Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INT TAPES HE BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU ost people acquainted w it h m e kn ow th at th ere are fe w t hi ngs th a t I lo ve m o r e th an mo torcycle racing, .especially AMA d irt tra ck ra cing. But th ere ha ve bee n times when I hate it, ha te it so much th a t if I turned a roun d and wa lked away right then, I wou ld never miss it. The day of August 7, 1997 - the d a y tha t the di r t tr a ck comm unity lost An dy Tresser - was one of those days. M I reme mber first seeing Andy Tress e r on a videotape afte r he won the Junior Na tiona l at th e Ascot s p ri ng race in 1990, before he wa s even an Expe rt, and a full three yea rs before I even took a job at Cycle New s. Wha t I vivid ly remember about that tape is tha t Andy was one of the first mot orcycle riders w ho I ever heard thank th e fans for coming to th e race w hen he was interview ed in the winner's circle. It made a huge impression on me. Because he didn't trav el th e en tire circuit, we weren't friend s like I am with so me of the rid ers, bu t we were friendly, and he wa s a Californian, so we were connected. Thou gh sometimes, when w e talked , I don't mind telling yo u that he could get on my nerves, beca use he was prett y militant abo u t ge tting his sponsors mentioned in print. It's not that he w as ever rud e - .Ju st the opposite. He was too ni ce . He would n icely tr y to explain to me why it was so importan t that I mention all of his spo nso rs whenever he did well in a motorcycle race. I w ould always try to be both pr ofessional and persuasi ve as I explained to him that it wa s damagin g to-a story for any writer to list everybody tha t ever handed a rider so me thing . And besides, he alwa ys call ed me Steve, an d that annoyed me a little, too. It was only later, as we talked about it a few times, th at I learned tw o things abo u t And y. On e of th em was th at he really was one of th e last true priva teers. His spo nsors were small in sca le. and there were a lot of them who did a lot of little things th at all add ed up to m ake his program. Som etimes he would even' ca ll and as k me to list cer ta in people based solely on what part of th e country we were in . Which brings me to the ot he r thing I learned abo ut And y a nd his spo nso rs: Money or support wa s not necessaril y the biggest issue with him. I pr efer to believe that And y really just wa n ted all of th e peo pl e w ho helped O YEARSAGO... U T31,1967 GUS n the cover of CN was Jim Nicholson, rid ing a Trium ph to his firs tever Ascot Half Mile ma in -e vent icto ry. Since taking over the Dudek Triph tw o weeks earlier, Nicholson had arne d two co nsecu tive second- place .des in Ascot main events before taking his w in' o ve r BSA -m ounted Sh o r ty eaborne and Dan Haaby in second and hird, respectivel y... Ducatis ru led th e . gham Short Track event in Washingon when Bob Budschat, Bob Strode and ale Cottrel finished first throu gh third , espectively, in the A main ... Fred Nix rode . Harley-Davidson to the win, over Mer! awwill (H-D), Roger Reiman (H- D), him to know just how much he appreciated the m, for w ho they were as well as for what they did. I wish he would've been more of a jerk about it, because it wo uld ha ve been easier to d eal with; but in truth, he never was , and he alwa ys thanked me for whatever I did for him. If no thing else, I learned to respect and appreciat e him even m ore for display ing such a po s itive a ttit u d e, e ven thou g h I could n' t hel p him much mo re. I di dn' t feel the overwhelming need to, anyway. He kept calling me Steve. I thi nk a lot of peopl e took him for g ra n ted for a long time . He was wellliked but just anot her one of those guys o u t th ere, runnin g aro u nd to fill th e field at a Grand Na tional. The only -dif. ference wa s that he was attracting alle nti on to himself by choosi ng to rid e a Ducati ins tead of a Harl ey-David son or a Honda on the half mil es and the miles. Sure, he was fast as heck on a TT course, and he wa s a brilliant short tra cker on his 600 as well, bu t so we re a lot of guys. And a Ducati? Why the hell bo ther wit h that? There was jus t no way that he was ever go ing to mak e it into a Gran d Nation al show with a Du ck. Right? Then he won the Peo ria IT in 1996. An d while Joe Kopp so thorou ghly stole the sho w that d ay th at it actually took some of the attention away fro m And y' s accomplishm ent, the record will always show that And y w as th e w inne r , an d that was good enough for him because he had acco mplished a goal. I remember what he told me that day. "Now I can go to sleep finally knowing that I won Peoria," he said. And then we all ro lled on to Rapid City, and he accomplished another goal. He put that damn Duca ti into a Grand National final when no one - least of all me - thought he cou ld, and he finished the race wit h it. It was the first time that I ever really thought that the bike had potential. a nd th e first tim e that I ever reali zed th at Andy Tresser had lots of po tential. He had to b e good , becau se I know in my heart that the bike was far from being rig ht yet. And he knew it, too. I thou ght he did a great job of defending his crown at Peoria this year, and I told him so. Sure, Kopp won and Parker wa s seco nd, but this year I wa tc hed