Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

IVES Accident-Prone Wosick uring his short-lived motocross career, Larry Wosick had a few bad accidents. After it, he had a really good one. "l could do my life over again a million times aod not end up with as good of a resuh," Woskk, now ,14, says. "lt has been a fun ride." Riding since age of 6 and racing since a8e 14, Wosick's contributions to the sport as a racer aren't much to write home about. His is a typical MX success stoD/ about the fast local racer who gets faste[ wins the big regional race, gets noticed and goes on to super-stardom as a factory racer - well, dl except that part about super-stardom. It's mostly true, though. After winning the CMC num- ber-one plate in 1978, Wosick's results attracted the attention ofJeff Fox, head of a niche MX company des- tined to become a multimillion-dollar clothing empire, Fox Racing. Fox signed Wosick to a deal to wear Fox col- ors in 1979. "We started off in the Florida Series, and it worked well," Wosick says, "That was my {irst big time away from home and qut on the road. I finished third in that, so it was pretq/ good. We had the really trick Fox bikes then, with the 44 millimeter forks and the trick swingarms and stuff." Perhaps it should have been yiewed as an omen, but Wosick's AMA National debut in '79 ended with a bad accidem. "Yeah, I hit a spectator," Wosick says. "ln my first moto in my lirst National, I was actually in second, behind [Bob] Hannah for a half hour. I couldn't believe how easy it was. lwas going around the track, thinkin8, 'l'm in second place at Hangtown!' But then I hit some holes and crashed. I still got up and finished fifth. "But in the seco[d moto, I was running third, behind Hannah and Kent Howerton, and this spectator... Well, the lap before, he had run across in front of Kent, and then on the very next lap, Kent went by, and he darted in front of me. lthought if lgassed it lcould get by him, but we hit. I was completely knocked out.'' Wosick managed to recover and claw his way back to sixth place in the AMA 250cc National MX points stand- ings by the end of'79. He also contested the Trans-AI'4A that year. "That was a disasteq" Wosick says. "Honda called and wanted to give me a works 250 to ride, but Jeff wanted me to ride in the 500 class, so he built this Maico for me to ride- The first race, at Mid-Ohio, I crashed and dislo- cated my shoulder. I was really bummed because I want- ed to get hired by a factory and you're only as good as your last race." Wosick got the shoulder popped back into place and soldiered throuSh the weekend, only to go to Red Bud and snap off a footpeg while landing from a jump. 'After that Kawasaki offered to let me ride Brad Lackey's practice bike, and I was all excited iust to get rid of that Maico. We went toJimmy Weinert's farm in New York. His dad had this big iunkfard, and I remember that we would swipe batteries and a few pans from one car to get another car running, and then we'd race these cars allthrough the lunkyard, slamming into one another and into the piles of stacked cars. lt was pr€tty scary because you'd be afraid that one of the piles maght fall on you. Jimmy Weinen was just a super guy." Once Wosick got down to the business of riding the KX, it wasn't long before Kawasaki replaced his Lackey- luster rig with a fresh !,/orks bike. "Then we go to Atlanta, and right off the start in the lirst moto, I loop it like a total dork," Wosick laughs. 'A perfecr I - | sweep at The Sears Point Trans-AMA meant that Wocick earned his place on the facto.y Kawasaki team for the 1980 season. "l was excited to ride for Ka\./asaki," Wosick says. "l had kind of wanted to ride for Honda. but the week after I signed with Kawasaki, Honda called me. But anpray, I liked the Kawasaki. I liked the bike, and I was ju* glad to be off the Maico. I practiced on work bikes all wjnter, and I won Golden State races, and then Kawasaki changed management." That's when, Wosick says, he was hurt by a case of accidental timing, "They had this guy, Gary l'4athers, that they brought in from their snowmobile racing team, and I don't know if it was his decision or what. but all of a sudden they decid- ed that we were going to ride stock bikes at the Nationals to show everybody how good they were. lt was a disas- ter. The motors... lremember practicing starts against pri\rateers on Yamahas, and they'd be three bikelengths ahead of me going into the flrct corner. lt was pathetic." Wosick recalls that Kawasaki eventualt realized the error of its ways and shipped in work motors for the second half of