Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

loss of vision made racing at pro speeds an impossible task. "I had been one of the front guys and now I was getting lapped:' DiStefano said. "The eye was fine for most everything else 1 had to see, but not for racing, when you h,we fractions of seconds to decide which rut you're going to take as you head for a sky-jump. I· didn't want to hurt myself or anyone else, so I decided to hang it up." runners-up in 1975-77. In 1978, the new pretender to the throne would be Yamaha's Bob Hannah. The "Hurricane" had become the first rider to win AMA Nationals in all three classes (125, 250 and 500cc) and he did it in one season. He was dominating the 78 Supercross series - but, unfortunately, what was shaping up to be a classic confrontation between the champ and the contender in the outdoor Nationals never materialized. Tony DIStefano won three consecutive 250cc National MX Championships, 1975-n. (Below) DiStefano's mechanic was Keith McCarty, who now manages Yamaha's race team. "I was putting up some shelving and slipped with my screwdriver, which went directly into my eye." "I twisted my knee at a supercross just before Hangtown, which was the opening round of the National series. It was sort of ironic, because Gary Jones had won three 250cc champion~ips (1972-74) and then he got hurt." Now, just as Jones had watched DiStefano take his title, so too would Tony sit on the sidelines as his own reign in the 250cc cl ass came to an end. "Hannah was incredible," DiStefano said. "He had fire in his eyes and the heart of a tiger, and you can't take anything away from him. But I got hurt, Jimmy Ellis got hurt, and so did Marty Tripes, who was going pretty fast at that time. :Those guys missed some races and Hannah just lapped everybody who was left. It was my plan to win the title for a fourth time and then go to Europe to race the Grands Prix. I thought four straight would be a record that no one could ever touch; besides, at that time, Europe was still the place to be in motocross," With the injury came another blow: Team Suzuki decided they weren't interested in sending Tony DiStefano to Europe, or anywhere else for that matter. Even though no Suzuki riders were very successful in 1978 (in fact, no Suzuki rider other than Roger DeCoster and DiStefano had ever won any major U.S. titles), only DiStefano was given his walking papers. "At that time, we didn't have a team manager. The decision came from Japan and nobody could do anything to change it. It was a situation of 'you're as good as your last race: and I hadn't won any races for a while. I saw it hap- His story doesn't end there. DiStepen to Gary Jones. He had won his three titles, got hurt and then he was a fano became one of the first of the modnobody." ern-day group of riders to channel his Tony D. recovered from both the energies into teaching a new generation injury and the shock of losing his ride, of racers via the motocross school. U.S. and joined Team Can-Am for 1979. Suzuki, which had once operated its While Hannah's domination continued, own school in the mid-70s, joined up DiStefano's best ride that once again with its year came at Oma~a, "I had been one 01" the most famous former Nebraska, where he fin:J employee. By 1987, is.hed fifth overall on a I"ront uuvs and now 1 ~as DiStefano's school bike that was fast but, j" O··J was one of the most successful in the unre.liable. Off thetrack, getting lapped." the incredible strmg of U.S., and, at age 30, bad luck continued Tony D.'s second when a freak accident nearly resulted in career was going as well as his first. the loss of his right eye. It did result in And then, one day, the former champ the end of his racing career. decided to go riding. He went to a sand "I was putting up some shelving and track where he had ridden before. There sUpped with my screwdriver, which was nothing unusual about anything on went directly into my eye. Doctors that day, not even the crash. "Maybe it was the eye, the lack of fuJI wound up removing the lens, which they replaced, but the back of the eye vision; maybe not. All I know is that I've never did heal properly." crashed a lot worse than that, and I've 'He was back on the track by the middone so many times." But this time, DiStefano landed just dle of the 1981 season, but the partial right - or just wrong - and the result was a compression fracture of his spine. It was the P-5 vertebra, which means that on that day, 10 years after passing Marty Smith to win his last motocross champi- . onship, Tony DiStefano had r.idden a motorcycle for the last time as well. But this champion's story doesn't end there, either. Ten years later, the Tony D. School of Motocross is still going strong, schooling young riders on proper technique. You won't Jearn how to do a Jeremy McGrath nac-nac. ("That will get you a very serious reprimand.") Instead, with th.e help of riding instructors like Team Suzuki's Mike LaRocco, Tony teaches riders, among other things, how to land on the front wheel "something we did only by mistake 20 years ago." He is also a teacher to those who, like him, will never ride again. "I get a phone call whenever a rider goes down and suffers an injury similar "Twenty years ago, we were happy if we could just get them (race bikes) started." to mine. It's a very difficult time(for them), but I try to' encourage them and let them know that they can still have a very productive life. I tell them about a football player I met in rehab, a great college player and a pro prospect. One day he was playing a game of touch football. He fell, hit his head on a rock, and today he's in wheelchair. "I knew that what I did for a living could be dangerous. It can happen to anyone at any time, and I don't blame motocross that it happened to me." "I look at the motorcycles today and I'm just amazed," he says from his horne in Yardley, Pennsylvania, not far from where he grew up. "So much has changed. For example, these bikes will actually idle. Twenty years ago, we were happy if we could just get them started and, when you did, you defini tely didn't let them sit there and run or you'd foul a plug immediately. And on the old bikes, we had to make modifications. As good as the bikes are today, I laugh when I see guys putting on a Pro Circuit pipe before they even race them once. Truthfully, I don't think there are more than two or three riders in the whole country who can ride fast enough to know the difference." On his own legacy Tony D. comments, "Some of my instructors at my motocross school are 20 years old, which means I was through winning championships before they were even born. And most of my students don't know who 1 am, or what I did. But I'm okay with that. I'm proud to have played a part during the formative years of the sport in this country." Don't know who Tony D. was? Don't know what he did? It may sound almost blasphemous, but that's history - and even DiStefano says he doesn't lose time thinking about what once was. But the students who attend his school will have the opportunity to learn about who Tony DiStefano is today: a former champ who gives back to his sport, and a classy guy who graciously welcomed back an old sponsor who had once shut its doors to him. These students see a man who can show them that there is life - good life - when racing or even just riding motorcycles is no longer an option. A good lesson for all to learn. {"N

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