Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127246
Shooting straight for the stars By Nate Rauba / Photos by Ken Faught and Rauba amateur season, which ends with th e AMA Amateur Championships at Loretta Lynn 's Dude Ranch in Hurricane Mills, T ennessee. Up to that point his progression had been pretty normal. Antunez began riding at the age of three in his hometown of Ontario, Cal iforni a, wh en hi s fath er becam e interested in mo torcycles and got a pair of bikes. At first Antunez says he'd j ust sta rt his bik e but wouldn 't ride. When he finall y did venture ou t of the pi ts, he was hooked. Ant unez began ra cin g in the 60cc class on a regular basis when he was nine, and his resul ts ea rned him su p port fro m Kawa sa ki ' s T eam Gree n ama teur program. A few years later, Ant unez was read y for an 80cc (Left) Bu ddy Antu nez ea rned en ou gh con tingen cy m on ey racing minicycles to buy thi s car. (Below right) Ant unez outg rew the 80s and move d up to a 125 (below left) early last year. h er do m inating m in icycle MX racing for .th e past cou pl e of years , Buddy Antunez has jumped stra igh t to th e pro ran ks and has his sigh ts set on a l25 cc Na tiona l title. Antu n ez beca m e pra cti ca ll y unbeatable in the 80cc Expert clas s, a nd over the past two years he's acc um ulated n umerous wins a nd cham pionships in events such as th e CMC Go lden State Na tio na ls and Trans-Cal Series, th e N MA Grand National Championships and the AMA Ama teu r National s. Wh ile man y of his former minicycle opponents have also moved up to lar ger bikes, th ey are still racing o n th e ama teur circu it in- the In termedi a te ra nks. Alt hough th at is where success fu l minicycle racers usuall y hon e the ir skills on the larger bikes before turning pro, 16-year-old Ant u nez moved directl y to th e pro ran ks. " I felt th at riding the Intermediate class co u ld' ve h eld me back, " explains Antunez. " Yo u can only go so fast, and if you win all the tim e it doesn 't do any good. I'm not sayi ng that I would've won all the tim e, bu t my lap times on a mini weren 't that far o££ of the pros' lap tim es. I had done so me testing on l25s and co uld ride them pretty well, so I figured I mi g ht as well go for it." When Antunez went for it, he made the move at an unusual time. H is original plan, and the path many minicycle riders seem to follow , was to ride his 80 throughout the 1989 A 20 ma chine, and when he turned 12 he moved into the Expert class. He als o switched to Suzuki at that time and came to dominate his class. Antunez became Suzuki's number one mini rider and was supp lied with bikes , p arts a n d a me chan ic . Although Antunez says that he didn 't receive a salary, he earn ed enough money through hi s co ntin gency program with Suzu ki an d o the r spo nso rs to buy a new car. Bu t halfway through th e 1989 seaso n, following the NMA World Mini Grand Pri x, Antunez .rea lized th at he co uld no lon ger stay on an 80. " I felt reall y unsafe on th e 80, I was ge tting so big I co uldn 't rid e it," Antunez says. " If I stayed o n an 80 I was riskin g inj ury. I cou ldn' t do double jumps lik e th e sma lle r guys cou ld, and I didn 't like jumping a mini. It was a lso scary go ing down th e stra ig h ts becau se if I lean ed back too far I wo uld almost loop o u t since my legs were so lon g." . Unfortunately Antunez's last mini