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/127698
.INTERVIEW Cycle News Rider of the Year Ty Davis • - - - -- - - - -...,......--- - - - - - By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones - e know what some of you are thinking. Ty Davis - rider of th e year? Bu t w ha t about SOOcc Wo rl d Ch amp ion Mich ael Dooh an ? O r G ra n d N ation al Champion Scott Parke r? Or Supercross Champion Jere my McGrath ? Shoul d n't on e of them have been chosen rider of the year? After all, they are all champions in th eir re spective field s, an d Ty Davis d idn't even w in a single title in 1994. But it's right abou t here where the arguments for th ese riders and others com e to an abrupt end, and the a rg uments for Davis take off. Davis' li st o f acco m p lish m e n ts throughout the 1994 season rambles on like a bad sermon. While it is tru e that Davis didn't win a championship in '94, h e did win nume rou s N at ionals an d high-profil e races, proving his versatility as one of this country's best off-road racers. Perhaps Davis' greatest accomplishmen t of the '94 season was fulfilling his goa l of winning four AMA Na tional events in four different ca tegories in a single season. His road to this success began in Nevada when he won the Minden ISDE Qualifier, the third ro und of the AMA National Championship Reliability Enduro Series. He the n swi tched gears and won the Wells-to-Wendover National Hare & Hound, also in Nevada, where he put an end to Danny Hamel's IS -race wi n streak. Later in the year, Davis head ed north to Idaho and won the AMA National Cha mpionship Hare Scrambles round in SilverCity and, a week later , he ca p tu re d Na tio nal win number fo ur a t the Traini ng Wheels AMA Nationa l End uro in Lucerne Valley, California. No rid er ha s ever wo n four different types of National events in one year. And Dav is' list of acco mp lishme nts d oesn 't end here. Th e Kawasaki Team Green rid er was also - for th e se cond year in a row - the "Top Am erican" at the prestigiou s Interna tional Six Day Enduro in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition, he teamed with fellow Team Green riders to win the SCORE Baja 1000, Parker 400 and San Felipe 250 off-road races; he won th e Vir ginia Cit y Grand Pri x; he wo n two classes at the Adelanto GP; he won Ca se y Fo lks' Be st of th e Desert Tonopah GP, and he won the grueling Tecate 250K Enduro in Mexico . And to put icing on th e ca ke, Davi s wo n the 500cc Pro and Four-Stroke classes at the Mammoth Mountain Motocross - and he even qualified for the 12Sec main event (whe re he finishe d eig h th) at the Anaheim Supercross. Whew! Many still associa te Davis' name with . motocross or supe rcross, the form of the sport where his racing roo ts run deep . "It's kin d of funny, beca use my dad (Terry Da vis, foun de r of Terrycab Je, a ma ch in e shop th at m ak es motor cycle cab les, suspension co m ponents an d other specialized parts ) was completely in to off-road racing when I was a kid and he didn ' t even wa n t me get ting into off-road racing: ' says Davis. "He raced in the desert for a long time. I used to go to the races w ith him and I'd pu sh my trike aro u nd the pil s whil e he was out racing. When I sta rted riding motorcycles, I didn't race much. My dad actua lly discouraged me from racing in the desert; he w an te d m e to race motocross. He thou ght that desert racing was too dan- W Not only is Ty Davis a master of two wheels, he's also a skilled horseman. His family owns four horses and rides them regularly.