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
GINTERVIEW Dirt tracker Kevin Atherton !Addicted to speed ....-4 By Donn Maeda s I pulled up to the hotel in my extremely sporty Fo rd Tempo rent-a-ca r, a pained look came over the face of Kevin Ath erton, th e third memb er of the facto ry HarleyDavids on race team. " I think we' d better take my car," he said. " Par k that thing o ver th ere, and I'll be right back," I parked the T empo and waited. Atherton cruised aro und the corner of the hotel in a bright-red Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Little did I know, but that would be the last time I'd see him do an ything at a lesser speed. " You' d better strap yourself in ," said Ath erton, wh o calls Wh ite Pigeon, Michigan, home. " I wouldn 't wanna A scare yo u. " 22 As soo n a s the sea tbe l t bu ckl e clicked, hi s foo t hi t th e floor , and my head was snapped back agains t the headrest as we slid out of the par king lot an d sped up the road. " I like to go fast ," Atherton said over the th ump of the ra p music that blared from the stereo. " Almost everyth ing I do has someth ing to do with speed. " And no wo nd er , the 20-year-o ld loves to go fast; hi s famil y is fu ll of racers. As a team ri der in a form of . two-wheeled sport that boasts o nl y one factory race team , Kevin may be the most successful racing Ather ton , bu t by no means the on ly one. Kevin 's grandfather may be the one who started it all. " Grandpa used to race spri nt cars , bu t he was killed in a race crash," Atherton said. " After tha t, my grandmother tried to brainwash all of us tha t racin g was too dan gerous, arid that we didn 't want to do it. " It didn't work. Da ve Ath er to n , Kevin 's fa ther, was one of the top Nov ice dirt trackers in the earl y 1970s, bu t decided to retire af ter becoming an Expert and twice break ing his left femur. Brian, Kevin 's older bro th er, also competes in th e Camel Pro Series as an Expert, and often led th e way for Kevin . Backed by Ron Wood, Brian captured the Junior National Ch am. pionshi p in 1985, three years befo re Kevin did, in 1988. Brian , wh o is still competing , suffered a setback in '89 when he bro ke his back in a raci ng accident. " All my bi kes, lea thers and helmets were a lways hand-me-d owns from Brian, we would just ch an ge the nam es," sai d Ath erton. " I even ended up with the same fac tory Wood-Rotax when I was a Junio r. " Kevin recall s enjoying the thrill of going fast aboard a modified Honda T rail 50 at the age of four. " I was too small for it, so my dad had to take th e seat off and p u t lower handlebars on it ," recalled Atherton." We had a short track in th e backy ard, and I used to go around and around it, all day long." The Ath ert on family operated a motorcycl e repair shop that was located in th eir front yard, which Dave would run while young Kevin was ridin g out back. In order to keep track of hi s son, Kevin 's father installed a megaphone exhaust system from an old Triumph motorcycle on the Trail 50. " H e would listen for me," said Atherton. "When the noise stopped, At th e end of the 1988 season , an AMA ruling th at a llo we d 600 cc .machines to co m pete agai n st th e bigger 750cc mo torcycles in the Expert class presented Ath erton with a go lden oppo rt u nity. had already wrapped . up th e J unior ti tle, and the rookie Experts . th a t year h ad h ardl y 'scored any po in ts," Ath erton said. "So I figured " I ma y hav e finished six th, but I guarantee that I was the most excited guy on the track l" Ath ert on recalled. " I couldn' t beli eve that I had beat th e Grand Nat ional Champion. Sixth pl ace also ga ve me enoug h points to win Rookie of th e Year, so I wo n th e title in j us t one race. " Ath erton was app roached by th e .Harley-Davidso n facto ry at th e end of that I could race the last two races o n my 600, and mayb e win (Ca mel Pro Series) Rookie of the Year ." Atherton competed at the fall Ascot National Half Mile, and after a racelong battle with the defending Grand National Champion, Bubba Shobert, Atherton crossed the finish lin e in sixth place. that season, but had litt le idea of what lie in store. "They said that they want ed to hel p me out, " said Ath erton. "We talked a lot throug h the winter, and everytime we ta lked, the dea l seemed to get better and better. I had o rigina lly thoug ht th at I wo uld ju st be getti ng some help, I had no idea tha t I was go nna be o n th e team !" It wasn 't until four days befor e the 1989 season-openi ng Daytona Short T rack th at Ath ert on act ua lly sig ned a cont ract wi th the factor y. " It really didn 't sink in until I was there (Dayto na)," said Athert on . "It wasn 't until I looked around and. th ou ght, 'Wow, my leath ers are the same as Parker' s!' .. Althou gh one wo uld expec t an 18year-old rider to be a bit in tim idated being on the same team as the legen dary Jay Springsteen, Grand Na tio nal Ch am p ion Scott Pa rker, and 600cc Na t ion al C h ampi o n Chris Ca rr, Atherto n was quite comfortable with the idea. " Sco tty and Springer live pretty close to me, and I'd been racing with Ch ris for years, " said Athe rto n. " So it was like I had grown up wit h them. I was already good friends 'with all of them," Steve Storz, of Storz Performan ce fame , was origi na lly as sig n ed as Athert on 's mech an ic, bu t bu siness commi tme nts kept Storz from tra velling to the races. Instead , Storz would bu ild th e motor s and sh ip them to Atherton. ..It wasn 't working o u t too well , and the factory a nd Steve mutually decided that it wasn't go ing to work," said Ath erton. "So th ey replaced him with Phil Darcy. He was an ex-racer, and kn ew a lot. " Ath erton and Darcy finished out the '89 sea son togeth er w i th limited su ccess, posting on ly one top five finish , at the Albuquerque Mile. " Har ley wanted me to use that first season to learn," said Atherton. "They saw no sense in giving me a real fast bike before I even knew how to ride a 750, instead they wanted me to learn how to go fast on a bike that was not asfast," -r tha t meant I had cras hed. And I did that plenty of timesl I got my firs t scar on tha t thing. " It wasn 't until Kevin was nine that he decided that he wan ted to race, " I used to like going to the races with Brian, but I would just chase th e gir ls around all da y," said Kevin. " T hen one day, I tried riding Brian 's Yam ah a YZSO DTX bik e, and I decided that I wanted to race." As he grew , Kevin progressed to bigger machinery. At the age of 12, he won the 80cc (12-15 year old) and l25cc Schoolboy Championships, a n d joined th e professional ranks as a ProAm racer at the age of 15. In late 1987, at the ag e of 16, Athe rton made the jump to the Junior class, and in his debut race with yello w number pl ates, he finished third. Kevin elected to sta y in th e Junior class for the 1988 season, an d went o n to earn the J u n io r Natio na l _Champ io nsh ip . Alo ng th e way, he ' had the opportunity to compete with veterans Steve Morehead , Dan Ingram, Terry Poovey and his future team mate, Chris Carr, in 600cc National ' events where Juniors are allowed to compe te with Experts. Ath ert on finished th e '88 600cc National seri es second in points, bettered only by perennial champ Carr. --/