Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

T REMEMBERED IME hanging over the fence cheering , a nd I even tua lly had to dodge the beer cans they were throwing uut onto the track in m y su p po rt w he never I rod e by . It a ll gave me goose b u mps. The Maico was the best mot or cycle there that d ay. The Mateo wa s jus t legend ary on slick, hard tra cks, a n d th e bi ke was jus t unbeli evable that d ay." Soon th e r eafter, the facto ry team milnllgers - with contracts and pen s in hand - beg an lu rk ing aro un d in t he sha dows su rroundi ng his box van . Team Suzuki conju red u p the best o ffer, and Darrell Shultz was now o ne of the elite one of the factory con tingent. "Ma rk Blackwell hired me to ride for Team Su zu ki, and I figured , 'Any thing that I do now is just icing on the ca ke:" ad mits Shul tz. "I knew that I had made it. My first yea r on Ma ico, I respected all of th e rid ers . But w hen I we nt to Suzuki, I started to hat e everybody. My d ad was my mechanic at Maico and at Suzu ki, and it all worked ou t grea t. He loved me and pushed me hard to race not like C h ris Hain es later a t Team Hond a . That g uy was a s lave d r iver." Shu ltz laughs. Although he wa s now a me mber of the corpora te elit e, it would tak e Shultz tw o years to ca lm d own - as much as Shu ltz cOll ld calm d own - and find his 7Y, win ning fo rm. In l Y the new recruit fin ished out th e season seve nth in the A MA 500cc point s tandi ngs, while in 1980, he placed a dis ta nt fifth in points to class champion (a nd te amm ate ) Kent Howerton. However, in the early spring of 1981, Shultz caught fire and my teamm ates a ll that mu ch . There w ere ce r ta in ly a lo t o f egos on th at team ." Sh ult z, using newfound confiden ce an d pati ence, proved himself a worthy ad d itio n to th e big red "d ream team:' win ning: the prestigious Daytona Supe rcross on Ma rch n, 1982. However , w hile the d eadl y se rious Team Honda ope ration was a ll b usi ness, S hu ltz an d hi s tea mma tes still fou nd a way to have a few yuks wh ile on the clock. fire road cut through it. Goat Breker and I were walking the track and we could see that it would be a very fast downhill sectio n of the cir cuit. Goat s aid to me, ' Yo u know , Magoo's goi ng to jump thi s: We both shoo k o ur head s becau se we knew it was tru e. Su re eno ug h, in practice, he ju m ped it im me dia te ly, so we had to go out and ju m p it, too. During the r a ce , I missed it o ne ti m e a n d the impact knocked my hands right off the bars and I just managed to rid e it out. I won there as well, and it was now mv thi rd National win in a ro w . Th en , wh ile doin g a local race a t Carlsbad , Ca liforn ia, I tor e a big chunk ou t of my knee while battling wi th Mag o o . I planted my leg to try and save it and i"""~:~~:;=::~~~;~::~!!!11 "Su zu ki w as grea t. I remember the began his winning ways.- ou r bikes were year we started winning " I remember one rocket ships. My first two years on the time, w e hod 0 team meeting that team were a lot of lead ing and crashi ng out. I remember being in the hospital a also included alI the Bcteam gu ys, wh o we had been fighting with," d escribes lo t. In fact, I rode most of the second ye or with a broken wrist. In 1981 , Shultz. "We were all in this hotel room thou gh , I won both nigh ts at the Seattle the night before the Daytona Supercross, Supercross and the Dayton Supercross. I and Roger DeCoster wa s walking aroun d and talk ing to alI o f us very serious ly. als o led a moto at the Carlsbad 500cc After a few minutes, he says,' 0 matter U.S. GP , bu t 1 go t heat exhaustion and wh at happens, no ma tter who is in your cras hed int o the cro wd ,"] felt it coming o n w hile I was le adin g the race, but I way o r blocking you, we 're going to win kn ew I was go ing to wi n or pass out tryDaytona to mo rro w!' And with th a t, he goes to take a seat on the couch an d sits in g . I e nded up (going ) throu gh th e fence and int o a lawn o n a w hoopee cu shio n ~ that j o hn n y O 'Mara >.. chair. (The crash was caught on tap e d urhad p ut ben eath him . "I had tile classic idiot Man, was he mad a t in g AB C' s "Wid e attitude and refused to show World o f Sp o r ts" that. The next d ay a t anybody any respect." ~ Day tona we nl pe rfect. cove rage .) I was a I hol eshot every hea t b ig trainer t h en - I ~ never dran k a beer , o r race and the main. I really liked sand tracks - the rougher the better a ny t hing . But with a ll of the injuries, there's onlv so much you can d o wh en - a nd Da yt on a was in grea t form that you 're always hurt: ' • d ay . They threw a big viclo ry party for During the of f-season , Team H onda me that night. Roger and Da ve Arn old su p po rt-tea m over lo rd G reg Arnett e a re talkin g to a ll of u s , and johnny O' Ma ra ge ts bored, like he always d id , a pproached S h u ltz a bo u t joi ni ng and chucks a biscuit at me. I ducked it, Hond a 's powerful fa ctory squadron . Impressed with Shultz' se ven th-p lace and it missed, so I hurled one back and I position in the ultra-competitive AMA hit the president of Honda's worldwide 250cc Supecross final point stand ings , racing effort in the neck. Every thing went Hond a was looking for a rid er to comqu iet. and O' Ma ra yells an d points at me: pete a boa rd the ir d a zz ling and exo tic 'It was Shult z! Shultz threw it!' I seriousIy thou ght they we re going to fire me. At works RC250 in the stad iu ms , and o n fir st , nothing happen ed and th e party the awesome, arm-w renching 500 in the uutd oo r se ries. S h u ltz jumped at th e moved on. Later that evening. the radng op portu nity. guy comes over to my area carrying a big cake . 