I go t a lot of negative answers from people, not because the y didn't feel I was qualified to ride their equipment, but th ey didn't want to put me on the ir equipment and see me fall off and get hurt again , and blame themselves. I started calling around. Bru ce Hammer has always been a good friend of mine and I talked to Bru ce. H e said, " Le t me talk to (Team Suzuki Captain) John (Ul rich ) and maybe we can get you a bike to ride." That was August of 1987; he all owed me to rid e one of th eir Suzukis. For '88, I'm riding th e WERA Endurance Series at selected even ts. I'm not a full-timer (at . Team Suzuki). John has Jamie James and Mike Harth as th e full timers. I'd lik e to ride some of the GSXR Series races in this area - Phoenix, Willow Springs. Obviously, Lwon't ride at Sears anymore. I would really lik e to get back into AMA superbike racing. That' s where my heart is. People have asked me if I want to ride the Supersport class. No. I don't. I would rather get into AMA superbike racing. I kind of have my thumb o u t in the air right now. If there's somebody around who needs a rider, I'd be more th an happy to talk with th em . I want to get back in to racing o n a full-time basis. If I cou ld get so me kind of steady committment out of someone, that's what I'd lik e to do . Tell us about the Wes Cooley Riders Association Racing School? '. TJ1aLs probably my primary con- cern. The industry used to have this black leather, cham and bla ck jacket image. Now we have this " killer bike" image th at's giving us a bad name. You have the mom who doesn 't want to inhibit her son, but her son comes in and asks for a motorcycle. She looks down at the newspaper and sees that somebody has splattered themsel ves up on Angeles Crest (Hig hway in southern Cal ifornia) and she says, " No way. " The bikes the y're selling now ar e just way too fast for the average person, (especially) with n o restri ctions on licensing. That's why'I started the school, to get away from th is bad atmosphere. If the guy wants to go out there and go fast, he should co me up to the race track and ride around under safe conditions. People sa y, " A race track?" They're far safer than th e str eet. My school is differnt than Keith's (Code) school, the California Superbike School, because you bring your own equipment. It 's more beneficial to learn how to ride your own equipment than it is to spend half a da y learning how to ride a Kawasaki 600 Ninja. We hav e mo st of our events .at Willow Springs. I think I'll have six up at Laguna Seca, th en I have five more left throughout the U.S. - places where I anticipate riding in WERA Endurance races. There are basically three groups at th e sch ool. : The A group is the beginner-t ype course. I give th em two and a half hours in the sem ina r and four and a half hou rs trac k time. Expe rie nce is th e best teacher. T he B group is for someo ne who's been throug h th e school, who wan ts to come out an d ride around the race trac k, and/or licensed competition holders who wa nt to get practice tim e. T he C group is an advanced class. It is more p rone toward ra cing. I get a little bit more in volved. It 's lim ited to 10 people and I ride with them then com e back in and give them personal input as to wh at I see them doing wrong. (In terested riders ma y register by phon ing the Wes Co oley R iders Associat ion Racin g School at 714/ 359-7180. The fee is 190 for th e A group, 170 for th e B grou p and 1195 for the C group ... Ed itor ). (Ridin g on ) th e ra ce track is good. When you're on th e stree t and you go off with your buddies to Angeles Crest, yo u' ll go 120 mph for about two miles. Then you back off, and start laughing. On th e race track you feel that you hav e to go fast all the tim e. Suddenly, after three or four laps, you realize brai n fad e sets in real easy. If you can ta ke th at (race track) attit ude 0(, 100 percen t concen tration on to the street, and not brain fade going through an intersection, you' ll be a safer, more defensive rider. I believe there are a lo t of Kenny Roberts in th is world but they have n ever gotten invo lved with mo torcycles. Kenny is th e best rider in the world because he kn ows what he's doing. Fr eddie (Spencer) I don 't think understood wha t he was do ing all the tim e. H e just kn ew how to do it by th e seat of hi s pants. Don't get. me wrong. That's not to say he didn't know some things, but Kenny really knows what he'sdoing and how to a pply himself. H e knows how it works. There are a lot of people out there. They've j ust never been introduced to motorcycles. Most people play basketball, football or something like that. They grew up with i t. That's why we need to get away from this ima ge we have now. No t the guy who rai ses hell, but the guy that's out there going 160 mph and splats himself on a car because a little old lady who wouldn't hurt a fly turns in front of him. Then the 13-year old kid walks into his mom and says, " I want to buy a dirt bike," - even a dirt bike - and she picks up the paper and sees the headlines and she says, "No way!" We're shrinking our industry .fro m the very roots. This woman doesn't want to see her son get hurt. We're killing it at the bud: I even catch myself doing it. I can't ride a motorcycle slow . I don't ride on th e street very often but this friend of mine just bought a new bike so we went riding. I'm clipping along, look down at the speedometer and it reads 130 mph. Here I am teaching a school where people are told not to do this stuff and I'm doing it. It 's easy for people to get into that. We have to make them understand what they 're getting th emselves into. We've got to get people to use their brains. That's what all the crashes are about. It's not the size of the motorcycle. It 's the fact that the guy doesn't get hi s brain connected to his throttle hand. Then he winds up on his head someplace because he's not thinking about what he's got himself into. •

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