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/143872
- [" J ~ ," I ; ' 250cc MX World ยท Champion Danny Laf'orte , . "I'm just perfectly happy." By Tom Muttller Photo by N .R. Rowan At the beginning of 1982, Da n n y LaPot:te was out looking for a ride. Honda, the company Danny was riding for in '81, didn't want to carry him in Europe because they said they didn' t have money allocated to do so. Most of the . kenti ot h er compa~lles were s eptica l al so; they d heard the story 24 before. A National rider runs his course in Ame ri ca , then decides it's time to ta ke o n the world. It's a good program, in th eory, bu t until Brad Lackey won the 500cc World Championship last month, no American had ever won a MX World Championship. A works ride was stili open with Yamaha, through their Denmark importer. That's the ride LaPorte landed and took all the wa y to the top of the 250cc standings. The seaso n started in a mediocre way for Da n ny, ~ut he got rollin g wi th a!l ov~rall win in France, then kep t his Win streak alive th ro ugh th e English, Du tch and R ussian rounds. By the ti me the circu it came to Am erica for th e U nadilla USG P , LaPorte was p laying a p oints game with Belg ian Georges ' lobe. _Da n n y never fell behind and finished th e year 13 points up on Suzuki's lobe , 238 to 225. We've known Danny -for quite a few years . H is personality is exem p lified by his favorite line, " H i, m y name 's Danny . Wha t ' s ' you r s?" LaPortedoesn'trankpeople, noone's any better than anyone else. He enjoys everyone's company, be it Bob Han- nah or a lO-year-old fan who wants his /her race program autographed. America couldn't have a finer representative of World Champion status. We had a chance to talk to Danny th e day after he won the title. Instead of the win-crazed Californian we expected to hear from , LaPorte was la id back con cerning the big win. " Hi, th is is Dann y LaPort e. I was just wondering if there was anythin g you guys needed to kn ow about the race yesterday." Hard"to believe, isn 't it? We're the ones in the ne ws business, and a World Champion is calling us wi th info on one of the biggest stories o f the year. I guess no one ever told Danny that we 're the ones who are su p posed to dial the phone. . LaPorte was calling from the house he leases in Trernelo, Belgium, but we co ul d tell immediately his head was still at the race track in Vimmerby, Sweden , where the final GP had run th e da y before. "First of a ll , I wanted to win the first rnoto and bea t Georges, because then it would have been all over, a nd I would have had enough points to ta ke the ti tle. " In the firs t rnoto, I got a bad start because th ere was a crash in th e second corner. I was running 12th or l Sth, Georges was sixth and Kees va n der Ven (th e th ir d ranked rider) wa s fifth. Georges went right up to second (behind Don n ie Hansen) and Kees went to third. It took me a wh ile to p ass a few riders. I finall y go t By lohan Martens, (Heinz) Kin ig adn er a nd T or lief H ansen . I got behin d Georges and Kees abou t three-four ths of the way through , and I wanted to try and pass the m. " I got really nervous and missed a corner a nd went off the tra ck a nd almos t cra shed. I wo uld have flipped if I had go ne a ny further down this really steep hill. I rea lly luc ked out. I turned around a nd got back on the track a n d just finish ed fo urth. I lost four points to G eorges in th a t race , from 15 to an 11 point lead. "I knew that if Georges won rnoto two the worst I could do was seven th. If he got second, the worst I could do wa s ninth. I knew I had to go for the top four or five. I got a really good jump off th e start, I was almost first down the start straightaway, and Hansen blew past me like I was standing still. I ended up running third behind Martens. ','Th e firs t signal I got from the p its was that lobe had crashed and was in last place. I couldn't believe it l The first time all yearl He was determined to win because he was easily the fastest rider all da y, he had the fastest lap times by two or three seconds. I just thought, ' My gosh, he crashed, what luck!' It was perfect. I rode around, eas y, with no problems , and finished second. Hansen was 15 seconds in front of m e, so I just rode around like an old lad y. " I'm j ust pe rfec tly hap py . Everythin g wo rked out p erfectl y. I got sign boards every la p on what posi tio n Georges was in. H e was coming fro m 25th to 20th , 19th , 17th, 12th, 8th , but it didn't matter if h e beat me or not. The wors t I could fin ish was seventh, a nd I was in second. R igh t there 1- . knew if I didn 't make any m ista kes and the bike didn 't break I was OK .': Unlike Lackey's title winning ride at the 500cc GP finale in Luxembourg, LaPorte didn't have to conten d with unrul y spe ctat ors. " No oneth rew an ything at me. In Swed en people aren 't as radical as they are in Luxembourg." . Danny's season isn't over. He has another engagement in Europe before he returns to America. " I have one more race in France, it's a 24 hour race (th e Sept. 5 Heures de Bretagne team event). Yamaha wants me to do that because it's really important to the French market. They asked me to participate and race." Danny would like to cap off the year racing in America, but he didn't/ know where he stood after we filled him in on the recent boy cott of the Trans-USA by Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda. "Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda went with CMC? They did? Oh wow! That means I'll probably ride in California . I couldn't perceive doing the Trans-USA because I'm so burned our right now. That's great for me, all righ t." LaPorte got his first real taste of Europe one year ago to date. That's when he went over to the Trophee and Motocross des Nations as part of Honda's American effort, and came away the top points scorer and part of th e World Championship team. " I 'm kinda bummed that I can 't ra ce in the Trophee a nd Motocross des Nations (H on da is again fieldin g the team in '82). But I am glad that it' s one team and it 's organized. That's th e most imp orta nt things. I'm wishin g them all the best luck in th e wo rld. " Every things pretty good fo r me right now, a nd it looks like things are going to be p rett y interesti n g when I get home." _