In eleven years of road racing, I�ve won a few, lost a lot, and have good and bad memories of the events that occurred. Some, actually most, have faded into the twilight of memories, but some stand out, for whatever reasons, good or bad. In the previous recollections of John Kocinski, I recalled one of my most memorable of races for reasons that I won and that John, who later became a world champion, was a memorable part of it, though he was racing another class combined with mine. One race stands out in memory because of events that occurred that I cannot reverse, though I wish I could. No permanent damage occurred as a result of this race, though it could have as any crashes in racing can be serious. I have relived this incident over and over across the years and have come to some indefinite conclusions.
The trophy plaques on my wall that I received from that event do not indicate the date on which the race was run, though it must have been sometime in 1981 or early in the �82 season because this was the time frame that I was running the TZ250 which I was riding that day. A picture follows this story that was taken that race day. It was a formula three race and Hugh Humble was not there, nor was Kevin Brunson or David Green. I think probably they were at an AMA race that I couldn�t afford to attend. These three, when they showed up, were always the men to beat. Now there were some pretty fast competitors there, Bubba Byars, Duncan Paul, and Mike Herzing as well as myself. My bike was handling as if it were on rails although, as usual, the motor was not up to the newer stuff, the G model stuff, that others were riding. I knew that if I were to ever win a formula three race, today would be the day. I had podiumed previously to this weekend, but never won a GP race. And Henderson was the place to do it as it is a very tight course on which good handling and hard riding can be rewarded even if the bike is down on power.
The adrenalin was rushing as we waited on the grid, the butterflies back as they did when I knew I had a chance to do something good. At the green flag, I blasted off the line in an uncustomarily good start. Into the sweepers off the start, two fast left handers that are correctly taken on an outside line as one big turn, I tucked in behind Duncan. Bubba led the race and Duncan, myself, and Mike Herzing were nose to tail behind him. On lap two of the ten lapper, I got greater cornering speed and a much better drive off the sweepers than Duncan which gave me greater velocity on his higher horsepower engine. I was able to pull along side and out brake him into turn one. Now Duncan was riding an RD framed TZ engined bike he built for superbike classes that I have mentioned in the previous story. He had the high bars on it and no fairing and it did not handle as well as my monoshock framed TZ or have equal braking, even though Duncan was a very good rider and had lots of horsepower to play with. I now found myself in second right on Bubba�s tail. Now, I�m really stoked! On the ensuing lap out of the turn four horseshoe up the hill to turn five, I made my first mistake and missed a shift finding a false neutral. Mike Herzing and Duncan got by, Mike leading him. Now I�m stoked and mad at myself for giving up second so easily and likely my shot at the win. I was determined to ride my butt off trying, though, and knew I had little time to do it. I caught back up with Duncan and the rest at the hard breaking turn three again using the same superior drive out of the sweeper. Now, I KNEW I could get by there on Duncan, but Herzing would be much harder and Bubba seemed content to play block the pass with me. I�d stick a wheel in on him and he�d promptly cut me off. Out of the same uphill from the horseshoe where I missed the shift, the track leads into a sharp downhill right hander, turn five. We were four bikes jockeying for position, nose to tail, a TZ train. Mike initially went outside Bubba�s line into the turn. Duncan, seeing this, first takes a very shallow low line inside Mike, and seeing my opening, I go outside of Duncan and brake much later to try to get a wheel on him before the turn. Now you have to understand, you don�t have time to sit around and plan this stuff out at racing speeds. It all happens very rapidly and moves are made instinctively by experience, before the conscious mind can decipher the situation. As my front wheel moved up beside Duncan�s rear and I was forever committed to the move, Duncan, not seeing my move, decides better of the inside line and moves back out directly into me! I saw what was happening, knew I had no way to avoid it and was going berry picking no matter what occurred, so I just let off the brake and headed for the edge of the track at probably near 80 mph, hoping Duncan would see me before hitting me. He didn�t and I ducked as his left handle bar swept over my Bell Star II helmet and caught the neck of my leathers, yanking me away from the clip-ons and almost off the bike before it let go. It yanked the bar away from Duncan�s grasp. He went over the bars and onto his head and, very fortunately, only had a good concussion as a result. Now, I�m really MAD, mainly at myself for trying the move, and at losing my chance to win, or even place! I went daisy picking and got back on the track dead last behind over 20 motorcycles with about six laps to finish. I probably could have justified pulling off the track at the pit, but I put in six of the fastest laps of my life, pumped with adrenalin as I was from anger, excitement and a combination of the whole situation. On the white flag lap I saw a guy on a converted CR250 Honda MXer ahead of me in the sweepers after the start-finish, Allen Pagan turned out to be his name. I though to myself, �Well, a guy on an MXer, jeez, no chance in hell of a trophy. But, I can�t let a dirt bike beat me!� So, whoooa! Around the sweepers I went, full out and caught the dirt bike easily down the straight for the finish of the race. Little did I know that dirt bike was in third in front of several TZs!
After the race, Duncan was back in the pit, angry as it turned out. I didn�t know his condition, partially out of it from the concussion, and joked around with him making a few comments I shouldn�t have. He took it wrong, made a few threats, and I was very hurt emotionally. Now, that damned ill-advised move was threatening a friendship! We both cooled off later with the proverbial, �that�s racing� adage. I�ve relived that turn over and over through the years even waking up from nightmares about it and I�ve come to a few conclusions. First, yes, that is racing, but, I should never have tried to pass there, especially as complicated as the situation was. I cannot take the move back, but I KNEW I could have passed Duncan at the end of the straight as I did before. But, the situation was urgent, from my point of view, and risks had to be taken if a win were to be accomplished. I just guess that�s why they coined the phrase, �that�s racing.�
Years after this race, I ran into Duncan at the track just a few days ago as I write this. No mention was made of the incident. I was just so happy to see him after all these years. We were busy catching up on what life had been like for us over the years and I had a race coming up that I was tempted to skip for the visit, but I didn�t like the idea of wasting my entry fees. Times have changed, Duncan�s into Harleys now, we�re both raising kids and living life happy, but he still seems to be the same old fun loving guy I always knew, and thank God I didn�t knock anything loose up there, though I�m not at all sure he was all there in the first place! Maybe we can do some riding sometime, though I haven�t graduated to Harleys, yet.
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