Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128644
2000 ANIA Grand National Champion Joe Kopp (Le ft and Right) Kopp's shop and mobile home are sit uated on Just over seven acres outside of Spo ka ne , Washington. Ch eck ou t t he sh op. No w c heck out the dig s. You've got to love a g uy with priorities. A Koppbuilt log cabin will be replacing the mobile home shortly. patie nt. I caused that cr ash all by myself. I had wan ted t o win so b ad , and wh ile I was crash ing I was thinking , 'I can still save this , I've still got a ho ld of the bars .' Then I realized where I was going, and I decided that it was time to let go . If I had let go before that, I probably woul d ha ve gotten hurt really badly : In th e ad versity c am e K opp ' s f irst c h ance to become a her o , and his co me- fro m -behind blitz to third pla ce on a hastil y repaired, but still waisted, bik e earned him a pl ace in Peoria fo lk lore . So memorab le was Kopp's charge that, t o thi s day , it shadows th e one and on ly Grand Natio nal vict ory scored by Tr esser, who would lose his life in a cr ash just ov er a year later. Even after Kopp returned to earn his first career Grand Nation al win at th e IT in 1997, th ey were still talking about '96. "That [third-p lac e rid e] was pure adrenaline," Kopp said . " I ca n rem ember hearing D ave D esp ain and Larry Maiers telling the crowd how I was sho wing no fear ove r th e jump aft er th e crash, but I was reall y scared. I look at th e video now , and I can tell ." Th ere were other hints of his po tent ial br illianc e, like th e fact th at, when the tracks were tec hnical or just pla in scary , Kopp seemed to be able to adapt bett er than most. On e of those runn er-ups came on the wick ed-fast Eldora Ha lf Mile. He post ed a thi rd at the Baja-like Del Mar Mil e to finish th e season fourth in th e po ints standings. Wi th suc h a rapid ascendenc y into the to p five , it appeared as though mome ntum wo uld car ry Ko pp to even greater heigh ts in 1997. It didn 't happ en. In fact, perh aps for a variety of reasons , Kopp slid backward in th e sta ndings. Some critics po int to th e chassis th at the team was using - almost exclusively - as part of the pro blem , while others speculate that Kopp's solid '96 season onl y increased the pressure to excel. He would get that m emorab le first win at Peori a, domi nating th e join t in Ch ris Carr-like fash io n , bu t that wou ld be his only win in a year that start ed with a big , big crash. "I got hurt at Park ersburg afte r cr ashing with Ricky Graham, and th at m ad e me miss Par k e r sbu rg , Springfield and LaSall e, " Kopp said . " Ric ky an d I we re alway s go od fri ends. He had stayed down at Kenn y's ho use before, and we had trained togeth er. I k new him prett y go od, and I kn ew he was aggress ive and I was more tim id on the track at that tim e. I don 't th ink the crash wa s m y fau lt. I nev er held any thing aga inst Ricky fo r it , bu t it really got in m y head . All of a sudde n , I was spooked by wall s and guard rails, and I j ust neve r really talked to Kenn y about it. In fact , thi s is the first time th at I've ever reall y talk ed abo ut how bad that affected me for so long . By th e time we go t to Del Mar I felt like I had j ust lost that negative feeling , and I was ready to reall y go for it. Unfortunately, that was also th e last race of the year." 26 JAN UARY 3 , 200 1 • e ye I e n e vv In fact, Ko pp has sought to develop a rid ing sty le sim ilar to Graham 's in that resp ect. Today , while m ost m ight not regard his track craft with the same respect as Gr aham ' s o utright brillian c e, Ko pp is cl early no long er th e tim id one at any racetr ack upon wh ich he tu rns a wheel. "B ac k th en , I was worried abo ut bein g to o brave becau se I didn 't wa nt to be left out of th at inn er ci rcle of rid ers," Kopp said . "I didn't wan t to have a run -in with Steve Morehead or Scott Parker or Rick y Grah am and hav e someone m ad at m e. I j ust want ed to ride sm ooth and ride fast and not get into it with anyone of th em . I've defini tely changed that th in k ing now, and I wish th at I woul d have opened up m ore . It's not that I go look ing fo r a scra p o n th e tr ack , but some times when two guys get toge ther, it really is j ust racing : During th e 2000 season, he was co nsi dera bly more outspo ke n off th e track. He doesn 't speak any lo uder now , just a lot more. " Dee J ohnson [of D 's Leather s] has always been trying to get me to speak out more. She's a real talk er, and she has tried to get me to ope n up more with people. So has m y wife Dee D ee. There were times in th e past when I wo uld say, 'T he next tim e we have a rider's m eeting, I'm going to bring th is or that up because it is bot hering me,' but then we'd get to a rider's m