the season. lt helped, but it was a case of too little, too late. Despite the debacle, Wosick still fin- ished sixth in the 250cc National standings that year, but it wasn't enough to save his job. "Mathers told me that he wasn't going to renew my deal," Wosick says. "He didn't like me very much. I was iust a kid, and I wasn't very diplomatic. I wasn't going to kiss his ass. ln retrospct, h€ did me a huge favor by firing me." Wosick strugSled aboa.d pri\rateer Yamahas in l98l before getting a second chance with the Honda factory in l98l . "They hired me to run the Trans-USA, but trvo weeks before my first race, I got in a Jet Ski accident and near- ly died. I still managed to get third in the series, and then Honda hired me to ride on their production-bike team, which was still a full-factory deal, in 1982. lt started off well. I was running in the top l0 in Supercross, and then I had a really bad crash at the Pontiac Supercross, and I was in intensive care. That kind of messed up my Nationals because I wasn't really right for a lonS time after that. Then, at the end of the year I was iust racing a local race, and I had a huge crash and broke my femur." fu a result oI that bad accident, Wosick missed most of the 1983 Nationalseason. His factory days were ovei but, according to Wosick, things only got better from there- "l got the opportunity to race in South Africa with gq/s likeJim Tarantino, Gary Denton, John Finkelday and Andy Jefferson. lt was really good, and I did well over there. I really liked South Africa a lot. lt was aEood expe- rience, and it was fun over there. I only stopped there in '85 because their currency devaluated against the dollar, but I saw a good opportunity to get into exponing, and I had some different business ventures there." Racing in South Africa eventually gave Wosick the opportunlty to meet his wife, Lise, an Expert Jet Ski racer and the sister of one of Wosick's motocross pals in South Africa. The couple were married in 1993 and now have three children: daughter Chezney, 7i son Levi, 3; and dauglrer Lexi, L "We moved back the states from South Africa in 1998, and we said that we didn't want to li\.e anywhere with a population over 100," Wosick says- "We saw this sign that said 'Milford,70,'and we ended up settling there.'' The Wosicks pur- chased a ranch in Milford, California. The property is split by Highway 395, iust south of Susanville- After moving there, Wosick said that he was inspectinS the ponion of the property on the west side of the highway when he made an accidental discovery. One day I was over there, and the snow had just melted, and I kicked at the dirt and dis{overed that black Honey lake loam." Shortly thereafte[ Honey Lake Motocross Park was born. Anyone who has kept track of Cycle News motocross shootouts in the past four years should know the name. What you probably don't know is that the track is built on the precise plot of land where Larry had promised Lise that he would build their dream home. "That should show you how special she is," Wosick says of his wife. "We had plans to go forward with this beautiful house right there where the track is, but she gave it her blessing to build the track." Honey Lake has turned out to be a blessing for the Wosick family. The track hosts several "cant miss" events on its annual calendar, including WORCS races, AHRHA vintage I'1X Nationals, Loretta Lynn's Qualiferc and regional events. Additiondly, Honey Lake has hosted several industry events, such as the KTM national dealer meeting and several commercial photo shoots. "That ltrack] is really what l'm proudest of in my career," Wosick says. "When I think back of all the 'funnest'times that I had in my career, it was before I was pro, going with my mom and dad, and my sister, rac- ing. Most of the racing today isn't the way that it was when I was racing. I think that today when you go to a track, the promoter's main obiective is to get you in and out of there as quickly as possible. My whole thing was to use the quality of Mammoth as the benchmark, and do what we could to make the riders feel like they are treated well, and to treat the kids well." The payoff, Wosick says, isn't the money that he makes - he describes the Honey Lake venture as "finan- cially counterproductive" - but the reaction that he gets from all who visit it. "We've had Dick Mann, Roger DeCoster and Malcolm Smith come there," Wosick says. "Those guys are my heroes, and when they tell me how awesome it is, that's like winning an outdoor championship." Gll 78 JANUARY 25,2006 . 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