Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW ~ 8y am, J.nnum he off-road and motocross segments of the American motorcycling populace have rarely overlapped. Motoheads traditionally see off-readers as laid -back wimps, while desert and woods riders view MXers as h yper, spoiled teenagers . The two groups have pretty much ignored one another, and both seemed fairly happy with the arrangement. Lately, how ever, current a n d fo rm e r motocross rid ers have been invading the off-road world, and - like it or not - their success is impossible to d en y. Any advance needs its general, and in the off-road invasion, Team Suzuki's Rodney Smith has been leading the charge. Smith has contested AMA National MX e ve n ts, spent two years on the World Championship MX GP circuit and earned four Brazilian National MX Championships, but he first caught the attention of the gen eral off-road public last year. Smith qualifi ed (via the AMA N ati onal Championship Reliability Enduro Series, commonly referred to as th e "qua lifier" se ries) for the six-rid er U'S, World Trophy team to compete at the 1992 International Six Days Enduro by rid ing just three of the six qualifying events, two of w h ich he w on. Sm ith head ed to Australia, where he d id something pre viously assumed impossible for an American; no, he d idn't win, but he came closer to doing s o than any American had ever done before, finishin g fo u r th overall in the individual resul ts column. Smith's feat did not go unnoticed. In '93, Yamaha-mounted national MX contender Fred Andrews switched to competing off-road, and Kawasaki hired former 12Scc Western Regional Sup ercross Champion Ty Davis to contest selected off-road eve n ts in var iou s se ries. Both have perform ed ad mira bly; Davis quali fied for the United States ISDE Trophy team on his first try, and Andrews is currently leading the Gra ndNa tional Cross Coun tr y Ser ies. Mea nw hile, Smith has improved up on last year's success. With ad ditional suppo rt from Suz uki, the 29year-ol d fro m Oa kley, Californ ia, won th e Na tional Re li a b il it y Enduro Championship title by top ping four of six events. He has also perfo rmed well in the National Hare Scrambl es Series and stands a good chance at wi nning that title as well. Nex t on the list is former 12Scc Nationa l MX Champ io n Guy Cooper, w ho will be the next prominent MXer to make the switch to off-road racing . "I think guys like Guy Cooper coming into the sport is good and bad," admits Smith. "We need him for the (ISDE) team , but I think a lot of off-road riders get disco uraged . First it was me, bu t I thin k they've kind of accepted me all right. Now Ty's coming in and maybe they're saying, 'Wait a minute: Gu y's coming in a n d I thi n k th e mo re motocrossers that come in, the more the off-road guys are going to get discouraged, and th ey're no t goi ng to accep t them as well. . "I do n' t consider mys elf a motocrosser, completely. I started off off-road riding and a lo t o f peo p le in n orthern California know tha t. I grew up trail riding w ith my family. Every week end we'd go into the mountains. When I was 10, 11 and 12, I did a lot of enduros. My old er brother wa s into enduros and he finished third in District 36 in '82 or '81, but by then I was already . into motocross. But (even then) I always trail rode. When I lived in Brazil, usually one day a week I'd go out trail rid ing. T 18 National Reliability Enduro Champ_io_n_R_od_n-"-.ey_S_mI 'th _ Motocrossers thought I was crazy. Even when I came home between GPs I'd ride local hare scrambles and stuff:' Still, up until last year, Smith focused his efforts on motocross, and he was quite successful at it. First he turned heads in northern California by contesting the 250cc class on a Yamah a ITl25, racing the bike until he turned Intermediate. Just before he turned Pro, different lifestyle. It was almost like family and I enjoyed it. It was a lot like here (America), and I was loving racing. I went to Italy and everything was so laid back and there was such an old lifestyle, I never really fit in over there. They take three hours to eat lunch. I didn't really like th e Italians; I thought they were stuck up . People my age looked like they were 40 already. They'd just hang out on Smith's father bought him a YZ250, and he proceeded to win the AMA District 36 MX number-one plate in 1981 and '82. With support from Yamaha, he placed 10th in the 125cc National the corner and drink beer and smoke cigarettes. Everything else is too expensive to do , so there was too much free tim e, and I'd sit around staring at the walls . I had a few friends, but not many, Championship MX Series in 1983. In '85, he go t a n offer to ride the