Little John

It was a CRRC (Central Road Racing Club) race weekend in 1981 where I first met him, a twelve year old on a little 80cc MXer. It was open practice and I and a few other TZ250 riders, David Green, Duncan Paul, and some others were standing behind the fence just to the right of the track entrance at Oak Hill Raceway outside Henderson, Texas. We watched as the riders went by. We had already been out for a morning session and were resting and doing a little bench racing, some of us trying to sort out problems, but most had been around this track so many times that set-up was done in the shop at home before putting the bikes in the vans for the trip up. We noticed the kid screaming around the track on the little 80, passing RD Yamahas and other production machinery with a skill far in advance of what a first time road racer, 12 years of age, should be able to do. �Look at that damned kid�, spoke David (Green), �He�s kicking ass on those RDs!� I watched the boy with some amazement myself as he actually out braked that little 80 under a bigger bike in turn three after blasting around the front two sweepers on the edge as fast as the little 80 would haul him. �Who IS that kid?�,I asked. Someone leaning on the fence answered, �His name�s John Kocinski, he�s from Little Rock. I think his dad owns a shop up there. He�s been riding short track and doing real good. They wanted to try road racing and came down here this weekend.� After he pulled off to the pits, we strolled over to him and introduced ourselves. We made some small talk with him and his dad and complimented him on his riding ability. He was a bit amazed, I think, that the TZ guys were showing an interest. We all held AMA pro licenses and, along with a few of the big superbike guys, were looked on as the serious guys by the production riders. In those days, the 250 GP bikes were the entry class in AMA pro racing and Superbike was a support class for the main show in AMA, the formula one, dominated by the Yamaha TZ750. David asked John if he�d like to go out with us and follow our lines, to which he replied, �Sure!� David turned to us and said to �saddle up� and we all went to our bikes, zipped up our leathers, and out we went with young John Kocinski in tow. After the session in which John followed us around, we sat with him and offered a few tips on how to ride the track, not that he really needed the input, and we went back to prep our bikes for the sprints that afternoon.

In the ensuing year, John had decided he really liked this pavement stuff and his dad, no doubt, could see the talent there along with the rest of us. The next race at Henderson, John and his dad showed up with a production RD, a bit more serious a motorcycle and still the entry level choice for roadracing, even in 1981, two years after the last RD 400s were offered in America. The kid was a little short and had to hang off the seat to reach the ground on the start. He had a little trouble doing this, but once under way, he acclimated to the larger bike quickly and within a few races was up to speed at the head of the novices and beating more than a few experts. At the races in College Station, Texas at Texas World Speedway, John would hang out with the TZ guys and sit on the TZs and comment how badly he�d like to ride one someday. He was quite enamored by a bike that Duncan Paul had built for 250 and 410cc superbike with which Duncan had actually won a 250 GP race in Henderson. It was an RD250 framed bike with lots of trick stuff all over it and running a TZ250 top end. It had the most radical set of pipes you�ll likely ever see and, Duncan being a superb, if cheap, machinist, ran an RV electric water pump on it in lieu of a proper TZ unit. He�d brag about it only costing $25. He didn�t realize the number of races it would cost him at the time, not to mention fried top ends. The Winnebago water pump, was susceptible to the heat, was not up to the duty, and constantly gave him problems and when I later bought this bike from him, I insisted he mill the right case cover of it�s stock RD oil injection pump and machine it to fit a TZ water pump, which he did.

It wasn�t long before John, by this time nicknamed �Little John�, was riding a little RS 125 Honda GP racer. It was a natural step for him as it gave him the experience of riding GP machinery. Braking, cornering speed, and the peaky power bands of GP machines must be experienced to be believed. They are quite a bit harder to ride with their power delivery characteristics than production machinery and lean clearance, suspensions, and brakes must be adapted to because they are so far superior, or were in the �80s, to the production based machines. John rode all the classes he could and got better and better. I didn�t at this point realize his true potential. To me he was a good rider, but I had seen Freddy Spencer in my first few years of roadracing and I didn�t feel he was of that caliber of rider. Freddy was so good so young you just knew he�d be a star someday. But, I didn�t realize how fast John was improving or the fact that his talent was, for the most part, yet untapped. John ran against me one Summer day at Texas World Speedway in 1984 in one of my most memorable races. It was a combined formula four/E Superbike race. I was riding the RD/TZ that I had bought from Duncan that I had been dominating the class on. An arch rival from my GP war days, Bubba Byars, was mounted on a very fast two stroke Suzuki. He had been bragging how he was going to kick my butt all night the Saturday night before Sunday race day and I was determined it would not happen. I really wasn�t concentrating on John that race day, but to this day, John�s ride that day has become one of my fondest memories. He did pass me in the horseshoe two laps from the finish on his little 125, but my superior horsepower was all it took on the banking to repass him. I didn�t really realize that Bubba was no longer a factor and I was still worried about him. John had his number and was between him and me, a fact that I had no way of knowing. On that last white flag lap I got down to business with the fast lap of the race, determined that John would not pass me again. I wanted to keep him between Bubba and me, at least to the final turn. Into the horseshoe, I was on the brakes very late and hard. The rear slid out really wide as I �backed it in� into the turn, regained the rear without high siding it by letting the rear tire back down smoothly, and wheelied out of the turn at the lead for the victory. After the race, John came up to me and exclaimed, �You nearly lost it in the horseshoe!� �That was some fine riding!�, he said. I didn�t realize then how much I�d cherish those words from him until years later when he was riding in Europe as he is today, now a former 250cc world champion. He no longer must dream of the day he can ride a TZ!

It was soon after this race, after the 84 season, that John got the offer to go out to California to live with Kenny Roberts and benefit from his tutelage. He was soon running at the front of the AMA lightweights and not long after was in Europe for team Kenny Roberts and the rest has already been written about in the major motorcycle media. Just before heading for California, he came to one final CRRC race at the now defunct Green Valley raceway in Fort Worth, Texas just to see his old friends and say goodby. My new wife was with me when he ambled over to our van and made small talk. I introduced him to my wife, he moved on, and I�ve not seen him face to face since. Though he now has a reputation as moody and terse with the media, I�ll always remember him as that respectful young kid that I met in �81. He was very focused on his racing, but always talkative, cheerful, and loved what he was doing. I think he really liked the friendship of the competitors and absorbed all the knowledge he could from conversations about racing. He never bragged on his abilities, unlike many I knew, he just let his riding do the talking, a living example of the old racing axiom, �When the green flag drops, the bullshit stops.�

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