And y more tha n tho se guys, and way more tha n I had in the previous yea r. It m ad e me feel good to see him doi ng well, beca use I knew how he bus ted his nuts just to ge t to th e races, how mu ch he loved to be at Peoria, and how th e payd ay would ce rtain ly ensure th at I wou ld see him at Rapid City. I could tell you that in re trospect I w ish he would have fallen off or not m ade th e sho w, because that wo uld have meant that he might not have shown u p fo r Sturgis Bike Week this yea r. But I know that he would have been there no matter what. And he was, and we talk ed as Andy rolled that 01' Duc k into the tech line at Black Hills Speedway just as I happened to be s ta ndi ng the re . H e sm ile d with that same o ld smile w hen he saw me, and then he d id the one th ing to me that he always di d w hen he gree ted me: He got my nam e w ron g. "Hi, Ste ve," he said. I di dn't bother ·to correct him. I we nt o n to as k him how the bi ke was ru nni ng, and if he had go tten any fu rt her w ith its d evelopment. He was excited to tell me tha t h e was p retty happy with th e extra horsepower th a t he'd found recently, and that he wa s a little bummed because he'd order ed a new s ingle -s hock chassis a n d taken d eli very o nly to fi n d some problem s with it. He'd sent it back and was hopefu l that it wou ld return soon. Th en he sa id some thing during the final part of our co nversatio n. It w as the last tim e that I ever spoke to him, and I'll always Gary Nixon (Tri ) and Neil Keen (BuI) at the Santa Fe Short Track in Illinois... Dick Welsh rod e his BSA Gold Star to the win . in the Open class at Carlsbad Road Races in California. w ell as Mike Bell, Rick Burgett and Pierre Karsmakers. Suzuki had their own theory on nabbing the champions hip, and put laPorte on multitime World Champion Gaston Rahier's wo rks bike from the U.S. an d Canadian rounds of th e 125cc GP series... The Latest Poop .reported that Roger De Cosler had switched to Yokohama tires and was helping in R&D. 2 0YEAR O SAG ••• AUGUST 24, 19n eam Yamaha's Broc Glo ver was on th e cover of CN after winning the AMA 125cc Natio nal Mo tocross Cha m pions hi p a t th e fin a l rou nd i n Texas, po sting a I-I moto score. Glover tr ailed Suz u ki's Danny LaPorte going in to th e fi na l round b y 10 points, so Yama ha entered every possible rider to get in betwe en LaPorte a nd Gl o ver, includ ing 125cc regular Bob Hannah as T remember him for it. 10 YEARS AGO." AUGUST 26,1987 a m Ho nda ride r and Bel gian Georges Jobe was on th e cover of CN a fte r winning his first 500cc Wo rld Championship title, and was featu re d in an interview, as well. Th e Netherla nd 's Kees Van d er Veen won TI "It's just a bumm e r th at I' m n ot going to be ab le to ride th is bike when we swi tch over to tha t new deal." "W h y n ot?" I said , "You 're leading the wa y, And y." " W ha t d o you mean?" " Th is is a p ro du ction-bas ed motorcycle eng ine . It'll be legal when those XR75 0s a nd H o n d a s a re lo n g gone. You 're going to be better off than a lot of these guys, because yo u've been play ing w it h th is thing long en ou g h, and I would think that you would be able to use that ext ra 250cc. You can bore it , s troke it, dest roke i t, do whatever yo u wa nt. You 've been struggling to do w hat everyone should 've been doi ng all along ." And I th ink it ma de An dy Tresser's day wh en he suddenly realized that he was an unwittin g pioneer in the development of the next gene ratio n of di rt tr a ck moto rcycles . You know, I hear now tha t he was finally on the verge of ge tting some reall y heavy support from the Du cati factory toward that end . I walke d away from And y Tresser tha t day, not knowing that less than 24 ho urs later, he wo uld be gone . And I'll always remember what he said to me as I bade him good lu ck and then head ed over to one of the team trucks to watch the start of practice. "Talk to yo u lat er, Steve:' he said wit h a smile. "I t' s Scott." "Yeah, I know it is: ' he said wi th that sam e old frie ndly sm ile. :'Oh, I see. Okay, Billy." "Later, Fred ." To Andy's family and friends , I wis h to offer my deepest sympathies. To his fellow competitors, I wa nt yo u all to sit back and realize, as I'm sure yo u must. that there is now a gapi ng ho le in th e fabric of the sports ma nship and ambassadorship in our sport, It wi ll only keep An dy'S m emo ry alive longer if we all wo rk our hardest to be as he was when it comes to putting our best foot forward for th e sa ke of di rt track racing. which Andy dearly loved . And as for me, I ju st wa nt to say, Godspeed, Andy. (~ Steve misses you. th e Lu xembourg G P, but [obe' s thi rdpl a ce finish ne tted him th e titl e ... Team Hond a'S Bubba Shobert came ou t on to p after a race- lo ng d uel w it h Harley-Da vidson' s Chris Carr to win the 39th running of the famed Peo ria IT in Illinois . Shobert finished the race in 11 m inutes, 17.391 seconds, breaking th e old ma rk of 17:18.458 set by Ricky Graham... Team Suzuki's Eric Kehoe scored the first Gra nd Prix wi n of his caree r by going 2-1 a t th e Steel City Ll.S, GP in Pitt sbu r gh, Pe n n s yl van ia . Mick y Dym o n d finis hed second and D ave Striijbos got th ird ... KTM pilots To m Moen and Steve Walker teamed up to win the District 38 Superstition 250 in EI '" Centro, California. .....

• Cover