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CN III ARCHIVES P108 BY LARRY LAWRENCE SUN'S IMPROBABLE COMEBACK E ven though it was a tennis wrist injury. I work all the way match between brothers, you back to do so well at Carlsbad would have to understand the and then I go and hurt myself competitiveness between Chuck playing tennis. Season over… Sun and his brother, Kenny. This done." was no fun little match where But Sun was determined. they complimented one another With the June injury and reon every winning shot, these sulting surgery, racing the guys both wanted to win. It didn't GPs that summer was out and matter that they were motocross he had nothing going beyond racers and the farthest thing from that, but he was going to get professional tennis players - for back in tip-top shape just in the Sun brothers this little pickcase his phone rang. Of Chiup match on a June day in 1979 nese descent, Sun was always at Stella Olson Memorial Park in the kid that was overlooked in their hometown of Sherwood, school and that had given him Chuck Sun earned his factory ride Oregon, was their Wimbledon. a quiet, inner toughness. After with Honda in 1980 after a After a long rally Kenny hit a cross- storybook comeback from injury his surgery he was quickly back court shot deep to Chuck's backhand. at the Mid-Ohio Trans-USA in on a bicycle, determined to get September of 1979. Chuck charged hard across the court full strength back in his knee and and just as he planted his feet to make keeping his fitness level up. his shot he heard an ugly snap. He immediately By the end of the summer Sun had worked his felt pain shoot up from his left knee as he hit the way back into peak fitness, but the motocross ground rolling. Being a lifelong athlete Chuck im- season was coming to a close. mediately knew this was a bad injury. Then Sun's phone rang. It was Husqvarna's "Everybody in motocross twists their knees up racing manager Nils-Arne Nilsson. They had an and I should have known better," Sun said. "But eleventh-hour deal for Sun. He could race the I was just going for it and getting exercise and AMA Trans-Am (by then officially called Transmaybe being a little too competitive. I was just USA) Series, but Husky would only provide the getting back into the groove having finished third bikes, a box van and the expenses for Sun and overall and top American at the Carlsbad GP. And his mechanic Eric Crippa. There was no salary. then I went home to Oregon for the first time in six "I was happy just to have the opportunity," Sun months. admitted. "There were some real bounce-back "The things that go through your mind at a time things that happened in my career that put me like that are funny. I'm 22 at the time and thinking back into it. I'd been gone to Europe for a year I'm this close to working at 7-Eleven and maybe go- and everyone had kind of forgotten about me ing back to school or something. I was coming off over here." two serious injuries in the span of six months - one What happened next comes seems straight where I hit a tree and gashed my leg open to the out of a Hollywood scriptwriter's word processor. bone and then another, a potentially career-ending The Trans-Am was a fall motocross series that