Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By 30 YEARS AGO•.• AUGUST 29, 1972 John McCowen and his dog Cookie took a Jump together for our cameras and the cover of Issue #33 ... Roger DeCoster rode his number-one Suzuki to 1- 1 moto finishes at his home 500cc MX GP in Namur, Belgium. Joel Robert injured his knee in practice and watched from the sidelines, cigarette in mouth. The only American in the event was Billy Clements (Hus), who took 17th overall ... Giacomo Agostini (MV) had already clinched the 500cc World Road Racing Championship, but he raced the Swedish Grand Prix anyway - and he won. He also won the 350cc event. .. During Saddleback MX action in Irvine, California, Marty Tripes (Yam) won the 250cc Expert class over Greg Robertson (Cl) and Ron DeSoto (Cl), and Brad Lackey (Kaw) did likewise in the 500cc class... Barry Gerald (Oss) topped the Santa Fe Short Track National. 20 YEARS AGO•.• SEPTEMBER 1, 1982 Danny LaPorte (Yam), the United States' possible second World Motocross Champion, graced the cover of Issue #33. In his interview, the 1979 500cc National Champion said "the only thing in the world for me is the World Title." ... Also on the cover was Bruce PenhaU, as we featured a preview of the upcoming Speedway World Finals, which were coming to the L.A. Coliseum_ It was also announced that, after the finals, Penhall would star in at least seven episodes of the hit TV show CHiPs... Suzuki's Terry Vance became the first man to both complete a quarter-mile pass in under seven seconds and at over 200 mph on his Top Fuel motorcycle. His pass was a 6_98 at 203.61 mph at Orange County International Raceway ... Mike Baldwin (Hon) topped both the Fonnula One and Superbike classes (or the second round in a row at a Sears Point AMA Road Race National. 10 YEARS AGO••• AUGUST 26, 1992 Kawasaki's Mike laRocco leaped across the cover of Issue #33 on his way to the overall at the Millville, Minnesota, 125cc National. His Win, coupled with title rival Jeff Emig's 19th-place firstmoto result, helped him extend his championship points lead to 48_ After two rounds of the 500cc National MX Series, Honda's Jeff Stanton and Kawasaki's Mike Kiedrowski were tied in points_ At round one, they traded first- and third-place fmishes, while at Millville, they each had a second and a first. Stanton got the edge for the overall at round two, however... Donny Schmit (Yam) clinched the 250cc World Motocross Championship in Finland with one race still to be run. Rob Herring (Hon) actually won the race ... Michael Blose, Ricky Carmichael, Casey Johnson, Robbie Reynard, David Pingree and Tommy Clowers all came away winners at the Ponca City Grand National Championships. HENNY RAY ABRAMS omewhere, Randy Renfrow was smiling. It had been a tough weekend for his family, for his friends, for racing. He'd been taken before his time, senselessly, it goes without saying. No more comebacks and no more retirements except for the final one to come shortly. But now two of his friends were swapping stories and laughing and taking a break from a weekend that was tougher than most. AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick and Dunlop's Jim Allen were, it's safe to say, two of Renfrow's closest friends. Barrick met Randy through his brother, Shawn, and he and Randy were soon racing each other. Barrick gave it up to become Renfrow's mechanic, and they were still a team when Barrick took the AMA job. Allen met Renfrow early in his career. "There's two guys that had a lifetime contract with Dunlop: Randy is one and Ski [Dave Sadowski] is the other," Allen said. "Those guys got us where we are today. Randy was just so flippin' loyal. There was never any question. One time he rode the 8Hours on Bridgestones, and he was so apologetic." It was one of the few times he'd ever have to apologize. "Randy was the toughest guy in a sport filled with very tough guys," said photographer and fellow Virginian Tom Riles, and there was no disputing it. Renfrow tortured his body in ways that would make the Marquis de Sade soil his shorts. It was that toughness, that tenaciousness, that was his defining legacy. Barrick saw it at their very first heads-up race. Renfrow's knees were beat up from motocrossing, and even though he thought road racing was as dull as a banana, he tried it. He and some friends cobbled together a Kawasaki KZ650 out of two wrecked carcasses, and they were off to Summit Point. "He was out there with his construction boots, his motocross leather pants, and some kind of leather jacket with duct tape around the waist," Barrick recalls. "Some white Bell helmet with the hair flowing out the back. "Randy was fairly fast straight away, but really out of control. We'd take off, and I'd be ahead of him. Then he'd come blazing by and get to the turn