Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TEARDOWN B Paul Carruthers y ifte e n minute s of fame . Andy Warhol virtually gu aranteed all of us that we'd get it. On June 2, 1996, Brett Metzger go t his in one-minute, 52- second increm en ts around the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Six of them, to be exact. Okay, so it was reall y onl y about 12 minutes. Still, it's 12 solid minutes he 'll never forget. Who's Brett Metzger? Good question. Had you been at the Mid-Ohio Sp ort s Car Course on Saturday you su rely wouldn't have noticed him. Like 28 other s, he fired u p h is 750cc Supersport. bike an d d id battle aro und the 2 4-rnile track, finished the race and went about the busine ss of loa di ng u p his va n for the day. He'd finished right wher e you w ould expe ct someo ne yo u ' d barel y heard of to finish, sandwiched between the likes of Dax Snow and Mark Junge. Seventeenth ou t of 28 finis hers. His list of sponsors read off the resul ts sheet in typica l pri v ateer fa shi on: Metz ge r ' s Motorsports, Cy cles! 128, Yoshimura, Shoei, Pro-Tek, Factory, Sharkskinz, LP Racing, Str eet & Co mp., Penske, and... "Your N ame Here." Hardly a rider who wou ld ga mer much attention. But then aga in only two or th ree in a given class ever do. Co mbined with his 61st-place finish in th e 750cc Supersport class at Daytona, Metzger now had a solid hold o n 35th in the championship point standings. Ear lier in the day, Metzger had ridden what was basically the same Suzuki GSXR750 in Superbike qualifying, logging a time of 1:36.542 which was good enough to place him 34th on the grid. Dou g Cha n d ler ha d qualified some seven seconds a lap quicker at 1:29.251 to position himself on po le position for Su n day 's AMA Su pe rbike Nationa l. Everyt hi ng was good to go. Guys like Chandler and Miguel DuHam el would likely lap in the 1:30s all d ay on Su nday, Metzger would continue to do 1:36s and they wo u ld meet a few times whe n the lead duo wo u ld flash by to put another lap on the pri vateer. By the end of the 26-lap race, Metzger would find himself a bout thre e minutes (or two la p s ) . Struggling privateer road racer Brett Metzger (119) used up 12 of his 15 min utes of fame that Andy Warh ol says we are all virt ually guaranteed . F fifth . Fifth was okay for a few more lap s, the n Yoshi m u ra Su zuki' s Mat Mladin cras hed out, moving Metzger to fourth. The n race leader Jami e Jam es crashe d, bringing a p remature en d to th e fifth rou nd of the AMA Superbike Series. Then a funny thing h ap pened when Pascal Picotte an d Harley-D avidson' s Thomas Wilso n sprayed champagne in the wi nner's circle - they we re joined by Brett Metzger. "W ho is that gu y?" one prominent team owner asked, pointing at the well worn back of Metzger's yellow leathers. Later, Metzger found himself in an unusual position. He was suddenly the center of attention in an impromptu press conference, with tap e recorders jammed in to his face and questions being fired at him from all angles. He explained somewhat awkwardly in a New En~land accen t that this rain thing was right up his alley . His riding style was smooth and precise, he sai d. Perfect for these condi tio ns. But in the dry, he admi tted, he was perhaps a little slow and need ed to show more agg ression. He spelled ou t how he'd told himself to keep breathing while racing with the Superbike Nationa l Champion, how he reassured himself that DuHam el also put his pants on one leg at a time. "It went through m y m in d th at he's just another racer, jus t as mortal as I am, " an eager Metzger said. b eh ind th e w inn er. Th e go o d gu y s would spray cham pa gne and partake in fa n cy pre s s confe rence s wi th an awestru ck media. Metzger wou ld load his truck and prep are for the d rive north to Wisconsin. If he cou ld afford it on the $200 he'd made for finishing 30th. If no t, he 'd head hom e to Connecticut and save his pennies to race at Loudon in a few more weeks. Nothing more than the reality of life at opposite ends of the racing spectrum. Bu t what happened on Sunda y wasn't real. It was the stuff from which dreams are made. On Sunday, June 2, the skies above Ohio opened and good fortune poured down on Brett Metzger. Seventeenth after one lap, 15th after four go-a rounds, and 12th at the first of two red flags , Metzger was just warming up. Muzzy Kawasaki's Mike Smith crashed an d the race was stopped. The facto ry guys changed suspension settings, je lling, face shields . Metzger looked at his Suzuki - fitte d wit h a oneyea r-old rain tire on the rear and a DOT rain tire on the front - an d figured it was good enough. Hey, he d idn 't have anything else in the truck to put on it anyway. .The race was resta