Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The Wise Guy oday, Steve Wise looks back fondly at his performance in the 1982 Houston Grand National Tf. "It was really a last-minute deal that we put together, but it was really a neat thing, and fortunately I was able to do good," the 48-year-old Wise, now full-time real estate investor, part-time minister, private pilot and avid golfer, says. But to the AMA flat track regulars back then, Wise the motocrosser was about as welcome as a fox in a henhouse. Wise had already showed that he had the aptitude for the high-speed world of flat track racing by winning back-to-back Superbikers titles in 1980 and '81. That success would lead to an offer from Honda for Wise to make the unprecedented switch from factory motocross racer to factory road racer. From the outside, it looked like a radical change of pace, but to Wise, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. "I was really comfortable [going fast)," Wise says. "When I was a kid, I used to go trail riding with my friends, and we always raced around on the [paved roads). I just didn't stick to motocross. We used to slide around on the pavement all the time, and it was very comfortable for me to back the motorcycle in on the pavement at high speeds." With Freddie Spencer's exodus to Europe in 1982, Honda offered Wise the chance to test Spencer's factory superbike. "At that time, Udo Gietl was the team manager, and he was a great guy," Wise says. "They took me out to Willow Springs, and I remember that the wind was blOWing about 50 mph. It was a wild day out there, but I guess I did pretty good. So, I did it [switched). It was such a good opportunity for me." Although road racing was in the cards for Wise, the AMA Grand National Championship - which was still awarded on the basis of combined points from AMA flat track and road racing - was not in the cards. But the chance to compete in the Houston Grand National TT on February 7, 1982, was too good for Wise to pass up. "I was just going to road race, and I hadn't really thought about the Grand National Championship," Wise says, "but I told Honda, 'Hey, you're going to Houston. Let's build me a motocross bike, and we'll go try it,' My friend Jimmy and my mechanic Mike Velasco took a stock Honda CR480 and fixed it for me. They did some stuff to the frame to bring the rake in, and they worked on the motor to smooth the powerband out. It was a throw-together thing, but it worked pretty good." A fair amount of pre-race buzz ensued over the motocrosser coming to town to play with the flat trackers, but anyone who might have given Wise sporting odds for a podium finish quickly relegated him to longshot status after news came out that he was seriously ill. "I was so sick," Wise says. "I woke up that morning with like a I03 or I04 temperature, and Isaid that I wasn't going to race. In fact, my mother lives in Houston, and I called her and told her not even to come because I wasn't going to race." Practice was already over by the time Wise elected to go ahead and give the TT a try anyway. T 86 JULY 20, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS "I remember that it was only a few minutes before time trials when I ran over there from the hotel and jumped on my bike," Wise says. "I made one lap and qualified 34th. I was still pretty sick, but after I started riding, it started to go away," As Wise got stronger, he got tougher maybe too tough for some of the established flat track veterans, who condemned his motocross riding style as rough riding every time he ran it in underneath one of them, completing his passes by running them wide off the corners. "Coming from a motocross background, we ride totally different," Wise says. "We use the front brake a lot, and they really don't. But for me to pass them, that was the only way I could do it. They were all riding four-strokes, and they were realiy hooking up and outpowering me coming off the corners. The only way I could pass them was to dive deep into the corners and block-pass. I was using the front brake and stopping in front of them where they were running wide into the corners, backing it in and were going to clip the apex of the corners. By the time they'd get ready to clip the apex, I was already there, stopped. I remember a lot of guys were getting mad, but it wasn't like there were any high-speed turns." The anger came to a head when Wise tangled with 1979 AMA Grand National Champion Steve Eklund, sending Eklund to the ground. An angry Eklund demanded that Wise be penalized, but those pleas fell on deaf ears. "Wise was riding out of control - he knocked me down on purpose," Eklund said in Cycle News' coverage of the race. Another former series champion, Gary Scott, didn't necessarily agree with Eklund, but he did take issue with Wise's high-jumping antics. "What Wise did [to Eklund) wasn't dirty, but he shouldn't be out there on a motocross bike," Scott said in the Cycle News report. "What he was doing off the jumps was dangerous. He could land on someone," "I was jumping pretty high, I have to admit," Wise recalls now. "A lot of guys were pretty upset. Of course they [flat trackers) all do that now, but the old-school guys weren't used to that type of jumping. That was where I was making up most of time," Tansferring through his semi, Wise started the main event from the back row. He didn't hold out much hope of getting to the front. "But then in the first turn, everybody went wide, and I totally hugged the inside," Wise says. "We banged bars, but I came out of the corner in seventh place, and then I passed two more guys over the jump. Within three laps, I was third." Wise battled furiously with Honda "teammates" Mike Kidd - the two more enemies than friends - and Mickey Fay while Ricky Graham ran in the lead, Graham putting on a masterful display and ultimately emerging victorious aboard a supposedly uncompetitive Harley-Davidson XR750. While Graham ran away, the three-rider battle for second place raged. "Ricky was cruising out front, and Mike and I were haVing a knock-down, drag-out for third [behind Fay) for four laps," Wise says. "There was a lot of banging going on there. He'd pass me, and then I'd pass him. Then Mike tried to get by Terry Poovey [who was being lapped), and they both went down. Then Igot by Mickey and started closing in on Ricky. I could hear the crowd going crazy," But there would be no Cinderella story for Wise. "My back brake broke," Wise says. "I think it was the brake rod. I had no back brake, and Mickey got back by me." Wise finished third in his AMA Grand National debut. He went on to contest the TTs at Ascot and Santa Fe with less success, but he still earned enough points to be named AMA Grand National Rookie of the Year for 1982. He then returned to Houston aboard a similar CR480 in 1983, only to find that the track had been radically altered - primarily to prevent a repeat performance by Wise. "They put the big jump right out of the corner, and then they had a little bitty jump going into one of the corners," Wise recalls. 'I\nybody could hit them wide open. And the track got really slick." Wise was battling for seventh in the main event when he crashed and ended up 14th. It would be the last Grand National flat track he ever contested, although it didn't have to be. "There's a few things I would change about my career if I could," Wise says. "One of them goes back to 1982. After I got third at Houston, I finished seventh in the Daytona 200 and was leading the Grand National points. Honda's flat track team manager, Gene Romero, called me and asked me to come to San Jose to test their mile bike. I don't know why I didn't do it, and now I really wish I had. If I had it to do over again, I would have tried it, and I probably would have gone after that [AMA Grand National) number-one plate. I have respect for any of the CN guys who have won it. They are all great riders,"

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