Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ Q,) ,.c e Q,) ~ o Z In 1968. Bowden rode a Greeves in. a race at Londonderry in northern Ireland. (Inset) Bowden in 1967. Gordon Bowden 'He's Irish, he's the Amateur' Senior National Champion, . and he has '20 years of motocross under his kidney belt By Tom Mueller Photos by Werner Straube and Mueller Gordon' Bowden has redefined the term "veteran" in the sport of motocross. In current times, a rider who has'seen three or four seasons go bY,may be regar~ed as an aging soldier. Bowden, at the age of 36, is about ready to complete his twentieth season of compe. . . tltlon, and 1982 wIll be remem- 16 • bered as a highlight year. He dominated the firs.t running of the Senior Class Amateur National Championship at Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch in Tennessee during the early part of August. Three motos were averaged .to decide the title. Bowden isn't too concerned with the two runaway wins he posted. It was his fourth place finish he is proud of. "In the second moto I crashed. I slid out on the£irst lapin front of everybody;" said Bowden in his stock Irish accent. "I started dead last, and I heard Larry Maiers (the announcer) .say how it was a shame because I had won the first moto. When I got up I saw the pack going around the first turn, everyone was going out of sight. Then I thought never, ever give up. That's a lesson I learned a long time .......... ~~ ..,.............. . ago, no matter how hopeless it looks. I came from dead last and pa,ssed 36 people to place f~urth: Th~t s what won the champIOnshIp. I m more proud of that than the other two moto wins, or anything else I've ever done. I proved to myself that I really wanted to win that race and that you should never give up, you should always keep going." Bowden's racing began in Ireland, his native country. He dedicated himself to the sport at 16, and began racing on the hilly countryside his country offers. "When we raced in Ireland, . you learned to be conservative around corners. You just didn't overshoot stuff like the kids do nowadays. If you did, you might end up falling down a drop-off. One time we thought one of my friends was dead. He dropped off the edge of the track, fell about 100 feet, and ended up going through the thatched roof on a house. Luckily he was OK." The bikes Bowden rode in the early .. ,........ . . In 1982. Bowden rode a Maico to the Senior class title in the AMA Amateur MX National Championships. (Inset) Bowden in 1982. sixties weren't as kind to his body as the bikes of today, and the MX. programs at that time didn't offer any relief. "Most of the races I did well in . had a finishing time of 60 minutes plus. The main event of the day was always an hour. I was never the National Champion. I led the series in, I believe, '68 and '69. At every National you'd run four orfive qualifying heats to make the '40 rider final. You had to be on form each week or-you didn't ride." HOne of my friends fell about 100 feet and ended up going through the thatched roof on a house." Bowden spent some time in England and came away with a British indoor speedway title. "Indoor speedway was like indoor short track. They did it to get interest in racing going in the winter when most racing besides motocross was discontinued. They had hoped the speedway and grass track riders would do really well, but they forgot about motocrossers. I was lucky enough to take the championship in '73. The !!peedway riders were used to shale and big motorcycles only, not the 175's. It was run on a polished concrete floor. You could slide if you had to, but the trick was not to slide. I'd seen 'em do short track in America in '71, and I knew how to get around fast." A career is made of highs and lows. However, one particular day played over and over again in Gordon's head. "I was over here in '71, riding works Sprites. I broke down about one moto-at every race because I had a lot of development work to do. I finally got the motorcycle sorted out and when I got to Daytona (for the • "..l ~ • .J .". ~ ~ • first-ever Supercross there) I was pretty hopeful. I had practiced hard, I had trained hard, and I really thought I had a chance. I turned quicker lap times than anyone, but in both motos I got knocked down in the first turn. My bike was slow, and I got wiped out. It's been on my mind 'all this time. In racing you can go to the track and you know you're faster than anybody, you're in better shape, and the motorcycle's working weFl, but you just don't win. My Amateur National title finally made up fdr that day." The English-made Sprite, which was marketed in America as the American Eagle, was a big part of Bowden's permanent move to America. "Sprite basically copied the Husqvarna engine. We found out Husky didn't have a patent on their engine so we used the same design. At the time, Sprite exported more motorcycles than any other British company, more than BSA, more than Triumph, more than Norton. When American Eagle in America went bankrupt, our top quality control suffered immensely. Sprite lost millions of dollars and it ruined the company. -. "I was like part of the family at Sprite. When I left Ireland I moved in at the Sprite f~ctory and did everything they did. Sprite sent me over to America in 1971 to ride the Florida Winter Series and to eliminate smne of the problems with the motorcycle. I enjoyed it so much I stayed nearly a year. They told me to come home but I didn't want to. In fact, I turned down several rides that year with BSA, Maico and Kawasaki. Kawasaki offered me the bike Brad Lackey eventually started riding. It was their· first motocrosser, but we couldn't agree on terms. I had'a verbal agreement with Sprite, and I stand on my word. If I tell someone I'll do some: thing, I'll do it. Kawasaki wanted me to make a competitive machine with $3,000, and I told them I couldn't do it and stayed with Sprite. I couldn't stand to go back and live in England.

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