Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Opposit e page) Dale Quarterley, businessman, eng ine builder, ex- racer. (Left) Quarterley at speed during the 1995 AMA Superbike season. (Below) Quarterley's hlghspeed Day10na crash ultimately led to his premature ret irement. Ditto for his leathers. Ano ther example of the high cost of running th e Ducati came in b r akes. Quarterley ran Performance Machine b rakes in 1994. He went through five se ts at $105 a rotor for a total cost of $1050. Th e Du cati brak e r ot ors cost $1100 and he went through the originals and three extra sets for a total of $3300. "Penn ies for pe nnies, the Kawasak i is a little easier and cheaper to run, " Ollarterley says. "The Ducati is just easier to ride, more forgi ving. It never kicks you in the ass. At 10,000 rp m the Kaw asaki goes from 115 to 140 hp. With the Duca ti you can run from 6000 rp m up. A coupl e o f ti mes a t Fir eb ird I was below 6000. If you' re not leasing or ren ting and you do you r ow n mainten ance, it's light years chea per to have the Kawasaki. For one, th e basic p art s are ch eaper. Th e Kawasaki can run and run and run un til it w on ' t start. It m ight b rea k a va lve stem. The Du cati will self-des truct like a hand grenade . You wo n' t know w hat pulled the pin first." His ap p reciation for the equipme nt help ed h im exten d it s longevity. Not on ly did it increase the re liability - he finished all 10 races - but it saved him sign ificant cash . "I know what my racing is abou t and how to get the most out of it." he says and two sets of numbers back it up . The firs t is th at he has fini shed every race since Brainerd in Jun e of 1992, th ou gh he adm its to ha virig "dron ed around a couple of times" for points. The second is that he spent abo u t $169 ,000, th e bu lk o f wh ich was $105,000 fro m Mir age Studio s an d a signfica nt amo un t from Henry Haupt- . mann, the owner of High Tech Precision Mould in gs, an d fi nished fif th in th e AMA Superbike Cha mpionship, ahea d of all th r ee o f the Fa st bv Ferr acci Ducatis which had factory support and, Qu arter ley fig u re s; abo ut a $600,000700,000 budget. "They went throu gh 10 times as many parts," he says. Quarterley turned to Hauptmann for the spare engine and the computer system. When the.numbe rs are cru nche d for 1995, Dale Quarterley ended up making ab out $27,000 from racing hi s Fast by Ferr acci Duc ati 955 in the AMA Superbike series and the Loudon N ASB race $36,800 in purse, points, and contin gency funds, minus about $10,000 that he went over bu d get. "Betwee n the motor and rotors it was wa y more than I had budgeted for," he says . Typ ica ll y, he would putin about 30 hours a w ee k ju st on hi s racing equ ip me n t in the well - app o int ed rac e sho p he bu ilt beh ind the ho use. "The res t of the tim e I'm screwing off, tr ain in g, an d wheelin g and dealing," he says, and th at ta kes up a lot of ti me . Wha t is also consuming a lot of hi s tim e th ese days is th er ap y on his da maged hand and foot. Four times a week he has 90-minute sessions wit h a therapist. The exercises are repeated at home twice more every day, and he expec ts to regain full use of both hi s hand and his foot, which was the lesser of his injuries. "I d on't rem ember anyth ing except being on the track with my leg bent back a nd m y fin g e rs bent a nd, up ahea d abo u t a q u arter mil e, m y bike was upsid e d own on th e ba rs," Quarterley sa ys of th e mid-December crash. Fou r do ctors attende d to his various injuries which include d the fracture an d dislocation o f h is third , fo u r t h, a nd fifth met acarpals (the bones on the hand th at run from the knu ckle to the palm). Pins we re in se rt ed, w hi ch now p ro t rud e from the top of the hand, to stab ilize the bon es. Th ere was also nerve, ligament, and knuckle da mage whic h has severely restricted movement. A skin graft was don e to the top of the gouged left foot and pa rt of the ten don of the big toe was cu t. On the bright side, Q u arter le y points out the "cat scan said the brain is well-form ed." Racing is just one o f hi s so u rces of income. He canvasses auctions all over N ew En gl and a n d will buy and sell almo st anyth in g. He once bought a n entire inventory of office furn iture, then turned it around at a handsom e p rofit. At a recent banquet at Loudon he mad e sev eral hu nd red d ollars selling Tea m \ Mir ag e T-shirts. Typ icall y, he doesn 't keep a vehicle, except for his race transpor te r, for m ore th an six o r seven m onths .' "If I have some thing wi th less than 100,000 m iles, I'm psyched ." And in hi s shop, w hich he says is as wellequip pe d as those of 80 pe rce nt of the car race tea ms th at he's visited, he can do vir tua lly any thing to any motor-driven vehicle. A totalled Kawasaki ZX-6 aw aits re buil di ng next to the Du cati w hic h he h as to ge t read y for Randy Renfr ow to race in the Dayton a 200. What Qu arterl ey will do next, in ad dition to race cars, is share his knowled ge of racecraft and race team managem ent with young racers. Already he teaches at the Penguin Roadracing Sch ool a t Loudon, and he plans to do some schooling on the West Coast this year . . Currently, he owns two race cars, a Busch Grand National North Chevrolet Monte Ca rlo w ith a 358 c.i. V-8 and a fiberg lass-body Pro Stock Monte Carlo, also a 358 V-B, whic h he ru ns on ova ls only. The cost of running the m is high, he says, showing a folder filled w ith thousands of do llars worth of invoic es, all paid. "Nothing here isn 't paid for," Quarterley sa ys of his r acing eq u ip ment . "Including the Honda snow blower." What he ha s fou nd is that many of his main backers are not as interested in racing cars as racin g motorcycles, so the hunt for funding beg in s an ew . "Bieffe (helmets) is coming with me. Vanson (leathers) is going to com e in with my dr ivi ng suit. I've helped ma ke Vanson the biggest suit company in the Ll.S; as far as sa les to racers. Power Mist is going to come," Qu arterley adds. Just then, the phone in his shop rings. It's a potential backer for his race-car team. "Here, you can talk to this journalist th at came up to interview me for ' Cycle News:' Quarterley says, handing me the phone. There is some concern on the othe r en d th at Quarterley may not be able to kee p all four w heels on the ground. Now it' s my tu rn to sell Dale Qu arterley. It's an easy sell. ~ Dale Q uartertey's"95 C lowW ash·F orksheet ~RECEIPTS Sponsorship Mirage Studios "Other Sponsors EXPENDITURES : $ 105.000 $54.500 SUBTOTAL .. ... . . . . . . • : .$ 159.500 Ra c ing Income AMA Purses '" $20.500 AMA Point Fund $7000 NASB Purses " " " " " " .$4000 NASB Point Fund $1300 Bike Purchase $65.000 Permits & Fees $6061 Mechanic Salary $20.000 Motor Rebuilds . ...... ... .. . •.. $24 .000 Travel. Meals & Lodging $10.485 Office & Postage .. .•. ... . .... . .$785 Gas. Oil & Tolls $5772 Adverti sing & Promotio n $5000 . Transport Repair . . . . . . . . .. •. . . .$2 176 Telephone $ 1189

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