Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the nation . However, it should be noted thatthe ama teur scene in the 1970s was nowhere near th e u ser -friendly Begin ner I lnterm edia te/ Pro-Am-division-forall-ages-and-skill-Ievels system that it is tod ay. In fac t, the ch ampionship wa s essentially a thr ee-mote, winner-take-all, only-the-strong-survi ve type of format. "Yea h, I sta rted w inning rig ht away and won everywhere we went," Barnett reca lled . "My first big win was "the 1976 AMA Ca n-Am Na tional Ama teur Championship. Th ere were three re gi onal races in the West, Mid west and East, and then a final, major national race in Baldw in, Kansas. I won all three motos at the final. My biggest competition, Leortard Che nza, broke his leg befor e the race, and Magoo (Danny Chandler) was next, but he did a lot of tumbling that day. With Ch en za out, the fina l was eas ier than the regionals. The next year, I had som e problems in th e reg ion a ls and never d id that well at the final." As another example of an era gone by - and very mu ch unlike the deadly seriou s ama teur scene tod ay - Barnett w as racing not so mu ch in training to build a p r o fes si onal career, but be cau se h e enjoyed it. "I wasn' t thinking a t all about being a prof essi onal then, " ad mi tted Barnet t. "Plu s, I w a s n ' t 16 yea rs o ld ye t and couldn't go Pro . Eventually, though, in 1977, I wa nted to try professional racing and hit the Na tionals as a priva teer for a sho p called C&B." So, in an effo rt to see if he had the "right stuff," Mark an d his mom packed up the van , pointed it west, and head ed for Ca liforn ia to ho p on board the Pro circuit. It was at that very point that the professional career of Mark Barnett was born. "A t fir st, m y mom a nd I drove to Sacramen to, Ca lifornia, to race my first N a tio na l," Barnett rem embers. "I d id w ell and finish ed 1Oth in the Nationa l, which was held a t the ol d Pl ymouth track. My next Nati ona l was at Keithsburg, Illinois, wher e I finished second to Bob Hannah in a mo to and I rode real well. I end ed up d oing pret ty well in the overall series, and Steve Wise just beat m e out for top privatee r . I rod e th e Trans-AMA th at fall and people w er e starting to notice me. I had a deal set up with FMF fo r th e se ries, but that fell throu gh, and th at reall y bummed me out. At that time, Pat Richter was scheduled to rid e th e . 2S0cc Support cla ss for Moto-X Fox but go t hurt, and they let me rid e h is bike . I en ded up winning a few races and finishing seco nd overall in By winning the last three Na tiona ls of the 1979 series (at Center Isle, New York; C h arl o t te , No r th Ca ro lin a; and St. Pet ersburg, Florida), Barn et t was mad e keen ly aw a re th at he was more th an capable of becoming a Natio nal Champion . Hungry for his first cha m pions hip, Barnett took matters into his own hands and began making preparations to knock off Glover . "The next year I wa s read y to win," Barnett recalled. "I thou ght that I cou ld beat Glover. Mentally, I felt tough. In 1979, I also mo ved to Alabama to practice and train. I used to rid e ther e as a kid when w e would go d own to visit family at Thanksgiving, and when my grandfather passed away, I inh erit ed the land. I got th e tractor out and s tarted turning the place into a practice facility. Thafwas the tu rn ing point for me. Every day I would ride and train like an animal. I used to run in th e sa nd dunes aro und Illinois, but I never knew how hard I cou ld push my self. Through the (Left) Barnett an d his tun er wait for the start of the Seattle Supercross In 1982. Barnett won his one and only 250cc SX title in 1981. (Below) Barnett was all business. For all intents and purposes, Barnett started the training revolution in motocross. own, I learned how to be a ha rd-ch arge r. In April of 1978, I won the National in Hou ston , Texas . Th en, a t the ne xt National at Omaha, Nebraska, I go t second ill the first moto. Then, in the second m oto, Glov er and I battled to th e last turn, wh ere I passed him for the overall win. It wa s a great feelin g to beat Glover, and it was nice to be an East Coast guy beating a Californian. I DNFed twice at So u thw ick, and aft er th e b ig su m me r break (i n th e m iddle to late 7 0s, th e AMA w o u ld o fte n take a big br eak dur~l in g th e s u m me r months), I se para ted m y shoulder at th e Atl anta N ational. I was done for the year, but I was still encouraged with my results, because at the same time the year before I was getting lapped." In 1979, Barnett came ou t swinging. Confident that he had the s peed a nd determination to defeat both Glover and his other nemesis, his talen ted Suzuki teammate Brian Myerscough , it all went wrong at a Southern California local race w here Barnett ended up on his head and in the hospital. "The week before Saddl eba ck (th e seco nd ro und of the 1979 seri es) at a lo cal tra ck in Fon tana, California ," explained Barnett, "I we nt over the handl ebars and hit my head and had to go to the hosp ital. I had a blood clot behind my eye and was told to sit ou t the race . I los t tw o mo tos right there . Af te r the summer brea k, I came back and rode s tro ng and won the last four mo tos of the year." \ " Bmng on 'Team Suzuki was a dream come true 'La. "or the points to Chuck m ' Sun . Midwa y )1 through the series at U nadilla, Mark Blackwell wanted to talk to me about racing for Team Suzuki. I was very excited about racing for them and was like, 'Where do I sign?'" (He laughs.) Now a member of the factory jet set, it di dn't take long for Barne tt to find his competitive feet. Thrown rig ht into the high -revvi ng AMA 12Scc hornet's nes t, Barnett sigh ted up the division's premier pilo t - Broc Glover, of EI Cajon, Califo rnia - as his prima ry target. "Being on Team Suzuki was a dream come tru e for me. (Roger) DeCos ter and (Sylvan) Geboers were my heroes wh en I was younger, a nd now here I was - a part of the team," said Barnett. " It was a lot d iffer en t th en . All of th e top guys were from California an d they got mos t of the exposure, but from bein g on my e" '. 25

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