Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/534951
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE T he Ben Spies/Mat Mla- din rivalry was said to be one of the most intense between teammates in the history of AMA road racing. While this is true, the one intra-squad rivalry that was perhaps even more intense was the one between Vance & Hines Yamaha riders David Sadowski and Thomas Stevens. To say there was no love lost between the two would be an understatement of epic proportions. Both riders were aggres- sive, confident, and wanted to beat their own teammate worse than anything else. Another thing was that both were physically strong, Sadowski a rough and tumble hockey player and Stevens a frequent visitor to the weight room. The two were used to intimidating other riders. Team owner Terry Vance's perfectly groomed head certainly sprouted a few gray hairs when he watched his riders Sadowski and Stevens take to the track. In all seriousness, I distinctly remember talking to Terry about how heated the racing was getting between his two riders and he told me that on more than one occasion he sat the two down and told them to cool it. Alas, it didn't work. Perhaps the best remembered confrontation between "Ski" and Stevens came at the 1990 Brainerd 600 Supersport race. The two were bat- tling for the lead going down to the wire. On the last lap, last turn neither rider was going to brake first. Then Cycle News editor Paul Carruthers and I were standing by the turn. We both looked at each other in anticipation of what was coming. Neither of us said anything, but the tension was so thick in the air it was unbeliev- able. Sure enough Sadowski and Stevens came charging in at a speed way higher than we'd ever seen— brakes be damned. Stevens was the first to try pitching it into the turn at warp speed. He lost the front end and crashed, taking out Sadowski in the process. Scott Russell came along to see a big cloud of dust. "The Brainerd bash-up between Sadowski and Stevens is an indelible memory," the late race reporter Tracy Hagen once wrote. "While Scott Russell was going one way to victory, the entire Vance & Hines crew were running along- side the track in the other direction to get to the Turn 10 carnage. It was such an incredible sight that announcer Richard Chambers turned off his microphone for a few seconds to compose himself. THE BASH BROTHERS P146 Rival teammates, Thomas Stevens and David Sadowski, often battled this close, like here at Daytona in 1990.