Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

was a problem the entire year, and I had it scoped three times that season. I still did relatively well, and I think that was from being in such good shape and having a never-say-die attitude. I hung in there and it wasn't a bad season; I still could have won." Sensing .that something was amiss at Honda, a few key players at Team Suzuki - who were in dire need of a championship-caliber rider of O'Mara's stature - quietly approached him. Aware that things might never be the same at Honda, O'Mara secretly signed on the dotted line for the 1987 season. But before announcing the move to the worldwide racing community, there was one more thing he had to take care of: the 1986 Motocross des Nations. in Maggiora, Italy. "It was kind of interesting how tha t whole thing came up," explains O'Mara. "Micky Dymond was the 125cc National Champion that year. He was one of my Honda teammates and had an awesome season. When the talk started up as to who was going to the Motocross des Nations, my name came up - and it wasn't me throwing it in. Roger DeCoster was involved in the team, and he knew I had been on the winning team a number of times. When I was picked, I felt bummed for Micky, but I felt like I belonged there. I was revved up to go, because I had some problems with Honda that year and had become t)1.e low man on the totem pole. I knew the team was going to downscale, so I had signe<;i a contract to go to Suzuki. Roger didn't know about it, and I wasn't about to take less money to ride a Honda in 1987." DeCoster, the crafty old veteran, knew that O'Mara had gone through a rough year and was eager to end it on a good note; hence his decision to send in the O'Show, who had helped America win the des Nations on three previous occasions. "We knew Johnny wasn't going to be with Honda the next year," admits DeCoster. "I still had interest in doing something with him the next year, but it was a tough situation because the people I had to answer to couldn' \ make it happen. When the Maggiora Motocross des Nations came up, I gave him a chance to show what he could do on the 125." The night before the race, O'Mara broke the news to his closest friend, Bailey , who was left reeling after being brought up to speed on his pal's actions. "I had an awful night before the race," he says. "We were hanging out after one of our good fire-extinguisher fights, and Johnny told me he had signed with Suzuki. That just deflated me - I was so bummed, because back then it was like signing a contract with Hodaka. I then realized that I was going to be on my own, and I knew that this was it. That night he told me, 'Tomorrow, I'm not going to let off.' He knew it was his last ride for Honda, and he wanted to show them that they'd made a mistake. There was a lot of emotion, and it showed." That Sunday, O'Mara put in arguably one of the greatest rides in the 52-year history of organized professional motocross. Aboard a factory Honda for the last time, the O'Show put his head down and proceeded to trounce not only the world's best 125cc riders but, with the exception of his teammates Bailey and Johnson, every other rider on the track. And for years to come, people will talk about how, in the second moto, he passed every single 500cc rider, including then World Champion David Thorpe. The 40,000 crazed Italian fans t1,at clung to" the green hills t1,at sunny afternoon, who were keenly aware that history was being made right before their eyes, went completely berserk watclung his performance. "The bike was just unreal there," says O'Mara after a pause to reflect on that epic day. "That track at Maggiora was so perfect for me. I think it was the strongest performance of my career. I remember the whole race so clearly because I went there with a lot of stuff built up inside me and I was revved up to ride the 125 again. 'That was my deal, and I showed the world. That race proved it, and people will still be talking about it 10 years from now. I was so strong that I never even saw anyone on a 125. I was racing with Rick Johnson, David Bailey, David Thorpe and Georges Jobe. You know, a lot of people said I ruined David Thorpe that day, but I didn't intend (to do) that; he was just another rider on the track. We could do nothing wrong that day." Bailey, who was aware of all the politics and emotions involved, watched the whole beautiful drama unfold. "When his second moto was over," Bailey recalls, "his visor was cracked and his helmet was all pitted up with dings like a speedway racer because he had been roosted with rocks by the 500cc riders, but he just didn't care. I waited for him at the trophy presentation after the moto, and he just hung on me because he was so spent. It was so cool. I remember thinking, 'This is it; the next time I race against him, he'll be in yellow. 'In the last moto, I wanted to ruin Rick just for Johrmy - it had all built up big for me by then." It has probably become apparent by now that Johrmy O'Mara and David Bailey shared a very close relationship with one another. And the time has now come in tlus story to bring it all to light. "Truth be told, both'riders, while from completely different backgrounds, shared two things while growing up: One, they both loved motocross dearly, and two, they both had experienced rough-and-tumble family lives. Seemingly drawn to one another by fate and circumstance, the two, through their experiences at Team Honda, would ultimately become the best of friends. "I first met David Bailey in 1981 at the Florida Winter Series," recalls O'Mara of their initial meeting. "He was riding a Kawasaki and really stood out because he rode so well. I knew of him and I had to go talk to him because he was riding with number 42. I needed a number four for my bike, so I asked IUrn if he had another number four. He did, and we were friends from that meeting immediately. We started hanging out and training a lot." Bailey recalls the time the two first exchanged words with one another. "I was a spaz at first in my professional racing career," Bailey says, "and to me, Johnny was nothing but style, and that's what I was all about. If you didn't have style, why bother doing it? When he came over to me that day at the Florida Winter Series, I was nervous. He had a smirk on his face because I think he was embarrassed tha t here he was, factory Honda,·and they didn't have a number four for his bike. I was number 45 at the time, so I gave him one. There was no conversation, but I could tell right away that there was something there. "In 1982, I signed to Honda and bam! we were friends," Bailey continues. "I was pretty intiinidated at first to be on the team, because at that time I had (Chuck) Sun's jersey and autograph and (Darrell) Shultz's jersey and autograph - and I wanted Johnny's, but I didn't know