Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTIRVIIW RustyRosers I @ hJ a trI EI B c\ O) O) (o C\ a bJ) The I earnmg curue By Donn Maeda Photos by. Mitch Friedman and Bert Shepard f I Then Rusty Rogers qualified for W [':,f '::x:,T['1,i6""1?;: stown Half Mile, he didn't realize what he had gotten himself into. Just l0laps into the 25-lap main event, Rogers was exhausted, and finished a very distant I lth place. "[ didn't know what good shape you had to be in," said Rogers. "I had never run that many laps before because I had never made a maint" This summer, four years and many lessons later, Rogers returned to Hagerstown Speedway and recorded the first National win of his career in grand style. While most of his com- petitors struggled with the track's slippery surface, Rogers hooked up and rode the ragged edge en route to the victory at round nine o[ the 1992 AMA Grand National Champion- ship,zCamel Pro Series. Rogers has been an Expert since 1988, but until this year a lack.of sponsorship had kept the friendly 24- year-old Richmond, Virginia,. racer from campaigning the entire National serles. "I'vebeen an Expert forawhile now, but I still consider guys like Larry Pegram and Mike Hale tobea lot more experienced than I am," said Rogers. "I'm still leaming. Every week I learn something new." Perhaps the hardest lesson that Rogers has learned so far is self control. One week after his win at Hagerstown, Rogers ran second behind eventual winner Will Davis at the Parkersburg Half Mile, but crashed while attempting a last-lap, go-for-broke pass. "I l€arned about pressure that week," said Rogers. "Everyone was asking me, 'Hey, can you make it two in a row?'Well, I felt so much pressure on me to win, that I just tried as hard as I could and crashed. "I realized later that I should have just ignored all the fuss and settled for second. With contingency, a second for me on my Harley-Davidson would have been worth riore than Davis' win on his Honda." A week later, Rogers proved he is a fast learner by riding a very disci- plined race at the Oklahoma City Half Mile to finish fourth. At that race, Rogers completed the first lap at the tail end of the pack, but collected his thoughts and slowly but surely plugged his way. towards the front of the pack. "Instead of going wild and all out, I just concenuated real hard and never gave up," said Rogers. "A lot of people were expecting me to crash because the track was so slippery, but I just rode steady and it paid off." Rogers' performance at Oklahoma was indeed a surprise to many. Over the years, Rogers has gained the reputation of being one of the most aggressive, wildest riders on the circuit and almost always provides spectators with a fair share of thrills. . . and spills. "Everyone says that I'm a wild rider and I've heard a few complain6," said Rogers. "But that's just the way I ride. I try to keep the motorcycle as straight up and down as possible to get more traction, and sometimes I have to use some pretty stmnge body positioning to do it. People always tease me and say that they saw me dragging my helmet on the ground. I can't change my style, I've been riding like that since I was ninel" And it was at age nine that Rogers first began to race, two years after receiving his first motorcycle, a Honda MR5O. "My mom and step-dad bought me a'Mister'50 for Christmas when I was seven," said Rogers. "I was surprised, because my mom didn't really want me to ride motorcycles." Rogers'father was killed in a street bike accident when Rusty was only four months old. Two years later, Rogers and his step- father spent a few weekends watching the flat track races at the nearby Richmond Fairgrounds. "I remember saying, 'I can do that,' " said Rogers. "So after watch- ing three times, I decided to race. I got scared right before the race. Shoot, I was crying and didn't want to do it. There were four guys including me, and one kid crashed, so I got a third place trophy." From that point on, Rogers was hooked. "It was all different after that. I thought racing was cool because you got your reward that night, not like baseball or something where you played all season just to get one trophy at the end of the year," said Rogers. "I didn't realize that the only reason I got a trophy was because someone crashed." As he grew older, Rogers moved up to bigger machines and progressed through the ranks. In his amateur career, Rogers' amassed l3 National Championships, and as he remembers, four of those championships came at the expense of a young Chris Carr. "I remember always reading about Chris winning all of the amateur titles," said Rogers. "I didn't get to go to all of the Amateur Nationals because it was too expensive, but I had two track championships under my belt and I was confident. I thought to myself, 'How can this kid be that much faster than me?' As it turned out, I won all four classes that I entered and took his number one plates. But look at him now. You've gotta respect him." Rogers turned pro in 1984 and spent a season in the Novice class before moving up and finishing third in the 1985 Junior National Championship. In 1986, Rogers made the jump to the Expert class but mechanical failures sidelined him throughout most of the season. Late that same year, he crashed in a 60(kc National and tore ligaments in his left knee. Rogers spent the next nine months healing, and didn't return to the track until late 1988, when his Virginia neighbor and former flat track racer Johnny Goad offered him a part-time ride on his Harley-Davidson. "I knew of Johnny because he used to bring his son, Ray, to the races at Richmond Speedway when I was younger," said Rogers. "I always used to race against Ray, and I never dreamed that I'd ever ride for Johnny." Goad and Rogers uavelled to three of the five remaining Nationals in the '88 season and qualified at the Hager- stown Half Mile - Rogers' first-ever National - and the Syracuse Mile. "I got tired at Hagerstown, but I didn't really understand about being in shape until Syracuse. I was slammed tired," said Rogers. "Everybody had always told me that you had to train, but I just didn't listen. "I was thinking, 'Man, I can't do this,' ': Rogers said. "I couldn't believe that I was so out of shape." The '89 season was dry for Rogers as he qualified for only one main event, the Daytona Short Track, where he finished lSth after crashing. "I was just disgusted with every- thing, I hadn't really done all that much and I didn't care if I ever did," said Rogers. "I took the rest of the year off, and didn't even go to another National." In 1990, Rogers returned to the track and turned in a pair of rides at the Springfield Mile aboard Skip Eaken's Honda and at the Louisville Half Mile aboard Ted Frost's Harley that were good enough to catch Goad's eye agarn. This time, though, Rogers raced Honda RS750s that were owned by Pennsylvanian Ed Fisher and spon- sored by Goad and his friend, Sarah Irby. Rogers rewarded the F.I.G. (Fisher/Irby /Goad) team with a third- place finish at the Albuquerque Mile, and qualified for five other Nationals in'90. In 1991, the team qualified for four Nationals early in the season, but l8 'ww$*& r I N iiail s w "&rii e, \ nl tHritr- ..: rSRmixN L ffi$ )ffi

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