Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Interview: Motocrosser Trampas Parker Who is this guy? By Alex Hodg kinson Trampas who? That's the question motocross enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic were asking when Trampas Parker, a 21 -year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, swept both motos of th e April 2 It alian 125cc GP, the opening rou nd of th e 1989 125cc W or'ld Ch arnpr. on s h i MX lp , 10 Sen~s. Smce. th ~n Parker has go ne o n to score wms in four ot~er G Ps and has p ulled ~ut a 44-pomt lead m th e senes :with th ree ro unds t~ go . H e sees himself as the on ly nder ~ha t sta.nds 10 the way of t~e cha ml?lO~sh ip, a nd followm~ h~~ last WI!"! I !"! England, .Pa rker sa id, I can wm It or th row It away. In th e Sta tes I was a bad- ass punk and I didn 't give a da mn abo ut a nyo ne or a ny th ing. Ital y a nd Eu rope taug ht me a lot abo u t respect, but I' ve never had any doubt that I co uld win the championship. I a m confident that I will be cha mpio n." But who is this Trampas Parker th at mak es su ch a bo ld statement? H e has never ridden U.S. Nationals a nd in his first two seasons in Europe he scored just nine World Champi onship points from 13th in th e muddy 1987 Sp anish 500cc GP, his first race in Europe and 10th in last year's Czech 250cc GP. Now he leads th e 125cc champ ions hip a nd is th e hot favorite for the title. It is a truelife rise to fame just like you 'd see in th e movies. You first arrived in Europe in the spring of 1987 and ~cored points on you~ 500cc ~ebut 10 the mud o! Spain. Wh y did you come to Europe. M y main " ' rnouvauon rea IIy was . to see wha t it was lik e to race in Europe, I had won many minibi ke races back home when I was younger a nd I felt that I was th e right age , 18, to give it a try. It 's a reall y hard deal. You ha ve to give up a lo t to come over he re; yo u have to gi ve up yo u r frie nds, your famil y and everything you're used to. I h ith B'II L 'I ca me over ere WI I Y I es an~ h~ reall y helped me ou t because I d idn t ha ve the money to do I~ on my own. I rea lly have to th ank Bill y, because he ~ore or less h.e lped me to . pa y th e bi lls for a . whtl~ before th m g~ turned around finan cia lly for fI.le. Bill y and I ~ave been fn ends ever smce, and I can t ~tress too much how much l owe to him, ~e gave me a place to live and e~en paid for my meals . I had nothmg wh~n I ca me over, b ecause a.contract which I had been promlse~ fell thro ugh. I bough t a Kawasaki and grad ua lly thing s began to turn arou nd. My results in Italy in 1987 led to a KTM deal for 1988, but I brok e th e bikes more often than not a nd I didn't really get my head together. I just had to sit down at the end of last year and tell myself, either I win th e World Championship or I quit because I go t married and we have a so n - I need to ma ke a livin g now a nd no t jus t pl a y arou nd. Back in 1987 you disappeared from the GP scene after just three events. Wh y was that? . I j ust didn 't have the mo ney. My mec ha nic a nd I were living o n a rea lly tight budget a nd it does cos t a lo t to ride a G P seaso n. You ge t good sta rt money if you qual ify and I man aged to do th at in all th ree races in Spa in , France a nd Austri a , but it's hard to do the job properly wh en you o nly have one set of tires and you don't have eno ugh spare parts. It hits your confiden ce. I had been as fast as anyone in Spa in , th en I crashed in France and hurt myself, so after Austria I decid ed to sit out the rest of th e series and rid e in Italy to get myself set up for the foll owing year, but it didn 't work out so good on the 250cc KTMs either. Were you actu ally earn ing more by raci ng in Italy or was it merely saving you the expenditure on travelling all over Europe? I was getting very good start money in Italy, so I could actuall y put money in th e bank, but the big savings ca me because I didn't have th e expe nditure. 1£ I had tried to fin ish the '87 season, then I doubt very much ' th at I would still be in Europe toda y - I wou ld have go ne under! You have remained in Italy, Why? Basicall y because I lik e it there, and of course I now have a famil y. Italy is very laid back ; wh en I look at th e pi ctures which are painted of America in the '50s, it is very much th e same. Italy toda y has go t to be very much like Ame rica wh en my folks were growing up, not like America is today. The people (in Italy) hav e a lot more respect for each o ther and I like th at, You are actually the Italian Motocross Champion. Yes, I won th e 125 a nd 500cc cham pionships last year. They were eac h run over three motos on a single day . I blew the 250 because they wou ldn't let us have factory bikes for