Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 52 ISSUE 13 MARCH 31, 2015 P125 did 20 or 30 years ago. Yet in spite of all this I felt I had a kinship of sorts with Dane. At one point he raced for John Ulrich's M4 Suzuki squad and I was close to Ulrich and many on his crew, so to me Dane was in the lineage of riders like Jamie James, Thom- as Stevens, Mike Harth, Doug Toland and Kurt Hall—guys who were my friends and who all raced for the same team as Dane. Plus, to top it all off, I covered Dane's dad Tryg when he raced, which gave me even more of an affinity with him. Dane also raced with spon- sorship from an old club-racing buddy of mine Kirk Reuille, owner of Broaster Chicken. And let's face it; having a giant chicken running around with you in your pits perhaps isn't the most dignified sponsor one could hope for, but Dane ap- preciated the sponsorship and from what I saw was always good natured about having the giant cartoonish sidekick. The other thing I liked about Dane was he had personality in spades, something sorely missing in many of the cookie- cutter drones racing seems to produce too often these days. You know the type—guys who only know two things: racing and training. Dane wasn't like that. You could tell there was a depth there—intelligence, thoughtfulness and an aware- ness of things outside of rac- ing. He was friendly, easy to get to know and always a great quote. Watching his easy and natural relationship with the fans was a thing of beauty. They loved him and he gave that love right back. Dane also took responsibility for his riding. He rarely blamed his machinery, even if it would have been justified and was also quick to congratulate his competition. He would apolo- gize if he made a mistake. As anyone who watched him race knows, Dane Westby was an absolute beast on the brakes. There wasn't anyone out there who was going to grab a heaping handful of brake later than Dane. As a result many of his passes happened on the entry to turns with him still trying to gather things up. Those are the kind of passes that tend to tick other riders off, but for the most part I rarely heard any of his opponents complain about Dane's late-braking antics. That was just Dane, they knew what was coming and accepted it. As a journalist I try not to have favorites, but even though I would have never told him or anyone else, I will admit now to being happy when Dane did well. His future was so bright. He was bigger than most of his fel- low riders yet he still managed to win on 600s. He was built for Superbikes though and in pre-season testing he gave us an indication of just how good he was going to be on the 1000s. I have no hesitation in saying that Dane was a Super- bike Champion in the making. And perhaps the most important aspect of Dane Westby I'll long remember was his caring for others. He was very enthusiastic about rais- ing money for the Roadracing World Action Fund. His fund- raising efforts for the National Down Syndrome Society were the real deal. He could have simply offered up his gear and let it go at that, but Dane took the opportunity at every press conference to promote the cause of the NDSS. You could tell he was passionate about the cause and I have to believe Dane would have continued to be an advocate for the charity for years to come. Life will go on, racing will be great and in the course of time other stars will emerge, but for me Dane Westby will always be one of the true standouts—a young man I will always remem- ber and admire for as long as I'm on this earth. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives