Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128005
everal months ago, one of the few frie nds of min e not involved wit h motor cycl es or racin g in a ny way p honed m e to announce that he was engaged, and tha t the date for his marriage would be July 25. A quick look a t the calen dar showed that the da te just . happened to fall on the sa me weekend of the big doubleheader a t Du Quoin. Having been friends with this guy since high school, and in ligh t of the above terms of ou r frie n dshi p, I knew th at th ere wa s only one way th at I co ul d p lay it , so m y w ife, Sh a wn a , and I RSVP'd to con firm ou r attendance. As it turned out, there wer e also two S 80 to crawl ou t from under as of this writing. The emo tion p oured from wi thin me a s t ho ug h from a wa te r fauce t: Shoc k. Grief. Anger. Sadness. Despair. I had actually been there when two other members of my exte nded dirt track fam- . iIy had los t their lives in racing accidents, and that had been twice as much as enough for me. I di dn' t want to ever believe that it could or would happen again. An d this was Davey. It coul dn't be tru e. I eve n remember goi ng to bed that ni g ht a nd wan ting so ba d ly to believe that w hen I wo ke up, it wo u ld all be a bad dream. There had to be a mistak e, beca use, To learn of his un timely dea th, at the you ng age of 29, was bad enough from so far away. I can' t even - and do n' t wa nt to - imagi ne the horror that was experienced by all in attendan ce on tha t day in Du Quoin. Here was a guy who had his whole life in fron t of him. How could anyone, ma n or God, let this happen? That answer can be extremely diffi cult to come by, but I would like to try and tell you about the tw o Davey Camlins that I knew, and maybe it will help to ge t us all throu gh th is ter rible time toget her . The o ff-trac k Da vey co u ld n' t ha ve been mor e of a clown, a comedian, a n loca l ra ces sched u led in wh ich I had wa nted to pa rticip ate, so it was wo rking o u t to be a d ream weeke n d. A little sho rt track on Saturd ay night, so me oldschool mot ocro ss on Sunda y, and then m y b u dd y ' s n u p tu al s o n Sund a y eve ning. I couldn ' t have been happier. Sa tu rda y ni gh t, Jul y 24, th a t gre a t w eek en d wa s sha tte re d . Afte r having ru n better tha n I expec ted to at the sho rt track, I called my wife to let her know t h a t I wa s o n m y way h om e. Af te r exchangi ng hellos and letti ng her know tha t all wa s okay, she told me, in a very sha ky voice, that it wasn 't. "Are you drivin g ri ght n ow?" s he asked. "I' m just pulling ou t of th e parkin g lot, why?" " I n e ed y ou r co n ce n t ra t io n right now. Davey Ca mli n was killed today at Du Qu oin." The wo rd s hit like a ton of bricks, the weight of which l -haven ' t yet been able hones tly, as ta lented as .they are, the re really are some riders on the AMA Grand ational circuit who rid e in the type of aggressive manner that could lead you to believe that if there was a serious acciden t, and they we re involved , it would be mu ch less of a su rp ris e. Th at ' s not a n ind ictment. It's just the tru th. In my estima tion, Davey Ca mli n was never, eve r even close to being one of that type of rider. In the five years that I had been watc hing him race, the Davey Camlin that I knew was smooth and calcu late d in every tum. I knew he'd had accid ents befo~e - sca ry-look in g ones but he always see med to be able to walk away from them . Even after the tou gh lu ck tha t he'd had in th e ea rly part of thi s y ea r - th e fa ct th at h e w a s s t ill recoverin g from the hand that had nearly be en w recked at th e Peoria IT, th e u nfa m iliari ty of a new tea m - he was working hard to rebound and get set up for the second half of the seaso n. all-around funnvm an. He was very easy to like. I'm not ~ure exac tly when'I fi"; t met hi m, but I am su re th at the in troduction was more formal tha n the second time tha t I sa w hi m. That was when h e came up to me and whipped off one of his Sam m y Davis Jr.