VOLUME 59 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 25, 2022 P109
a club race at Riverside Interna-
tional Raceway, Ski didn't have
enough money to enter a race,
so he snuck his bike on the grid
and was battling up front before
officials realized he wasn't signed
up and black flagged him.
After cutting his teeth on pro-
duction bikes, Ski got a well-used
Yamaha TZ250. When he beat
local 250 ace John Glover in his
first ride on the TZ, Sadowski
knew it was time to turn pro.
In his first pro race at Laguna
Seca in '84, he was following his
buddy Steve Biganski around in
practice to get familiar with the
track. Biganski high-sided coming
out of the corkscrew, right in front
of Ski, and Ski went down, too,
after running over Biganski. The
crash put Biganski in the hospital
and Ski's bike out of commission
with a bent swingarm. Then Ski
reasoned that if Biganski wouldn't
have told him to follow him around
the track he wouldn't be in this
predicament, so he went over to
Biganski's now abandoned pit
and took the swingarm off his
bike so he could race. Despite
being beat up from the crash and
riding with "stolen" parts on his
bike, Ski finished in the top-10
(ninth) in his pro debut. A couple
of weeks later Ski turned some
heads by finishing a very credible
sixth in the AMA 250 Grand Prix
race at Sears Point.
Sadowski suddenly realized
he might have the talent to give
pro racing a serious go but not
the budget. At one point out of
desperation he showed up unan-
nounced at Kenny Roberts' ranch
to see if KR could offer some
assistance. No one was home so
Ski waited in his vehicle for hours
before Roberts finally showed up.
"Kenny was the nicest guy,"
Sadowski recalled. "He didn't
know who I was and by all rights
he should have kicked me off his
property, but instead he invited
me in, fed me and talked racing,
but he told me straight up that he
was focusing his efforts on help-
ing Wayne Rainey at that point.
But he encouraged me to keep
pursuing my dream."
And follow the dream he did.
Early in 1985, Sadowski sold his
car and every other possession
he had and bought a new Honda
RS250. On the Honda, Sadowski
scored his best pro finishes to
that point, taking fourth in the
AMA 250 Grand Prix races at
Willow Spring and Elkhart Lake.
He had a handful of other solid
finishes, but injuries hampered
him, and he finished the season
ranked ninth.
Despite a promising '85 cam-
paign, the year had totally drained
his already meager resources
and continuing to pursue pro
racing didn't seem possible.
But then came an offer to race
in the WERA National Endur-
ance Championship with Team
Hammer in 1986. The deal also
allowed him to race the Team
Hammer bike for club contingen-
cy money. It was the lifeline he
needed to keep him in the game.
In '87, Sadowski scored his first
national podium when he took
End of an Unbreakable Legend
Sadowski on his
Vance & Hines Yamaha
Superbike on his
way to victory in the
Daytona 200.
PHOTO: LARRY LAWRENCE
