Champions hip on a 500cc Husqvarna,"
Howerton said proudly. " It wa s a very
tough year and, again, Husqvarna di dn' t
give us mu ch su p port. I won the first
two Nationals in Mexico, New York and
Axton, Virgi nia, and settled back into a
conservative mode."
As the series wore into the late su m- .
mer mon ths, H ow e rton wo uld face a
serious challenge from Ohio's Ga ry
Semics. Eager to capture his first National Cham pionship, Semics no tch ed a
series of wins to pull righ t up to Howerton's white rea r fe nder in the points
table. As fate would have it , the title
fight would be decided at the dramatic
last round of the series. Ren owned as
-ee- o(f>
"There was a lot of
excitement in the air
at the Trans-AMA
races. You would see
the Europeans
walking around and
just marvel at
them. "
one of the most exciting and hard-foug ht
cham pionship climaxes in AMA history,
the exaIted race became known as the
"Battle of New Orleans ."
"The cha mpions hip went right down
to the end ," How erton said . "I went into
the final Nati ona l in Ne w Orleans with a
three-point lead over Kawasaki's Gary
Semics. Semics wan ted to win the title
bad, but so di d I. I remember the race
took place on a very, very hot day, and a
lot of people we re getting sick from the
heat. I was real n ervo u s tha t d a y ,
because I wanted to wi n th e cha m pionship so bad.
"It was all I would think about,"
How erton said. 'Throughout the series,
we wo uld race, analyze everything that
we did, and go on to the next race, ho ping th e bike w ould stay togethe r. We
won that title that d ay in Ne w Orleans,
and I was so relaxed when it was ov er
w it h. Ama z ingly, the b ike had h eld
togeth er."
While it all went well for How erton
and his Husqvarna com rades in '76, 1977
wo uld be the year of living dangerously.
Fragile motorcycles, bad luck and logistical nightmares with the factory led to a
lackadaisical year, wi th a fifth-place finish in the 500cc series points, and :a
fou rt h overall in the 250cc class. End
result: The fru stra ted Howerton began
his search for a new job.
"Actually, in 1977, it was a bad deal
at Husqva rna," Hower ton sai d . "1 was
just having too man y p roblems, and my
result s su ffered. I told them du ring the
off-season that I w as done with th em .
The re were just too many problems . The
bike wa s alw ays bre aking, the counters ha ft s p ro cke t kept fa lli ng off, a nd
fra mes we re sna ppi ng . I felt like I was
beati ng my head against the wall. I sta rted tal king aro und to Kawasaki, a nd to
Ma rk Blackwell at Suzu ki. H e .was
impressed w ith what I had done with
Husqvarna and went back to Suz uki and
ha d me signed:'
In what was to be a tra nsition year to
b e come accli m a te d wit h th e n ew
Suzukis, Howerton rode his Japa nesem anufactured RM250 to a so lid sixth-
pl ace p osition in the final points, wi nning
the Buch an an, Mic h igan, Natio na l in
July along the way.
Howerton was now poised to make a
serious run at the AMA 250cc National
Champio nship. Kent went into the 1997
ca m p a ig n ar med to the tee th a nd
supremely confident that he had what it
takes to get in the ring with the thenom n ipo ten t and wild ly popula r Bob
"Hurricane" Hannah.
" I s ta rted winning right away in
1979," Howerto n sa id . "The fac tory
250cc Suzu ki suited me real well. Th e
bike was light and nimbl e wi th a lot of
po wer. It was a good-sized bike that ran
very well. I won Na tionals at Sou thwick
and Mount Morris and finished second
to Hannah in points. I capped off the
year by wi nni ng the Trans-AMA Series
late r that fall."
.During the off-season, Howerton began a
strict training regimen
that would get him in
figh ti ng tri m for h is
impending battle with
Ha nnah for the cove ted
AMA quarter-liter title.
However, the muchan tici pated ba tt le for
