Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

S ome kids dream of becoming professional baseball or football players. They think of co m pe ting ·o n the same field as their hero s. For a select few , those dreams turn into reality. For th e majority, th e dr eams fade and end u p fond mem ori es of th eir you th. One sou the rn Cal ifornia teen ager is realizi ng his dreams. H is nam e is Bill y Ham ill. H amill grew u p in Duarte, Ca lifornia, a nd attended the speedway races a t Irwindale Raceway. As a yout h, he pl ayed , a te and slep t speedway. At. 19-years-old, he is do in g th e same thing, but being pai d for it. H amill became th e hottest rider in so u the rn Cal ifornia thi s year wh en he won the 1989 So u the rn California season long points chase a nd was the seco nd winningest rider on th e circu it. T o clos e 1989, he fin ished seco nd in th e California Sta te and U .S. Nati onal Champi onship. Being a star a t a young age has an effect on many athletes. Swelled heads , loud mouths and party till you puke a tt itudes ar e com mo n . H amill is the exact op po site. Quiet, po lite a nd extreme ly popular and coope rati ve with th e fan s, he is a mod el ci tizen . He a lso happens to be th e most talented speedw ay prospect to co me o u t o f th e U.S. in th e 1980s. You are a full time racer, but doesn't your interest in speedway go ,back to the time when you were a youngster? Yeah , I was a very big fan . It sta rted back in Irwindal e.whe n I was abo ut five years ol d. I would go o ut a nd wa tch the races o ut there. The night Irwindale closed you took home a reminder of the place didn't yo u? Yeah, I took some d irt ho me with me. Me and a cou p le buddi es j um ped on the track. We kn ew it was the last nigh t of racing so we. jammed as m uc h d irt as we cou ld into a littl e pean ut butter jar. We still ha ve it to th is day . Is it a prized possession? Oh yeah, defin itel y! Who were yo u r speedway heros? Wh en I was rea l little I used to lik e Bill y Gra y because o f hi s first nam e. The Mora n brothers rea lly ca ug h t my eyes. I followed th em for many years. T he n th ere was Bru ce Penhall a nd Mik e Curoso. Did you get to meet any of them when you were a kid? I d id meet Bru ce Penhall wh en I was a little kid . When I was seven years old, I used to bu g him a ll the tim e. I wo u ld as k hirnt st u pid questi ons lik e " Are yo u going to spo nso r me wh en I race?" Does he ever mention that to you now? Yeah , he does ,bring it up every now a nd th en . He was mentioning to Bobby Sch wart z not too long ago that he rem embers wh en I used to hang o n th e fen ce and bug him th e wh ol e n ight. There is a rumor that when you were younger you used to pretend you were a speedway rider while riding your bicycle. Is that true? Yeah, yeah. Me a nd th e buddies I used to go to Irwindale with would get o ld bent up handlebar s from riders. Ri ck Woods a nd Scott Sivadge would g ive us th eir old bent up handlebars. We would put th em o n o u r bi cycles and ra ce spe ed way in th e stree t. We even made a starting gate. We tied about fifty rubber bands together. You tied it onto a nail on a mailbox a nd let it fling. We even had team races. Who did you like to pretend to be? I was mainly Kelly Moran because I was th e littlest of the bunch. I was so little a t th at time I could hardl y even tou ch gro u nd without strad dling th e bicycle fram e. Interview: Speedway Racer Billy Hamill Dream come true By Scott Daloisio How old were you when you pretended to be a famous rider? Six years old' until now. I stilI pretend I'm a rider. Who do you pretend to be now? It just depends. I have a little motocross track for m y scooter in th e backyard a nd I will pretend 10 be Ri ck J ohnson or J eff Stanton. So metim es I pr etend to be Bobb y Schw artz. How about the first time you had a Scratch race and you looked over and saw some of your heros next to yo u. Were there butterflies? I reme m ber wh en I first lin ed u p with Sa m Ermol enko. I rem em ber whe n I mad e m y first gate with Bobby Schwartz. I was a bit int im ida ted a t first. It was like, "wow, here I a m." I was 16 years o ld a nd it seemed lik e I was seven years o ld yesterday . H ere I am lin ed up aga inst th e National Ch ampion o f th e time. It was q uite a n experience. I remember you beating Bobby Schwartz to make your first Scratch main. It was at San Bernardino two seasons ago. Your head must have been spinning. I rem ember that was a reall y big win for me. A real confidence builder. Bobby Schwartz was th e winningest . rider that year. It was a Scratch sem i a nd he gated me and was riding his own line. I gambled on the outside a nd hung on. I went around him and I didn't even really kn ow I did it until aft erwards . It wa s ju st tot al co ncentra tion. The- same season, in one night at Victorville, you threw a bike over the crashwall in a crash and left on a