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/742086
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE R acing is never predictable, but in mid- 1990s AMA Supersport racing, the one thing you could bet on was that a factory rider would win. That's the way it had been for years in the series, which was just a notch under AMA Superbike in terms of importance, during the sportbike decade of the 1990s. So when Todd Harrington raced his 4&6 Cycle Kawasaki ZX-6R to victory in the Pro Honda Oils AMA Supersport race at Road America in June of 1996, it marked one of the biggest upset victories in the history of American motorcycle road racing. The victory by a privateer team was huge news and it propelled Harrington from a little- known up-and-comer, to the hottest property in AMA road racing. And while the victory ultimately landed Harrington a factory ride, he found himself on the right team, at the wrong time. Instead of moving forward with his factory ride, Harrington ended up spinning his wheels, unable to make the impact on the sport many expected he would. Motorcycles had been part of Todd Harrington's life since he was a kid in the western suburbs of Chicago. His parents tried to steer him away from motorcycles. "My dad even bought me a boat," Harrington grins. "He thought having a boat as a kid would be safer than a motorcycle, but I wasn't going to give up until I got a bike." His parents finally relented and got him his first minibike and that started Harrington on a journey that would eventually see him earn one of the most unlikely victories in professional racing. Harrington began his club racing at a local track called Blackhawk Farms and he was instantly one of the fastest novice riders in the field. All the while Har- rington was splitting time attending college at Northern Illinois University studying psychology. While he burned up the tracks of the Midwest, the big coming-out party for Harrington came at the Daytona AMA/CCS Race of Champions in October of 1992. Harrington was the headliner of that year's event, scoring a record six race wins in the amateur class. Nearly all of the coverage of the Race of Champions that year centered on Harrington and pro teams were taking notice. Harrington thought he already saw his path to the pro ranks. "I was a big fan of Colin Edwards and tried to emulate what he did by racing AMA 250 Grand Prix," Harrington said. "It probably wasn't the best idea. I was used to racing production bikes and I was thrown into the deep end trying to go straight from novice club racer to AMA Pro." As a rookie he typically ran from about 13th to 18th every race in the AMA 250 Grand Prix Series and fin- ished the season ranked 14th. Not bad by most stan- dards, but for a rider many were touting as the next Colin Edwards, it cast some doubts on his potential. He moved back to what he knew in '94, Supers- port racing, and again he took his lumps up against perhaps an even deeper field of talent in that class. He missed a lot of the 1995 season with injuries, but he hopped on a superbike for the first time and turned in a very respectable 12th place at Pomona. Things turned around in a big way for Harrington in '96. He hooked up with builder Jim Rashid of 4&6 P12 HARRINGTON'S SUPERSPORT STUNNER Todd Harrington leads Thomas Stevens and Ken Melville at Road America in 1996. PHOTOGRAPHY BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS