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Racing the 500 GPs (part 8) 9

You already know from my part seven blog last month that I just finished round six in Macerata, Italy, with a pretty good day of fifth overall, but also with a badly sprained left hand. I had thought the next race in Beuem, Germany, was two weeks away, but, thanks to a Vital MX member (Xavier) who gave me a link to the 1982 series results, I learned it was actually the following weekend. http://memotocross.fr/assets/1982---500cc-championnat-du-monde.pdf. This link shows the overall series standings and the number of points scored in each moto. Only top ten positions scored points. 1st place earned 15 points, 2nd place was 12, 3rd was 10, 4th = 8, 5th = 6, 6th = 5, 7th = 4, 8th = 3, 9th = 2, and 10th = 1 point.

It was a short week for my mechanic, Jeff, because he had a lot of work to do on the bike, but it seemed like a long week for me as all I could do was work on getting my hand healed as fast as possible. I didn't even have it x-rayed, because the Team Honda sports doctor (Uccey) (I'm probably not spelling that right but that's the way it sounds) examined it and said it was not broken, just badly sprained. Yeah, things were a little different in those days, LOL. So I spent that week doing a lot of hot and cold soaking and taking it easy.

Finally, the week was over and we were at the Beuem, Germany, round 7 race. As we walked the track Friday evening it was looking really good. It had a lot of top soil over the rolling hills of the course, and even some sections covered in grass and some trees here and there.

It was now Saturday morning and time to go out for the first practice. By this time my hand was black and blue, and still badly swollen. I was worried about how it was going to feel, and if I'd be able to hold on and use the clutch. At the same time, I was happy it was on my clutch hand and not the throttle side. I gained more confidence after Uccey did his excellent taping job in order to support the injured wrist and hand. After several laps in the first practice I felt relieved that the injured hand was not going to be a problem. It felt tight, but wasn't going to slow me down. The rest of Saturday's practices and qualifying were pretty normal. I learned the track and lines, made some minor adjustments on the bike, and qualified well for Sunday's race.

Sunday morning arrived, and as usual the pits were buzzing with excitement, high expectations, and pressure...pressure to do well.  All the riders had their race faces on as we went out for the first practice. The track was a little on the muddy side, but that was good as it would  shape up for great racing conditions later on. Practice was going well until I had a crash with another rider that smashed the pipe completely shut from about 10" out of the exhaust port to the next bend in the pipe. No problem, though, as our little race van was packed full of spare parts.

Now it was go time, as all the riders cleared staging, lined up on the gate and watched for the card to go sideways. As the gate fell, many of the riders went but not all. That's because the large single forward falling gate only fell on one side, so none of the gate really fell all the way. With the adrenaline pumping, that slight movement in the gate prompted some of the riders to unleash the horsepower into the gate which knocked it down more, so more riders pushed on the gate. Most of the riders on the side that dropped went, with a few of them hitting the gate so hard that they went over the bars. I was more on the side that didn't drop, so I got a good view of what was going on. Of course, there was a restart. As the nervous Germans fixed the gate, all the riders had time to regroup and calm down for the restart. This time the gate fell properly but there was carnage in the first corner. Four or five riders were collected in a crash. Two were Andre Vromans and myself. The two of us got going again but it wasn't until the entire field was gone. Andre was able to come all the way back up to fifth, for six GP points and I was only able to come back to 10th for 1 point. I felt like I rode well coming back up to 10th, but at the same time was thinking how did Andre make it all the way up to 5th. I had some serious improvements to make for the secone moto, but how? The top three in the first moto were Hakan Carlqvist, Andre Malherbe, and Brad Lackey.

For the second moto, the track had become fairly dry, but because of the soft conditions in practice and the first moto, there were plenty of ruts and bumps. In most sections there were only one or two fast lines. This meant passing would be more difficult than in the first moto, so getting a good start would be even more important.  This time the start ran smoothly as I found myself running in the top ten. After 20 minutes or so Graham and I were running in 6th and 7th places. We were stuck there alone, no one within sight ahead or behind. It was a long, uneventful moto, as we would finish in those places. I remember thinking afterwards about what could have been my problem. I had a great works bike, I was going as fast as I could, wasn't getting tired, I seemed to be in a rut, so to speak. The second moto's top three were, Andre Malherbe, Brad Lackey and Andre Vromans, with Andre taking the overall and Brad taking second.

