Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Time Remembered ~ co ::::I c: co .., 22 "What happened was that it started to look like the U.S. wasn't going to have a team, which I thought was ridiculous," says DeCoster, who now resides in Palos Verdes, California. "So Larry Maiers and Dick Miller got involved in raising funds to help put a team together. The AMA and the riders couldn't make their minds up, and Bob (Hannah) in particular didn't want to go. I told all of them that it was crazy if we didn't send a team over, so I went back and said, 'Listen, I'll put a team together - I'll send my whole Honda team.' I knew there was a chance we might not do that well, but if we did good, it would be good for the next year." Working in tandem in getting the American Honda race effort up to speed and sorted out was Dave Arnold. Hired on to help DeCoster turn around Honda's then-woeful U.S. motocross operation, Arnold saw the Trophee and Motocross des Nations as just another opporturtity. "I was Roger's mechanic during his last year as a 500cc Grand Prix rider,'" Arnold explains from his office at American Honda in Torrance, California. "When he retired, we both came back to the States. At that time, Honda made it a priority to organize the U.s. race team, and they made me the manager and Roger the coordinator. Right from the beginning, there was a really good chemistry between Roger and J. I believe Roger was the missing ingredient Honda needed to win. We worked with the main guy at Honda, whose attitude was, 'Just go out and win!' At that time, no one wanted to ride for Honda, and we couldn't get a top-caliber guy to sign with us. Knowing we didn't have a chance to sign a top guy, we decided to follow a strategy of hiring and developing young riders. The equipment also needed a lot of development because, at that time, we would get used parts from japan that arrived with dirt on them! "Nineteen eighty-one was a building year for us," continues Arnold. "We were sorting the equi pmen t out and developing young riders. At the end of Johnny O'Mara . Part One the year - and.I remember this - Roger was on the phone with Thuur Coen of Bel-Ray. They were talking about putting an American Motocross des Nations team together. It all started to come together, and it was great at Honda then, because there was no one standing over us to say no. Even outside people like john Gregory at JT Racing who put the uniforms together for the team - just stepped in and helped. You couldn't do tha t today. It was all so neat! All we wanted to do was look good. We shipped over four 250s and four 500s and loaded up a number of huge LR3 airline crates and headed for Europe." Putting their heads together, DeCoster and Arnold tapped O'Mara, . Danny LaPorte, Chuck Sun and Donnie Hansen to represent the United States at the Trophee des Nations - for 250cc bikes - in Lommel, Belgium, and the 'Motocross des Nations - which was a race for 500cc bikes - a week later in Beilstein, West Germany. "At that point, the U.S. wasn't participating in the race, and I didn't really know why," says O'Mara. "It all came about when Roger came up to us and said he was putting a team together to go to a race called the Motocross des Nations and that we were going to Europe as an all-Honda team. I was a teenager and I was excited. I had never been to Europe, and the way I felt going there - and I remember how I was back then - was not cocky, but I just wanted to have fun. All of us were pretty confident when we went there, but we didn't know anything. When we got there, it was a bad sensation, because all the people.were saying, 'Who are these guys?'" The U.S. team arrived in Europe a week early and were· duly greeted by negativity and derisive laughter by the world-ruling Grand Prix contingent. Undaunted, and with the taunts and verbal jabs ringing in their ears, the team quietly set about getting the bikes dialed in for the week's activities. "We flew over and did a lot of training and testing in deep sand," says DeCoster - a Belgian, who at that time was taking some serious heat for becoming an "American." "Our guys weren't used to those types of tracks, and the bikes were real sensitive to the conditions, but we kept at it and got them working well." Sunday, September 6 - race day dawned bright and sunny. The brutal Lommel circuit - a treacherous, deepsand affair littered with ominous whoops and ruts - appeared to be ready . to play right into the hands of the sandreared Belgians. But the Americans, for years considered second rate by the Europeans, showed up that morning with something to prove. Right from the drop of the gate in moto one, the Americans 'stunned the 20,000 spectators lining the massive sandbox. With their dazzling white uniforms alld Yankee-blue helmets - complete with white stripes - the Americans put their aggressive, supercross-oriented "attack" riding styles to work, and packed the front of the field. O'Mara came home second to Belgian sand master Andre Vromans (who grew up just a few miles from Lomme!), while LaPorte, Hansen and Sun formed a flying edge in his wake. The second moto was more of the same, as the Yanks again kicke 5..icnd in the bewildered and dismayed hUropeans' faces. It was about this time that the laughter stopped - for good. "I remember the race so clearly," says O'Mara. "I holeshot both