eeting, and I wo uldn't say anythi ng beca use I didn 't want to m ak e waves," Kopp said . "Th is year I made it a poi nt th at if there was someth ing bo th er in g m e, I wrote m yself a note and to ok it to th e rider 's m eetin g so th at I made it a po int to say some thing ." Now here was this m ore evident than in an inst ance tha t arose wi thin th e Form ula USA / Wrench ead.c om National D irt Tra ck Series, of w hich K o p p and his Corbin Racing /H -D of Missouri com pe ted on a parttime basis thi s year. With th e series still hamme ring out its poli ci es - and its track -prep techniques - on the fly , th e Indy Mil e ro und wa s cance lled p rio r to th e main event when th e riders, as a who le, told F -USA officials th at they did n' t feel the mile was safe enough to co n tinu e. T he deci sion was the n m ade to pa y th e purse but award no po ints. T hat was th at , or so everyone th ou ght. A prot est filed by Rich K ing was heard well aft er th e established F -USA posti ng tim e, acte d up on and then sent throu gh th e appeals proc ess. Th e deci sion to withho ld poi nts was reversed. By th e time th e series roll ed into Rapid City, South Dakot a, m any riders were inc ensed with the reve rsal. Kop p was among them , and he very pla inly stated his cas e at the rider's m eeting , creatin g some bad blood between him sel f and Ki ng . Kopp still stands by his co nvictions now. "It really wasn't going to m ak e a difference to m e in the poi nts, bec ause I was still goi ng to end up sixth or whatever, but it was j ust the point of th e fact that all of us riders at Ind y had ag reed to call the rac e, which s m eant no poi nts and they would j ust pay the purse," Kop p sai d. "T hen we co me to Oklahoma Cit y and we fou nd out that Rich King had filed a protest, wanti ng his poin ts . That was over six or seven wee ks late r, not 30 m inutes lat er like th e rules say . This was all going on beh ind our backs. On ly Rich and th e peopl e invol ved with him kn ew about it. It was like, 'Why is th is all going on behind ou r back s? We all agreed on things at Indy.' Rich says th at we d idn 't agre e on it, but we did. I tal ked to a lot of gu ys before I ever rais ed a stink about it at Rapid City , and nobody kn ew about what he was doing. Some of th em liked it , some of th em d idn 't, but nobody was going to say anything, so I did , and I called him a chi ck en shit for doing what he did. Then he gets it hi s way and ends up sk ipping race s. That has fueled a fire between me and Rich King. I don 't hate him, and I don 't want t o hate him, but tha t has definit ely made m e want to beat him even m ore: Ba ck in '9 8 , Kopp was nearl y th e beat en on e on ce aga in, however. His season hadn 't go ne we ll, and when Tolb ert announced that he was head ing off to assist Carr with a privateer AMA Sup erbi k e effort, thi ngs started to fa ll apart. Kopp d id all he co uld to keep rolling fo rward, calling several tun ers to see if a deal co uld be hammered o ut to br ing them ab oa rd , but the Harley-David son of Sacram ento ride was, once aga in, put on ice when Shat tu ck ultimately decid ed to park th e team. Kopp was out of a j ob , and th e '98 season was loom ing. "I was re ally d isap po inted , bu t m o re wi th m ys el f, especi ally after I had started to rid e well at th e end of the seaso n aga in ." K op p sai d. "At least I had good offers, which I appreciate. I ta lked with Johnny Goa d, Rose Rac ing and Gardner Racing . Th ey started fi lling th eir spots with riders, but I still co u ld hav e gotten on as a seco nd or third rider on those team s. Instead, I j ust decided to go to Daytona without a spo nsor. " Enter Dave Burks. The owner of a constructio n com p an y ba sed in J efferson Cit y , M is sour i , Burk s was a lready in the racing game w ith former Rook ie of th e Year Kenn y Coolbeth . Forti fied with backing from Harley Davidson of Missou ri, a deal ersh ip owned by hi s friend D ar rell J on es, the t eam w as sma ll bu t effic ie nt. St ill , Kopp sensed an opportunit y, and he approached Burks about expa nding th e operati on to incl ude a second rider. "I had t alk ed to Dave before Dayton a, and he really did n't want to do any thing , but then I had som e good fin ishes dow n there, and I gu ess th at he lik ed what he saw. Dave's a spo ntaneous ty pe of gu y anywa y , and when I got back from Dayt on a, he decided th at he did want to do a two -rider team, with Kenn y and me: Th rough out the '98 and '99 seasons, the team struggled to be com petitive. The re was a long period of adjustm ent, as riders atte m pted to get comforta ble with riders, and m echanics with riders. Spu rts of brill iance by both Kopp and Coolbeth were often tempered when one or both would fail to qualify at the next show . Kopp look s back at the first