The next week was a busy one, to say the least, as the next race was in California, the Carlsbad GP. It was definitely a busy week for the team managers and mechanics, as they had to organize and get the bikes crated up and shipped. For Malherbe, Noyce, and myself we were all looking forward to the race being in So. Cal. At that time, I lived seven miles from the track. Andre and Graham had spent a lot of time there and both liked the area. After the long flight to L.A., Andre and his wife went to a motel in Laguna Beach, while Graham and I went to my house in Carlsbad. Later that week, Roger DeCoster organized a suspension testing day for us a Saddleback. Graham and I were using White Power and Andre was using Ohlins. I knew Saddleback would be too smooth to get any good testing done. There was a good track very close to my house. Well, it wasn't actually an official track, it was called Point Setta, and was an illegal place to ride, but the police overlooked it and seldom made anyone leave, let alone issue a citation. Graham and I both wanted to test there instead of Saddleback, but Roger and Andre decided to go to Saddleback. In hindsight, I probably should have gone to Saddleback also. After all Roger had already done a lot for me, not fitting into his plans for the team was not a smart move. As we tested at Point Setta, Hank (from White Power) thought the track was actually too rough and that the bumps weren't formed realistically for the conditions on a real race track. Anyway we made the best of it and the next time I'd be on the bike would be at Saturday's practice.

On Friday, tech inspection was held at a shopping mall in Carlsbad. A lot of media was there as many interviews were going on, and people were socializing. All this was drawing more attention for the weekend's race. It was nice to be home and see a lot of familiar faces, all speaking English. This was the only race that was televised on a large network like ABC's Wide World of Sports. With the combination of being back home and the race being televised, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to do well. Remember, I left the States because all the factories thought my winning days were over. In some ways, I went to Europe to prove them wrong.

During the first practice on Saturday, I was surprised how rough the track was. For the most part it was hard-packed, but there were huge bumps already there from many past races. With all the pressure I had put on myself, even the first practice seemed difficult. As the day went on with more practice and timed qualifying, I never did get comfortable with the track. My qualifying times weren't very good, either. In hindsight, one factor causing this issue was that the shock spring we were running was too stiff. Under all this pressure and excitement I didn't even think of it at the time. And we tested on that really rough Point Setta track earlier in the week, so Hank thought I needed a stiffer spring. Even though Saturday wasn't going so well, at the end of the day I was hoping for a better race day tomorrow.

On Sunday morning, as Graham and I made the short trip from my house to the track, we were soon stopped in a long line of traffic waiting to get into the track. We thought, we can't wait in this line or we'll be late to the first morning practice. With all the security it was risky to get past the line and up to the entrance. You never know what type of security guard or police you'll run into. I had run into some who thought they were judge, jury, and executioner. But on this morning we made it through without any trouble!  We were lucky that they believed who we were and let us by. Most racers don't like to arrive early at the track and sit around and wait. We're already anxious for the race to begin, so we liked to get there just in time to get dressed and go out for practice. This was very much the case for me as I was very nervous about this race.

As the morning practices and timed practice for starting positions went on, I began to calm down and get more comfortable with the track but never did quite get it dialed in, or set a very good timed lap. With this feeling lingering in me, I didn't have the confidence that every racer is looking for as the rest of the morning wore on. During this time there was a lot of energy in the pits. The mechanics working on the bikes, all the race fans crowding the track and pits, ABC doing interviews with most of the top riders from the states and Europe, even me, labeling me as the dark horse. It was a dry, hot day, so while all this was going on in the pits the sprinklers were watering the track. The promoters wanted to make sure there wasn't any dust for the spectators or ABC's Wide World of Sports. In their eyes mud and water would be much better so they let the sprinklers run and run and run. This wouldn't have been so bad, even with turning the hard-packed track into grease, but since the track didn't drain well there were huge puddles filling up. In some places the track was kind of like a fish bowl holding water.

