Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTERVIEW Motocrosser Ron Tichenor ~R By Nate R auba P h o tos by Kinney J o n es and Rau ba on Tichenor's spiri ts were down until he lost h is factory rid e with Suzuki. Now he's fired up. " I wa nt to beat everybody just to sho w peo p le th at I can win ," says th e 21-year- old from Palm H arbor , Florida. "A t the end of last year nobod y thought I co uld do it; man y of the people wh o had hel ped me had their doubts." Not everybody doubted Tich enor 's ability. He had some offers to race in Eu rope but turned th em down.' " It seems whenever a rider goes to Europe he's pretty much finished in Ameri ca," Tichenor says. ' 'I' m not fin ished. " Dave Antolak didn 't think so either. He offered Tichenor a ride on his Tuf Racing team even before Tichenor found all other doors were closed . "Everyone knew I wasn't going to be back with Suzuki, so he came up and told me if I needed any help he could do something," says Tichenor, who accepted the offer. Things didn't go well for Tichenor last year, and even he began to sense that he wouldn't be offered a spot on Suzuki's '91 factory team relatively early in th e seaso n. Tichenor felt he got off to a decent start in 1990, but then a' co up le of poor performances destroyed him . " I came under pressure from Suzuki beca use I was supposed to be th e number o ne rid er, to carry th e weigh t of the team," recalls Tichenor. " When you aren't perfor m ing that well they put a little pressure o n yo u, plus yo u pu t pressure on yourse lf. I kn ew I was supposed to be bea ting these guys and I wasn 't doing so ho t. Everything added together bummed me o u t." Halfw ay th rough the seaso n T ichen o r's en thus iasm was sho t. He didn 't even want to be at the races, and he began to sense he wouldn 't be back with Suzuki for the foll owing seaso n . " It was always in the back of my mind that I wasn't going to have a ride," Tich enor said. " I was worried about that and trying to do well. I'd bu st my butt all week long trying to cha nge things around and th en get to the race and mess.up. I wondered wh y I put all the effort into it and basicall y th e same results were coming o ut." T ich enor 's fru strations co nti n ued until he cut a tendon in his knee when , he cras hed at the U.S. 250cc MX GP at Una dill a, bringing a pr emature end to hi s regular season. Suzuki finally a ffir me d wh at he'd ex pec ted , an d Ti chenor wa s somewhat rel ieved , When the 250cc Nati onal Ch ampionship Series ended, Tichenor co uld've walk ed away. But Suzuki gave him the op tio n of riding in the rema ining 125cc Na tio nals, and T ich enor took it. Sudden ly th e pressure was gone, " At first I was bummed ou t," said Tiche nor wh en he learned o f h is impending dism issal. " O nce you lose a facto ry rid e it's hard to get it back. But m y dad was rea lly support ive and j us t to ld me to go o u t a n d bea t everybody, " Tichen or 's father, Ron Sr., ha s been su p po rt i ve t hro ug ho u t hi s so n's career. As a ch ild, Tich enor 's first desir e was bicycle mot ocross. But hi s dad , wh o was a representative fo r T ri u m ph befor e he opened a Yam ah a dealership in Palm Harbor o n th e west coast of Florida , kept givi ng you ng Ro n the opport unity to ride mo tor cycles. Event ua lly they were raci ng th e amateur circ ui t, with big Ron often ha u ling little Ron to events o n hard clay tracks for experience on terrain o ther than the prevalent Florida sand. All fired up for awin (Top) Ron T ichenor hopes to have a successful season with Tuf Ra cing. '(Bottom) Tichenor (12) led early in the Orlan do Superaoss un til he was passed by Jeff Stanton. In 1986, T ichenor had progressed th rough the ama teur ranks and was the runner-up to Keith Turpin in the 125cc Eastern Regi onal Supercross Seri es. Kawa saki T eam Green h ad been supporting him to tha t point, but wh en he found o u t there wouldn 't be a Kawasaki pro su pport team the next year , he accep ted an offer from Su zuki. H e won the titl e in '87, and Suzuki gav e him a full factory rid e the follow ing yea r. Un fort u na tely , th e season was a disaster, "J ust befor e the season started, 1 separated m y shoulder and missed the first ra ce ," recalls Tichenor. " T h ro u g hou t th e yea r I th i n k 1 separated it about eight ,times. 1 tried to race while injured, and a ll I'd do is fall over and it would go out again. That was a lost year. " Little , nagging inj uries hampered him again in 1989, and last year the biggest injury was to his psych e. "At our level, there's a lot of mental preparation," says Tichenor. "A ll the ri ders have what it takes to win. It 's just a matter of who has it in their mind that they're goi ng to win." And Tichenor has his mind on winning this year. He began the season with wins at the first two rounds of the Florida Winter AMA Series, and finished fourth at the opening round of the Camel Supercross Series in O rlando after leading the early laps. Although a heat race crash with Jeff Ward in round two at Houston kept him out of the ma in event, Tichenor is still enthused about th e season. " I knew I had the speed to run up front," says Tichenor. " I was right o n Jeff Stanton and Ward , in the thick of the battle, before Ward crashed. Looking back, it was just bad luck. 1 don 't cons ider it any fault of mine. Wh en yo u' re jumping a triple, there's not much you can do wh en the guy in front of you crashes. I'll just try that much harder the next week." Tichenor's not go ing to quit trying until he proves th e doubters wrong and earn s ano ther factory ride. " When people think you can' t do so meth ing and you know you can, you want it a little more," he says. Tichenor intends to make that 'little more' into a winning season.. 01

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