Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Johnny Murphree take care of itself. Every weekend w e w ere plenty fast to race for the lead. At the Springfield TT we were plenty fast to win, but I got too excited and crashed. The n I got up and could see where I was making ground on the leaders. That was one time I wh ere I was really angry at myself. I th rew an easy podium finish. Sometimes I got frust rated with myse lf for making dumb mistakes and not knowing whether to tr ust my judgement. But every week w e ke pt o ur heads up , and we always found a reason w hy w e co uld w in the next race. We wo uld say, 'We can win t his race beca use we were fast here last year: or 'We can win this race because I have the fastest bike and the best mechanic here.' That's what kept me going." His lo ne w in came at the decrepit Hales Corners Speedway southeast of Milwaukee , Wisconsin. In front of a grands tand full of Harley-Davidson factory em ployees, dur ing t he company's 100th anniversary celebration, Murph ree had a great race w ith its man, Rich King, for 24 of the 2S laps in the main event. King's factory Buell Blastpowered SOOR would end up expiring in the race , but not befo re Murphree had already passed him for the lead. "We had been easily fast all night the re : ' Murphree said. "We weren't out t here searching for extra speed. I think a lot of that was due to the guy who set up my equ ipment. We rolled in there, and I didn't think that anyone was going to be on the same lap as me when the race rear. It's fun, but it's not wha t I'm used to , and up until Lima [O hio, Half Mile] last year, I hated them. Getting eighth place there was a relief to me . Then when we we nt to Co lumbus , that had all changed . I just told myself that I wo uld go fast, and I wo uld make it happen, and if the thing went through the hay bales, the n I hoped we had a good spare . We went to the t rack, and I was set on kill. That's what happened." Fourth place - after starting dead last , going into turn one . "We had a problem with the transmiss ion early in the night, and it wou ldn't shift right," Murphree said. "Rather than tear it apart, we just dec ided to go w ith it. I had to let the rpm die down before I co uld even shift it, so I was dead last. I just went straight to the top and made my way and as long as it is on the track, it will be unbeatable. For a racer, though, it [productio n tw ins] would be a better deal . It [changing ove r] would be a huge task , and the re wo uld be a big uproar at first. A guy like Eddie Adkins o r Johnny Goad or any other of these top guys who know "lf we don't make a change soon to allow more manufacturers to be involved, the sport will never grow bigger than it is right now, which isn't very big." was over. Of course , then I went into tum one in about ninth place . I thought to myself, ' Here goes another one I'm gonna give away. Let's see how far up I can get .' I just started charging, and I found some good lines to pass on. Tha t was one thing that I really learned in 2003 : how to pass. I started in the back so many t imes that I had to be creative and find different lines to pass people who were o n the regular lines. At Milwaukee, I just put the Ame rican Supe rcamp line to good use . I just started turn ing in later and starting my straightaway earlier and getting the bike stood straight up and down. Lap after lap, Rich would dive into turn one and make that poleputter line work - he's made a career out of that, and he can work bottom better than anybod y. I just kept runn ing the motorcycle up high and passing underneath him. It was fun. It was like we were just out there, playing. Ididn't count on him breakingon the last lap to win that race. I know he thought he had me covered , and Ithought I had him covered . We'll never know." Here again, perhaps a sign of his maturity, Murphree said that his o ne Achilles heel in his march toward the champio nship has been his struggles on cushion racetracks. "There's no doubt about that," Murph ree said. "In the past , I have just sucked on cushions . I love riding them, it's a great time , but I have never made it happen on the cushio n trac ks. On the groove, I can find that point where the bike is going to almost break loose but stay hooked up. At clay tracks like Hagerstown, you're always searching for tra ctio n, but on the cushion you're always trying to get rid of traction by grabbing a handful and steering with the ~A ~~Rl1 ll dl1V.?!i ?()(),d • CYCll; N I;WS to the front. I think that I could have run with t he leaders there. That was a total victory for me. I didn't even make the main event at Lima or Columbus in 2002 ." His ability to learn from mistakes and not fear change extends to Murphree's outlook on the climate of his cho sen discipline. He is taking a strong interest in the future of the sport. "The money thing isn't that big of a deal to me," Murphree said. "l'rn driven to be number one , and that is what motivates me, but I also want to see flat track get bet ter to where we are all salaried and we are all making money. And ifwe don't make a change soon to allow more manufacturers to be involved, the sport will never grow bigger than it is right now, which isn't very big. The younger guys coming up will have nothing to look forward to ." One idea that Murphree said has piqued his interest is the idea of a production-based V-twin class. He has seen the interest that brands such as Suzuki and KTM have shown in the sport recently, and w ith other manufacturers developing similarly styled engines, Murphree said that he sees some potential in the formu la, even if it were to mean making his current equipment obsolete. 'i\bsolutely," Murphree said. "If we don 't look at that and make a change, the sport is neve r going to go anywhere. Personally, as a racer, you can put me on anything that you want, as long as the bikes are going to be com petitive . I'llride anything that's safe. And how about those TLI OOOs, where all you really have to do is change the oil once in a while? The XR750 is still the best bike right now, 40th Anniversary how to make the XR750 fast and make it last o n the racetrack is going to struggle at first, but not wanting to change just so that you can keep your job is not really seeing the forest for the trees. Everyone would have to go bac k to the drawing boards, but it would be for the betterment ofthe sport." And no w is re a lly the t ime to make a change , says Murphree. "Look at the amateur numbers at t he district level: ' Murphree said. "They' re cranking out more numbers now than they ever have. The amateur nationals [AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships] are having all-time record numbers of entries. The sport is alive at the grassroots level." But t he future is then, and this is now. And right now, Murphree says t hat he has on ly one thing on his mind, be ing number one. "That's my main goal in life," Murphree said. "I expect there to be a lot more guys to be running toward the front th is year. I expect to see guys like Jared Mees, Jake Johnson and Mike Hacke r, Kenny Coolbeth, Joe Kopp and Rich King, all those guys to be better t his year. The only guy that I do n't see getting much better is the guy who is w inning the thing. I think the bar is definitely going to be raised in flat track. Right now, I don't know how good I am." Perhaps that's a sign that he is finallyready to fulfill his destiny. You see , Johnny Murphree used to th ink that he eN did know. Now, he is better than that.

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