Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW new YZ400F four-stroke a t the seasonending Las Vegas Supercross. Figuring there was nothing to lose, Henry, Steinbrecher (who had followed Doug all th way over from Honda , wh re h has stayed until retiring recently) and Team Yamaha unloaded the bike in the parking lot of the Sam Boyd Silverbowl and began preparing for its world premi re. Tha; evening, Henry would whip the sold-out Sam Boyd Silverbowl crowd into a frenzy with good vibrations when he rode th e booming beast to a hugely popular victory. An d while it wasn't a supercross championship, Henry, in th span of o ne evening, put an entirely dif- , fe rent spi n o n global motocross. The b ike w as a win ner, a n d Hen ry would soon find h imself typecast a round the w orld as the Renaissance man of the valve-and-am set. "Th e w in wasn't a n incredible one for me," Henry sa ys, "but it was a huge dea l for Yamaha. It was really satisfying to be able to come back and win. I didn't really realize th e impact that win ha s had o n ou r spor t a n d Ya maha un til some time went by. I' m real proud I was abl e to win tha t race on tha t bike. " Do u g Henry w as o n a ro ll - again . A nd that 's w hen C , T came calling. So mehow, the g lobal n e w s gian t had picked up H en ry' s remarka b ly courageous story a n d disp a ch ed a ca mera crew out to the Budds Creek National on June 15th to s hoot a piece on Henry's return to the track that almost took his life, developing a story that would show America just what the young man had been through. Budds Creek was to be a , kind of bittersweet symphony for the rider and his family . Then the rating gods, who probably felt that Doug had gone too long without any misfortune, frowned dow n o n him once again . While thundering up th e approach to a massive uphill double, the big YZ cut out and Henry was sent tumbling, sufferi ng two broken arms in the process. H couldn' t b e li e v e i t happened ," I Hen ry says. "I thou g ht , 'Why again?! That's it , I' m not doi ng this anymore!' That feeling lasted a few weeks, u nti l I figured out a way to ride around on a bike wi th two broken arms." Now, a lready a leg end in h is own time fo r overco mi ng adversity a nd injury, Henry showed up in Los Angeles in January, ready to give it one more try. An d although he almost won the muddy and rutty season-opening L.A Coliseum race and went on to be compennve in the 1998 stadium tour, Henry really had his eye on the 250cc ational Championship Series. "We go t the bi ke set up for the 1998 season in a short a mou nt of time," savs H e n ry. "Our goal was to get in the~e a nd be in th e hunt, and I knew I had a pretty good chance with th e fou r-stroke. The supercros s series was going pretty w e ll , but I knew there w as n o t much chance at th e title, so I started tra in ing for the N ati onal s before th e supercross season was over." Three races in to the 1998 AMA 250cc Na tio nal Cham pionsh ip Series, Dou g Henry won in the sou py, rain-dren ched sa nd o f So uthwick, a n d his titl e chase was on. Then it was off to Bud d s Creek, w h re Henry personally exo rcised that trac k's d emon s w it h a big overall wi n . He a nd th e Yam a ha sta ved consis ten t th rough Red 'Bud , U nadilla a nd Troy before hauling off another impressive overall at th e everg reen-ca rpeted Washougal circuit in sou thwest Washington tate. Another safe and consistent outing a t Mil lville lau nch ed him toward Binghamton - and the championship. "Going into Bin gha m to n , I didn 't I want to think about the titl much," he says. "I knew there was still a chance that I ~Id lose it. During the last lap of the second moto , I knew I could win the National and be in a position to win the title. I was riding hard and 0 was) tired and making some mistakes, but I never gave up and wanted to catch (G reg) Albertyn. I never gave up and somethin in m y mind said, 'Don' t give up. You've been through all these races and now you can rid this one out.' I was so excited to win the championship. It takes a while to sink in, but I know how special it is." So it was with the Binghamton ational that Doug Henry and his mighty Pe te Steinbrecher-tuned YZ400 capped off one of the most inspiring championship runs in the 27-year history o f the AMA Na tional Mo tocross C ha mpionship and signaled the final destination of a ra ci n g career fraught with momen ts of bright white joy and deep, navy-blue depression. Interestingly, the bike - the YZ400F, the one that Yamaha (and Henry himself, for that matter) took a chance on and nurtu red and developed with a mind-boggling amount of money - has now become a point of controversy and contention among the other race tearns that make up the AMA professional motocross circuit. Does it bother Henry to hear that the 400cc four-stroke has . alleged performance advantage over other factory two-stroke 250ce bi .es in the class? " It doesn't bother me to h ar that anymore ," Henry says . " W h en ver someone is winning, it's not the rider but something else that is winning. Whatever. Yeah, the bike is special. The bike and I do have a pretty tight bond wi th o ne another. It seems like each year that passes , th e bi ke becomes a bigger deal, and that' s great. " Is the bike a t a n advantage or disadvantage over its 250cc-m otiv a ted competition? "In certain situations I think, ves, the b ike is a t an a dva n tage over the 250cc b ikes," H e n r y says. "Bu t in