Before we were called to staging, we heard they put a lot of water down on the track and there were some big puddles. In those days there wasn't a sight lap, as it was line up and go. Looking back, I know now that my mind was already in the wrong place as I chose to wear coarse-knit cotton gloves that we often wore for muddy conditions. Instead of being in the mind set of getting a good start and staying dry, I'm already thinking I'm going to get wet and muddy.

With all the hype and excitement building, the gate finally dropped for the first moto and we were off and racing. Sure enough, just as I expected I got a mid-pack start and as the field went through the first big puddle, more like a small pond, I got hit with a wake of water, soaking me from helmet to boots. My tear-offs, then my goggles, were soon gone but worse then that were my gloves and grips which were also soaked and wet. About halfway through the moto I had arm pump,  coupled with the slippery grips, being well out of the top 10 and not able to move up, I decided to head for the pits and regroup for the second moto. After all the riders returned to the pits Roger asked me what was wrong. I told him and he just walked away. I felt like I had failed miserably. I wasn't the only bad news for the European Honda Team, their star rider (Andre Malherbe) crashed in a high speed G-out and broke his femur. Graham was Team Honda Europe's top rider with an eighth place finish. Team Honda's hopes for the championship were gone.

As if I didn't already have a lot of pressure on myself, now for the second moto the pressure was even higher. At the time I was so caught up in the moment that I wasn't able to step back in my mind, and regain my composure. I didn't realize what was going on in my head. I needed to calm down and refocus, but not only did I not know how to do that, I didn't even realize I needed to. At the time I only knew how to try harder, not smarter. If I were smarter I would have had Jeff put on the lighter shock spring that worked so well for us in the past. Why was I even running a stiffer spring? I guess Hank got caught up in all the So. Cal. excitement and wasn't watching out for me like he had in Europe. I'm not saying it was his fault, I should have been on top of it myself but in this sport should have, would have, could have, doesn't count.

As the gate dropped for the second moto, on the now dryer but even rougher track, I was running in third place on the first lap. The Americans were all around me as they set a very fast pace. I was trying extra-hard and was riding over my head in order to maintain the pace. After a few laps I got passed once or maybe it was twice. It must have been about 20 minutes into the moto, I was still holding on for dear life as I tried desperately to maintain the pace, that's when I hit the same G-out that Malherbe broke his femur on. I hit it wrong and it caused me to swap and high-side into a violent crash. It was one of those crashes where you can't breathe and you feel like you are dying. By the time I could breathe again, Jeff was there to help. After the moto ended I made it back to the pits all banged up, especially my left forearm and knee, but nothing seemed to be broken. All my high hopes for the Carlsbad GP, the biggest race in the series, had been shattered and broken. But that's racing, highs and lows, good days and bad days. A racer has to learn from his mistakes, regroup and start looking forward to the next race. The top four on the day were: Danny "Magoo" Chandler, Mike Bell, Andre Vromans and Brad Lackey.

The next race for us GP Riders would be only one week away in Saint Gabriel, Canada. I was glad to put this Carlsbad race behind me, but with my knee and forearm swelling like a balloon, I didn't know if I would even be able to race. But I was sure going to try.

A few days later we were on the plane to Saint Gabriel, Canada which was on the eastside of Canada. I didn't like long flights in the first place and now with being uncomfortable because of my swollen forearm and knee I especially wasn't looking forward to this one. That's when I had the bright idea (not) to ask Francois if he had any more of those sleeping pills that helped me sleep at the Swedish race. He did, and told me to take a whole one. I took it just as we got seated on the plane and about a half hour later I didn't know anything until we landed in Canada. Francois, Jeff and a few others were all smiling at me as we got off the plane. They told me at one point I was laying on the floor. Well, I guess the pill did what I wanted as I didn't remember anything about the flight, but who knows what tricks were played on me...LOL.

Soon we were all checked into our motel as the mechanics worked on the bikes in the parking lot. I still had a lot of swelling and was still hoping it would go down by Sunday. Uccey was there as always with his supreme taping skills, and this time he would also give me a pill that was suppose to take out the inflammation but instead it had a very weird side affect on me. Check back next month to find out what it was, and the outcome of round nine at the Saint Gabriel 500 GP.

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