1 thought, 'How nice, he's going to "G reg Arnette fir st talked to me give me a cake: A few secon ds later, he abo u t joining Team Hond a:' ex pla ins Shultz . "1 expressed int erest in the team grabs me by the neck and buries my face into it. We aUgot a big laug h out o f that and he got Dave Arnold to come talk to especially O' Ma ra." me. I was so excited! The trick Pro- Link Then it a ll became serious. On May H ondas we re by far the best bikes from 1981 to 1983 and I realIy wanted to race 16,1 982, the AMA 500cc Na tional Champi onship Se ries kic ked off in the d ee p on o ne. I signed o n to the tea m w hic h included Magoo Cha ndler, Chuck Su n, san dbox of So ut hwick, Massach usetts, David Bailey, Do nnie Hansen, johnny and with it came Darrell Shul tz' s yea r of O' Ma ra, and myself. I d idn't rea lIy like livin g d angerously. r --------------=====.. b ~ ~ CI ~ ~ r-, 0\ 0\ .... 0\ N .... aJ .D o .... u o 16 "Howerton, Barnett and 1 never got along, but it never bothered me - I'djust as soon ram them, too." " Ke n t H owerton won th e first Na tio na l at Southwick: ' says Shultz after a few moments of thought. "In th e first m oto, I w ent 100 ya rds d own the start straight and just go t torpedoed d own by someone. I got up and my face was full of sa nd . I was go ing to go back into th e pits, but I sa w DeCost er sta nding there, and the look on his face said , 'Don't eve n think about it: So I got it toge ther and took off and ended up in s ix th, but I was jus t dead . Moto tw o wen t a lo t be tter, an d I think I ended u p third overall that day. "We th en we n t on tu Muu n t Mor ris an d I had the best race of my life. I won my firs t-ever National wit h a 2-1 overall. I was just fast and consistent that afternoon. The ne xt Na tio na l was a t Road Atl anta an d the sa me thing happened . I was racin g with Magoo, Kent Howerton, Mi ke Bell a nd Alan Kin g in th e fir st mo to, and jus t sta rted to pull away for the " in. In the seco nd moto, I ended up with a 15-second lead on Kent I Iowerton , and I guess he swap ped bad in the wood s and broke his leg. What was we ird abou t the inciden t is th at a few mon ths later, I read in a magazine that Kent said tha t I had caused it. I couldn' t believe it! But Kent and I never go t along a t all. We st arted o ff on a bad not e at Team Su zuki when I went a rou nd and to ld a fe w people that I was making more m one y than him. That kind o f started it. Howerton , Barn ett and I never got along, but it nev er bothered me - I'd jus t as soon ram them , too . They were s u ch b land g uys a nd se rio us r acers. They never had any fun . "The next race wa s a t Castle Rock, Colorado, and it was, eas ily, the fastest track I had ever rod e. I remember tha t there wa s th is mountain there, and a big heard a loud po p. My kn ee wa s now a mess ag ain . I had tw o ort hoscopic surg eries d one on the kn ee to keep me o n the bike an d ge t me to the next , ation al at Bin gh amto n, N e w York. I got thr ou gh b oth Bin ghamto n and Bu ch anan , Mi ch ig an, in g ood s ha pe ; then we had over a month off before the ne xt Nationa l a t Washo ugal, Was hington ." While the AMA 500cc series was off nearl y the en tire mont h of Jul y, all was not well with Dar re ll Sh u ltz . Battered a nd brui sed , he sc u rr ie d back to his home in Santa Cruz, Californ ia, to let his thrashed body recu perate. 'The knee was definitely giving signs of a bad future, and 1 cou ld do nu training or riding a t all : ' lam ents Shultz. "I w ent back to Sa n ta Cru z, Ca lifo rn ia , where I was living at th e time, and I would just go 10 the beach, lay arou nd a nd go to the d oct or to g e t my knee drained. Then , the week before Washou ga l, my mechanic, Chris Haines, drove up to my house in San ta Cru z. My knee was just killing me and Chris says to me, 'O h, come on, jus t go rid e it ou t!' So we go find a place to rid e, and I'm just riding arou nd - sitting on the bike the entire time because I couldn' t stand up at all. I hit a ju mp and la nd ed a nd something felt bad - like I had a bad mu scle - pull in my back. I just handed the bike ove r to Chris and we left. On the way [rome, we stopped to eat, and w hen I we nt to pay the bill, I stre tched over the tab le and my lung collapsed! I coul d n't breathe and I was just freaki ng out! Haines looks at me and says, 'Well, yo u be tter d rive to the hos pital: "At the hospi tal, the d oc tor told me that I had a punctured lung. I d id n't

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