some instances, it's actually at a disadvantage. The bi ke is a really give-and-take situation. So metimes it's just great. ibut at other times it's not so good. It just depends on the track and the cond itions and the obstacles - everything." Even before h e clinched- the title at Binghamton in August, rum rs were a lready running rampant about what Doug Henry's plans were for th 1999 race season, As th rumor mill had it , and depending o n whom you tal ced to , and on what dav, and which way the wind was blowing, Henry was going to be doing one of the following: Retire for good. Race snowmobiles. Ride the 125cc ationals. Race an abbreviated schedule. Go to another race team. Make up vour own rumor here .. With all that swirling a round, we asked Doug just what he did have going for th fastapproaching season. "Well, this winter I'm going to do some snowmobile racing. It's something I've always wanted to do. I would ' see the snowmobiles Yamaha makes around and have a desire to race on . For the past couple of years, I have just been riding so much that during the middle of this season, I just wasn't sure what I wanted . I told Yamaha that I wasn't sure of what I was going to do in 1999. I hav been a sn owm obile fan for a long time and have wanted to race th m , and I thought about it and t ought bout it nd decided I wasn't ready 0 a full season in 1999. So wha I am i g 0 do is r snowcross this win er. Snowcross is a combination of motocross and supercross. They either hold the races at a ski mountain or at a horse or dog track where they bring in snow and set up a supererosslike track. The lap times are usually 20 seconds to one minute . Beyond that, I'm working on contract stuff for next year's m o tocro ss season. I'll be doing a few supercrosses and the outdoor National series, but I' m n ot sure if I wi ll do the whole series or n ot." Ta lk to Doug He n ry and it soon b comes ap paren t th at his wife has played a big role in his success. Wit h hi m right from th e early days of driving around the northeast in a box van all the way through to tooling across America in a big motorhorne, Stacey Henry has been right th ere th rough both the good and the bad times. "My wife is a big part of things," Henrv says. "She's been with m from the beginning - right since I went out on road. \! e'v 1 rned .. 0 .1 lrvi in a box van is for that. I kind of 1 up to h no WI' ng m peop a is live. \Vh ther I hav a bad ra , _ sees the posirive things I did, ' really understand each other, but we have also definitely had our ups and d wns, and I guess y ou have to hav a litt rain to have a rainbo . W ' v had our fair hare of prob 5, but we get throu h them and are working to -ards the same goal, w ich is to hay a ood,trong reIa .onship." And n '" that Doug nd tacey have two children, Brianna and Ian Dou glas, the coupl is loo king forward to winter in New England , wher they can spend so me quality time with ids. lot of fun, nd I' m reall v "We hay looking forward to this win r ," says Henry. "We'r goi ng to tach 0 r , d aughte r how to ki and ha ve a good tim " One of th 05t com monly asked questions Doug H ry has had to in recent months is whv awav from th 1999 - n w d ending champion a nd li . for a pretty hefty pay incr "It's hard to expl in," says H nry after a moment of r ~ .on. "I gues to race and be ch mpion t kes so mu h effort. When I ra , it 's mv life and it takes all eft rt I can giv -it. All of my energy and th i king goes in to racing. I felt like 1 accomplished mething big this vear, and to 0 out and defend it, like j would have to do, is not a high priority . I'm looking fo rw a rd to something new in sn ow cross, It 's just like motocross but in diff rent lern nts." Doug Henry is an anomaly in American motocross . He doesn't hang out wi th mod Is or TV and rnovi stars. He doesn't go to "The River" or to Las Vegas. He isn't working on a video or his own clothing line or a personal web site. Looking back on h is career, righ t from the time he was rubbing nickels together to get to the n xt race or to keep his well-worn bike running to make the n xt ESC race out in the rain and slop somewhere, Doug Henry was never in it for the fame and glory - he was in it because he just plain loved it. "Fame was never whv I was her :' h savs in con lusion. "in f ct, I don't like having that kind of stuff around. A f w guys are after that." He pauses, then adds with II laugh, 'W ell , maybe a lot of them are. But you know 'hat? I would have been happy to go through life as a machini t and working ni to five . I was just going 0 keep racing until the mon y ra n ou . But I k pt racing and things went ..cell and I was lucky enough to be paid money to race motorcycles." Long after t applau and his p ictures op showing up in all the magazines, and he's not on espn2 at 11 a .m . eastern standard time anymore, Doug Henry will be remembered. And 10 years from now, whenever peop l gather around to talk about motocross, Doug Henry's 1998 championship ti tle will in va riably com up . And when i t d oes, th e people will speak in re ver ent to nes. We' re still a little bit too close to th e moment to really rea lize the magni tu d e of what Doug Henry has accomplished in 1998, but one day it ,,;1J all come into sharp focus. Coming back from the b rink time after time to finallv win ou in the end is som thing everyone in this sport can be inspired by . Frank Capra would haw loved it. n ,

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