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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127966
Barn es ran up to me and took my helmet off. It wa s on fire from dragging on
the ground . After th a t wipe out, I
noticed that the pain in my back had
diminished. I went back and got another
checku p, and all th e rods in m y .back
were straight again .
g
Let' s just say it was a very heat ed
A team battle between tw o very determined rider s.
g
T h e friction between you two
seemed to reach its peak at Brainer that year. Tell us about that incident.
We w ere 70 yards from finishin g
one and tw o, ahead of Scott. Russell
in the 600 Supersport final. Coming int o
the last turn on the last lap , Thomas lost
the front end right before the finish line.
His bike hit my rear wheel and I highsided bigger than I had in my en tire life.
I came down and rebro ke my collarbone
that Dr. Kieffer had jus t finished plating.
I th ink th e Lord was w orkin g on m e
right then, because I got up and didn't
react to the incid ent. I just told Thomas
th at I was real so rry th at it had happ ened . A few minutes later we were
both sitting in the team trailer, grindi ng
our teeth, looking at each other, and he
look ed at me and said , "I' m real sorry
th at h appened , too." Ty p ica l m edi a
thing - I think they exaggerated the fact
that Thomas and I were having a heated
battle. It did interfere wi th us becoming
good buddies until abo u t 1994 or so.
N ow we can talk to each other and actu all y en joy each other' s com p any. If he
could bottle up th e determination that
he had that year, Thomas wo u ld be at
the front of just about every race - if he
w as on a bike that was capable.
A.
YOU hurt more than just your collarbone in that Brainerd crash,
di n't you?
O h, yeah . I land ed sq ua re on m y
A ass and totall y d estroyed a d isc in
my back. That set the season in a downhill spi ral from there. My legs wo uld go
numb. As a ma tter of fact, the very next
week was Lou d on . I ro de a t Loudon
w ith a brok en co llarbone t hat was
gr in di ng agains t a ben t p la te with
screws sticking out. It's still like that ; I
never had it fixed . I high-sided again at
Loudon. I told Jim Leonard (the Vance
& Hines crew chief) at that poin t that I
couldn't rid e the Superbike th e way I
Q
In the beginning, there were 250s.
Sadowski went to California early in his
career and honed his skills riding in the
250cc GP class.
needed to rid e it. So from that point on,
they focus ed their attention on Thomas'
Su perbike and he became the A rid er
and I just tried to soldier around and
focu s my limited energy on Supersport.
By the end of the year I had the championship in hand, but I went out and put
it on th e lin e to sho w th e w orld that I
could b eat Ru ssell s traig h t up in th e
final race at Willow Springs.
Q
So how bad did your back get?
. It dont 'sapped eveeople understand
A I jus t th ink p ryt hing out of me.
how d eb ilitating a back in ju ry can be
unl ess you have one. I kn ew that I was
go ing to have to have su rgery and probably sit ou t th e 1991 season. I had th e
surgery that winter and walked aw ay
from a fa ctory r id e . I think after the
injury that mo st of the team s looked at
me as a liabili ty.
YOU did come' back, and made a
pretty successful return.
To ge t back in sha pe, I got a boat
and to ok up water-skiing. I was
told that was good for your back. I u sed
to JVa ter ski with Scott Russell all th e
tim e. One time we were ou t' and I 'le t
h im d ive th e bo at. I told him to just
ma intain 36 mph and I w as going to
show him how to make cu ts . Well , of
.course, 36 mph was too slow for Russell.
. He cra nked it up and I ended up cras hing . I we n t in and go t X-rays, and all the
rods in m y back were bent. So th en,
even wi th my back in really bad sha pe, I
went to Daytona to ride the Ma d Dog
Yamaha, d eterm in ed to make a comeback. Then I lose a tire at the sta rt-finis h
li n e at 185 m il e s p er hour. I do th e
breakdance for 1260 feet d own the fro nt
straigh taway and ge t up with some cut s,
but no bro ken bo nes . I thought I w as
d ead . I go t up on m y feet and Michael
Q
A
YOU had one mo re shot at a full
factory ride in 1992 with Yoshimura uzuki and had some solid races.
Tell us about that season.
I rac ed GTO en du ra nce in 1991. I
A w as .r u nnin g as fa st a s th e top
s u perbi k e g uys . I th ink th at go t
Yoshimura interested in me. Su ehir o
Watanabe ca lled m e over the wi n ter .
Su zuki offer ed a m ea sl y s a la ry.
Yoshimura offer ed to mat ch the Suzuki
sala ry, and I told them they would hav e
to d ouble that. Thi s was all under th e
tabl e, but I'll tell it now . Watanabe actua ll y p aid me extra over my Su zuki
sala ry out of his own pocket. Suzuki, in
1992, had a bike th at had no business
running up fron t. I finished fourth at
Daytona that year and the next Suzuki
was way back down in the results (Rodney Farris in 28th). I had some pretty
decent finish es . I did the best I could,
but I just didn't ha.ve the bike.
D u r in g your
career, you
Q advocateknownracingvery' outspobecame
as a
ken
of riders' issues, such as
pay and safety. What influenced you to
take a leadership role in this area?
I sa w th ings that w ere not right,
A and I think a lot of the gu ys were
seeing the defici encies of the AMA and
agreeing with me. I wasn't s hy about
speaking ou t. Obviously, there has been
a lot of chan ges from 1990 to 1998. Seein g the guys packing th eir s tu ff up in
Illinois (referring to the canceled Joliet
AM A Superbike ra ce) is partially th e
fru it of my labors eight years previous.
Q
A
DO you think things have changed
over the years?
Absolu tely.
W h a t was it like trying to put
together a riders union?
AII I was tryi ng to d o was to ge t the
A top guys to ag ree to boyco tt th e
winner's circle at Road Atla nta so peop le cou ld see tha t there was the ability
to ge t a group of riders together to stand
for so me thing. It d idn't happen. Randy
Renfrow and myself were the only two
that were will in g to com mit to not going
to th e winner's circle. Th en it turned
into a big meeting wi th abo ut 300 people, and I spoke with the help of a few
other peo p le . Out of tlia t, e ver y on e
Q
On David Sadowski
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