Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Final Moto CHRIS JONNUM hat are the qu ali ties that make a great ben ch,racer ? A trivial qu estion , to be su re, but an intrigui ng one non etheless. Ther e's no sho rtage of theori es on what makes a great motoreycle racer, but th e rac er of benches - an integral fixtu re in the world of mot orcycle ridi ng and racing - is not examined so closel y. Wh y are some ben ch racers me rrily tolerated by their au diences, not unlike noisy in fan ts a t fa mily ga the rings, while a few ya m -spinners are actually su rro u nd ed by eager, enthus ias tic listeners? . My U ncle Co r ky is a trul y g re a t ben ch racer. I - ad mittedly not im partial - wou ld p osit hi m as th e finest ever. Corky has a true ap p recia tio n for the rt, and has hon ed his ben ch-racing taInts as religiou sly as an y mer e motoreyIe racer. Still, I sus pect that he' s a naturI, lik e Ronnie Lechien , for d espite a earl y nonexistent training regim en and di et of mainly beer, he never see ms to reo In a quest to answer the abo ve query, recently began paying closer att ention o Corky' s accoun ts, and to his delivery. 'd like to mimic a televi sion color comentat or critiquing a great athlete in a low-motion replay, and break down ne of my uncle's favorite anecd otes ne which I' ve heard oft en eno ugh to ave memorized its every wo rd . " Du r i n g a Di strict-37 Sh amrocks nduro at Red Rock Canyon many years go ," m y uncle unfailingl y begin s the ale, "your father and I fou nd ourselves ollo w ing a fell ow on a Bultaco trials ike. While su ch squirrely mounts were ot uncommon in end u ros back th en, e brothers [onnum wanted nothin g to o with them , inst ead preferring to conert big British street bikes. On this da y, e wer e en tered aboard a pair of matchng Norton poll s, each with man y times he weight and d isp laceme nt of the little ull." What's not ab le abo ut this beginning that in addition to establishing the seting and cha rac ters, Corky is careful to n clu d e a n a u dience m ember in h is tor y. Th is ad ds cred ibility, as the per o n is su re to .feel p rid e at hi s o r her W i ncl u s ion, and to thu s b ack up m y uncle's every las t d etail, thinking, Gee, I guessthat is the way it happened. "O u r b oom in g Nortons ra pi dl y a p proache d th e hapless rid er," Co rky will continue, "but since the sing letrack followed a narrow ridgeback, we were unable to ge t a ro u nd . Thu s, your pop em ployed a techn ique that he practiced quite often on his big No rton (I sus pect it's why he rod e it in the first place); He d is en ga ged the cl utch , g ave tw o bi g blas ts of the th rottle, then re-engaged it and tapped the hapl ess rider's rea r tire. The Bultaco, heretofore merely unsteady, im me d ia tely gave a v iol ent swerve to one side of the trail, bumped into a boulder, and promptly sp it its nervou s pilot down into the trailsid e ra vine." Thi s is a prime examp le of ano ther of • Corky's fortes - namely, that he doesn't fo cu s hi s tal es o n h is own h e ro ic exploits. In fact, he doesn't include himself in some of his best accounts. This is because Corky realizes that an audien ce is more likely to listen to - and believe a storyteller who is not simply bra gging. "The bike," he goes on , "thanks to its trial heritage, was of better equ ilibrium than its rid er, a truism we di scovered when it land ed upsid e down, perfectly balanced on its rear fender and han dl ebar. " (H e r e, a first- time lis te n er will become in cr edulous, but I assure you that another of my uncle's bench-racing secrets is th at he n ever lies. True, th e fa ct s a re ,o ft- times exagge ra t ed a nd inflated, but again, only in the interest of a good story.) "I can see by yo u r ex p ressio n th at you already oppugn the veraci ty of my tale," m y uncle w ill wisely co nfess at t h is point, th ereby turning th e audi en ce's mood against the doubter. "And I mu st co ncede th a t I empath iz e . My brother and I, in fact, stopped dead in the trail that very day, more ama zed by the tu m of eve nts than concern ed for the rid er' s welfare - as will be evidenc ed mom entaril y. This account, you see, has yet to reach its most amazing point .," We, as critical ana lys ts, ca n eas ily di scern m y uncle building su spe nse a t th is po in t, but the help less audie nce is b y now a collec tio n o f obed ie n t u n wit ti n gl y s hee p, en trap ped in the web of Corky' s vocal magic. " A fei s ty s te e d, th e ' inver ted Bul taco con tinued to idle, its rear w heel sp inning away in secon d gea r. Whe n we eve ntua lly rec overed fr om o u r stu po r, we found that the r otati ng Baru m wa s b lo ck ing o u r forw ard progress ju st as handil y a s a rotatin g b u z z-saw w ould bl o ck Jam e s Bo n d ' s acces s to 'a n y dam sel in d istre s s. " Corky: King 01th e bench racers. (Calling up such fictional images is danger ou s, but remember, Co rky is a n expert .) "Fortu na tely, its in subordinashakily ge tting to his feet and taking in the scene. My sibling and I looked from tion would s u b side soon en o u g h ..." (Buil di ng suspense. ) the Bultaco, to its rider, to each other, "Now, an yon e knows that Olympic and I cleared my throa t and inquired, gym n as ts ha ve go t nothing on trials 'You okay?" (We're not such bad