Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Henry was a part of history when he w on the Las Vegas Supercross ln 1997 - it was the first time someone on a lour-stroke had won a majorAMA supercross race. Yamaha recently gave Henry that very same bike to keep in hi garage in Conne cticut. cr oss Champ io ns h ip . A t o ne p oin t, Henry reeled off ren consecutive wins to take th e title in a cakewa lk. Their -ork still n ot complete, Henry a n d Steinbrecher then set their sights on the 12Scc . a lional Cha m pionshi p . Pitted head to head with Yamaha 12See specialis t and d fend ing ational Cha m p ion Jeff Em ig. H en ry imply outperformed "[effro," winning , Ia rionals in the d eep home sa nd at Southwick , in the blisterin g, s tifli ng h eat of G le n Helen (th e bizarre and no w notorious one-o ff. onemo to , ationall , and on the rockv loam of Binghamton. Then , on Septem ber 5, at St eel Ci ty, H enry clinc hed his secon d title of the season. H wa nted it (the cham p ions hip) to I ha p p e n , but did I thi n k it wo u ld?" reflects H en ry w hen as ked if he truly believed he had a cha nce at the title that year . H kn ew I had a cha nce, and I kept I thinkin g. 1 f I don't d o it this yea r, I'll do it the ne t year: But it was all just so new to me. It was rea lly wei rd to have all these people d oin g so mu ch work on a m o torcy cl e for m e . Th e tea m was orking so ha rd for me - for me! - tha t I felt I had to win, It just made me wa nt to go out and win for them. While th e 1993 campaign was something akin to a dreamy . fairy tale for Henry, 1994 would be, literally, a gutwrenching nightmare. Rig h t from the onset of the 125cc • a tional Championship Series, Henry was plagued by a m terious stomach /intestinal disorder that put him in such pain and discomfort that, upon rolling off the track after hanging on for dear life, he would literally pass out from the pain and exhaustion. Flus tered and reeling from the ailment, Henry and hi s doctors tried one thing after anoth r to get the situation .straightened out. On e so lution that did seem to help was an IV s o lu tio n pumped into his bod y between motos to re plenish fluids . But that didn't come without the price of controve rsy . A nu mber of Henry's competitors, feeling th e IV was p rovid i ng h im with an a dva n tage, p rotested , an d the A MA banned the IV. Despite all of tha t, in w ha t would ultimat elv becom e the firs t true sign of his almost'demonic det ermination, H n ry forged o n to d efend h is I 2.5cc . 'ationa l Championship. "That whol thing is still a myst ery to H me ," Henry says. HI 'was having problems with digestion and absorbing nutrients from mv food. It was a disaster year, and we ' 'ere constantly trying new things to get it s traightened out. We were eliminating things from my diet. like wheal. which is like taking oxygen from air. It was such a pain and, at times, I felt like giving up, bu t by Mo nday the pain wo u ld wear off. It was so good to win, because a lot of people '....ere against me, an d tha t got me mad. I wo uld ha ve trad ed th eir normal yea r for min e anytim e. But I never threw th e tow el in and I w o n the number-one plate. I wasn' t goi ng to give up, becaus e I just wasn' t brought up that way. In fact, that wa s never even an op tion. It was like whenever I worked for m y dad on thin gs: I d id what I w as told to d o and what I was supposed to do and I go t it d on e. Whil e th e 1994 season d eman d ed acute intestinal fortitud e fro m the int repid Honda pilo t, Doug Henry was abou t to face a date with d estinv that would ultimately see him fighti ng' for his life. The 1995 season started ou t well for Henry. He ran at the fro nt of the field in the A.'IAA upereross Series, winning his first supercross in a heavy downpour at Texas Stadium on April 29. From there, and again in the mud, he marched on to win his first AMA 250cc , ' a tio na l at Moun t Morris on Mav 28. Then, three weeks later, on June 18 at Budds Creek, Maryland. it all went drastically wrong. Fighting for position with Jeremy McGrath during the final laps of the first rnoto, Henry's arm locked, thus opening the throtlle to the stop and launch in g him off a steep ski jump and off into the abyss . Henry flew so far and so h igh that the horrific impact broke his back. And while it' s nothing to be pr oud