Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW e Motoc:rooser Larry Ward really good there, but then little things just kept happening to me , like when my bike broke last year at Seattle when I could 've won; and in m y first National at Gainesville, wh ere I go t second in the first moto but my chain came off in the second. " Despite having a relatively successful year with Honda in 1989, major cutbacks in Honda's racing department left Ward without a ride at the end of the season. "T hey (Ho nda) were even go ing to cu t Mike Kiedrowski and Jean·Michel Bayle. It 's just that they had a big cu tback, " Ward explained. " T hey co u ld n' t let Ri ck Johnson go, of course , because he's proven himself by winning all the races. And J eff Stanton wo n two championships, so they co u ld n 't let him go. Bayle is DeCoster's big hero and he 's the 250cc MX World Champion, and Kiedrowski is the 125cc MX National Ch ampion. They were the only riders Honda needed . T hey had titles to back them up and I didn 't. . "It was kind of a downer that th ey let me go, but it gave me more of an in centive to prove that the y mad e a mistake," adds Ward. " My stepdad talk ed to Suzuki and th ey offered me a good deal for 1990, with Jeff Clark wor king o n my bikes. Suzuki also Suzuki's Larry Ward won his firs t-ever Camel Supercross two weeks ago in his ho me state of Washington, a t the Seattle Kin gdome. Ward was a hero with the Was hi ngton fans th at nighl, but the very next day, he said. " That was last night. no w I've gOI nexl week 10 th ink about," His Seattle win also gave Suzuki's its first 250cc Supercross win since 1983. Makin' aname for himself By Kit Palmer P h o tos by Ken Faugh t and Kinney Jones /W 34 hen 19-year-old L arry Ward crossed the fin ish line in first place at the Seattle Supercross two weeks ago, it marked the end o f the days wh en you cou ld just say, " Wa rd won." Most people would interpert " Wa rd" as being 18· time supercross event winner JeffWard, but now, you have to be more specific because " Ward " could just as easi ly mean Larry Ward. Although their last names might be the same, La rry and J eff Ward don 't have mu ch in common. Jeff is short, La rry is tall; J eff is 28 years old, Larry is a teenager; J eff is from Cal ifornia, Larry is from Washington; Jeff races a Kawasaki, Larry races a Suzuki. And th ose are just a few of the differ en ces. Probabl y th e biggest di£f er en ce between the two racers is that Jeff Ward is a famou s and longtime veteran of motocross and supercross, while Larry Ward is one of the " new kids in town" tryin g to make a nam e for himself by beating the veterans. La rry Ward 'won hi s first-ever 250cc Cam el Supercross main event in the U.S. at Seatt le, the fourt h sto p of the 18-round 1990 Camel Supercross Series tou r. In additio n to h is win at Sea ttle, he fin ished fourth at San Diego, second at Hou sto n, fifth at Atlan ta and won o ne of the four Pari s Supercross races in Fran ceIast Nove mber. He is cu r- rentl y ranked seco nd in the 250cc Camel Supercross Seri es point sta ndings. .Ward first became a top contender during the outdoor National motocross series in 1988 wh en he rod e a facto ry-supported Yamaha. His -perform ance that year was good enough to cap ture the attention of Honda's MX race team manager Dave Arnold 'Ut was kind of a downer that they (Honda) let me go, but it gave me more of an incentive to prove that they made a mistake.I! and race co nsultant Roger DeCoster. In 1989, he signed a contract with H onda to rid e th e 125cc Eas te rn Regional Su percros s Series and the 125cc MX National Ch ampionships. " When I agreed to rid e for Honda in 19891 was really happy," remembers Ward. " I go t my new bik es and I went to a race a t the T acom a Dom e near Sea ttle and won th at - I th ou ght it was go ing to be my year. T h ings went hired me because they wanted some height on the team . They had quite a few short guys last year , and they wanted to see how a tall guy rode a Suzuki." Not only has Ward made the transition from riding Hondas to Suzukis a successful one, but he feels very. comfortable with h is new surroundings on th e Suzuki team. "Suzuki is behind me 100%. It 's like when I got 12th a t Anaheim , they were like, ' No big deal , just work hard, work harder and yo u can get it.' Being around that kind of a tmos phere really helps. All the (Suzuki team ) rid ers go to breakfast tog ether before the races, we go running together, we practice together and we do everything as a team : We're just all real good friends . "Everything a t H onda was always really good, but a t Suzuki" it's mor e like we're a fami ly," says Ward. " I think that helps me o ut by giving me confidence in my team - I know tha t they're not out there to get me, they're there to help me." Ward's sudden rise to the top of the . charts has rais ed on e big question how? " I think it 's because I'm a year o lder and that I'v e been working really hard," he says. " I' ve been riding every da y and my mechanic J eff Clark helps me out - he tells me little things before the race that I need to know. Good starts ar e helping' out a lo t, too. Plus, my Suzuki is great. It fits me perfectly and I can ride it real good. It 's real fast, ha s a real good, torquey kind of power. That tielps me get down the start line real quick. Getting down the start line yo u need a fast bike, but yo u al so need to be real smooth, so

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