Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

q slide around the outside of me. Then I'd pass them back in the jump or the next turn. It was an incredible dice for 25 laps. Finally, with about five laps to go, I got in second place and I'm coming down on Graham. I don't know if I would've caught him but it would've been close - my back brake cable busted. Can you believe it?" Due to his unorthodox style, Wise would find himself in -controversy again at another IT when he and Rich Arnaiz tangled while dicing for the lead. "He stalled because of me," Wise says. "I have a picture of it. Here I am 'stopped in the middle of the corner and he's about to run into me. You can see I've got the front brake locked on and I'm straight, and he's sliding sideways. There was nothing he could do, and he stalled it. I went on to win that race by a mile. "Then, over the big jump, which flat track people had never seen, I lifted up my hand off the handlebar and shook it in the air, and that totally freaked them out. Back then you just didn't do that. The press agent at Honda met me after " that race, grabbed me and said, 'Steve, if you can continue on this thing we are going to make you a star.' He said, 'What you did right then, the crowd went absolutely nuts: when I shook my hand in the air, about 20 feet off the (Right) His first year on the F-l circuit, Wise came within a couple of points of winning the champion. (Below) Winner ofthe'SO Superbikers race, Wise Is flanked by World MX Champion Graham Noyce (left) and Eddie Lawson. ~ I was riding supercross style and they (dirt trackers) weren't used to that stuff and, man, we had some serious arguments. ground, hit the jump fourth gear, wide open, and the Harley's are having to back off and everything, except for Ricky Graham. I have to give him credit.' Ricky Grallam didn't back off. Even on that pig he was riding. He'd hit that thing wide open." Wise found himself leading the Winston Pro Series but decided not to pursue a career as a dirt track racer even though he was offered tremendous incentives by Honda to make the switch. "Gene Romero called me wanting me to come to San Jose and ride the mile and I'm going, 'No way, man, I've never done that. You have to be kidding," Wise said. "He'd call me every day, and Honda wanted me to come; I was leading the points after the third race. And they were begging me to come, offering me more money and everything and, you know what, I look back now and I think I should've done it. But I wanted to concentrate on road racing and really learn that." Wise competed in a few more TT events but had little success, unable to find traction on his two-stroke machine at Ascot and losing a chain at Santa Fe. When his dirt track career finally did come to a close, Wise left with Winston Pro Series Rookie of the Year honors for 1982. Things were still going well for Wise, the road race rookie, as he found himself battling teammate Mike Baldwin for the F-l Championship all year on a 2year-old CBI000, basically a superbike with a fairing. He also competed in the Superbike Series. "I almost won the F-l Championship that year, missed it by two points," Wise remembers. "It came down to the last race at Sears Point and it was my first time ever there, and anybody who has raced Sears Point can really respect it. I got third, couldn't get by Wes Cooley. That track scared me so bad. If you run off the track you hit a cliff. Baldwin won it (and the championship)." The following year, Wise would make an all-out attempt for the F-l title, as well as the Superbike title. '"83 was going to be a great year for me," Wise says. "It was just me and Mike Baldwin (on the Honda team) and we had the best bikes, the new V-4 FWS. I got third at Daytona (200) behind Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson; I got second the race before tha t, and I was leading the series by 25 points. Baldwin had broke at those two races." Then, things started going badly. A series of crashes would ultimately cut short Wise's seemingly promising career in road racing. "At Riverside (International Speedway, in California), I crashed and broke my collarbone," Wise remembers. "There was a photo (of the crash) that made UPI news all over the world. I hit an oil slick; I went totally sideways and then it caught and that was it. Boy, I went up and over the bike. "My next race back I won the MidOhio Superbike, then I had a bad crash at Road America. I mean it was bad. I was leading by a long ways and my throttle stuck. It was raining, and I went off the track at 90 mph. I was in the hospital for a week." Despite missing the next two rounds, Wise was still leading the F-l series points going into Laguna Seca. It was the place where Wise's career would come to a sudden, painful end. '1 tried to come back at Laguna Seea but I had no business even riding at all," Wise says. "I was slow, and I didn't en stretcher. I though they were going to put me in a nice soft bed in the ambulance. I was in such pain. I broke almost half my ribs on one side, rebroke the other collarbone. I had a terrible concussion. It was a mess. "After that Udo Gietl (Honda's road race team manager) came into the hospital bed room and I said, 'Udo, I'm done. I don't want to ride any road racing anymore.' I said I've already gotten off twice this year, too hard, and I just said I don't want to ride anymore, I quit. I had another year and a half left on my contract, signed for '83 and '84 for more money than I ever made in motocross, by far. Before I even sat on the motorcycle I made $150,000. So I quit, basically told them I'm dropping everything. Honda was very gracious and they paid me out that year, and they even gave me even have a chance. I was still almost a nice bonus. I didn't want to race after dazed from my week in the hospital. I that crash." didn't have a chance and I, in practice Wise, however, did ride one more Saturday, bailed very, very hard. Honda race, the Superbikers event later that had just flown in the NSSOO for the F-l. year. His heart wasn't in it, he finished It was the same basic bike that Freddie seventh, and that was the end. was riding in Europe that year and, "After that race, I just basically man, I'd get off that 475-pound 750 that shook hands with everybody and said had a powerband as smooth as my this is the end of my career," Wise baby's hiney - I mean, it was so smooth remembers. that you could just .come out of the corWise, now an ordained minister, and ner and pin it and it would just go Inoaaa his wife Saundra, and" their three kids, - then I'd jump on that NSSOO and the Whitney, Joshua and Jonathon, still live powerband was like a light switch and in McAllen, Texas, where he runs a min(it) only. weighed 270 istry business, Christ pounds. I just couldn't Ministries Inc., and do it. I could not do it. speaks all over the And I told them I world. He also operwould have a tough I tried to come back at Laguna a tes a motocross time if we raced the Seca but I had no business school, as well as a same days (F-1 and bible school, and he even riding at all. Superbike). As long as I just opened up a phostayed on the 500 I was tography store called okay, or as long as I Steve Wise Fast stayed on the 750 (fourPhoto. As you can stroke) I was okay. I could go from the see, Wise is a very busy man. 500 to the 750 but not the 750 to the 500 Looking back, Wise has no real and go fast. I hadn't gotten that art regrets. down yet. I had so much respect for 'Tm very happy with my career and Freddie Spencer and Mike Baldwin, my life now," Wise says. "If I could go who could do it like no problem. back, yeah, there's certain things I '1 t was practice and I had just gotten would do differently. A good example off the 750 and the 500's waiting there would be when Roger DeCoster first for me in the paddock being warmed came on the Honda team in 1980 and up. I got on it, the second lap I come tried to help and I wouldn't listen to around the corner and I'm trying to dice him. Can you believe that? [ didn't like it out with somebody. I mean I came the way he set his bikes up. I wanted my around turn nine at probably 70 mph, bike set up the way I wanted it. I look rnaybe 80 coming out of it, but I got back now and think I was so stupid. sideways and I just endoed and When I was pro, I wished that I slammed into the wall on the outside would've listened to DeCoster. Back there, I remember laying there on that then I wouldn't listen to anybody, [was hot pavement and I mean I had never just too proud and hard-headed." been in so much pain in my life. They As far as never winning a champitook me to the hospital, down that onship, that has.never bothered Wise. bumpy road, I'm strapped in that wood"But it would've been nice." CN ...... ..... l-< 0.. < 23

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