-like "Wu z happen in' babe" type lines. I sit here now, and I smi le ju st thi nkin g ab out a ll th e times that he hit me wi th that one. I ca n al so vivi d ly rem em ber othe r th in gs, lik e the time a few ye a rs ago w hen we were on hold after the Springfield Mile rained out, agai n, on the Saturd a y o f Mem or ial Da y w e e ke n d . Davey pull ed togeth er a small grou p of p e o pl e, a n d it was d ecid ed th a t we would go d own to th e local ka rt tra ck fo r a few laps. But the kart track was un der wa ter, and all that was ava ilable to p a ss th e tim e w e re a few a rc a d e ga mes and the drivin g ran ge. We opted for the d riv in g range, whereby Davey proceeded to leave u s all crac king up with h is Happy Gilmore im pe rsonations . And I'll be damned if "Hap py Carnli n" wasn't able to rush up and dri ve the ball at least tw ice as far as just plain 01' Davey Camlin could by properly ad dressing the ball. I know that he liked to make prank pho ne calls to many of his friends. Just ask his p al Da le Jones about the time that Davey called up in the dead of win ter, impersonating a police officer and informing h im that his car was seen driving wildly through the streets of his neighborhood. Davey had Dale so convinced that Dale trudged out into the sno w to see if his car was actually still in the garage. The n there was the other Davey tha t I knew, Davey Ca mlin the mo torcycl e racer. Th ey were one and the sa me, of course, but the personality was d istinctly differe n t. He was se rious, busin esslike, intensely competitioe, and no mat ter how ba d things loo ked , he ga ve it 100 percent effor t to try to d o it bett er. When h e cou ld n' t fi nd happi n ess w ith the early incarna tion s of the sing le-sho cked d irt track chassis that came on to mar ket, he wo rk ed closeiv wit h his father, Don , to try to come u p wi th a su itable variation. Whe n he wasn' t ha p py with the way so me of the Grand I ati on al races were being run, he tried to prom ot e his own races . He was n't always success ful, but he never stopped trying to be. O n the track, at most p laces, Davey could han g wi th the bes t of 'e m any day of the week. On the mile, he was one of the guys to beat. If I close my eyes , I can still see him coming off of turn fou r at Du Qu oin or Sp ringfield, sli di ng sideways but already well in to h is tu ck w h ile m os t rid ers still ha d th i r foot dow n. He was trying to make hi mse lf as sma ll, as fas t, as he could be. I know I'll have to han g on to tha t image forever, because Davey's race is over. But what about the rest of us? What abo ut his loving wife, Missy, his father, Don , and his mo ther, Rand i, the rest of his family, friend s like Dale, his fans an d well-wis hers? Wha t will we do now that he is gone? I kn ow that, for me, there are a couple of things that I will focus up on. On e, I know that Davey had a firm faith in God, and as such, he believed that God had a plan for him . Lost in all of the grief and pain of this tragedy, we mu st rememb er th at so mewhere along the line, Davey must have fulfilled that plan - even if we may never know wha t it was. O therwise, he wo uld still be here with us. And tw o, Davey wasn' t a qu itter, and he did n't su rround himself wi th qu itters. I know this because eve n in the face of the loss of his friends and fellow racers, Rod n ey Farris and Andy Tresser, Davey did his best to press on . I'm sure tha t the d ecisi o n to d o so was never taken ligh tly, no r was it out of ignorance for the very real da nge r that professional d irt track racing can present. But. he continued to race , and he did so bravelv, Motorcycle racing was a huge part of his life, and he only lived best when he wa s tucked in, feet up , one hand on the forks and th e othe r g rabb in g a ha nd ful of throttle. He had so mu ch love for it. He never quit. A n d n e it h e r ca n w e . Yes , Da ve y Carnlin's race is over, bu t ou rs is not. In this life, we still have mor e miles to run and more challenges to face . If we can learn from Dav ey, and if we can apprecia te th e e xa m p les tha t he se t fo r us, th en we can not on ly ge t th rough thi s terribl e lo ss, b u t w e ca n be s tro ng er becau se of it. So long, Davey, m y fri end . I know th at it will be so hard to ge t over no t seeing you at the races anymore. But, for yo u, I promise to try. CIII