Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P31 bert, who went on to be a legend- ary mechanic, Kevin Brunson, Bill Herndon, just all kinds of real- ly fast riders came from L.D. Bell High School." Goodin started honing his rac- ing on the rugged race courses of Texas and Oklahoma in the CRRC club (now CMRA), which ultimate- ly produced some of the greatest road racing talents in America, including Freddie Spencer, Kevin Schwantz, Doug Polen, Colin Edwards and Ben Spies. Goodin became an early star of the club. One of the better known races that Goodin won was Austin's Aqua Fest street race that later made Schwantz famous. Goodin was contemporaries with Freddie Spencer. Spencer, who was already being touted as the next big thing in road rac- ing, and Goodin often raced dur- ing the same weekends, but the two rarely met in the same class, much less on equal machinery. Finally Goodin and Spencer met in a CRRC race at Greater South- west Airfield in the 410 Production class, both on Yamaha RD400s. It was Goodin's big chance to test his mettle against the highly touted boy wonder. "He [Spencer] was about 100 yards ahead of me and I caught him," Goodin recalls. "I went around him and put about a 100 yards on him. My father had tak- en a drill to my airbox to drill holes in it to get more air, but he didn't clean the inside of it out and the plastic went inside my carbure- tor and I didn't get to finish. That really broke my heart because I wanted to put it on Freddie on equal bikes." In 1981 he raced a Suzuki GS750 and GS1100 in WERA races all across the country and dominated just about anywhere he went. He pre-dated fellow Texan Doug Polen's tear across the club races of America chas- ing GSXR Cup money by five years. The non-stop racing schedule paid off at the end of 1981 when Goodin was the star of the 1981 WERA Grand National Final at Roebling Road near Savannah, Georgia. He won five WERA national titles that day breaking Freddie Spencer's record of four national titles in 1977. That kind of domination attracted attention. Yoshimura Suzuki called and in- vited Goodin out for a tryout. Goodin went to Riverside for the test, but rain cut it short. A few weeks later Yoshimura sent him another airline ticket and back to Riverside he went for a second time. Yoshimura liked what they saw. "I stayed at Fujio's [Yoshimura] house while I was out there and they told me I was on the team. I didn't even talk money because I didn't care." Unfortunately motorcycle sales were going through a re- cession and Suzuki introduced the 16-valve Katana and it was blowing up more often than not. With their Superbike project struggling Yoshimura downsized to a one-rider team with Cooley and Goodin was left out in the cold. Goodin left racing shortly after to take over the family business. He came back to racing in re- cent years by way of vintage flat track events before taking on Pikes Peak starting last year. Larry Lawrence TOYE WINS PIKES O n his first attempt at the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, road racer Jeremy Toye set a record in the premiere Open Class to win the category aboard a 2015 Kawasaki ZX-10R. Although he didn't break the motorcycle record at Pikes, Toye was able to set a time of 9:58.687 to win the Open Class, finishing six seconds ahead of his closest rival - Ducati-mounted Fabrice Lambert. Toye's performance during the event won him the coveted Rookie Of The Year and King Of The Mountain awards. He is also only the third motorcycle rider in history to finish the race in less than 10 minutes.

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