motos and led. The track was pure sand - just unreal. I grew up riding some sand at Indian Dunes, but this was all new. Andre Vromans won the day - he was a factory Suzuki guy - but LaPorte and I traded 23 scores and we had excellent results. We won and nobody could believe it." "Johnny, maybe more than the other guys, was a good sand rider," DeCoster says, "and I think that came from his years of racing at Indian Dunes; he was definitely one of the best in the U.S. Johnny rode hard and gave it his all. He was using that typical style of his at Lommel - standing up and hanging off the back of the bike. He was wearing those white clothes and white gaiters (which O'Mara would later make famous with JT racing), and a blue helmet with the white 'V: and he had a lot of style that day. He was such a good rider." For Arnold, O'Mara's results at Lommel signaled a coming of age for their young rider. "We were nobody over there," Arnold says. "In fact, to most of the Europeans, we were a joke. They didn't even think we would qualify, so they didn't give us start money. But it all worked out. In my opinion, johnny blossomed over there. He always had a lot of natural ability, but it was more playful because he hadn't really applied himself - un til the Motocross des Nations. 1 was so blown away by him and the team over there. jolllmy really rose to the occasion. What Johnny and those guys pulled off over there is beyond awesome. 1 was really surprised that he stepped in on the 250 in that European environment and showed us what he was capable of." To many Americans - particularly for those who grew up in an era of. European domination of the sport - Lommel was the dawn of a new era of global motocross. "It .did begin a new era," says O'Mara. "Now I think it all got big in America because of that race. The standards the Americans set were just phenomenal. That race was part of history and it set a standard that would grow for years." The next weekend, the American jug- gernaut showed up in Germany, mounted their big red Honda 500cc bikes and proceeded to kick some more European butt. However, for O'Mara, the outing was, at least at first, a bit on the intimidating side. "I had never ridden a 500," he laughs. "In fact, I had very little experience on the 250. Sure, 1 rode it in the stadiums, but not Qutdoors. I had no idea about the 500, and the works Honda 500 was just a handful. I was under a lot of pressure to perform there because I was not a 500 rider, and I needed to come up with good moto finishes. 1 struggled a little bit, but my mechanic at the time, Paul Turner, helped me through and the team won again and it was back-to-back wins in Europe. The whole experience was great." After a strong run in the California Winter Series that the pair utilized to shake out the works Honda, O'Mara and Felt wl!nt into the season-opening Sacramento, California, National on March 28th, 1982, as serious contenders for the 125cc throne. But, as was the case the year before, Barnett still had the Honda operation covered, and he ran off with both the Sacramento and Saddleback Nationals on consecutive weekends. Moreover, Ward was also on the pace, and he won rotmd three at Lake Whitney, Texas. But tllen, at roUllds four and five - at St. Petersburg, Florida, and Binghamton, New York, respectively O'Mara won two consecutive Nationals. He now knew he had the right stuff. "I wasn't a rookie anymore and I was now putting more emphasis on winning races:' explains O'Mara. "I wanted to be in contention for the 125cc championship. I was always a 125cc specialist, and 1 now wanted to perform! My ultima te goal was to be the best 125cc rider, and to be the best at it was my dream, first and forerr:tost. Sure, I loved supercross, as I was always a jumper; even when I raced BMX as a kid, I was a jump king - 1 loved it. However, now I was really concentrating on being a smooth, technical rider, which was a great technique to have for 125cc motocross." . "In 1982, we were starting to run with one another in the Nationals," recalls Ward, "but Barnett was still dominant ·and, unless he got a bad start, he usually won aIr the motos. At that time, johnny and I weren't really looking out for each other, but more for Barnett." When all was said and done,O'Mara placed second to Barnett in the AMA 125cc Nationals, and an impressive third overall in the AMA Supercross Series. Then, that August, he was again asked along with Honda teammates Donnie Hansen, jim Gibson and Danny "Magoo" Chandler - to be a member of the American Motocross and Trophee des Nations effort, as the team would be returning to Europe to defend the ti tles won in 1981. The Motocross des Nations would not go smoothly. In fact, tlte trip turned into a nightmare of sorts when, just prior to the first event in GaiJdorf, Germany, close friend and new AMA Supercross Champion Donnie Hansen was severely injured in a practice shunt in Germany. The incident would have a profound effect on the yOUltg and impressionable O'Mara. "Donnie raced :in the same area that I did - Indian Dunes:' he says. "He was a few years older than me, but I knew of him, and when I got on the Honda team in 1981, we became good friends and I moved out of Canyon Country and moved in with him altd his wife. We were best friends and trained and rode

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