Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TIME REMEMBERED remembering the events of that weekend in Northern Ca lifo rn ia all too clearly. "Going in to th at ra ce, I was ha ving n ig h tmares abo ut hi m. I wou ld the n wa ke up and go out an d run 12 miles - I di dn't want to lose. It was all of the press people that got th e whole thi ng goi ng between us. I was d oing an interv iew with a guy in Sacra mento - and this was really the cause of the whole thing - and the gu y asked me, What d o you think of Hannah' s s peed?' I sai d that he was faster now than he had ever been. But, somehow , the words got changed and it got printed a ll wron g; my words had been turned all aroun d. We were good friends before tha t race, bu t it would all 'change. "I beat him bad a t Sacramento," recalled Howerton, w ho went uut and smo ked to two ~ormer 250 and 500cc National"MX Champion Kent Howerton ris (High Point Raceway in Pennsylva- nia), r caught up to Bob aod when I we nt to p a ss h i m, he r amm ed me and knocked me ove r. I d id n' t panic. I got up, wa lked around my bike an d looked it over, straightened up the hand lebars and took my time kicking it over. Everyone was yelling at me to get goi ng, but I wasn' t even worried about it. I eve ntually too k off and caught and passed him within a few laps. Man. tha t ma de him mad! Besides all that, thou gh, he had his . mom en ts wh en he was very qui ck." By th e tim e the seasoo had hi t th e home stretch, Howerton, throu gh winning four consecutive Nationals at Lake Whi tney , Road Atlanta, Southwick, an d th e af o r e m en tio ned H igh Point, had ama ssed a massi ve po ints lead , and dosed in for the kill. "At the last Na tion al in Lakewood, Co lclear-cut moto vic toorado, all I had to do ries. was fin ish th e se co nd Th e firs t b attl e of ' moto to win the chamthe war had been pionship . During th e fought, and Howerton • . ra ce, Donnie Hansen had come away com- VISOr came up beh ind m e pletel y unscathed. However, that would <¢D- ~ and I jus t let him by . all change drasti call y Then Hannah came up behind me, read y to have another war, the very next week end, at round two of and r just pulled ove r and let him go as the series in Southern California. well . He looked at me like, Wha t's up?' "We then went on to Saddleback Park He was so mad - a ga in ," H o w erton in Southern California, and I woke up o n Sunday morning with the flu," Howerrecalls with a laugh. ton said . "Barnett went out and won his "We really beat up on Hannah," said . first 125cc mota, so I felt that, no matter cu r re n t-d ay s u ng lasses-a nd-goggles what, I had to win min e as well. tycoon Greg Arnette who, at the tim e, was .twirling wrenches as Howerton's "Hannah got out fro nt right away, mechanic on the Na tiona l Championship then I got around him butcouldn't pull awa y because I wa s so tired. Hannah circuit. '1 can remember times they went at it so hard, Kent would bring my bike thought I was joking with him . I passed him in a downhill off-camber tum. Hanin and it would hav e Yamaha tire marks all over the si d e panel s. It got to th e nah then came back and dropped into a poi nt where I became tired of alw ays tum right in fro nt of me, cutting me off havi ng to dean th e tir e marks off th e bad. Then I did it back and it all escalated . Th en he T-boned me hard over a bike. It was taking up a lot of my.time. "We really worked well together," double jump. It knocked me down and he lost his balance. I got up, ran over and Arnette added. "We were like brothers . tried to pull him off his bike. He rode If I saw something Hannah was doing, I away, and I got my bike back up. I was a w ould tell Kent and he would always mess , my jersey was tom, I was bleeding listen to me. He always took the ad vice and my visor was smashed. I got back and put it to good use. He was always on th e bike and chased him down and thinking." Howerton had won the war. Howevpassed him . Ther e were a bu nch of picer, in doing so, his friendship with Hantu res in the magazines about that race, nah wa s now long gone. and I actually ended by getting a very "We we ren 't friend s," Howerton said bad bacterial in fectio n fro m cutting candidly. "Wha t was a shame is that it myself und er the arm wi th his fend er . I won the moto, bu t was very sick for the all st arted fro m tha t Hangtown article, second (rnoto) , and Bob ended up winAt the begin ning, we go t along fine; I though t Bob was a good person. He got ning the overall ." r ea l cocky when he s ta r te d winning, The ferocio usly de termined Hannah, though. I remember one time, Bob, Mike who later claimed, "1 would have won tha t day if I had square wheels," had Bell and myself were doin g an intervi ew won rou nd two, and with it, threw fuel together at the Houston Supercross. Bob on an alread y smoldering emotional fire started talking like a fool, and one of the between th e two fist-swinging , clubpromoter s cam e out and said, 'What's with this guy?' I don't know where th e wielding combatants. change came from with Bob. I'm a sim"I was so mad at him." Howerton admitted. 