Cycle News

VOL. 54 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 28, 2017 P107 "The first few laps scared the shit out of me be- cause of the combination of extreme banking and the high speeds," Crosby admitted. "I had never experienced the positive G-forces that exerted extra pressure on my head and probably doubled its weight." In a qualifying heat for the Daytona Bell Superbike 100 he'd finished second to teammate David Aldana, or at least that's what he thought. Even though both had taken the checkered flag, they each did a plug chop and pulled off the track at the entry of turn one and pulled back into the pits. The AMA informed them they hadn't gone past the turn-one scoring tower, so weren't scored in spite of passing the fin- ish line and taking the checkered flag. The ridiculous rule and resulting penalty forced them to start from the back of the field. It infuri- ated Crosby. He used that fury to absolutely mow through the field en route to battling Honda's Freddie Spencer late before taking the surprising victory. By then Crosby had already been compet- ing in British events and a large contingent of Brit- ish fans who were on hand for Daytona went nuts when their man took victory. On his cool-down lap it was classic Croz. He pulled up to the scorer's building and stopped, pointing to himself as if to say, "Did you get that?" The next year Crosby came up just a few bike lengths short of winning a second Daytona Super- bike race. He was edged at the line by Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Cooley. In 1982 Crosby, by now a third-year grand prix rider, now riding for factory Marlboro/Agostini Yamaha, came back to Daytona again and this time won the big one, the Daytona 200. He raced a steady race while almost all the other top runners experience problems in a race of high attrition. Honda came loaded that year with the potent FWS1000 1000cc V-4 Formula One bike ridden by Freddie Spencer and Mike Baldwin. In the race, Croz and his Suzuki GP teammate from the year before, Randy Mamola, came together in the first turn and Mamola went down, ending his race. Ma- mola's manager Jim Doyle bitterly protested after- wards in winner's circle that it was an intentional move by Crosby—a payback for Suzuki keeping him on the factory GP squad instead of Crosby. But Crosby denied the claim. "I was online with the rest of the riders going through the first turn and Randy had ridden wide," Crosby said. "He was trying to merge back into the pack and he hit me." Baldwin, Spencer, Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson all shared time at the front. Eventually all the leaders began having issues. Roberts and Lawson's bikes broke and the FWS Honda's were chewing up tires and sucking gas at a massive rate, requiring extra pit stops. Halfway through Crosby took over the lead and then held off a late charge by Spencer. Crosby won $12,000 ($30,000 in today's dol- lars) for the victory and spent a couple of days celebrating on the beach and the bars. Before leaving town, Crosby came back to the Daytona offices to say goodbye to the staff. "While no one was looking, I managed to grab a very nice photographic montage of me in the winner's circle," he later admitted. Typical Croz. He had a great year on the GP circuit, but frustrated by the internal politics of Agostini's GP squad, Crosby quit the grand prix circuit after the 1982 season. He also wanted to pursue a career as a pilot. After his retirement, Crosby returned to New Zealand and ran a number of successful motorcy- cle businesses. He also took up touring car racing. Crosby's autobiography entitled CROZ—Lar- rikin Biker was published in 2010. Today Crosby is semi-retired and enjoys restor- ing vintage motorcycles at home in New Zealand. While his racing appearances in America were limited, he quickly became a fan favorite here for his admitted full-bore lifestyle, his exuberance and of course his raw riding talent. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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