and out of control and off the track, and you go cruising on through again. And three laps later he's on you again and back past again and S Chicaner all out of control. He was pretty into it right from the start. He wasn't going to go out there and play. He was going to do it right and start organizing things." The organization was another part of his legacy. Renfrow was able to beat Team Honda's Wayne Rainey by being more organized. It happened in 1986, when he won the final Formula One title on a Honda RS500 triple tuned by Barrick and backed by Dr. Bert Bigoney. "He was hard on people around him for wanting perfection sometimes, but he was no less hard on himself," Allen says. "One thing you had to admire is that he maximized his resources at all possible times. He didn't have as much, but he spent it right - spent the money in the right place." Or improvised when necessary. "Before we had tire warmers, at Pocono, the tire wasn't coming in quick enough for us, so Randy put the wheel on top of the van in the sun," Allen recalls. "Every 10 minutes, he'd turn the wheel up there. He was smart enough to figure that out." Adds Barrick, "We even did the same thing on a hot day, empty everything out and put the wheels inside the van." The work ethic is something Renfrow never lost. "Other than racing, I wish that Randy had spent more time playing in his life, because he was a bit of a workaholic," Barrick said. Renfrow was a vice president at Fitness Resources, a distributor of exercise equipment. "Talking about tenacious, when he was trying to make a deal with a big dealer for a discount on stuff, he was always working and working and working." Allen remembers a tale from Brainerd in the mid'80s. Randy was on the ground working on his 250, and Donnie [Greene] may have been number one. And Donnie was pissing and moaning about no support and nobody helping him with the bike, and Randy just looked up and said, 'Donnie, get a job. I got two of them.' He never expected it to be given to him." In his prime, Renfrow won three crowns, the 1983 250cc title, the 1986 Formula One title, and the 1989 Pro Twins title, times long since forgotten. Allen got an e-mail with an interesting observation: People in the pits don't know Randy Renfrow. People that are here now don't know him. People that have been around and stuff know, but he was The Man.' He In next week's Cye/eRews wasn't just an old guy that came to race every now and again." Renfrow could have quit any number of times. Until his devastating March accident at Daytona, the most memorable came at a Honda test at Willow Springs in the winter of 19901991. Renfrow crashed an RC30, severing his right thumb and the tips of several fingers. His left big toe was grafted onto his hand - radical surgery at the time. "Nobody knew if it was going to work," Allen says. "1 remember looking at the thing. He said, 'If they put it on with a little rotation, it would have been a lot better.' When he did finally come back, [he had to learn] to ride again with a whole different grip, and you know how important throttle control is at the top level. He said it was difficult, and his fingers were now too short, and the levers and controlling the bike was a whole new experience, almost like being a novice again, trying to learn everything." But he did it, and in his first sprint race back, he finished third at Daytona on a Honda 600 that Barrick had built in three days in the Two Brothers Racing shop. "I remember seeing him in the winner's circle. I was just crying. He'd gotten on the box," Allen remembers. "That was impressive to do what he did. That was an amazing feat." The final shock came at Daytona in March. Renfrow was rammed from behind on the warm-up lap of a throwaway CCS race. Even with at least 23 broken bones, he still considered returning. "Ninety-eight percent of the guys in the paddock who had gone through anyone of the things he's gone through would seriously consider a career change," Barrick said. Barrick said it wasn't that long after the crash that Renfrow was thinking, "Maybe my knee's not that bad." Renfrow was hoping to make it back for Mid-Ohio or Brainerd, tracks he liked. He could afford to pick and choose. But this time, the bones didn't heal quite so fast. He was, after all, 46, and still on crutches five months later. Even so, he was planning on running a limited schedule in 2003. Barrick hoped he'd get to ride at the Barber track in Birmingham. He won't be there, but his spirit will. He was one of the good guys, one of the few who you never heard disparaged, nor did he disparage anyone. He was tough, but kind. He will be"missed. eN Millville National MX GennanMXGP Peoria rr Michigan AMA Enduro CUD I B n B _ S • AUGUST 21. 2002 111

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