Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

David Bailey, Part l Be fore Bailey hooked up w ith Honda, he was ma king a name fo r himself on Kawasa kis. from th at moto win , I felt o ver th e t op ; I fe lt lik e I b el ong ed o n t h e team ." De s p ite th e e a rly-se a s o n m isf or tune, Ba ile y would end up s ixth in th e fi nal AMA 250 cc Na ti ona l p o in t st a nd ings . Mor eover, he placed 10th in th e AMA Supercro ss p o ints . And while those results d idn't ex a ctly rock the world , ev eryon e a t Te am Honda knew th at Ba iley was com ing. And in early Sep tember , thos e s us p ici o n s wer e confirmed . Ha ving stunned th e world by win n in g the 1981 Motocross a nd T ro phee des Nations , Am erican Ho nd a again t ook t he resp onsib ility for putting together the 1982 Am erican effort. (Ba c k in the e a rly 1980s, th e Mot ocross des Nations cons isted of two in di vid u a l races kn o wn as t h e Motoc ros s d es Na tions , for 500c c b ikes , and th e Trophee des Natio ns , for 25 0cc bikes . Th e two ra c es were cont ested b y t h e Motocross - rac ing n at io n s of Euro p e , each of whi ch entered a four -man team ..) The races were slated to run in Gaildorf, Germany , and Woh len , Switz erla nd , on c onsec utive we e kend s in early S ep tember, and a 'Mara (who rode on the winning '8 1 team ) , Hansen , J im Gib so n a n d th e w ild -e y ed Dan n y "Magoo" Ch an dle r we re s huffled onto a T ra ns-A t lanti c a irline r a nd flo wn o ver t o Europ e . Howev e r, fat e entered the mix, an d the week before 36 M AY 10 , 2000 ' c ue I e t he Trophe e e ve n t , 1 9 8 2 250 c c Supercross Champion Han s en was badly injured du ring a practi c e a cci d ent on German Rolf Dieffenbach's tra ining tra ck. A few hours later - and an ocean awa y - Da v id Ba iley ' s ph one rang in Axton , Virginia . "I was asl e ep ; it wa s 6 :00 a .rn ., a nd m y mom c ame running up to my room ," e xpl a ins Ba ile y. "S he wo ke me up a nd said, ' Da ve Arn old is o n the phone from Frankfurt , Ge rm an y .' I pi ck ed it up , a n d Da ve sai d, ' We need you to g et o ve r h e re now.' I re p lied , 'Wh er e , to Europe ? ' He to ld me Donn ie Ha nse n had been hu rt a nd didn't make a b ig dea l out of it. He a lso to ld m e I ha d to get th er e imme diately . So I began scrambling to get some gea r toge t her. Whil e we were doing that, my m om and I were like , ' Fra nkfurt? Where is Frankfurt? ' We had to loo k it up in an a tlas becaus e I had ne ver been to Eur op e before . • "I arrived in Europe , wh e re Jeff - pe nce r picked me up at th e airport. S We were going 12 0 mil es per hou r down th e Autobahn, and I was co m p letely a mazed by it a ll. It wa s lik e space s hu ttle mission. I was 19 yea rs old, and in shock. While we were dri ving, Jeff exp lai ned how ser iou s Do nnie 's situation was , and as we pu lled into the tra c k, one of the first thing s I s a w wa s Donnie 's bike. I got ou t o f the ca r, and th e team gu ys said, 'S it o n t he b ik e , a nd tell us where you want th e h a ndl eb ar s .' It wa s all so we ird . Right befor e the first m ot e , th e jet la g began to s et in. I wa s worried because I c o u ld n't ke ep m y eye s n e vv s o pen. Howev er , Roger DeCoster and Dav e Arn old m ade sure tha t Jeff Spenc er kept a c los e e ye on me. I got e ighth in th e first moto but got used to th e bike and fe lt better with each lap . In the s econd moto , I rode even better and got sixth." Th ro u gh Chand le r's in c re d ib le double -m oto swe ep ov er the world 's b e st 250c c riders , and th e impre s si ve ly co nsi s te n t resu lts of t eam mat es a'Mara , Gibson a nd the yo ung Bail e y, T e am USA had won its secon d -consecutive Trophee des Nati on s befo re a sun -splashed crowd of ove r 3 0 ,0 00 s pecta tors . "Whe n it wa s a ll o ver, I could n 't b eli ev e it - I wa s like, ' S o m e b o d y pinc h m e ,' says Ba iley . "Lis te ning to the Star-Spa ngled Banner on the top ste p of the pod ium was unreal.. . But, even at that po int in tim e , Donnie 's situa tion wa s re a lly gnawing a t m e ... Her e I a m cele bra ting , and he 's in a coma . But Roger knew it, Dave knew it, and I kne w it - we had a job to do th ere , a nd th is was the jo b we had chosen to do ." Whil e Hans en c lu n g t o life in a German hospital (t he inc ide nt would ult imat el y cost hi m h is caree r) , a 'Ma ra , who was still reeling from his friend 's m is chan ce, b egan to grow c lo se r to Baile y a s t he two rid e rs crossed Europe . "T he who le t rip , I ju st wa tc hed e veryth ing he did ," says Bail ey in reg a rd to h is a d ula t io n t ow a rd s a ' Mara. He had s o mu ch s tyle, h e wa s in s uc h g rea t shape , a nd he was so funn y . I g u es~ I k ind of idolized h im . We were the same a ge , and I th ou ght he had s o many gr eat qu alit ies - I was ju st in a we of him , an d he ha d a great p ower ove r m e . Wh en ev er so me t h in g fu n ny wo u ld h app en , o r a fu nny joke wo u ld b e p la ye d , he wa s the ins t igato r of it. I th ou g ht to m y s el f, ' I wa nt t o h an g with th is guy.' We were in th e same h ot e l roo m in Sw itze rla n d fo r th e Motoc ross des Nati on s , a nd we hit it off right away. In fa ct at one poi nt, we got b o re d wh ile sitt ing in t he room and started d um p ing wat er down o n pe opl e walking on the street be low. It d idn 't take long for th e pho ne to ring . It was Rog er, who told us to cut it out. Even the n , we we re al ready a du o . I ran t h e 500 c c b ik e in S witz erl an d , an d I was real g o od o n it. J oh nn y , m e anwh ile , who was stru ggl ing with th e 5 00 , was like , 'Wow! He 's good on th is th ing.' From th at weekend on , we for med a s t rong 50 /5 0 mutu al a dmiration for one a nother. " Le d b y an oth er reso u nd ing tw o m oto sweep by the dazzling Ch andl er - wh o m an age d to both thri ll a nd te rrorize Eu ro p e with his go -for -broke , high -flying antics - a nd a stro ng s uppor ting cast of Baile y , Gibs on and a b e at- up a'Ma ra , Ame rica wo n it s second c o n s e c u t iv e Wo rl d T e a m Ch ampionship. "Johnny a ugu red in tha t da y - blis t er s to re h is h an d s a ll up a n d h e bro ke his toe , but we won it a nd th e tw o of us got drunk o n beer at the hote l," muses Ba iley . "We wer e both s uc h lightweights that a few s ips o f be er got it done . Man , we wer e on to p of th e world ." T h e fri e nd ship b etw e en th e two rid ers , bo th o f w h o m came f ro m sp lintered famil y backgrounds, grew s t ro n g e r ba ck in America. De t e rmin ed t o w in their fir st National Champio ns h ips , they be ga n t ra ining in ea rnest for the 1983 AMA season. "I got back ho me to America , a nd I came o ut to stay with h im shortly there after," says Bailey. "We started to test, a nd th e Hond a track wa s bei ng finished at that time, so whe n e ve r I came out to California, I always stayed with him. I guess I kind of took Donnie Ha nsen's p la ce , and we were a lwa ys trai ning and work ing together. " Backed up b y t h e e n orm ous wherewit h a l of Ho n d a ( a p ip elin e flowing with mon ey , equ ipment and te chn ical e xp e rtis e - th e lifebl o od of any form of motor ra cin g - was flow ing freely into Torrance at that point ), DeCoster and Arnold set about a rig o rous testing progra m in orde r to get the exot ic RC facto ry b ikes dialed in for the '83 season ope ne r at Anahei m on January 29. B UR N I NG BRIGHT "My m indset was tha t I wa nted to b e in th e to p five," say s Bail e y . "I didn 't wan t to go fo r everyth ing right away and e nd up injured . I wa nted to pace m ys elf , and I w a s in great

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