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/127398
For hi s seco n d season on the factory
team , Atherto n was pair ed up with
vete ran mechanic AI St an gl er , wh o '
had tuned fo r tea m ride rs Corky
Keener, Scott Park er an d Jay Springsteen in the pas t, a nd th e two hav e
been insep arable ever since.
" I can' t say AI's like a fat he r, but
I guess h e's more li ke a brother, or.
m y bes t frien d," sai d Atherton with
a smile. " I probably go o f arou nd and
do more kid stu ff with him th an I
do with m y littl e co us i ns . So me time s
I think he 's 15 years old, but on th e
o ther hand, h e's so smart, it 's unreall
H e kn ows every thi ng ab out every
. part on that bike."
Stangler has undoubtedly played a
key role in Atherton 's success th us
far , both mechanically, an d mentally.
"I think AI's the best tuner out
there, I've never had a mechanical
failure, only o ne electrical failure,
but that wasn't his fault ," Atherton
said. " H e keeps me in the right state
of m ind at the track. I can be having
the worst day, and I know he's having
troubles too, but he always seems to
be able to make me smile. I'd .be lost
without him."
Among his teammates, Atherton
considers Parker to be h is closest
friend.
"Chris and I get along really well,"
said Atherton. " But he lives all the
way out in California, wh ereas Scotty
lives only a few hours away. Scotty
and I do a lot of stuff together, we 're
like brothers... I even have my o wn
bedroom at his house!"
"Jay (Springsteen) is also a real
good guy, real happy-go-lu ck y,"
Atherton added. " Bu t if you try to
talk racing with him , yo u' ll be
talking to yo urself. On th e other
hand, if yo u wanna talk ab out a
woodchuck that you shot in yo ur
backyard, or something like that, the
guy will talk your ear off! "
Besides Parker and Springsteen,
Team Honda motocrosser Jeff Stanton is also listed among Atherton 's
Michigan friends, and neighbors.
" I remember Jeff coming into our
sho p a long time ago to buy parts,"
said Atherton. " But we didn't reall y
' meet until th e Daytona Supercross in
1990. Since th en , we've been doing a
lot of th ings together, mo stly riding."
Among the toys that fill his garage,
Athert on has two Honda motocrossers
tha t he practices on nearl y every free
day of the week.
" I ri de at Stanton's a lot, and he
teaches m e li ttle th ings here and
there," said Atherton, who has yet to
com pete in a motocross race. " We keep
planning on go ing to a loca l race
together, but every tim e I have a free
weekend, he's go ne, and vice-versa."
" I tried to race a motocross a while
back, but I go t there, unloaded, and
got dr essed, and th ey wouldn'tlet me
sign up because I wasn 't 18," said
Atherton. "I showed them my professional dirt track license, bu t they said
that didn 't mean a thing there."
. When asked what class he would
(Above) Atherton
credits his tuner,
AI Stangler, with
much of his success to date.
(Right) Atherton
scored his first
major win as a
Camel Pro Expert
at the May
Springfield Mile
Camel Challenge,
and repeated his
win at the fall
version of that
same race.
compete in whe n he finally does enter
a motocross race , Atherton sm iled, an d
said, "The fast class. "
" Riding my motocrosser is about the
on ly training I do," explained Atherton. "Stanton gets up at six in the .
morning, goes running, meets me at
II :00 to go riding, then goes and lifts
weights and runs again after we're
done. What a nut l I can' t get into
ru nning and lifting, you can't go fastl
I ride a mountain bi ke quite a bit ; the
uphills suck, but I have a blast comi ng
down 'em."
Alt ho ugh he ha s yet to race h is CR,
Athe rto n has dabbled in various o th er
-, form s of mo torcycle competition,
incl udi ng cross co u n try and road
raci ng,' wh ich he has hi s eyes set on
as a fu ture goa l.
" I raced an A TK 604 at th e '89
Barstow-to-Vegas," he -said. " T ha t was
a bl ast, but I kept crashing and
breaking the thing. I think I finished
31st, but for the first few hours I ran
in the top four.
' \,
" In '88, Ron Wood built a 600ccsingle, and I raced it at Willow Springs
after going to Keith Code's Superbike .
School," Atherton said. ," Kei th pulled
some strings so that I could race in
every class , without being scor ed. I
won a couple of the races, anddid well
in all of the others."
-~
In 1989, Atherton co m p eted at
Daytona aboard o ne of Kenny Roberts '
Yamaha 250cc two-strokes, and finished a respectable 20th: A few weeks
later, Atherton posted another 20th
place finish at Road Atlanta, but
decided that ' th e two-strokes were not
for him.
" It was too diff erent going from a
750cc four-stroke, to a 250cc twostroke," said Atherton.
For now, Atherton is content to zip
aro u nd . town on a ·Ducati 851, yet
another fast toy that sits in his garage.
"If I hav e to go somewhere that's
20 miles away, by the time I get th ere
my odometer will probably have 45
miles on it," he says, wi th a gleam in
his eye. ' 'I'll hit every turn and highspeed corne r on th e way there, that's
just me. I can 't stand going slo w, if
I've got an hour to make it somewhere,
it 'll on ly take me half an hour. "
Along with th~ racy 851 that he
affectiona tely refers to as " the Du ck,"
Atherton can be seen motoring aro u nd
town on a FXR Sport Edi tio n Harl eyDavidson, tha t was prese nte d to him
by the fact ory.
"Sometimes I like to get all dr essed
up, boots, chaps, leather jacket and all,
and cruise down to the local biker bar, "
said Athe rton. "The stereo types abo u t
those guys are all wrong, some of th em
can be the best guys to ha ng out with ."
When asked if he wor e a helmet
while cruising th e Harley, Ath erton
was taken back, as if offended. "Of
course," he bl urted, but added that th e
only helmets he has to wear are hi s
Harley team helmets.
"I guess th at must look kinda funny,
huh?" he said. "Leathers; boots, and
a flu or escent orange -and-black helmet
with number 23 pa inted on it. Man ,
I need to get a hold of a black one,
don 't I?i' ,
While Atherton would like to someday trade in the number 23 on his
helmet for a lone number one, his
immediate goal is to post his first
National win before this season comes
to an en d. Although he has been
painfully close on a number of occasions, Atherton has yet to sta nd on th e