Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 0") ~ 00 Interview: Two-time superbike National·Champion Wes Cooley_ Cooley mounts a comeback bid By Farren Williams Photos by Brian Catterson & Rick Guy California road racer Wes Cooky IS off the road to recovery and on a road he hopes will take him back to full- time competition in AMA/Camel Pro Series superbike racing. Th e two- ti me National superb ike cham p io n had the world by th e tail when he went . . . to the So noma , Cal ifonia , 18 ro und of the 1985 AMA Superbike Series. H e had a fu ll sponso rship with Starfire Racing and he was lead ing th e point standings in the battl e for the National title. T hen di saster struck. Cool ey suffered ~ spectacular. solo cras h In Sears POint In terna~lOnal Raceway's turn one and hurt himself so badly it seemed his injuries woul d mea n the end of hi s racing career. . The crash occure d on the same day and in the same place as th e accide nt that killed sidecar racer Mic hael Pa rk inson. Since then, the AMA has used a ch ica ne to slow riders' speeds at th e entrance to th e corner. T he acci den t left Cooley with a . broken left femur, a co m po u nd, segmen ta tio n fracture of the right femur, a shattered right hip, three cracked lumbar vert ebrae in hi s lower back, a shattered fourth cervica l vertebra and a cracked sixth cervical vertebra in his neck, two brok en fingers (one on each hand) and bruises and contusions of th e lungs and kidneys. . Cooley, wh o has undergone a twoyear p eri od of recuperation and exte nsive rehab ilition, says he is, "31years-old, going on 15." He also says he is read y to go racing again. The California racer was born in Los Angeles and lat er ea rned a Bachelor's degree in che mi stry from nearb y Un iversity of California , in Irvin e. . His fat her, Wes Sr., was president of a southern Ca lifo rnia raci ng club - the American Cycle Association (ACA) - which promoted races a t WillowSprings Intern ational Raceway in Rosamond. Young Wes grew up around the race track and often helped out at events . . He started raci n g mo to rcycles when he was 15%·years-old. H e competed in his first . road race in August of 1970 at Willow Springs aboar d a 200cc Greev es Silverstone borrowed from family friend Dick Pierce. Cooley collected AMA Superbike Championsh ips in 1979 and 1980; bu t was forced into early retirement on May 18, 1985, the dat e ofthe crash at Sear s Point.' T oday he is in the, midst of an a ma zin g co me back, co m peting in selec ted road race events and looking for a ride in AMA/Camei Pro Series Superbike · Nationals. Cooley recent ly spoke with Cycle N ews at our national headquarters in Long Beach , California. At our p rodd in g, th e two-time ch a m p rel ived his terrible acc ide nt, the fru strating months th at followed and the consequences of th e crash on his career and h is pers onal life. H e also expresse d an unbridled hope for the future. What has been the high point of your career, so far? . The biggest career highlight is a toss- . up between my first Suzuka 8-Hour race - Mike Baldwin and I were teamed up in 1978 - and the Dayton a lOO·miler (superbike race ) in 1981. I fought with (G raeme) Crosby until the last lap and I ended up sq ueaking by him. Those were the two hi ghlights. There are a lot of things that stick ' in m y mind, like w atching my number up o n th e board at the Daytona 200-mil er in '85, before I got hurt; watching Freddie (Spencer ) just catch me and catch me and catch me (laughs). Could you outline your career for us? My father started me off. I ran TD2Bs - that's a Yamaha 250, the old aircool ed two-strokes - back in the early 1970s. From 1970 to 1972 I rode for Dick Pi erce. In '72 my father bought a Yamaha and I rod e Yarnahas up until '76. In '76 I started riding for Yoshimura. They saw I went pretty good at Willow Springs, so I helped do some of their testing on the Zl. In 1977 I started riding the Yoshimura bike at AMA Nationals andmy father's Yamaha (TZ700) in the Formula 750 class and also raced in the 250 class. In 1978, Pops Yoshimura started working with Suzuki on th e GS750, before th ey went to the 1000, and at the end of 1978 they asked me to ride · for them. I rode for Yosh imura/Suzuki up until 1982. Because (Suzuki) was ch a n g i n g the 750s in '83, (the Yoshimura team) didn 't feel the (1983) 750 was going to be as competitive as it could have been - and Suzuki was pulling out (of racing) because there was no money to be had - so they said I should probably go looking someplace else. I did. In 1983, I talked with both Honda and Kawasaki, and Kawasaki ended up being the better deal. I rode with them in '83 and had a fairly unsuccessful year. I fell off the thing at th e beginning of th e year in Daytona (and) it seemed like everything hinged . off that. Wayne (Rainey) was doing very well. I probably had a little bi t more background th an Wayne so they gave me a lot of development time. They put some trick stuff in my motor just to see if it would last - they wanted .Wayne to finish. He won (the superbike champions hi p ) th at year. In '84 I . ra n th e RS500 H onda. There was some minor backing from H onda, but I had to run it all myself. In 1985 I hooked up with Starfire . Racing. I rode for the m until the accident. I've been kind of up in th e air since then: How did the accident at Sears Point happen? I don't rem ember the specifics. I

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