Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

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

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