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/127731
.(Oppos ite page) Damon Bradshaw began his highly anticipated comeback at the May28 High Point 250cc National in ML Morris, Pennsylvania. In his firs t moto he finis hed eighth, In the second, he crashed after two laps. (Above) Bradshaw has rejoined Team Yamaha but, as 01 yet, is racing without a 'ec ntraet, about the on ly thing that I will be satisfied with. If I didn't come here and want to win, I wo uld feel like I was wasting my lim e an d everyone else 's. Every race I ever we nt to before, I went because I wanted to wi n. I want to be in this race. I want to wi n, a nd I want everyone to know I was here. The D amo n Bra d shaw Co m eback Tshirts that AXO is seIling seem to b e doing pretty well. Yeah, b ut a r e they bu yin g th em t o wear them or are th ey buying the m to s t art t h ei r campfires w i th t o n igh t ? (Laughs .) Why no w? Wh y today at High Point? It just fell in to pl a ce th at way. I've always liked th is event and I've always done well here. (N ote : Bradshaw won H igh Point three ti mes in his five-year p rofessiona l caree r.) But it's really just the way m y sched u le and the racing schedule worked out. What are you going to do for the rest of this year? Will yo u rid e the last two su percrosses or will" you ju st wait for the outdoor races? I really don't know about the rest of the year yet. We're going to see how this weekend goes, but it's the outdoor races that I'm looking forwa rd to. I've been traini ng toward them and we 've been testing the bike with that in mind. I've also kind of got my mind geared toward outdoor stuff right now. There's only two su pe rcrosses left an d I rea lly don't think th at it's anything to my advantage to go and do those. I just want to concen tra te on th ese ou tdoor races for now; . I have the w ho le off-season to ge t ready for supercr oss again. So will we see yo u at th e supercrosses in 1996? . Oh yeah, fu ll season. H o w abou t this: W he n yo u were o n yo u r vaca ti on or hia tus o r whatever that was back home in North Caroli na, did you ever see M ich ael Jordan hangin g around Charlotte , just chillin' on h is own vacation? (La u g hs) . No, I neve r s a w Mic hae l hangin' out o r anything . It wou ld've been pretty neat to see him but I never did . I talked to a couple of friends who saw him when he came into town to see his mom or something. But no , I never p layed basketball with him o r anything. What I was actually ge tting at w as this w h ol e Jord an-Brad sha w co m e back thi ng. You both quit at the sam e time and now yo u're coming back at almost the same tim e. Is that pure coincide n ce or what? Of course it is . You know, everybody always comes u p to me and says, "Oh, Jordan had an infl uence on your comeback..." ...That you just wante d to " Be Like Mik e." . Right. But to tell you the truth, I didn't even know about him coming back. At Daytona I was talking to Keith McCarty and those guys at Yamaha abo ut wh at I wanted to d o and o ne nig ht we w ere leaving thi s res ta urant and he asked me if I heard abo ut Michael Jo rda n. I was like, "No, w ha t hap pened ? Was he hurt or in an accident or so mething?" Keith said he sta rted playing basketball again and I w as, like, "No s h it!" I h ad n 't heard anything abo u t it . But I've tried to watch every game since th en . Anyway, it was definitely coi ncidental but it's just kind of a weird thing tha t it all worked o ut at the same time - both when we stopped and when we started again. Maybe yo ur com eback will be as successful as Jordan's. Yeah, I hope so. His was definitely good and I wa n t mine to go well , too . Finally, in the whole sch em e of things th e comeback, th e pressure, th e ridingare you happy? Yes I am. I'm rea l happy to be back. It doesn't rea lly seem like I was off that long. It's kind of like putting a kid in a candy shop again! Three. turns into the first 250cc moto at the High Point National, it was clear that Damon Bradshaw was really back. He flattracked his way into the lead around the outside of the sweeping left-hand turn, drawing a huge cheer from the thousands of fans who showed up in the rain to see his return. He fumbled through the second slick corner but then blasted into the third turn benn with his clutch lever almost dragging through the mud, back out front and back under the microscope of stardom . He didn't win, but it didn't really mat/cr. This King ain't dead. l"N 11