Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I t could probably never happen today, but in the 1980s, Motorcycle Grand Prix racing was still an attainable goal for an aspiring rider with laser-like fo- cus and determination. Andy Leisner was just such a rider. An ascending AMA 250 Grand Prix racer, Leisner had one overriding dream and that was to race the Grand Prix circuit. The only problem was that, even though he was scoring solid results in the AMA series, he didn't have GP team managers knocking down his door. But Leisner would not be deterred. Scarcely out of his teens, he hopped a plane to Europe with resumé in hand in a quest to find someone, anyone, who would give him a chance. And almost unbelievably he landed a ride. Leisner came up racing motocross, but moved to road racing while still a teenager and quickly became one of the up-and-coming riders in the Southern California club racing scene. By the mid- 1980s Leisner was starting to hit AMA 250 Grand Prix events and by '86 he was scoring well inside the top-10 at many races. Leisner's results continued to improve from his rookie season and by 1988 he was really hitting his stride. Leisner was mixing it up and sometimes beating riders like Alan Carter, Kork Ballington and Jimmy Filice, all riders who'd experienced great GP results. "I thought, 'Man, these guys have done well in GPs, so I can go over there and do it,'" Leisner re- calls. "So I packed my bags and went to the Milan show and I just begged and pleaded anybody who would listen to me to give me a shot to ride a 250 over there." Leisner was almost obsessed about racing in the big show. "I'd grown up reading the Cycle News reports from the GPs, watching any video I could get my hands on," he said. "It was a lot tougher to get in- formation on the GPs in those days, but in a way maybe that distance added to the allure." Another reason Leisner felt he was ready for the GP circuit was the fact that he'd qualified for the USGP at Laguna Seca in '88 without much prob- lem. "My Aprilia had a fuel problem and I dropped out after a couple of laps," Leisner says of his first taste of GP racing. "But I didn't even take note of actually qualifying for the race. I would find out next year that just making the grid for a GP race was a big deal." So that winter Leisner found himself in Italy passing out his resumé to anyone and everyone associated with racing. As it turned out, his me- chanic had friends in the GP paddock and that would prove to be instrumental in Leisner getting his foot in the door. "Mo Murray had a lot of contacts in Europe and he set up a lot of meetings for me," Leisner ex- GP DREAMS P112 Andy Leisner suits up for practice at the Japanese Grand Prix, the opening round in 1989. Leisner got over there to chase his dream on little more than a resumé and sheer persistence. PHOTOGRAPHY BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS

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