Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

David Sadowski vis ual ins tructor at schoo l was also the same cop that was chasing me on the roads. I came hom e one night for dinner and the cop was sitting a t my seat at the table, explaining to my dad the 100-mph cha se w e'd just had on th e coas t roa d . Th ey ma d e a deal that I would n' t ride on the street like tha t any mo re, and that I co uld b e ex cused from s cho o l o n Thursdays to go up to Loud on to take a u t m y a ggress io n on the race tr a ck . Back then, you cou ld ren t the track from noon to 5 for 40 bucks. I trained myself to road race durin g those sess ions on the old Loudon track. From there, my best buddy, Peter Carroll, and I moved ou t to Californ ia and began club racing ou t the re. I got pr ett y good at it and mad e a name for m yself, a nd it kind of grew fro m ther e. I u nderstan d you moved around ~ lo t as a kid. Yeah, my dad was a Marine Corps . fighter pilot. Later he switched over to helicopters. One of the ways he kept track of us five boys was, any tim e we would ge t transferred to a new base, he would commission th e heavy equipmen t to bu ild a motoc ross tr ack a nd we'd be guarded by MPs w hile we were racing. Q A So how many times d id you move growing up? I thin k I h ad a bou t 28 different homes by the tim e I wa s 18. After my dad retired , we moved back to Ne,:" Eng land and I was ab le to go to the same school for four years. Tha t's where I deve loped as a hock ey p layer. By the tim e graduati on ca me around , I was going to make a choice: either go to college on a hockey scholarship and tryto get into the NHL, or go motorcycle racing. I chose to go racing. Q A By Larry Lawrence arlier this yea r, and wi tho ut much fanfar e, one of this country' s most successfu l ro ad racers of th e pas t tw o deca des quietly a n nounce d hi s retireme nt from racing. David Sad owski made the decision after suffering a tom Ac h illes' tend on whi le tr aini n g . For p rob ab ly the first time in his life, Sadow ski de cided to listen to his d octor and stay off the race track. While Sadowski may no longer be a regul ar o n raci ng grids , tha t doesn't mean he's not at the races. Sadowski is now p rovid in g co lor comme ntary for Fox Sp or ts Ne t in its coverage of th e AMA Supe rbike Series . From the begin ning, it was appa re nt that Sadowski was a natural in fro nt of the camera, and it's not inconceivable that Sadowski cou ld beco me as p opula r fo r h is television work as he is for his days of racing. Sad owski' s raci ng career spa nned the bet ter part of tw o d ecades. One of the last grea t roa d racer s to co me a u t of New Eng land, Sadowski wo n cha mpions hips in AMA Supersport an d Formu la USA, ra ced in the Suzuka 8 Hours, an d in 1990 h e w on America 's most prestigious race - the Daytona 200. Early in his racing career, Sad owski was kno wn as a wi ldly aggressive rider w ho w ould kn ock a fellow competitor into the weed s if push came to shove. Th e fift h so n of a Ll.S, Ma rin e Co rps colonel, it ' s easy to un d erstand h ow Sadowski ca me by his aggress ive p ersona lity. Over th e years, Sad owski's person a has changed drastically. O nce known as one of the sport's hell-rais ing rowdies, Sadows ki had the reputation of party ing as hard as he raced . And he was a bit a legend in the ra cing com m u nity for le tt in g hi s fists d o the tal kin g during after-hou rs confro ntatio ns . After marry- E 00 0\ 0\ .- 00 C'l l-< (l) .c o ..... u o 12 or ing his wife, Beverly, and becomin g the fa ther of tw o so ns , David Jr . a nd Mat thew, Sa dowski becam e· a bornagain Christian. He says his motto in life these days is, "Go d is not a secret to be kept. " Rath er than using his knuckles, Sadowski is now more likely to encou rage someo ne with a Bible verse. While no t totally ru ling outthe possibili ty of a comeback, it seems unlikely that Sa dows ki w ill race aga in. "Ski" appea rs to be comfo rtable wit h life after , racing, and he is looking forward to new challe nges. . Sadowski talked to us from his home in Geo rg ia , and h e provided us w it h sometimes surprising and often hu mo rous glim pses into the life and times of a struggling p rivateer as he spoke of the glory of w in ni ng one of th e wo rl d 's grea