Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Mike Kiedrollllski • Former AMA National Motocross champion Mike Kiedrowski takes to the woods to spearhead American Suzuki's new DR-Z400 four-stroke assauN on the GNCC off-road series. BY The Real World ANDREW CLUBB PHOTOS BY KINNEY JONES s there life after tasting the upper echelons of a promotocross race career? Ask former AMA 125, 250 and 500cc National Motocross champ Mike Kiedrowski and he'll tell you there are a couple of ways to spend your time once you're done with leaping off skyscraper jumps and pounding through seat-deep whoops for 40 minutes at a time. One way is to rejoin the nine-to-five grind, climbing through the framework of new housing estates and wiring up domestic and commercial electrical systems. Another is to hit the trails and chase a perhaps less-pressured form of off-road motorcycle sport namely the AMA Grand National Cross Country Championship. Kiedrowski, the rider nicknamed 'MX Kied' during his pro motocross heyday of the early '90s, can tell you what it's like to do both. I "I basically retired from pro motocross at the end of 1997," explains the now 31-year-old Kiedrowski, who enjoyed a half dozen seasons racing for Team Honda and Team Kawasaki before winding out his career with the satellite Honda of Troy squad. "I'd had a lot of injuries of that year racing for Troy, and I basically decided I had had enough. At 28 years of age. I was getting to the older ranks of the pro motocross scene." With four AMA National Motocross championships to his credit, not to mention numerous Motocross des Nations and World Championship GP victories to his name, retirement sat well with Kiedrowski. "I'd had a good career, no two ways about it," Kiedrowski reflects. "Maybe if my achievements hadn't been so good I might've hung in for longer, but I already had a lot of great memories to look back over." And so at the end of 1997, the MX Kied went cold turkey, joining his father in the construction industry to while away his days, specializing in electrical work. "That was it, and I basically didn't even ride through all that time until now," Kiedrowski admits. "My wife and I have a young daughter, and we wanted to spend time with her, so when I wasn't working we'd go boating and stuff on the weekends, doing things like that as a family." Brothers At Arms Late last year Kiedrowski received a call from his former long-time tuner at Team Honda and Team Kawasaki, Shane Nalley, who now works with Team Suzuki's off-road program. Suzuki was set to launch a DR-Z400 racer for the 2000 GNCC Series, and Mike Kiedro_ki began his new off-road career with a ninth-place finish at the opening round of the Grand National Cross Country Series In Okeechobee, Florida. 32 MARCH 29. 2000' cue • • neVIl's