Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TIME REMEMBERED Former 500cc National MX Champion Darrell Shultz "One time, I borrowed Steve Wi se's , \ ." - I I rental car and s tarted playin g ga mes on the hi gh way a rou nd a bi g I S-wh eeler, and the truck got sidewa ys and ran ove r the sid e o f the car - just destroyed the rig ht sid e of it. I went and told Steve, and he started scream ing at me, 'Darrell, I didn't buy the insu rance!' But som ehow, someway, he got away with it and the rental-ear co mpany let him go . I was rea l happy abo u t that because I didn't ha ve the $6000 to $8000 to pay for it." Hearing these stories - and a number of o the rs left off the record - one is led to ask the qu estion, "H ow did yo u gu ys get aw ay it?" "Usua lly, we'd park th e ca rs at the far end of the rental lot," laughs Shultz, "or just ge t out and start running for the plane." Altho u gh a number of myths a nd rumo rs about the actions of some racers shroud the early years of the spo rt in the United States, Shu ltz and his peers at the time were frighteningly comm itte d to th eir s p o r t. Su re , th ere was a wide path littered with s ma shed car s, broken hot el room s and tras hed banqu et halls , but the racers who competed in the early to mid- 1980s w ere so me of th e mos t p hysically fit a thle tes on the planet. Messing w ith any type of mi nd altering substance wa s out of the ques tion . r '" ~ Darrell Shultz never did go ba ck to ra cing - in fact, he seem ing ly vanished fro m the sport - but the demons that torme n ted him, and th e nagging internal voice that tried to poll him ba ck into the spo r t, are a ll now. a thi ng of th e past. Tod ay, he leads a happy and contented life i n orthern Ca liforn ia , a nd s till enjoys motorcycling immensely. " I live in McKinlevville, Californ ia, and I'm married to an' Idaho girl named Kellie - she was the o ne I wa s look ing for. To keep busy, I'm a general con tractor , build ing hou ses, and I trail -rid e a lot a nd spend lo ng d ays in the sad d le o n my d ua l sport bik e. Sometimes, I rid e 10 to 12 hours a d ay ab oard e i the r m y XR500 or CR500-co n verted d ual spor t bike . I'm leaving soo n to go to the high country in Idaho and scout uut so me ~"l planted my leg to try and~ save it and 'Iear-d a loud pop, My hnee was now a mess again." r-, 0'\ 0'\ ,...... ~ N .... (l) .c o .... u o 18 great du al sport ridin g terrain. I'm trying to find the best rid ing spo t in Ame rica for my d ual sport ridi ng tour compa ny . I wan t to devote my life to motorcycles. I wo uld love to have all the guys I raced with come out to my d ual s po rt rides and recollect on the good old da ys." N ow for the co mic relief: This story w ould not be co mplete without a few Darrell Shultz rent-a-car tale s. While it tuok a litt le e nc o ur age men t, S h ul tz o pe ne d up with a few in cidents that made him public e ne my num ber o ne w ith vi rtua lly ev e ry rental-car ou tfit in the United States . "Mos t of the fun ny s tuff I did is not s u ita ble for famil y re adin g, " admits Sh u l tz . "A lo t o f it re vol ved a ro u nd rental cars. \Vc'd arrive at the races back past and get bore . and the cars became d toys. I once saw Magoo rum a ren tal car int o a banana boat. H e ju m ped it off a loading d ock a nd sla mmed it so hard , it ben t into a s ha pe of a ban an a . He couldn't even open the d oor to get out. I just stood the re and wa tched him lau g h hyste rically . He thou gh t it was th e fun . niest thi ng in the world. sta r-ted drinhing a lot .... and figur-ed my life was over- now because ther-e - was no mang. " ~ " W e were th e straightes t g u ys arou nd ," exclaims Shultz immediatel y. "1 once Sow Donnie Hansen drinking a beer after a race, and I thou ght , 'You' re cr a zy.' We li ve d a n d breath e d motoc ro ss and, li ke I said be fore, th e o nly time we g o t into troubl e o r did an ythin g w ro ng wa s when we g o t bored ." Sp eaking p urel y as a n ent h us ias t, once, wh en I was 15 years old, I sen t a leller to Da rre ll Shu ltz. In th e let te r, I s ta te d th at I wa s a big fa n of h is because, to me , he epito m ized ~ v~ry thin g g reat ab out m otocross, He was fast , flash y and took big chances. A few months went by, an d I forgot all abou t the lett er. Eventua lly, a p a ckage add res sed to me arrived from California , and within it was a cool handwr itten le t te r a n d a jer s ey frum Darrell Shultz. To say I was s toked is a major u nd ersta tement . Today, so me 15 yea rs lat er, I s till be lieve th at Darell Shu ltz, wit h his well-d ocumented stint in pro-fess ional racing, is a major pa rt of the fo lklo re of Ame rica n m otucrus s. His caree r was an incand escent flash of brilliance that burned out much too quickly . Ho wever, his burn ing courage and des ire to win , wh et her he knows it o r not, have left an indelible mark on the soul of this g reat spo rt. Upon being asked if there wa s aoythin g he wou ld like to ad d to this story, Sh ul tz th ou gh t fo r a m inut e , an d rep lied : "I never got to say thanks to the private- sector sponsors w ho helped me out early in my caree r and gu t me on the roa d - the guys that all read Cycle News. I wan t to say I app recia te wh at they d id for me in ge tting me started in profession al racing . I read Cycle Nett's every week, wo rd fo r wo rd, and I'm so into the sport now that I can tell you anything about it. I wa nt to be able to rid e until I go to heaven. " .~ All is well with Darrell Shultz.

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