Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

After a stint as the totalitarian ruler of the highly competitive Northern California scene, Chandler got serious. Armed with a small budget and a couple of RMs that had been seriously worked over by DG, he jumped headfirst into the fray of AMA professional motocross. "In 19,,7 I hit the Nationals full time and was sponsored by Ready Mix. They gave me a budget of $15,000 and we Went down to Southern California and bought DG Suzukis with it. The year went good, and I was able to run with guys like Bob Hannah, but I crashed a lot. Then, in 1978, I rode the Nationals on a Suzuki RMt25 sponsored by BJ Cycle in Pittsburgh, Kansas. I did pretty well and my best finish that year was a third overall at the Trabuco Canyon (California) National. I should have won that race. I got the lead in both matos, but got tired and let (Mark) Barnett and (Broe) Glover go past me. Later in the season, Jim Moore, Bob Moore's dad, who operated Pro Trac Trailers, offered. to help me and gave me some sponsorship." "In the la te 1970s, I was sponsoring a couple of local guys in Northern California and Danny caught my eye," said Jim Moore, Chandler's first significant sponsor in the sport. "I gave him bikes and parts and support on the road. He was a wild man and had a lot of talent. I knew then that if we could get him going in the right direction, he could be a World Champion. In fact, I remember once at Hangtown, he had a get-off while wide open in fifth gear. He and the bike must have flown 150 feet. The bike went one way, and he the other. However, he got up, dusted himself off, and got back on and took off. With that kind of desire, I . knew he could be a winner." On the eve of the 1979 season, Chandler joined forces with Maico. A mete shadow of what they· once were in America (and around the world, for that matter), the German marque hoped the young Turk would help breathe life back .into their fast-crumbling brand name. "In 1979, I raced a metal-tank Maieo 250," said Chandler. "After the season opener at Hangtown, we went down to Wheelsmith Maieo in Southern Califor. nia and did a lot of motor work on the bike. We would drill au t parts to shed weight and' do anything else we could to make it lighter." Then, on a sunny April Sunday afternoon on the outskirts " ...My of Orange County, California, Danny Chandler pulled into. Saddleback Park and,: pu t in a performance that became legend. Mounted on the big and loud Maico, Magoo crossed swords' with the world's thenpreeminent motocross rider - Bob Hannah. And much like Steven .speilberg's first movie, "Duel," Chandler stalked the champion - his image filling up his quarry's rearview mirror - to the point that Hannah feared for his safety and well-being. "At the first race at Saddleback, we passed each other back and forth throughout the entire first mota. I remem ber tha t, after Banzai Hill, we would come up towards the announcer's tower, and I would wave him (Hannah) by," Chandler recollected with a laugh. "I was playing total head games with him. I always wanted to beat him in the worst way and I was doing every- thing I could to intimidate him. TlJere was a set of jumps there that day, and during the first practice session, I looked at it and knew I was going to jump it. That's how I always was: If I thought I could do something on the track, I would do it. I did the first practice lap, and on the very next lap, I jumped it; it was so cool. During the next few laps, all these spectators started watching the jump, and 1. would just whip the bike and get the rear tire out towards the fence and push them back. I loved doing that - pushing the spectators back from the fence. I was the only one doing the jump and everyone was just blown away. I was like: 'What's up?' I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Eventually, Hannah' had to do it in the race, as well. In the first mota, I led for a long time but got tired and got second. In the second mota, the engine blew up. I believe it was due to the fact that we had been cutting the back skirt off the piston, and we just stuck one." "That day at Saddleback was very memorable," said Jim Moore. "He was the first one to clear the big jump there in fact, I think they began calling it the 'Magoo Double Jump.' He was always pulling stunts like that. Also, there was a big north vs. south thing going on then. We were all from Northern California and racing in Southern California was a big deal for us. I knew he could beat Bob there; we talked about it beforehand. In fact, I knew that Danny could beat anybody." Greg Arnette, the curren t visionary behind Arnette sunglasses and a former. mechanic and team manager on the AMA motocross circuit, and who was at Saddleback that afternoon, remembers: "Bob would pass him, and Danny would pass him back. Danny was run- . ning that big Maico, and I think something even fell off it during the race, but he kept going a t it with him. When my ~'. they came to that big uphill double jump, my which was like a big ditch with another jump up above it, Magoo would hit it, jump, and land way . up the hill. I remember Hannah just shaking his head like, 'You're crazy.' Hannah would catch him in a.nother sec. tion of the track, but then Danny would just fly over his head over the jump." . Shortly after the Saddleback National, Chandler experienced a few nagging injuries that ultimately sabotaged his season. As a result, he returned to Foresthill and regrouped for the 1980 campaign. "1980 was another Maico year and it didn't go very well. I lost my mechanic, Bill Duprado, who had a big fight with Maieo over the bikes. We weren't getting the things we were being promised by Maico, and I was just a kid and bike was .. my strength, world, and domajn - I was never intimjdated when I was on .. " I". In 1982, Chandler also won the made-forTV Superbikers race at Carlsbad. didn't want to lose my job. Eventually, things went to shit