fear that it would adversely affect sales of the production bike; but I broke the bike in half. Do you have a lo t of supporters in (laly? I do have a lot of friends in Ita ly now, and I seem to get a little bit more famous each week, but to go there as an American . . . it is really hard in th e beginning. It has taken me two years to bu ild up a good reputation; there are Americans who come over for international races a nd go o ut drinking a nd taking drugs in the hotels, and th e stigma clings to all of us. There were two who ca me over for Geno va last year and th ey co uldn ' t even make th e race because th ey were so drunk th e ni ght before th e race! Last year you got the chance to ri de the KTMs which were originally in tended for Heinz Kinigadner, but that didn 't work out. I was as fast as anyone on the track, but the bike wasn 't capable of staying together at that speed. I must admit that I didn't try to rid e smooth and I was hard on the bi kes. This year I have tried to change my style and ride more li ke (David) Thorpe or (R ick ) Johnson, using my head rather being a Trampas Parker who was as fast as anyone but blows it all the time by breaking the bike. When was the decision made to switch you to the 125cc class? Was it when you wo n the Italian title, or when R ick R yan p ulled out of ri ding for KT M? Basi cally th e whol e thing came togeth er on the day of the 125cc cha mpi onsh ip last October. I hadn 't ridden a 125 for two a nd a half years until I went o ut th e week before th e race and rod e it twi ce. I told my wife, and I told Farioli th e Italian importer, th at th ere was no way that I could rid e a 125 com petitively a nymore. The bike was co mp letely stock. But for the race they had the factory bikes for me; aft er I went practicing on Saturday I came in a nd I knew I was go ing to ki ll 'em th e next da y. I told th em , " H ey, I feel like a new kid ou t there o n that bike." I was so motivated that I kn ew I was going to win so easily. Farioli told me it was eno ugh if I made th e top five, but I just wa lked away with all three motos and from that day on Farioli told me and th e factory that I was riding th e I25cc class this year. The people at the KTM factory in Austria were a little doubtful at first. They thought I was a little bit too heavy and they still wanted me to ride 250s, but I'm riding th e 125s and I thin k I can win th e Wo rl d Championship. _ What kind of su pport do you get? Is everything organized in Aus tria or flaly? Basically the whole thing is organizedby Farioli in Italy, in fact I have never been to Austria and there seems little point as they don 't have the faciliues for testing th ere like we do in Italy, I think I have one of th e best mechanics in the business. He is an Italian, Ferro Bruno, and he works pretty closel y with th e technicians in Mattighofen (KT M's headquarters in Au stria). H e pi cks up all the motors from Aus tr ia, but we do all of th e work o n my fram es in Farioli 's workshop, welding them to mak e th em stronger since I brok e a lot of frames last year and again at th e start of this year; a nd we change th e whee ls. Do you speak Italian? Yes, a nd I think I'm getting quite good, too . I do TV interviews regularly and things like that. I made a mistake when I fir st came over because I should hav e taken course a nd I wou ld've been fluent within a bout six months. Instead it has taken me two years to pick it up properly. It is only in th e last three months or so that I've felt rea lly happy, and even then I must admit that there are so me verbs that I don't understand. But we spea k Italian all the time at home, my wife insists, and at work. I must admit it 's getting difficult to spea k English. But our son Richy will be brought up speaking both languages. What is th e rol e, of your sponsor, Chesterfield? Thepeople a t Ch esterfield are very good, but I must admit that I'm not totally happy riding for a cigarette ' sponsor. I don 't smo ke myself, and I don't think smoking has any part in motocross, but I need the money. But if I get the opportunity, then I will ride next year for a non-tobacco sponsor. I would feel a whole lot better ifI had a milk-product sponsor or washing detergent or som ething healthy. The relationship is simply' one of them paying me to wear their race shirt; in my contract it is stipulated that th ey can't use me or my name to advertise or promote th ei r product. When you won both motos of the first GP at Fa enza in Italy, many people wr ote it off as a freak resuIt and believed you would stru~gle on other types of tracks wit h which yo u weren't so familiar. I guess I hav e proved th em wrong. I won on the grassland in Belgium a

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