how to ask. I was kind of shy around lum at first, but I saw how goofy he was and we had a lot of respect for each other, so we got along immediately." Physical training was an element of Johnny O'Mara's career that, through . constant learning and strenuous activity, he carne to know as a way of life. First introduced to the wonders it could work on his race program a few yea"rs earlier, O'Mara is cited by many motocross insiders as the sport's first true training pioneer. "I had been to the (Indian) Dunes and knew all about him, but I don't think anyone south of the Valley had," says Jeff Montgomery of Champion Nutrition, a longtime friend of O'Mara who helped 11im get his head wrapped around training. "I was really into running then, and I started bugging him about running. In fact, J remember him asking me, 'How can I include running in my racing?' "He got into running and we started training together," says Montgomery. "We'd run for hours and also do his infamous Suicide Hill run. But when we did it, we had to do it at ntidday in 104degree heat. This was all going on before he became friends with David Bailey. Irr 1982 and 1983, he started doing triathlons. Then, in 1984, he dove headfirst into bicycles. I remember him saying, 'I've got to get a bike.' So we went down to SinU Valley Schwinn and he bought a bike - I remember it was a Schwinn Paramount, and he paid $549 for it - and he learned more in six months than most guys do in a year. From there he was training intensely, because in 1984 Ward beat him for the 125cc National Championship and he vowed that fitness would never be an issue again." And it wasn't. O'Mara took it all to heart, and with the support of friends such as Bailey, Montgomery and Honda trainer Jeff Spencer - who played a huge role in Honda's success during th.e 1980s - O'Mara set about raising the bar higher than it had ever been before. "You name it and we did it," says O'Mara of the much-ta1ked-about O'Mara/Bailey training regimen. "Running and cycling - we did so much stuff, it was amazing. We would train from sunup to sundown and train ourselves into the ground. We loved it. In fact, I remember I had this condominium in SinU Valley, and 1 1/2 ntiles down the street was a three-par golf course. After training, we would run down there with a nine iron, putter and balls "and a few dollars. We were so fanatical" with our training that we would run from hole to hole, and do 100 push-ups at each hole. "We would also never use escala tors or elevators. To this day, I still only take the stairs. We also had a tiling called the Suicide Run.. It's hard to explain, but it was by the big ranch I lived on in SinU, and we had this run that went through the hills, and we would run in 110degree heat. We would just die during' that thing. David did it every day and for every race. Be felt he had to do it or he wouldn't win that weekend. It was funny, because I had more speed than him and I'd burt him on purpose and push him real hard. Those were the best times of my life. That was the fun part: riding and racing. At the same time, I had gotten heavily involved in other sports. There were guys like Scott Tinley and John Tomac that did endurance sports, and I couldn't believe what they did. They took their training way above what I did, and it encouraged me to take my training to another level. One time, in 1986, I took the red-eye flight home from the Daytona Supercross and flew all night to get home in time to run the Los Angeles Marathon. I then ran a subthree-hour marathon at 2:54 and finished 200th out of 15,000 runners. I also did numerous 10Ks that year. David and I were also doing triathlons. God, [ was trying to fit in as much as I could. Another time, I was going to ride the CMC Trans-Cal event at Adelanto, which was the week before the Maggiora Motocross des Nations. So I decided to ride my bicycle from Simi Valley to Adelanto. It was 107 nUles and I crossed part of the Mojave Desert. I did a bunm of sick things then, but people didn't realize I did it to challenge myself and push my body." O'Mara's competitors certainly took notice of his training antics. Watching him push his body to remarkable levels of endurance, many of them were left scratching their heads. Six-time AMA National Motocross champion and Motocross des Nations hero Broc Glover says, "I remember one year at Gainesville, there would be a practice s.essioh on press day that all of us would use to shake out the bikes and get used to the outdoor tracks after running supercross during the early part of the season. Jim Felt had Jolmny riding a CR practice bike; and he ran tanks and tanks of gas through it. Most of us would run a tank of gas through our bikes, but Johrmy would run three tanks to top me and everyone else. He would . ride all day. A lot of guys would be like, 'Man, Jolmny is working so hard!' But at times, I would wonder why he would overdo it like that." "Down the road," Ward says, "Johnny got his motivation from running miles and doing triathlons. It seemed like his motivation didn't come from beating someone, but from trying to beat his time in marathons, or to get miles for his rUnning program. All that started to take his focus away from motocross. He was more into getting miles so he could run a two-hour-and45-rninute marathon. I couldn't imagine doing anything else but what it took to win in motocross." Nonetheless, O'Mara and Bailey kept at it and made training a ritual during their successful run as teammates at Honda. However, after MaggLora, it would all change - forever. On a blustery winter day in central California, David Bailey was badly injured during a practice session at a Golden State Series race. As he had been acclaimed by all as the world's smoothest and most technically brilliant rider, Bailey's accident which left him a paraplegic - left the sport reeling. And more so than virtually anyone else, O'Mara was left feeling lost. "It was at Lake Huron," says O'Mara, obviously still haunted by the event. "Jim Felt was the first one to him. I knew it was bad right away. It was so hard to deal with that. To tllis day, it's hard for me to think about what happened. That day, it made me sick to my stomach to ride the bike, and it took me a long time to get back out there and ride at my same level." After a long pause, O'Mara continues: "You know, I never got back. David's accident was always at the back of my mind, and I never wanted to get hurt like that. I raced for four or five years after that, but it was the hardest thing to 0go through, because we were so close. N He was a part of me, like a brother, and I ~ kept thinking, 'How can he get hurt?' He ::I '" was the smoothest rider in the world, c: and there was no way to explain it." For Bailey and O'Mara, that day - 19 .., '"

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