with Maico and I had to look elsewhere for help. In 1981, I rode one of the new water-cooled RMI25s, again for Jim Moore at Pro Trac Trailers. Jim gave me a trailer, and paid for gas and food. I spent a lot of time on the road and was growing as a rider. I was riding good and.it was really a boxstock era in my career. I was riding primarily stock stuff, but I was happy because I just wanted to be there, racing." After finishing ninth in the 1981 AMA 125cc National Championship point standings - his first top-10 finish Chandler returned home and began working the phone in an attempt to put something together for 1982. It was there that he fielded the phone call that changed his professional career. "Later in 1981," said Chandler, "I was up at my house in Foresthill trying to get a KTM deal put together, as I was really ready to go racing again. Suzuki was helping me with a bike, parts and a truck, but I was hoping for something bigger. I got a phone call out of the blue from the guys at LOP racing. Jim Tarantino, who was riding for them then and getting ready for the Trans-USA Series, had broken his foot, so LOP gave me a call and asked, 'Want to ride for us?' I flew to Illinois and began testing the Honda 480, which was just great, on their private track with Mike Brown. "The Trans-USA opener at Mid-Ohio was my first race with the team, and I won both motos. I.went on to win every mota in the series but one, and everything was so cool. I had a box truck, mechanic, and Team Honda was supporting them, so 1 had great equipment and my head was beginning to swell as 1 gained more confidence. 1 was able to practice a lot and really get around the race scene. 1 was really starting to take . the sport more seriously, as well. 1 had quit smoking pot when 1 was 18 or 19. That may not sound very good, but coming from the hills of Northern California, where they grow a lot of that stuff, there was 'always a lot of it around. 1 knew the LOP ride was the break I needed. I was running and training harder than ever and that really helped me." Through the LOP ride, and a lot of talent, determination, and tenacity, Chandler had arrived - rubber side up a t another level. Through the insight and clairvoyance of a championshipwinning mechanic named Greg Arnette, Chandler had totally capitalized on the big break with which he had been provided. "Greg Arnette helped get me picked for the LOP team. He had taken a real shine to me and took me into his house when we were on the road and helped coach me. Greg was the one guy 1 finally listened to; 1 really respected what he said." "1 coached him along the way," Greg Arnette recalled from his home in "FJorida. "1 was running Honda's production team then and it was our job to prove that Honda's production bikes could win. 1 had to teach Danny that you just don't g9 crazy and have to win by a ,'mile. You don't go out and jump over everybodY's head, get a big lead/then crash. 1 told him that firsts, seconds and thirds won championships. It took me' forever to beat all that into his head. "We gave him bikes through LOP, which supported him as a team," continued Ar11€tte. "1 knew he had all the. talent in the world, but no one had coached him on how to win. He would just screw the throttle wide open, and 1 really had to work with him and preach that you need to be consistent - 1 brought that to him through my work with Kent Howerton. 1 kept teaching him that it was okay to hold third place in a mota if it got you the overall. We'd work with him before and during the race and always tell him where he was on the track. It all took a little while, but he caught on and we would keep explaining: 'This is how you win championships. Don't get bummed out if you get a third- or a fourth-place finish in a moto.' "Dave Arnold and 1 worked closely together. Part of my job was to help the production guys slide into the factory team. We would always communicate together, then stand back and look at the production guys and decide who had the talent to ride for Team Honda and be a champion. 1 remember telling Danny during the 1981 Trans-USA Support Series, 'If you can win this series, and show confidence, and smart riding, it could open the door for a full factory ride with Honda, which would provide you with works bikes and a good salary.' With that, he saw the light and ended up winning the title. No one thought he could do it, but he did." That off-season, Team Honda came ca lling, and Chandler was signed to a full factory deal with the world's most powerful motocross team. Through the help and advice of others, Chandler was called up from the "farm team" in order to take his place on the works squad in "the big show." "Greg Arnette was the one that told me I had to calm down," explained Chandler in regard to his new job at the factory. "And that was a daily issue with me - 1 mean even my mom was telling me that. Between Greg and Roger DeCoster and Dave Arnold at Team Honda, I ended up with a factory ride. Roger DeCoster helped me out so much. I'd come in all pumped up after riding. a 45-minute mota and sit in a lawn chair to try and calm down, and I wo'uld just watch him relate with the mechanics and the riders. You could tell immediately that he knew so much and I had so much respect for him." "We had a big su pport team at the time that was being ru n by Greg Arnette," Roger DeCoster said. "Danny was already on a Honda at LOP and we were looking at him for the Honda support team. We could tell right away that he was much faster than anyone on that team, and we eventually snagged him for the factory team. We were looking for someone with charisma and color. We felt that the factory team needed to be lightened up a little bit and tha t . Danny would fit in well. While O'Mara, Hansen and Bailey were grea t, they didn't have the same amount of charisma as Danny. It all worked out well. Danny never won a championship, but

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