Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW ~y S cott Rousseau reg Crow probably wo uld n' t be too u p se t if yo u d idn' t kn ow who he was, even if you considered yourself to be pretty big d irt track fan . In fact, it may be one of his biggest streng ths . Fo r in th e sc he me o f AMA G ra nd N ationa l C h a m p io ns h ip r a ci n g , in whi ch the nam es of top tun ers are often bandied abou t wi th the same frequency as those of the top rid ers, Crow does no t ye t ca rry th e sam e weig ht as Werner, Eake n, Goa d or Ad kins . But th at 's okay, becau se the lack of hero worsh ip sets pretty we ll wit h the 38-yea r-o ld Barto nville, Illin ois-ba sed crew chief of the Gardner Racing /WaIters Bro thers Harley-D avid son racing . team, for whom u p-an d -coming Washingt on rider Dan Stan ley has twisted the throttle for abo ut a season and a half. Crow rem ains pretty u nassum ing, and perhap s that is a surprising at trib ute for so meone w ho has practical ly mad e a caree r ou t of d irt track racin g from all sid es of the sport, wheth er as a rider, an AMA official, or now , as he wo rks qui.e tly a n d me tic u lo us ly to prepare th e equipment that S tanley rid es each week, as a mechan ic. He' s been around, an d he ap pears to be far from finished yet. In fact, we cau gh t up wit h him not as he was sp inni ng wren ches, but as he was p ounding n ails, working tow ard th e completion of a brand-new 250o-squa~e foot sho p - com plete wi th a dynam ometer - in Peoria, near his home. With his combination of background, ti reless effo r t and an eye tow a rd th e futur e, it ' s a fair bet that Crow isn't goi ng to re main one of di rt tr ack raei'.'g' s best-k ep t secrets mu ch lon ger, bu t we thou ght it w as ' tim e that yo u heard his sto ry now . You're not u n li k e a lot of peo ple i n your fi eld in th at you started out as a rider. How did you ge t sta rted? G 16 %AMA ,g Grand National mechanic Greg Crow [ started racin g mot ocro ss w hen [ was 15, and then my bro ther bough t an old di rt.track er. There used to be an old half mile in Pottstow n (Illinois) , and [ got to riding ou t th e re w h en h e s ta rted . Th e n h e decided that ( was nu ttier tha n he was, so he just let me ride. He supported me for abou t five yea rs there, and you kn ow how you ge t this stuff in yo ur veins . You've just got to hav e it. An d yo u w ou n d u p turn in g Expert, and wound u p earn ing Gra nd National number 61. Yeah, I turn ed Expert probably in abo u t 1984. I rode for myself, and the n I qu it for a few years a nd went th rou gh a n electrical apprenticeship p rogram to try and secure a fu tu re for m yself. Bu t I came back to raci ng becau se [ missed it, missed the travelling on the weekends a nd stuff. And ac tu a lly , w he n I ca me b a ck , th at ' s w hen I di d be tter th an befor e. Your program th e n wa s a b o u t as impoverished as a pri vateer' s can get, wa sn 't it? ( had my ow n 600... Well, me and Steve (Ga rd ner) were in on th a t d eal. Then Steve's dad, Charlie, had an XR750 that was in pieces. And I said to him , "Hey , wh y don 't you let me have that and pu t it toge ther, and when I'm done wi th it I'll sell it and just give you the money." Ch arlie tried to di scourage it. He sa id , "You d on't wanna go doing tha t aga in." An d I sai d , "Yea h , I d o ." So th en he said, "Well, I'm not gonna tell you yes, and I'm not gonna tell you no. You take it from there: ' At the time, Billy Wiebler was w orking for Steve, and [ went ou t to his sho p and gathered all the old junk up. They had an old Law will frame an d a '78 m otor. [ put it a ll toge ther an d came back racin' . Did you ever make a Grand National? Th e only one I ever mad e w as Fresno (mile). I jus t missed tw o that same year I mi ssed Parkersburg, Virgi nia, by one. sp ot and O kla ho ma City by one sp ot. Tha t one' s th e yea r that it was