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/127251
The 1989 AMA Superbike National Championship came down to a battle between Jamie James(48) an d R ichard Arnaiz(27). 1 > l; t:; in H enderson , T exas. T he cras h cru shed not o n ly hi s leg, but hi s confidence. " I was beginning to get a little no toriety wh en I broke my femu r bon e," James said. " I'd even been contacted by Yoshimura for a tryout. But I was just gettin g over th e femur bon e (break) - I was still healing when I got a call from th em. They told me to heal as quickly as I cou ld 'cause I needed to be at Wi llow Springs on this certain da te. Then th ey called back a nd said th ey were going to test G P bikes there and they didn 't want an ybod y there except for Kevin (Schwan tz) a nd the people a t Suzuki. Then I never really heard from them again . But I was close, I had a few people interested. " I'm reall y glad now that I didn 't get a tryout because I wa s mentally screwed up for about a year. When I bro ke the femur bone I turned it under backwards. Whe n I sat up I didn ' t even have a leg to loo k at - it was flipped un der my back. It j ust pu t th e fear of God in to me, It took abou t a year before I could really get over that." james" next mis take was a comeback attem p t in a private superbike effort on a Yamaha FZ750. " T ha t was th e stupidest thing I ever did, " he recalls. "For o ne thing I didn 't know anyt h ing abo u t superbikes. I was tryi ng to bu ild my own mo tor cycle and all I did was blow up engi nes. I didn't really get any practi ce tim e - I was just running around like a chicken with my h ead cu t off. That and figh ting the mental problem, too. "After two or three months of that, me an d Mr. Raymond - my wife's dad, he owns Q uick Sa nd and Gravel decided, ' He y, we've had enough of this.' And we pulled out and went back hom e. I alread y had a GSXR, a stocker. We decided to get o n th at and ride every weekend to overco me the problem . In '87 I went all th e way with Suzuki Cup stu ff." With th e Suzuki Cu p racing came a second chance. And it's now understandable wh y he holds a soft spo t in hi s heart for th e form of roa d racing that bases itself on basi cally stock street bik es, DOT tires and tou gh com peti tio n . '" wouldn 't be here without Super- . sport racing," he said. "S uperspo rt raci ng has don e a lot for the spo rt. It 's given us . a way for you ng , up-andcoming riders to mak e a nam e for themselves and get the proper exposure it ta kes to get a ride. To me, it 's more fair. It takes a to t of mon ey to run a Supersport team, bu t a t least you can get the right eq u ip ment. And then the ri der can do the rest and try and mak e a name for himself. Befor e it was mor e like wh o you kn ew as to wh eth er you got a ride or not. Now with th e Suzuki Cup stuff and th e Supersport stuff it gives rid ers th e chance to sho w thei r ab ilities." ,n think it's (the Ducati) going to be a little bit nicer than the four-cylinder. The torque off the corners is really good and the bike's really narrow and light. It just feels a lot better - it's easy to ride." Without the burde n of building engi nes a nd racing unco rnperir ive machi nery agains t to p- level equipment, James' confidence returned. "The confidence came back pretty quickl y. It's just when you ha ve too many p robl em s - you 're a lrea dy fighting th e injury problem and the n you have all th is o ther stuff that you have no cont ro l over with supe rbikes - it's just too mu ch. Once I go t o n the Suzukis - where if yo u' re not . performing, yo u know it - I learned to concen tra te just on my riding. I a lso learned how to set up the motorcycle to make it work better. It rea lly he lped me . I feel like I'm prett y good at that now an d I concentrate lo t 0'; th at - I'm getting a little older and I feel if I can make the bikes work a little better for me, then I don 't have to ride qui te as hard." In 1988, J am es raced in the WERA Enduran ce Series for T eam Hammer. At th e en d of th e seaso n he was given ano ther shot at the Yoshim ura ride, via a tryout at Daytona. Wh at about th e pressure of a do-or-die tryout to ma ke it to th e big tim e? "Tha t year was kind of bad for T eam Hammer - I had ridden under qu ite a bit of pr essure. Wh en I went to