Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

National Hillclimb Champion Dave Watson does. But I'm just like, 'Yeah, that's my hillclimb bike,' in a nonchalant manner." "It all comes down to desire," said Dan. "That's all there is to it, simple as that. When you're out there until one or two o'clock in the morning every night trying to figure something out - you get out of work, run home, grab the bikes and go someplace and test and test and try this and that..." That dedication took the Watson pair to the top of the hillclimbing heap. The bikes receive minor modifications from time to time but are generally the same machines that swept dual championships in 2000. The Watsons have plans to build a new pair of racers for the '04 campaign. Career highs and ingenious mechanical constructions aside, excellence has exacted its own price tag. While again having his way with the U.S. Pro Hillclimbing Championships, Watson suffered a potential life- and career-ending crash in the summer of 2001. On the way to another dual championship season, he not only nearly lost the rest of his career, but his life dangled on a precarious thread. "I was just out practicing at a sandpit near my house," Dave said. "Me and my two buddies were just riding around. It was like a flat pit that went up a hill, and I pulled out to pass one of (them). "I pulled out onto part of the course I hadn't ridden on, and I just hit something I didn't see, and 1 was kicked over the bars," Watson recalls of the terrifying wreck. His body folded like an old tee shirt, and Watson was slammed to the earth. The next ride he would take would be in a helicopter. Doctors induced a coma for three days, while they contemplated how to rebuild his innards. "My insides were pretty messed up," he said. He suffered a collapsed lung and a damaged pancreas. Surgeons removed his spleen and had to reconstruct a kidney. Needless to say, Dave Watson's championship hopes were dashed with that crash in practice. However, the defending champ would not sit idly by and watch the competition. Four weeks after his brush with mortality, he joined them. Due to a severe loss of weight and a body full of damaged parts, he was unable to run the pace of his counterparts. But, as with nearly everything he does, Watson had fun with his return. With off-road and so-called "extreme" motorsports soaring to unthinkable levels of popularity today, what do the Watsons think it will take to put hillclimbing closer to the limelight? 42 MAY 28, 2003' eye I ... "The hillclimbers themselves, and their stuff, have to be more professional. That's the main thing," Dave said. On another note, he feels the sport has been left behind by its sanctioning body. "The AMA, I don't think they're really big fans anymore, so 1 don't think they would really even attempt to make it better. They just keep it the way it is. They have motocross and road racing," he adds. Dan added that the sport needs more mainstream recognition in order to be a viable force in the off-road world. "If somebody would be willing to take a gamble with TV coverage of it - it's impressive to people," he said. "I think manufacturers have to get involved, too. If they get involved, in anything, it takes off." The Watsons aren't certain about the direction in which professional hillclimbing is headed. "I don't see it changing it a whole lot," Dan said. "We need more races. More better quality races." Success hasn't diminished Dave's long-range goals nor allowed him to dismiss the early days. He continues to compete in local New England hillclimbs whenever he gets the opportunity. "I hit a lot of amateur hillclimbs just to go there, have a good time, ride as many classes as they'll let me," Dave said. "Just hang out. Uke n e vv s 1 say, the more you ride, obviously, like anything else, the better you are. 1still go there because it's good practice, and the guys are really hard to beat. You still have to ride your balls off to beat them." Returning to the local scene is "like home," Watson said. "Last year it was kinda cool, because I started helping out the little kids," he added. After near c:areer-endlng end potentially IIfe-thre8tenlng Injuries sustelned while practicing in the summer of 2001, his pair of chempionshlps the following season are ell the more Impressive. "I know when I was little, if there were any prizes, all the fast guys in the 500 class or the 250 class won them. So, 1 started giving the little guys 20 bucks for winning. Just giving them a little something to shoot for. They like that. They can go buy some toys or something." Watson takes pride in what he and his father have accomplished thus Jar. At 24, the New Englander still has plenty of racing in front of him. "I'm gonna do this as long as I feel I can be competitive," Dave said. "I love doing it. The coolest thing about hillclimbing, I feel, is that nobody makes a hillclimb motorcycle. To be able to build your own bikes and race them is pretty awesome," he adds. "That's one thing that probably sets him apart from anybody else who's out there," Dan chimes in. "He does it all: builds them and races them. We have a lot of guys who go out and are good riders but couldn't possibly build a bike if they had to." With the 2003 season approaching, the Watsons are eyeing another pair of titles. With a stiff slate of competition facing them at the opening round in Middlebury, IN, they will have to make a tight package of fast bikes, consistency, determination, caution and their most potent ingredients: passion and desire to be the best in the sport they have loved and embraced for their respective lifetimes. The hat trick could be in their future - and if it is, watch out Earl Bowlby. l:1li

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