Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO•.. JULY 21, 1970 "Bounc ing Bob ," the official AMA dirt track starter, was cap tured for the cover of Issue #27 waving the green flag to sta rt the Am ate ur m a in even t at th e Cast le Rock National TT. T he A ma t e ur m a in wa s won by Chuck Joyner (Tri), while the Expert main was won by Dick IYIann (BSA) after an epic battle with early leader Dave Alda na (BSA). Second and third in the Expert main went to Don Cast ro (Tr i) and Mark Br e ls fo rd (H-D), respectively... Heikki Mikkola (Hus) co ntinued to dominate the Viking Motocross Series when round three visited Puyallup, Washington. Mikkola had won all thre e races to this point in the series... Whitey Martino (Hus) dominated the Lost Coyotes MC Hare Scramb les from the bomb run on. His only challenge came from 250cc rider Tom Poteet (Bul), who came up short but snatched the 250 cc Expert win with his seco nd overall. 20 YEARS AGO... July 16, 1980 Ind inapo lis Top Fuel Bike winner J im Berna rd read ie s his Yama ha for a s ub eight-second quarterm ile a t upwards of 175 mph on the cover of Issue #2 7. Bernard won th e even t over Roland Stuart (H-D), who earned runner-up points on the day... We tested Marty Moat es ' Ca rlsba d 500cc aSGP-winning YZ493 Yamaha. It started as a normal Y Z465, but by the time LOP Racing was done with it, the bike sported 493cc and many unmentionable engine and suspens ion modifications (giving him 12 inches of travel) that allowed Moates to win the USGP on his home turf, and run up front at the Nationals ... We inte rviewe d Su pe rBowl of Motocross founder Mike Goodwin about how he got started and his plans for the future. He mentioned, among other things, bringing the indoor sponso rs outdoors to help with advertising and to allow the outdoor promotors to make a buck. 10 YEARS AGO..• July 11, 1990 Issue #27 was our Unadilla 250cc MX GP Preview issue. On the co ve r wer e 198 9 250cc World Champion Jean-Michel Bayle an d ba d boy Ric k J ohnson. Bayle would miss his opportunity to wear the num ber-one plate in order to compet e in t he 5 00 c c USG P in Ca liforn ia later in the yea r. Johnson won the GP in 1989 go ing awa y.. . Muzzy Kawa sa ki's Doug Cha ndle r s tre tc hed his 'c ha mpionsh ip lead over Randy Renfrow (Hon) after winning round four of the AMA Superbike Nationa l Champ ions hip in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Renfrow finished second .. . Tea m Har ley -Dav idson's S cott Parker won round eight of the AMA Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series in Lima, Ohio. Fellow Michagan der Jeff Stanton joined him in the winner's circle to prese nt Parker his trophy. Chris Carr (H0 ) finished seco nd and led the champ lonship over Parker ,137-124. Eric Geboers (Hon) swept both motos en route to the victory at round seven of the World Championship 500cc MX Series in Cingoli, Italy. Geb oer s led th e points s ta ndings by a commanding 33 points. CN oe y Dun lop is dead in a roa d -ra c ing crash. That sentence goes against everything that makes a b lind b it of sense. O nly the good , after all , die young . Joey was good , in about every sense of the word . Young he wa sn't, or not a n y m or e an y wa y . And n o w he is d ead , crash ing o ut of the le a d of a 12 5cc road race in Eston ia , whe re he had journeyed alone - as he liked to do - to t ak e part in th e t rad it ion al s po rt of whi ch h e wa s t he m od e rn maste r. We all k now tha t ro ad rac ing "re a l" road racing , on public roads - is ridicul o us ly dangerous , but we a lso kn e w that Joey was ki ng of t h e ro a d s , s o t hey weren' t sup posed to b e dan gerous fo r h im . On ly fo r o the r riders , wh o d id n 't understa nd th em like he did, who got ti re d as th e lo ng races wore on , o r who didn't have th e experience t o t rea t the m with enough respect. Thi s wa s th e w ay Jo e y was when he first p itc hed up on the Isle of Man , a reco rd- brea king 26 IT v ic t o r ie s ago . I m iss ed h is first ap peara nce , but I wa s rivete d by his second in 1977. J o ey rod e a TZ75 0 Yam a h a t hat looked as t hough it ha d been left ou ts id e a co ws hed in th e rai n fo r seve ra l • mo nth s , a n d th en hand-p a inte d whi le wet. It wa s fitted with an outsize fue l ta nk, wh ich came loos e early in th e race. Joe y wa s obliged to ho ld it in p lac e with his che st. Now th a t loo ke d d a ng e rous , a nd foo lis h, especiall y at th e s peeds he wa s do ing . Fa st e noug h , you ha rdly nee d rem ind ing , to win the ra c e. And long e nough a go that th e pe rson who ca me s ec ond in th at J ubile e IT was Geo rge Fogarty - Ca rl's fath e r. Joe y we nt o n d o ing th ing s differe ntly, esc hewing c onve ntion without ev er t ry in g to b e ecc entric . As his va s t ta lent pro pell ed him ra p id ly to the ranks of the fa ctory riders , he just d idn 't c ha nge at all - m a gn ifice nt ly , un se lfconsciou sly