rted. Metzger was sud denly seven th. Then h e p a s s e d Vance & H in es Yama ha's Tom Kipp . Sixth. Then he diced a little b it with Miguel DuHamel before taking over Mak in g $3500 was also a n ic e b onus . When you pay you r own racing bills, Visa and Ma sterCard tend to ride sho tgun. He'd now be abl e to pay so me of that back, even if it was only enou gh to cover "a tenth of m v credit card bills." Metzger als o ex p lai ne d that this wasn't his fir st-ever AMA Superbike N ational. Th at had come way back in March, in the Daytona 200 . Metzger sm iled from under a baseball hat, his five o'clock shadow growing m ore noticeable by th e minute, and told us this was his second AMA Superbike National. Then he told us abou t his Daytona experience. As it turns ou t, he was running 16th in the 200. Then he chunked a tire. Big d eal, right? Hey, eve rybody chunks tires at Da ytona. You come in, guys wearing fancy bowling shi rts jack the bi ke up, toss on so me new rubber and you're off again. Eight to 10 seco nds . Not so if yo u 're Metzger. He chunks a tire an d pits . But he only has one rim, and it' s the one that' s still wearing a tire in all its chunked glory. So Metzger has to remove the wheel an d run to the Dunlop truck. They change th e tire for h im and he runs back. He puts the wheel in, zips his leathers up, straps his helmet back on and he 's off. Twelve minutes later. "I ran back with the wheel, like that old stick and loop to y," Metzger explained, waving his arms. An hour or so late r, Metzger was still in the press room, eating free sandwiches and finally realizing what he ' d accomplished, his legs doi ng a nervy tap dance on the floo r. Third in an AMA Superb ike Nationa l. $3500. Dou g Ch andler was lon g gone as d a rkn ess mo ved into Mid-O hio. Ditto for Migu el DuH am el. There were planes to catch, places to go. No t so for Metzger. H e walked a ro u n d, s till in hi s leathers, talking to an yone who wanted , to lis ten. His cr edit on this fame thing wasn't m axed . H e still had three minu tes left. LOOKING BACK. II 25 Y SAGO... EAR .JU E29, 1971 N ...~-__ Ham w N e p- rH~';J"r: d ean e " Hannah in C a st le Rock, Col or ado, marking h is , ..l s e cond victo ry in as man y .~ w eeks . The d ay belon ged to rival Kent Howerton, tho u gh, ~.". who successfully defended his ""-~ 250cc Nation al title wi th a sec~'~ ...' ond overall for the day... Hank c<--~ ~~~ Scott narrow ly edged ou t .s:J;..... Ra n d y Goss by in ches to take t~~: the wi n at the Indy Mile. Brother ~::'i;1;.'i Gary Scott finis hed thi rd to com- -- pl ete th e trio on the p odium... _ , .- a n a d ia n Da v e Se h l ex te n ded H arle y Davidson ' s win streak to three after w innin g th e 20-lap N a ti on al C h a rn p ionship dirt track held at the Terra Haute Fairg rounds in Indiana. Do n Castro finis h e d seco nd an d " Ba d Bart" M ark e l fi nished third... The th in ai r at the ,,~:; ..-._ Mammoth M oto cross E-~ £~~S~~~~ Belgian Ge orges Job e was sim ply didn 't seem to both er _..... ~ unbeat ab le at round four of th e World Ch ampi onsh ip 250cc Dave Rodgers, Martin Tripes, or Bill Motocross Series Cl ements, who won th e 125, 250, and 500cc Se nior clas ses, respectively. A held in Ca llarate , ~~"" m ;T;7'==~J ~ J')~ ' ' -':i Italy. • % , Ii; ~..l. r,l f ;;[.Jlj '' T young D an ny La Porte won t h e 125 cc Jun ior d iv is ion on a Rickman .. . Je ff 5YEARS AGO... ~' , -~ ---.-". Penton, Dic k Burleson, and Jack Pen / JUNE 26,1991 ~ . l:'~ll"SOce ton were the top individual winners at the Tr ask Mountain Quali fier held in G e Or g i a n 1::.7 ' 5 cot t ~ • .f .; Oregon. Th ey wer e all riding th e new, x Colorado! . six-speed Pen ton 125s. R u ss e I ~ decimated th e ' re st of t h e 1 5YEARS AGO... fiel d en ro u te JUNE 24, 1981 to w in n in g he final round of th e AMA 250cc the 68t h runN ational Championship Mot ocross n in g of th e Series fell to Yamaha's Bob "H u rLouden Classic at C :"1 f uown::iinl T '!II!'!06" shire Intern ati on al Speedwa y. S ec ond pl a ce w ent to M i g uel D uH a me l, while T h o mas Stevens took th ird ... Yamaha 's Doug Dubach earne d his firstever Su percross win in San Jose, in what wa s one of the best SX races in history. Five le ad changes la ter, Da mon Brad sh aw fin is h e d secon d , an d J e ff Stanton took th ird pl ac e ... M ich a el Doohan won his th ird GP of th e year by w in ning the Au strian GP, held in Salzburg, Germany, by the narrow est of mar gin s over Wa Y!1e Rain ey. Kevin Schwantz w on th e cl o s e b attl e for th ird over Wayne Gardner. l~ World Champion Gaston Rahler on his factory Suzuki at the Belg ian MX 125cc GP In}9n. Photo from the Cycle News Arch ives.

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