Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW NAsa Champion Keith Pinkstaff .th Pinkstaff is much more than just a road racer. In the same season that he won the ina ugura I orth American Super Bike Championship, Pinkstaff just happened to pass the Oregon state bar exam - the culmination of four years of night school at the Lewis and Clark orthwestern School of Law. During the day, Pinkstaff worked as a claims manager with Rollins Hudig Hall, a multinational insurance broker; on the weekends he raced motorcycles and he raced them well. Not long after winning the ASB crown, Pinkstaff announced his retirement from the sport after 19 years. We caught up with the recently retired champ at his home in the foothills of Portland, Oregon, where he reviewed the 1995 NASB Series and talked about his retirement plans. "Nobody had any idea of who would show up for the first race of the ~ASB series at Daytona," Pinkstaff began. "A lot of us were hoping that this would turn out to be a privateer series, and that is the way it worked out. Scott Russell, Colin Edwards and some foreign riders did race at the first Daytona meet, but after that the factory teams stuck with the AMA Series and we privateers got to fight it out among ourselves for the ASB title. "The March race at Daytona was not a very auspicious beginning. I did pretty well in the first race, dicing with (Chuck) Graves, (John) Ashmead and (Eric) Moe, and pretty soon I settled into fifth and ran pretty much alone there to the finish. In the second race, I got a good start and was running in fourth behind Edwards, RusseU and (Yasutomo) Nagai, but I lost the rear end and high-sided coming out of the International Horseshoe. Not good news, since the series scoring emphasized good consistent finishes, with all races counting for points. There is a drastic difference in points between a fifth and a DNF." With some of the other rounds canceled, the series resumed at Road Anterica in Wisconsin. ~ 0\ T'"""i -.D ~ Q) "S u o Q) Q) 10 "That was a real battle," Pinkstaff said. "There were seven of us nose-totail throughout the race with constant passing. Pablo Real, Tripp Nobles, Todd Harrington, Joe Pittman, Andy Deatherage, Eric Moe and I were all in the hunt right to the finish. lied a few laps, was as far back as sixth, went from fourth to first on one lap and from first to fifth on another. Pablo finally pulled out a little lead, and Harrington took over second. I finished third, but all seven riders were right there the whole race. The second race was more of the same. Pablo and Tripp pulled out a little lead and I was holding around third, but not a lap went by without passing someone or being passed. On the last lap, I was in third when we came on some lapped riders. They bumped, split and I had to brake, allowing Joe (Pittman) to shoot past both me and Andy (Deatherage) for third. I finished fourth and left Wisconsin in second place in the series points, 15 points down on Eric Moe. I think this is when we started considering the pos- sibility that we could actually win this thing." The we refers to Zlock Racing of Spanaway, Washington. Pinkstaff has been associated with Dan and Dale Zlock since 1984, racing 750cc and Open Superbikes primarily in the Northwest while competing in an AMA National once or twice a year. ''I'd like to stress a point here," Pinkstaff said. "Dan Zlock does just about all the engine work for both me and Joe Pittman, and between the two of us we ran almost exactly 75 races during 1995 and had no, as in zero, mechanical DNFs. Granted, I'm the guy in the saddle, and they handed me the trophy, but it's important to realize just what a team effort this really is." Pinkstaff picks up the story of his 1995 season at Road Atlanta. "We got there on Friday and had only dry weather for practice right up to the heat race, wh\!11 it started to rain," he said. "Sunday morning it rained so hard that mud was washing off the banks

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