scru ffy h e could turn a c o rporate tea m jacket into a greasy ra g within m inut es. It always s e emed a p ity that hi s tal ent d id n 't transl a t e to short-cir cu it racing , . bec a us e he 'd have been so m ething to s e e in the squ eak y -clean corporate hos pita lity ra c ing environm ent that beca me th e no rm du ring h is ra c ing lifetime. J oey be came th e m an to be at at the IT in the '7 0s , a nd ha s been s o ever s inc e , into th e new century . As th e IT ha s grown inc re a s ingly iso lat - J ed an d s p ec ia li z e d , Du nl o p was steadfast. A few pe ople did be a t him, but a whole lot more were be ate n . He rema ined as e ve r, not Yer Maun , as he was nicknamed, bu t a lways h is own m an . In a mong the ra ci ng s uccesses there were all s o rts of other stories, a bout c razy thing s he d id, or that ha ppened when he was a ro und . Like th e time he too k th e fa cto ry Hondas to prepare them for th e IT at home in North ern Ire la nd . Catch ing the ferry ov e r wo u ld ha ve b e en to o easy . J oe y c am e in a friend 's fish ing bo a t inste ad . It sank on the wa y. vouchsafe were h idden behind a guttural Northern Irish acce nt so thic k yo u needed a torch . Though I do recall him telli ng me once wh y he felt he was so q uick o n th e ro a d s . "I jus t have to go ro un d once [I interpreted painstakingly from my ta pe recorder] to k n ow wh ere e very stone and every bump is." I'v e al ways co n tende d th at s u c cessful bike ra ce rs ne ed a lot of int e lligence, a nd I've ofte n quo ted that th o ug ht to prove m y argument. Joey was no intellectual, bu t he wa s de finit el y a n inte lle ct. Wh y d id h e ra c e? Mo re to the p oin t , why d id h e go o n and on a nd o n ra ci ng? Long a fte r he must h a ve s a t isfied any of th e normal urg e s - the obsession that com pels talente d people not o nly to prove their ta len t time and aga in, bu t to keep on trying to improve on it. Well , why do es a nyone do a ny -. th ing . Bec a us e he lo ved it, wheth er or not he was good at it. Ba c k in the ' 7 0 s there was an excellent BBC TV documentary , called "The Armoy Rac ers ", about Joey a nd two of h is Northern Ireland con tempo rarie s . Th e fil m s o u g ht to understand their lov e not o f bike racing , but of racing on real roads, where the margin for e rro r is provided not by gravel tra ps and AirFence, but by the rider. Joey was the best of them . Within months , he was the only one st ill to survive. And he continued to s urvive for more tha n 20 more years. The greatest thing about Joey was that he gen uinel y didn 't seem to c a re about th ing s that - in the a na lysis - d on 't ma tt e r very m uch. You mig ht even s a y he d idn 't care a bo ut a nythi ng, but this wo uld be fa r wide of the mark. His one-ma n cha rity dr ive s to E a s te rn E uro p e - that same van loaded with clothing and provisions fo r the homeless - prov ed that. All done in the typically J oey way not courting publicity , not even us ing h is fame to increa s e his profil e - just a n act, or a series of acts, of genuine co m pa ss ion . Joe ·wo n the OB E fo r th a t (hi s rac ing had already wo n him th e MB E) . Not that he ever m en tioned it. Now he 's gone , and b ike raci ng mourns. In h is life Joey d ignifie d public ro a d ra ci ng . His death diminishe s it. To his wife a nd five c hild re n , aged between 11 and 25 , our deepest and most sin cere sympathies go witho ut sa ying. We sha ll not see his like aq a in.ron - o r off - a motorcycle. eN Or the t ime he rode a Formu la One b ik e a t Assen dur ing the old S p e ed Week, cen te red ro und TT t ime . O ne nigh t somebod y put a renta -c a r u p s id e d ow n in to o ne of t he dykes . Gues s who that was. Still, he ne ver was much of a one fo r c ars. Ca n' t put m a n y bi k e s in cars, an d can 't sl e e p in t h em - not stretche d o ut like yo u ca n across a va n's fro nt seat . So he drov e a van , pre tty much everywhere - three b ike s in the ba c k with his tools , a sleeping ba g in the front , a nd (so they say) the under -sea t bi ns stuffed with pr ize money in various currencies , accumulated o ver the yea rs . None o f the craz iness was selfcentered or self-a ggra nd izing , though . . Joey ju s t operated that way - not because he cra ve d attention , not to make up for some de fici t in his persona lity . He jus t d id it. In fac t , fru stratingly for jou rnalists , craving attention was th e o pposite of wha t he did . Joey wa s not a gre a t interview. First the re was a considerable langu a g e ba rrier. Joey 's hom e la ng ua ge was Engl ish, but he never le a rned to s peak it , if yo u see wh at I m ean. Su ch th oughts as h e woul d • • • • Coming up in Cycle News c Jimll Laguna Seca World Superbike Laguna Seca AMA Superbike British Road Race GP Kansas AMA National Flat Track ue I e n e _ S • JULY 12, 2 0 0 0 83

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