Daytona I just told Mr. Raymond, 'I'm either gonna get thi s rid e or ...' I went with o ne thi ng in mind and that was to go as fast as I cou ld possib ly go . I just did n ' t pu t any pressure on myself, I ju st went to do the best I could." And tha t's been his mot to ever since. Jam es' 1989 superbike season had only one flaw - a crash at the fourth round a in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Otherwise, the season was typical of what one would expect from J am es - it was filled with consistent fin ishes. He fin ished seco nd a t Da ytona , third at Road Atlan ta, won his first-ever National at Loudon, was fifth at Mid-Ohio, and four th at Heartland Park Topeka. In additio n: he wrapped up the 750cc Supersport crown with a conservative ride in the fina l at Daytona in October. And finally, he capped the year with wins in two of the three Suzuki Cup Finals at Road Atlanta. One year, four cha mpionships. No more confidence problem. " I'm very appreciative for the opportunit y Yoshimura ga ve me ," sa id J am es. " I' m very proud of wh at we acco mp lished in '89. The decision to switch to Ducati was tough, but I feel this was the best for Jamie James. I consider Yoshi mura to be o ne of th e best teams and I'm proud to have been a pa rt of their '89 effort." While 1989 was no cakewalk - as was evident by five different winners in six races - James is anticipating 1990 to be even tougher. But he won't nam e names. " T h is year is going to be a tough one, " he said. " You know Yoshimura is go ing to have good bikes and (Steve) Crevier is a good rid er. It would be tough to pick. There's Rob Muzzy's team, Van ce & Hines . .. you just can' t count any of th em out. That's what's going to be exciti ng about this year. Whoever gets it is going to have to work for it. I'd hat e to put a finger on who's going to be the toughest because I don 't want to downplay any of 'em. They'll a ll be to ugh ." One thing th at m ust weig h in the back of J ames' mind is the reliability problems Quarterley enco unte red with the Du cati twi n in '89, especially when he ponders 200 m iles around Daytona. " Whe n it comes to Dayton a, reliability isn't just bothering me," he said. " Dale (Q uarterley) wasn't the onl y one that didn 't fini sh last year. T hat can happen to anybody . The way I figure . it, if we can ge t th rough Daytona, it ought to get a little easier from there. Of co urse, it's the same for everybody. Daytona j us t tears up equipment. We j us t have to p lay it by ear and ho pe for the best at Daytona. At the smalle r tra cks we sh ould really be tough. It j us t has so much tor que and the power is so rideable. T o tell you th e honest truth , I think th e bike's going to be goo d just abo u t everywhere." But don 't think for a minute that James doesn 't consi der winning Dayto n a' i m portant. H e's eve n go t a strategy. " I wo u ld do anything to win Daytona, " he said " It takes a different ou tloo k. You need to keep the lead ers in sight. You just reall y need to pay attent ion to what you have and what yo u can do with what yo u hav e. Most people don 't think o ur b ike will hav e th e reliability anyway, so I'm going to take i t as easy on the motor as I can . But I think I would do that if I was on th e Suzuki or anyth ing. When you approach th at race, that's th e way you have to do it." Last year , James almost got it ri gh t. He led the race in th e final stages, but was forced to p it late in the race , allowing John Ashmead to take the win while he settled for second. " I was happy with where I finished ," he said. "Going into the weekend, it didn 't look that good for me anyway. I knew I was going to have to rea lly use my head and sit back a nd hope for the best. . "That's the way yo u have to approach the 200 anyway. If you 're o n the best equipment or whatever, you still can break. Everybody goes there wanting to win it, and the gu y that gets the right breaks is go ing to. I've go t o ne year un der my belt now so it'll be a Iittle easier for me. I feel better abo u t going into Daytona this year th an I ever have. I just can 't wait for it to get started." CN James (a t left) confers with the Yoshimura Suzu ki crew p rior to capturing th e '89 Superb ike ti tle in th e final round of th e series at He artland Park Topeka.