guys, is bikes and riders when it comes to adop tthe message her e.) ing bizarre contortio ns, but apparently "Th e dazed neophyt e a p peare d to the wee Bultaco ' s design ers hadn 't hav e forgotten our presen ce, his memo_planned on it ending up in this particury no d oubt impaired by a good knock lar postu re ." (Pro vid in g scapegoats .) on the melon, and my qu ery rou sed him "How else to explain the gas cap, which so mewha t from his stupor. Confused by wa sn't really a gas cap at all, but inste ad t he qu e stion , he g la nced th r ough a rubber stopper - not unlike a cork in a crooked gogg les at each of his limbs in wine bottl e?" (Clever word play by my tum, then returned his gaze to us, and uncl e her e, as Cork is indeed we ll into a responded qu erulou sly, 'U hh ... yea h wi ne bottleat this point.) "As you may 1... guess." well di vine, th e small a mou n t of fuel "Wit h that, m y brother and I gave contained in the trial s bike's dain ty tank one look at each other, nodded, boo ted wa s en ou gh to disl od g e th e s top p e r ou r mi ghty Norto ns back to life, a nd from its home, and sa id fuel was soo n roared off int o the distance in a cacop hem p tying itself on to th e dusty trail. A ony of British thunder." few seco nds after the final glug, the erstYes, th a t' s ho w it e nd s, an d I ca n while pesk y rear whee l shu dde red to a alr eady hear th e accu sations : You call stop, an d a ghostly silence - we had lon g that a great example of bench racing? yo u s in ce kill ed ou r ow n mot ors - se tt led say. What an anticlimactic ending! ov er the d esert. " (Here, the audience is Wh at you fail to realize, how ever, is as qu iet as Corky's desert, eag erly anticthat eve n that is an inten tional move by ipating the narrative's conclus ion.) Corky : s u ch en di ngs leav e th e aud i"Arou nd th is ti me, ou r fri ghten ed ence's thirs t for lore u nq uenched, and friend succeed ed in extracting his head thus 'allow him to launch into yet anothfrom a modest pile of boulders, and was er of his many parab les. CN Looking Back oYEARSAGO... CTOBER 7, 1969 20 YEARSAGO... OCTOBER 3, 1979 10YEARS AGO... S P BE E TEM R27, 1989 i m R i ce (BSA ) wo n the Okla C ity h om a atio nal Ha lf M ile, eati ng Bart Marke l H-D} an d Ge ne omer o (Tri), but Mert awwill clinched the MA Gra nd National h a m p io n s h ip n u rncr-o ne pia te by virtue f his six th-place fini sh the ma in eve nt... Jim 'Nea l (CZ) too k over h e CMC M o tocro s s eries p oints lead in th e O cc Juni or ran ks after win ning the class at Sadd leback O ark ... Co ntribu to r Darryl Skraba k su bmit ted a story ntitled "South Ho stile to Touring Motorcyclists?" in hich he d escrib ed less tha n hosp itable treatment by e locals in seve ral cities and towns in the d eep so uth... on Emde (Yam) wo n the 350cc GP class at the -ACA's nzac road race track in Pal mda le, California... Edd ie ulder proved that he was capable on a Class A motorycle as well as a flat-tracker when he wo n the Scratch a in at Cos ta M es a Sp e e dway ... O v ers e a s, I van auger (jaw) retain ed his World Speedway Cha mpinship at Wembley Stadium in England. ta ly won th e Te am Trophy, Czechos lovakia won the Silver Vase, and Larry Roesele r (H u s) was the top placing American at the 54th ISDE in Wes t Germany. Am erican riders claimed 19 gold medals, well down' from th e 27 ea rned in the previous yea r ' s run n in g of th e even t. American riders al s o copped 10 silver med als an d four bronze medals... Stev e Eklu nd (H-D) becam e the first priv ateer to win the AMA Grand Na tional Championship since Dick Man n in 1963. Eklund clinched the title at the San Jose Mile - despite failing to make the main even t - after Jay Springsteen (H- D) finishe d a disa ppointing seven th in th e main , not enough to reta in his number-on e pl ate. Steve Morehead (H -D) won th e race... Lone forei gn entrant Andre Malherbe (Hon) paid a visit to the Yanks durin g round one of the Trans-USA Series at the MidOhio series opener, and the Belgian whipped them soun dly... We interviewed four-ti me AMA Gra nd Natio nal Cha mpion Carroll Resweber to find out what he was up to some 17 years after his career-ending accident. ed by top-scorin g A me rican Jeff S t ant on (Hon), Team USA won its ninth consecu tive Motocross d es Na tions title in Gail d orf, Germany. Stanton wa s joined by Jeff Wa rd (Kaw) and M ike Kied row ski (Kaw ) in this ed it ion o f t h e Am erica n squad . It a ly wa s sec on d, an d Englan d third ... European Ed itor Alan Cathca r t te s ted th e Bi mo ta YB4 EIR S u p e r b ik e in Yugoslovia ... The Human Race Team (Yam) en ded the win s treak of the Vance & Hi n es Suz u ki team (Suz) d uri ng the WERA Na tiona l End urance round a t Willow Sp rings Intern at ional Raceway in Rosamond, Cali- . m forni a... They we re off-ro ad in' like mad in this issue , as 8l Ed LOJ'ak (Yam) wo n rou nd seven of the AMA Gra nd .,; ~ Na tional Cross Co untry Series in Hookst own, Pennsyl- N vania , while Dan Smith (KTM) wo n rou nd six of the jj AMA National Champion ship Hare & Hound Series in E Craig, Co lorado. Randy Hawkins (Suz) d id his thing by taki ng th e w in a t round 10 of the AMA Natio na l ~ Cham pionshi p End uro Series in Winterset , Iowa. CN I L -5. 91

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