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/702723
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE D oug Toland had no big expectations from road racing when he got into the sport; he just loved to ride motorcycles. In fact, the more races he entered, the more laps he turned, the more fun he had. Then he was asked to fill-in for an absent rider at an endurance race and Toland loved it. "I knew I'd found something I wanted to do more," Toland explained of his first endurance race. "Lap after lap for an hour or more at a time [I had] an ear-to-ear grin the entire way." It seemed like Toland was made to be an endurance racer and he climbed the ranks which eventually led him to his biggest claim of fame—becoming the first American to win an FIM Endur- ance World Championship in 1993. Toland grew up in Southern California's Orange County and like so many kids of that era his parents bought him a minibike. Even though racing was many years in the future, a template was already being set. As a kid, the only thing Toland needed to be happy was a full tank of gas and some trails to explore. And when the end of the single track or fire road approached, he wasn't shy about finding the next trail by riding his dirt bike on the street. "You wouldn't get in too much trouble doing that back then," Toland remembers. "I think we all did it." While still a teenager Toland got a job at a local dealership. He'd been racing motocross, but one of the mechanics at the dealership was a road racer and Toland was invited to come along and give it a try at Willow Springs. He was 17. Toland was fast from the start, his years of play rid- ing on the dirt paid off. He was able to get the most out of his street bike, a Kawasaki KZ550, even though the setup may have not been ideal. "I just went out and rode," Toland recalls. "I didn't know anything about suspension settings or anything else about setting up a bike for road racing. The thing had trouble with ground clearance so I just put bigger tires on it. I didn't know anything." The turning point for Toland came dur- ing an AFM Six-Hour Endurance race at Willow Springs in '83. Toland just showed up to watch some buddy's race and one of the team riders couldn't make it at the last minute. They asked Toland if he wanted to ride even though he had to scramble and borrow riding gear. Riding a nearly stock Kawasaki GPz750, Toland and team- mate Jeff Tuttobene stunned a slew of strong teams to win the race. That was Toland's first high-profile victory and gained him a reputation as one of the top up-and-coming riders in the ultra-competitive SoCal road-racing scene. In the middle of 1985 Toland joined Team Hammer in the WERA National Endurance Series and for the first time began getting experience at tracks outside of Southern California. He raced in all kinds of weath- er conditions, day and night. A lot of things were hap- pening for Toland at this point in his career. He got his first opportunity to do an AMA Superbike race and he rode for Yoshimura Suzuki as teammate to Kevin P126 (Above) Doug Toland won the World Endurance title in 1993. (Left) Toland en route to a championship. DOUG TOLAND: FROM WILLOW SPRINGS