Bra zilian Championship circui t, then he collected th e 125 a nd 250cc Bra zilia n National titles in 1986 and '87. During those same years, he pe rformed well enough in the 125cc GPs that were held in Brazil and Argentina that he earned a factory ride with the Michele Rin aldi-m an ag ed Chesterfield Suzuki team for 1988. Smith moved to Parma, Italy, and while he finished third in '88 and seven th in '89 on the 250ccGP circuits, he wasn' t happy in Europe. "When I was in Brazil it wa s fine," , says Smith. HI had a lot of friends and a and that's when I started missing home. I wan ted to come back and I didn't care about the money anymore. I just wasn't comfortable and I finally got tired and came home." Once back, Smith again dabbled with the Nati onal MX circuit, finish ing third in the 125cc class at Unadilla and fourth a t Axton, Virginia. He nearly won the class at Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, but a fla t tire a nd an inopportune crash thwa rted his efforts. After racing a few more Nationals in '91, Smith returned to his off-road roots. "In '91 I .ro d e just one qualifier, Minden, and I won that really easy. (The _ National Reliability Enduro round in Minden, Nevada, took place af ter the ISDE, and didn't award "qualifying" points). Dave Bertram said, 'Let's go ride it: and I took my '89 RM. The next year I was trying to get something going with Suzuki but they didn't really have enough money. I talked to Dave and he talked me into riding just the west coast qualifiers and try ing to qualify for Six Days on my own budge t. I rode Idaho, Oregon and Washington and got seven days in, so I had one da y I ' could screw up on. (A rider's six best days are counted when choosing the ISDE team). As it was, I won three out of four, counting Minden. I got picked as a rookie to go to Australia." Smith was chosen for the prestigious Trophy team, and his subsequent performance was awesome. Competing in the Open class aboard an overbored -e RMX250, Smith was in contention for the ~ overall, but a m istake in a special test ~ cost him several valuable seconds and he ~ "settled" for fourth overall and second ~ in class. Many were sh ocked at the ~ American's performance, but not Smith. ... "I wasn't rea lly su rp rised . You can ~ even ask some of my sponsors. Before I ~ left, I was saying I wanted to win . People ~ kind of doubted if I could do it, and I'd say , 'Okay, we'll see wh en it' s over : I threw it awa y myself, which was lack of experience. After day one I was in second pla ce , right behind (Italian Giovanni) Sala, but I crashed in a special test on day two and that cost me about 20 seconds. I still finished fourth overall, but I think I could have done better. "It was kind of wierd, becau se on the first da y, I was on the same minute with Sala and Sven-Erik Jonsson , and I didn't know who they were. They were really fast , and I thou ght, ' Wha t did I get myself into?' Later I found out they were some of the fastest guys at Six Days:' Though Smith was pleased with his success Down Under, he wa s far from satisfied, especially with ilie trophy team's 12th-pla ce showing. Smith wants to improve his own result, and he would love to see the U.S. team sco re a w in. Still, he admits that this yea r's event in Holland will be a tough one. "I really don 't want to say how we're going to do this yea r. In the back of my mind, I really d on 't think it's going to be a good Six Days, becau se of the sand. I mean, I've d on e GPs over the re. I ride good in sand, but it's d ifferent up there. It's a d ifferent kind of sand and you're go ing to ge t g uys fro m Bel g ium a nd Finland and Swed en and they're gonna go really fast. Czechoslova kians and Italians are going to be in the same boat we are, and they' re no t go nna d o that good . We'll probably even d o better than them, I think . It ain't gonna be an easy one. I will say tha t I'm the American that has the best cha nce o f anyb ody. It 's gonna be tough: ' Smith is not one to be satisfied with anything other than first place, and has his own views on what needs to be done here at home to improve the U.S. Trophy team 's finishes in future ISDE events. " I think if we had more qu alifiers here, we'd get more rid ers to compete because you don 't have to keep time. If we had more qualifi ers, I think we'd do better over there, because in Europe they have an international series and all those guys ride against each other all year long and they're ready for the Six Days. I'd like to see us have a bigger series here. Doing timekeeping's okay, but a qualifier is a race. I mean, we 're balls out - not playing poker. I'd personally rather see

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