t races an d of the transition from renow ned hell-raiser to devou t fami ly m an. Q IS it true that you are retiri ng? l' m sort of forced to ri gh t n o w , becau se of my Achilles' (tendon) injury. The way my insurance is set u p th rou gh Lloyd s, they ha ve a two-yea r temporary d isab ility. At the en d of two years, if I can't get the strength back to 100 percent, th en I' ll ge t a permanen t pay-off. A Q So how bad is your injury? H really badly; then we nt A outwas dtomthreeonweeks aftetor suI rgery . an raced it again win the championship and rea lly hammered it. They borrowed so me m uscle fro m m y ca lfto b u ild a new tendon, an d it's been hell on ea rth tryin g to rehab the thing. Since the doctors don 't see a full recovery and the factory teams a re n' t knocki ng my d oo r d own , I' ve d ecid ed to kind of lay off her e fo r tw o yea rs . If I ca n ge t th e Inarguably, the greatest racing day of David Sadowski's life came on March 11, 1990, when he won the Daytona 200 on a Vance & HlnesYamaha, Sadowski shared Victory Lane with runner-up Randy Renfrow (left) and a young Doug Chandler (right). stre ng th back -. and I' ve been able to beat the odd s b e fore- then I m ight reconsider; bu t for now , I'm retired . So tell u s ab out your ve nt ure in to te l evi sion. Is th at k e ep in g yo u busy? . Television is kind of filling the void . I' m still ab le to get my fill of racing, just not fro m the sa d d le . It' s wo rki ng ou t really we ll. Over the las t four years, I' ve been ab le to d o shows for Speedvision , Fox and TNN. I've bee n involved in a lmo st a ll of th e major m otor cycle telecasts. I'v e been trying to d evelop a knack for TV, and while I'm at the races, I've been learn ing the in and outs of the TV industry. It's really interest ing. Q A YOU seem na ral Q devr elop thato have atary.tu Ho wtalent d id fo racing commen t.so quicRly? you few yea rs I a A AI wo uld like back,ndgotowncalledfrom Dave Des pa in , a he as k me how to come d and try ou t for our exper t a na lys t p ositi on. I went down to the stu d io and 20 minu tes la ter I saw hi m tal kin g to Chet -Burks (the producer of most of the roa d racing cove rage on Speed vision), telling him he thou ght they had found the man for the job. I just try to describe the race like I'm d escribing it to my mom. HOW get your start in racQ Iing?as did yo uon the New England w t and chased by the A seacoasriding ge ttingthat my au diocops. H just so happens It' S been sa id th at yo u were a very good hockey pr ospect. I never focuse d enoug h attention on , hockey because of the distraction of mo torcycles . But I believe that if I would have d ed icated half the time to hockey tha t I did to motorcycling racing, I cou ld have been in the N H L. I went agains t Dad's will to go mot orcycle racing, but as it turns ou t, we can shake hand s an d look each other in the eye and say tha t it's been a good dec ision for me. Q A Yo u see m to be one of th e last really fast roa d racers 10 come out : of ew England. G uys like Mike Bald", wi n, Rich Sch lach ter, Joh n Bett en cou rt, Dale Q uarterley, Jeff He ino .an d your," self gave thai region of th e country a reputation fo r prod ucing reall y fas t , racers. Why do you th in k so many top rid ers came out o f th at regio n in that, era? )j Rea ll y, I th ink i t was th e o ld I Loudon race track. Tha t race track was co nd ucive to learning ma k in g a track flow together fro m turn to turn. Th e r e was ba rely a ny s tra ig h tawa there an d it was all referen ce point s. It taug h t the rider to definitely distingu ish reference points on the track to kn ow . w here to steer in, make sure you hit the apex, and make su re you use all the race track at the exit. Those we re the thin gs ' Joh nny Bettencou rt was tea ch in g back] then and, of course, one of his major stu-? den ts was Quarterley . I pa id a lot of' attention to Bettencourt and Quarterley," Both 'of them we re very agg ress ive and kind of threw caution to the wind when! they pu t their helmets on, and that kindof ru bb ed off o n m e , W h en the o ld Loud on got torn do wn, it was the end of ' the br eed of rid ers up there that really k new' h ow to m a ke a tr a ck fl ow toget her . . A

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