'There was a big uproar over ple person.:. I o n ly have a few close that race, and I gu ess it was both good friends. I see Hannah around onc e in a whil e, but he's not a friend." and bad . It hurt us, but was good for the Battle wounds someti mes ru n deep. sport. People remember that battle even today. [ guess he was at a big disadvanUnfo r tu na tely, Howert on ' s reign at the top of the Ll.S, motocr oss serapheap tage that yea r, because his bike was so slow and the Suzuki was so much bet ter. d id not last lon g. In a s trange twist of I was rea lly strong that year, and I feel fate, during the 1981 off-season, How erthat I had a lot more natural ability than ton was inju red in a non-competit io n Hannah. However, Bob had a trem en accident and missed virtually the en tire season. All of th e hard -earned mom en dous des ire to ne ver give up. Wh en I would follow him , I would always wontum he had created and built upon had der wha t he was d oing with hi s lines. now come to a screec hing halt. Lik e at Southwick, Ma ssachusetts (a "In 1981, I was in volv ed in an acci d ent a t m y o w n tra ck," Ho w erton no to r iou s ly rou gh a nd whooped-out sand circuit), he was all over the place rem embered . "O ne of m y friends had and using so much energy. He just had fallen and I stopped to help him. At the such a burning desire to beat me - I just same lime, this gu y came ov er a jump had better speed. and landed right on top of me . breaking "On e time that season, at Mount Mo rmy wrist. Right there, I was out for the "I was a mess, my jersey was tom L was bleeding and my d" was smashe . 30 season. It took nine months to heal, and I was n o t a b le to defe nd m y title or take a shot at racing the GPs in Eu ro pe, which I had been thinking about." Howerton came back to race in 1982 , but it was an ill-fated effort, as bo th he and Suzuki w e r e goi ng th rough major cha nges . However, throu gh a bit of clever maneuvering and foresight, Howe rton wo u ld have n ew lif e br eathed back into his career. " I had a n o th er yea r left in my Suz uki contract, but they were changing it lot," Hower ton sa id . "Th e effo rt w a s n' t the re . I st art ed talking to K awa saki because, at th at point, I wanted to do more than just r id e . r liked th e challenge of doing resear ch-and-d evelopment work. I had an option in my Suzuki contract that let me renegotiate; I went in asked for a ton of money, and they let me out of it. They ju st sto p ped paying me immediately . Kawasaki picked me up and we started tes ti ng immediately. I was amazed, because the bikes were so far off from the Suzukis I had been racing. "Roy Turner, the team manager, let me do anything I wanted to improve the bikes. At that time, Jeff Ward was still a you ng and naive rid er, and I was able to he lp him ou t a lot , as well. Ward w as a ctually h elping me out a lot , al so . I would have him and some of the other gu ys come down to my place in Texas, and w e would practice a gai ns t ea ch other. I knew I had to race these gu ys, so wh y 'n o t practice against th em? It all paid off for both the team and myself. Kawasaki had good people then, but no direction ." In 1983, Howerton proved tha t the old dog still had some life left in him as he ran an impressive second to Yama ha 's Broc Glove r in the AMA 500cc "l feel that I had a lot more natural ability than Hannah. However, Bob had a tremendous desire to never give up." <¢D-~ ationa! Championshi p Series. Most riders would be quite pleased with such a res u lt; fo r Howerton , however, something was missing. " I wo n m y la st N a tion al at Ga inesvi lle, Florida, in April, and by that time I was burned out," Howerton said. "I could n' t train at all because my knees were always hur ting. Later that year, I was sitting in the pits at the Wash ougal National in Washington, and I knew the time had com e. I was just riding around. Th e d esire was just go ne. Later, Ro y asked me if I wa nted to race wi th them anot her year. a nd I said, 'Roy, it's not Howerton (ri ght) and his mechanic Greg Amene combined eflorts to win th ree Nat ional MX Championships. good for m e o r fo r yo u if 1 s tay.' H e understood and that was it." So there it was. After 11 years, it was all over. However, before the gold watch and r etirement party, there was one more incandescent moment of brilliance to come for the old pro.-Utilizing a few cr eative li ber ti e s, Howerton and Kaw as aki bos s Tu rn er put their heads to gether, a nd went o u t and w on an event that was always dear to the Texan. 'The last race I won was the ABC 1V Superbike rs a t Carlsbad ," Howerton said quite fondly. " Ka wasa ki didn't want to race th e event, but Jeff Ward did, and he was the top guy on the team then, so they decided to do it. Roy Tumer knew I wanted to race it, and ordered a ton of spare parts for Ward. Once we had everything, he was, like, 'Hey, let's build a bike for Ken t, too.' I went ou t and won the race, and when they interv iewed m e o n n ati onal te le vi s ion, I an nounced my retireme nt." Fitti ngly, and deservedly, Howert on was able to ride off into the sunset as a win ner. Perhaps the most impressive element of Ken t Howerton's career was his tenacity - he wa s always there . For 11 years, the Rhinestone Cowboy, in some wa y, shape or form, was a winner. Wh ether his equipment was up to the task or not, Howerton always made the best of the situa tion, and in most cases came out on top. Just wh at made him so good for so very long? "I think what made me good was natural ab ility, good strength, and a stro ng will to succeed," How erton said aft er a long pause. "I put my mind to it that I. w a s goi ng to d o w ell. When I w as you nge r, I always liked to Slay home, so going ou t on th e ci rcuit was new a nd o ve rw hel m ing. T h e sport w as naive when I was racing, an d gu ys like Heikki .Mikkola and Brad Lackey nev er told us anything; they gu a rded th eir secre ts. They had th e edge. Today, th e young ra cers are able to ob tai n knowled ge everywhere, and it really helps them. "The sport is different now. It's better that th e r id ers make mo re mo ne y . I

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