Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 27, 2015 P115 "The thing that bothered me about that crash is that I couldn't figure out what put me into the wall," Roper said. "But I moved on and got over it." Roper continued racing club and AMA road races in the lightweight categories until 1978 when he first met Rob Iannucci. That meeting would change the trajectory of Roper's racing career. "He asked me if I wanted to race his vintage bikes," Roper remembers. So Roper's career as a vintage racer was launched. One of the first bikes of Iannucci's he raced was an AJS 7R and Roper managed to beat many of the modern bikes on the "Boy Racer." Then with Iannucci's Team Obsolete Roper be- gan racing the Battle of the Twins class on a Har- ley-Davidson XR750, which they later pumped up to 909cc's, before moving to a Ducati TT2. By the early 1980s vintage racing was being formalized and Roper raced both BOTT and vintage classes at many of the AMA nationals in the early 1980s. By the mid-1980s, classic racing had grown to the point that that's where Roper focused his efforts. Roper smiled when asked if he'd ever been given a nickname. It turns out the Italians came up with one—Assassino, meaning assassin, murderer or slayer. If you're thinking, "Cool, what a great nickname for a rider who defeats his opponents." It's not for that. Instead the Italians gave Roper the name Assassino for his proclivity of crashing almost priceless exotic racing treasures. "I'm the only guy in the world who's crashed a works MV three, a works MV four, a Benelli works four, a BSA works triple, a Honda Six," Roper smiles. "No one else can match my record, so I'm Assassino!" Roper is perhaps most proud of being the first American to win at the Isle of Man TT, in the 1984 Historic TT Race. Thirty years later Roper went back to run a lap of honor on the very same 1959 Matchless G50 that he rode to victory. That TT win in '84 was so impressive because it was so unexpected. The Brits had been racing vintage a good deal longer than here in America, and it was assumed that one of the many excellent British vintage riders, such as Ian Lougher, who went on to win 10 TTs, would dominate the race, but Roper led on every lap to claim his landmark victory. Roper has seen vintage racing change dra- matically in the 30-plus years he's been racing it. It reached a high point in the mid-1990s, then experienced a lull and is just now making a solid comeback thanks largely to the massive popular- ity of the Barber Vintage Festival. Yet, for all the apparent newfound strength in classic racing today, Roper also see challenges. "When I first raced a vintage bike it was a 1962 AJS and it was in 1978," he points out. "So the bike was only 16 years old. So a lot of the organizations are adding classes for more recent bikes, which is totally appropriate, but it is hard to run from the belt era all the way up to Superbikes. It means you have so many classes and so many combined races that it becomes somewhat confusing." The one adjustment Roper finds a bit difficult as he races into his late 60s, is being able to pull himself back from the edge, where he's often tempted to go to stay with younger riders. "You have to know when to let them go," he explains. "I'm still very competitive, I mean I want to pass that guy in front of me, but also I try to keep in mind it's just a game and it doesn't mean anything really. But it's fun to stretch and push the envelope. I'm doing great and a big part of this is the social part, seeing your old friends and racing in different parts of the country and the world and meeting people who have a shared love of the sport." Roper also believes racing just may be the fountain of youth. "It keeps you young," he says with a big grin. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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