stretcher after another crash. You . were known as a fast, but wild, rider. I always had a lot of problems. Even in Juniors I used to hav e parents call m y house. They were going to try to put a petition together to kick me out. They felt that I was putting their kids in danger. I ca n never really rem ember taking out anybo dy or hurting anybody. I on ly kn ew how to ride with th e gas o n. I look back now and I think I was pretty lucky that I d id not hurt a nybody because I was prett y dangerous. Even after turn ing pro , I had a lot of lectures from referees a nd people telling me I had to settle down if I wanted to keep riding. It was so me th ing I had to o verco me. That was one o f th e ha rdest things I had to acco m p lish. These days you are known as fast and safe. That must make you feel good after yo ur earlier problems. Yeah, it does make me feel good. People used to talk bad ab out how wild I wa s. Now I don't think anyone can reall y say that. I see kids in my shoes in juniors doing th e same ' things I have done. When I see this happen to ajunior rider or a n ybody I try to give them a little confidence booster. Your con fidence level can g et real low when everybody is talking bad about you . Your first full season as a pro (1987). you made the National. Few people have done that. Why Billy Hamill? I set goals before every season and some o f them ar e pretty outrageous. I think you need to hav e goals that you don 't th ink you can accomplish, but maybe you can. That year, getting to the Nationals was my goal. I was 17 years old at the time and still in school. I co uldn ' t really tell you how I did it. You just go out with a good frame of mind for every race, make so me good gates and get a little bit o f lu ck . You mentioned school. On a Thursday night in June of 1988, you were supposed to be at your graduation. The night before you crashed at San Bernardino. Instead of being at graduation. you ended up in the hospital. It wa s a H andicap heat. I was in a battle for seco nd with Jim Fishback and we had been going at it for three laps. Coming o u t of th e comer he sh u t the door on me. I put m y body into it and we bounced off eac h other. H e ended up falling and I kept o n going. I went into th e next corner and I felt my foot tingling. I crossed , th e ch eckered flag and I looked down at my right boot and I saw blood gushing. I stopped and got off m y bike right on the tra ck and laid down because I knew I was hurt. I thought I may just need stitches and went to the hospital. I found out that I had severed the fourth and fifth tendons leading to my toes. I had surgery and it laid me up for four and a half weeks. (Whe n Hamill and Fishback bounced off eac h o ther, Hamill 's foot ' went betw een Fishback' s chain and rear sp roc ket). Earlier this year, you had a tough one at Ascot . Got your head run over. didn't you? Let me sho w you m y helmet. (H ami ll pulled a brok en helmet o ff a she lf.) It was th e H and icap ma in a nd I had a good night. I was p umped u p a nd "I was in fourth p lace . I was seeing through the riders and I was go ing faster than th e rider in front of me. I ca me in to th e corner o ff his rea r wheel so I co uld come in a . little faster. I didn ' t go o u t far enoug h and ended up clipping h is rear wh eel. I ended up falling o n m y head and the rider behind me ra n over my head . H e busted m y helmet. I ch ip ped m y teeth and had three stitches in th e right-hand corner of my eye. You talked about seeing through riders. Explain. When you follow someone for a few laps you look for' holes. You have to look through th em and look for th e holes. See where th ey are leaving you holes. If you follow a rider for long, yo u tend to mak e the same mistakes he does. You kind of have to look.through him. You were the second winningest rider in southern California in 1989 behind Bobby Schwartz. How did being such a big winner come about? I have been working a t speed way a lot of years now and it is star ting to payoff. I don't think I am more talented than a nybo dy else o ut th ere. How is it paying off? You sa id I a m the seco nd winningest rider out th ere. I didn 't even kn ow th at. On top of everything else. you had a special reason for doing well this year. At th e beginning of th e year, the first sponsor I ever had lost his life. His name wa s Butch Fish and he owned a diesel shop. H e has been a speedway supporter since th e early 1970s. H e was in a plane crash right before the season started. I dedicated this season to him. H e helped me learn th e ropes and helped me through some difficult times. He is still with me in my heart. Do you think he is pretty happy with the way things went this year? Yeah , I hope so. I think he is. H e told me he thought I was capable of winning the Nationals. A couple of nights ago I was talking with Bobby Schwartz and I told him

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