Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Bailey has des igned the Daytona Supercross track for the past 19 years. Daytona Supercross Preview Track designer Gary Bailey talks supercross Gary Bailey has been involved in the sport of motocross for more than 30 years. H e was a star in the early days of mo tocross racin g in the U .S.; p ion eered the sch ool approach to .teach young riders correct riding and racing techniques, is the father of multi-time h David B i] d h C ':imp aVI ai ey, an . as 16 designed and constructed the umque track for the Daytona Supercross for the past 19 years. The March II Camel Supercross . Series round the seventh race in the 15-event seri~s, takes place on the trioval area in front of the main grandstands of Daytona International Speedway. The event is looked upon by the riders, motorcycle manufacturers and accessory manufacturers as the event to win. Who will be the rider to win? Not surprisingly, -Ba iley picks Team Honda's R ick johnson of EI Cajon, California, as the strong favorite to ~I~im another victory this yea r and J?m B~b Hannah as the only .t~reetime winner of the most presugious race in the Camel Supercross Series. " . , . Obviouslv you d ~av~,to say ~lCk jo~nso~ .ls ~he favorite, explained . BaIley. He s proven he can come from Just about any place on th e start a.nd still end. up winning. H e's won five of the SIX races run and could have won the sixth, so wh~t ca n you say but that he 's the favorite, "His style is pretty flaw less," said Bailey. " H e' s not always in perfect control because he rides 110 percen t a lot oftimes, so you see him hanging off, johnson is right now riding like Bob Hannah and a few others did in their days of dominance. He's riding excellently, his style is good, th e con fidence is there, but he's also letting it han g ou t a bit. T o be that good and to be that dominant, I thi n k you ha ve to let it hang out a little bit occasio na lly . "Even if j ohnso n gets off midpack o n th e start I' d say he sho u ld still win it. If johnson does have a weakness it 's his starts, but that doesn 't appear to rea lly ma ke much , difference in the o utco me o f the race." Ba iley says th is year's Daytona Su pe rcross co urse will provide a good show for th e fans and al so be demanding o n the riders. " This year's track will giv e everyo ne a good workout," said " P ro fessor " Bailey. "T he only thing that hasn 't changed from last year is the location of the starting gate. This year 's race will run in the opposite direction from past races . The key to success for the riders will be how they handle the washboard -style sections of whoops. Because the track is so sandy and there are so many whoops in it, it requires more technique than just timing the jumps. The whoops are so close together that they can cat ch you off guard quickly and slam you down on the ground. It 's been proven in yea rs past that it can happen to even th e best riders." Michigan's jeff Stanton is j ohnson's teammate at Honda, lives and trains with johnson, and would like nothing better than to beat his hero in every event they rac e. Stanton head s into the Daytona round hot o ff a victory in th e Atlanta Supercross. "I feel Stanton need s more seasonin g, both mentally and physically," observed Bailey. " Mentall y, he needs to run out front a little more. It was a good break-in for him in Atlanta. " H e was excited about winning, but admitted he was a bit nervous about leading. When you 're out front and not used to being out there, you tend to think more about the guy behind you and that usually means 'where's johnson and how much is he catching me per lap .' When you start thinking abou t those things it definitely affects your racing and you tend to slow down because you're not putting 100 percent concentration on the race track. " T he Atlanta win shou ld give Stanton a lot of motivation going into Daytona. He'll be pumped, he knows he can win, he knows that to do the same in Daytona he has to get out front and run hard to get enough of a lead margin so that if johnson gets a bad start that no matter how hard johnson rides he may catch up, but he won't pass him before th e finish." Guy Copper of Stillwater, Oklahoma, heads into the World Center of Racing holding third in the series sta ndings. The Team Honda rider . has yet to win his first Supercross race. " G u y Cooper led about the first half of the race in Atlanta," said Bailey. " I think he could do well on this track because the riding sty le he has is good on a rough , whoopedo u t rac e tra ck. If [ had to pi ck a dark horse o n this particular su percross tra ck , I'd say Cooper could pull it o ut if everythi ng went hi s way." It's been a long time since fans o f the Dayto na Supercross ha ve gotten a cha nce to see a reign ing motocross World Champion in action. That changes this year. j ean-Michel Bayle of .France, the current 125cc MX Wor ld Champion, has been racing ' in the U. S. as a tune-up for a bid . a t this year's 250cc Grand Prix title. Bailey rates th e quiet, dark-haired star very highly for his determination to learn the American style of racing. "The Europeans aren't the most technical riders, but Bayle now looks more like an American rider," said Bailey. " He's developed ' that technique for being smooth, he £lows with the motorcycle and he has developed his. timing really good. 1 think the time he's raced over here has been we ll spent. He should smoke everybody in the 250cc GPs when he goes back. "I feel he has a lo t of potential. Any body that would go against the wishes of his sponsor to come here and race , buy his own bikes and pay his own expenses to learn to be 'a better racer obviously has the determination to go somewhere. " H e learns really quick and he has really impressed me. If he decided to stay here and race there would' be some guys running up front now that would have to start worrying. The Camel Supercross Series is our toughest series and he 's currently fourth in the standings, that should tell you something about what type of rider Bayle is. "I've watched him closely and one thing I've noticed is that 1don 't think the pressure of being out front bothers him. 1 think if he gets the lead he'll be hard to pressure out of it , he'll want to show the others how a World Champion does it. " By the time the Camel Supercross Series reached Daytona last year, Kawasaki 's Ro n Lechien had a lready won one race. By his own admission, h is year to date has been "mediocre." The El Cajon, California, native h ol ds fifth in the current point sta ndings. "Lechien seems to be a li ttle bit down at this point," explained Bailey. "He spent a lot of time sick at the beginning o f the year and he's had a couple of minor injuries. He trains very hard, but yet he still doesn't seem to be as strong as he needs to be. . .'' '1 think he needs to race out front more, he 's been up front a few times, but he needs a little more of that competition against the top runners for the full race to really find out what the level is he needs to get back up to. " Wha t a lot of people don't realize is that you can be in great physical shape and run 30 or 40 minutes on the race track and not even be tired. But as soon as you have to go out there and run and step the pace up a second or two a lap, there's another Everything but t he st~rting locatio n is changed from last year·s track,

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