on TV, and I was the only gu y on the front row, a nd then I b low th e not ch going int o tu rn three (laug hs). Bu t that was the bes t yea r that I ever h ad . I mad e en o u gh money d oing ou tlaw races to make the Na tiona ls for 16 weeks in a ro w. That was kind of nea t, because I wasn 't taking any mo ney ou t of the homestead to keep going. T he n , tha t win te r, I was build in g everything like I was going racing aga in, and then one of the guys that was helping me wanted to ge t out. That's wh en Bruce Bobe r offered me tha t technicalinspector job wit h the AMA. Tha t was arou nd ' 92, I guess . I d id th e job fo r abo u t thr ee yea rs. What wa s tha t p osition like? The onl y thing that I could say is tha t, for one, it's a hell of an experience. You ge t to m eet a lo t of peop le, and I' ve ' mad e a lot of friends from it. Bu t then you get put in to situ atio ns whe re yo u migh t make an enemy , like the time that I had to d isquali fy Ronnie Jon es a t Du Qu oin for being a pou nd too ligh t. Ron nie is a good friend of mine and (the ntu ner) Rick Canode is a good friend of m ine . An d it' s pre tt y d is h ear te n ing when you ' ve go t to d isqu alify a guy after you kn ow how hard he 's worked to finish where he d id, and just pull the rug ou t from underneath him. But the ru les are the rul es. But, you know, I learned a lot , an d lik e I said , I met a lot of good p eople ' from the other side of it. But it go t to the p oint in th at deal where it seem s li ke every w eek there' s a problem. And I always looked at it fro m the stand point of a racer, not an officia l. I w anted to give everybody an oppo rtu nity to get on the race track, becau se I know how hard they had to work to ge t there. An ything I cou ld d o to try and give th e guys a cha nce to ge t on the race track, whether it was talking to Bru ce or what e ver , I . ~ would try and do. And that's where the bigges t d isapp ointment came , because you think that you can come in and correct a lot of thin gs that wo u ld make it better for the avera ge guy, an d it's like it all falls on d eaf ea rs. It' s a lot of politics, and yo ur life never slows down. It just go t to the point where I didn't see that I cou ld help change anything. So y o u mu st ha ve d e v elop e d y o u r mechanical aptitude for b oth that job an d yo ur cu rre nt gig b ack w hen yo u were raci ng ? Yeah, I'd say back in 1980. I bough t my first XR, an d Charlie Gardner had Steve Eklund rid ing for him. And it go t to be a joke becau se they had a bu cket o ut of th e s ho p w it h m y nam e on it. They' d throw all their old junk in it, and I'd use that stu ff to build my bikes, you know? It was like th ey'd b e th ro wi ng a w ay stuff tha t had th ree races on it, but hey, that cam beari ng looks plenty good to me (lau gh s). Cha rlie had pretty goo d ties to the fac to ry b a ck th en, and Carl Pat ri ck worke d with Cha rlie for w hil e, Me rt Law w ill worked w ith C ha rli e for a w hile, Har ry Lillie w orked with him. So, w it h me ba sicall y bein g like Charlie's s tepchild , [ w as ou t th er e all the tim e, and [ go t to see this and that , and I got to w ork wi th some really talent ed peop le. And then, even w hen Billy Wiebler w as out ther e, working with Charlie and Steve, [ got to helping him . And actually, th e last Astrod om e IT that Eklu nd w on , he was on a 500 that I built. And the la s t Santa Fe, that wa s o n one of Charlie's bikes tha t I bu ilt . So I have been at this for quite a while, bu t a lot of people don 't see that or rem ember me. A n d n ow he re y o u are, with a new s hop, a nd it w ould seem tha t you're gearing u p to work h arder, than you ever have. How.do you stay motivated? I love building'em, and I love watchin g 'em go around the race track. Su re, it' s disappointing a t times; Loo k, at ,Lima.

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