of, the accident is the most notori ous in th e history of the sport. Hen ry and his wife, Sta cey, worked together to ge t him back up to streng th , out of the hospital. and ba ck home. 1l wou ldn't be lo ng before the w h ispers started tha t Hen ry was through with the sporL How ever, as time went by and he bega n to heal u p and feel better. Henry knew he wou ld be back. H didn 't rea llv m a ke m e wa nt to Il leave th e sport." he says ca ndid ly . "I knew it w as just an acciden t a nd [ got luc ky to m a ke it throu g h . But I ha ve H d one things throughout my life w here I had made it through because I knew I was lucky . There are probably over one d o z en instan ce s th a t I ca n think o f w here they co u ld 've gone a litlle one way or another wa y, and it would have mad e all the difference. I knew I w as go ing to come back to th e sport." Henry mad e a wildly popuIar return to racing as a member of Team Yamaha in the spring of 1996, but th ere would be no Cinderella moments as he struggled to find his form and stam ina . And, truth be told , this was, arguably, the defining peri od of Henry ' s ca reer. Th e rea son? The sport of mot ocross had never really seen a rider come bac k from such grave injury a nd so much ti me away fr om competi tion and be able to win again. To say there were d oubters and q ui et skeptics regarding Henry's comeback - a few of them concerned for his wellbeing - wouId not be a lie. "Corning back to racing was the bes t thing for me , states Henry . "From being off so long and wa tching all of the races, I was just dying to get out there. But being out there was a whole different story . It was so frustrating for me, because before I go t hurt, [ was so close to the top. Then, when I ca me back to racing and I was not able to do as well as I expected - Well , I became very frustrated . I expected to do much better, and I would get upset every weekend. I wa s p retty bummed, but I kept trying and saying to myself, 'Maybe next week:" On August 18 at Was ho ugal. Washing ton. "next week" finally came. During the second moto, Henry fou nd himself in a d ogfight for the win wi th Mik e laRocco, Larry War d and Damon Bradshaw. Lap a fter lap, the group rocketed around the evergreen-lined tra ck, w here Henry finally go t the bes t of his ad versa ries a nd tasted victo ry fo r th e first time si nce 1995. The win, for all intents a nd p urpo s es , launch ed Henry o n H tow ard his "second corning." H Was hougal turned it all a ro und," he says. ~inning that moto helped me o ut so much. I knew then that I could do it again. In the yea rs prior, I had learned abou t wi nning, a nd af ter Washo ugal, I was a gain mentally pre pared to win again." During the off-seaso n, H en ry went into full -court-pre ss mod e, t ra ining relentlessly for the openi ng round of the AMA Supercross Series in the Los An geles Coliseum. Keen to get a jump on the co m pe ti tio n, H en ry s howe up in Los d A ngeles in great fig h ting s ha pe and en ded up winning the second ro u nd of the se ries before 50,000 spectators in the cla p ped -o u t, o ld So u t h Central Los Angeles foo tball stadi u m . The comeback was now complete, and Henry co ntinued to excel as th e ea rly season p rogressed. winning again a t Sea ttle. As the se ries m o ved past the halfw ay ma rk . Henry was in a serious posi tion to win his firs t su pe reross title. However , it all came cras h ing d o w n a t H o u sto n on March 22, w hen Jimmy Button inad ver tently land ed on him, breaking his hand and sabotaging his title hopes. Bad luck had struck again. "I was both mad and bu mmed about that," Henry says. "I knew I had a good shot at the tille, and I knew how hard it was to be a champion, and I was read y to make a run for it. It was really tough, but I knew that bei ng a cha m pion also takes a lo t of luck. You ca n be the fas tes t , b u t there ca n b e bad luck involved and a bike can crash do wn on yo u and it can all en d so fas t. A fter I had my hand bro ken, I knew it w oul d be a w hole year be fore I had another chance at it . And in m ost cases, yo u o nly get one true chance a t a su pe rcross cham pionship - and it was gone:' _Th ere would be red emption. Wh ile he was on the injured reserve list, Yama ha talked H en ry into riding its exotic 7

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