Larry Lawrence | April 12, 2020
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
This Cycle News Archives edition is reprinted from 2006. CN has hundreds of past Archives columns in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. To prevent that from happening, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road -Editor.
Supermoto’s First King
The 2006 AMA Supermoto Championship kicks off on April 29 at California Speedway. Jurgen Kunzel, Jeff Ward, Doug Henry and the rest will all vie for the championship this year, but 27 years ago Kent Howerton came out on top in a field that read like a Who’s Who of motorcycle racing to win the inaugural ABC Wide World of Sports Superbikers race at Carlsbad Raceway near San Diego.
An ABC Sports producer put the question to promoter Gavin Trippe why the best road racers didn’t race the top motocross and dirt track riders. Instead of trying to explain the differences, Trippe began to formulate the idea of bringing all the riders together to compete on a track made of elements of all three genres of racing. After Trippe accomplished the monumental task of convincing the manufacturers to build one-off bikes for this special made-for-television event, he had his race in November of 1979.
The field of riders brought together for the first ABC Superbikers was nothing short of spectacular. Three world champs were in the field—500cc Grand Prix road racing champion Kenny Roberts; Hakan Carlqvist, the 250cc World Motocross champ; and World Speedway Champion Peter Collins. In addition, a slew of the best American motorcycle racers further bolstered the field. Road racers like Freddie Spencer and Eddie Lawson would go head to head against some of the top names in motocross, such as Howerton, Jeff Ward and Steve Wise, and in flat track with riders that included Mike Kidd, Steve Eklund, David Aldana and others. About the only notable no shows were Jay Springsteen (home sick) and Bob Hannah who was sidelined with a broken leg.
The first year of the Superbikers was especially interesting since it brought together a varied group of bikes. “There were four-stroke Honda and Yamaha 500cc short track bikes, big two-stroke motocross racers like ours, Triumph and Norton twins and even the big Harley V-Twin flat track racers,” remembers Greg Arnette, Howerton’s mechanic and co-builder of the winning Suzuki RM400.
Howerton said they didn’t know for sure what kind of tires to use and at first tried knobbies. “They weren’t too bad,” he recalls. “Except for being a little squirrelly on the pavement.”
Eventually Howerton settled on specially cut Goodyear flat track tires (a 19-inch on the front and 18-inch rear). The Goodyears provide excellent traction on the pavement, in fact too much for the ultra-lightweight Suzuki frame.
“That bike had a works motor and had a bunch of aluminum and titanium,” Arnette recalled. “But the frame was made to be really light for motocross, and it flexed like crazy with the stresses put on it on the road course section.”
Some of the top names didn’t even make to the final. Roberts crashed his Yamaha TT500 in practice when a shock bolt broke, injuring his shoulder and ankle in the process. Spencer crashed on pavement that accidentally got wet when track workers watered the dirt section, and Lawson’s Kawasaki seized in his heat race.
Another pre-race favorite was David Aldana who had ample experience in motocross, dirt track and road racing. He rode a Honda 500cc four-stroke single.
“We were underpowered,” said Aldana who raced with knobbies in the final and finished eighth, just behind Steve Wise and just ahead of Alex Jorgensen. “The two-stroke motocross bikes proved to be a lot faster than the four-stroke singles.”
Even with a slightly de-tuned motor for a softer power delivery, Howerton’s Suzuki hit 110 mph on the straightaway section of Carlsbad Speedway’s Superbikers course.
“Our bike was pretty fast,” Howerton recalled. “But the Kawasakis were even faster. We were running 400s, and I think they were on 450s. I know [Warren] Reid, [Jim] Weinert and [Jeff] Ward were able to pass me on the straightaway section of the road course pretty easily.”
The heat races were organized by the riders’ primary form of competition. Lawson led the road racers until his bike seized. That left David Emde to coast home in first. Mike Kidd had perhaps the fastest bike on the track in his big Triumph vertical twin, and he won the flat track/speedway heat. Howerton gave a preview of things to come by topping the rest of the motocrossers in a close one over Warren Reid. Even though Reid was one of the fastest riders, he declared the pavement section “scary.”
After Howerton won his heat, Arnette recalled some of the other teams coming by and looking over his shoulder to see how they had the Suzuki set up. “Plus, I think they wanted to make sure we were doing everything by the rules,” he added. “One of the secret things I did was to mix methanol with JT Oil to soak the air filter. It helped the engine from loading up when it started.”
The motocross racers dominated the final with the exception of flat tracker Kidd, who flew on his Triumph early until crashing coming off the TT jump. That left Reid, Weinert and Howerton to battle for the win. Reid gradually pulled away from Kawasaki teammate Weinert after an early battle, while Howerton made his way through the field after a poor start. Howerton caught and passed Reid in the closing stages of the race, and the two swapped the lead a couple of times before Reid pitched away his Kawasaki on the paved section blowing up a section of haybales and leaving Howerton alone in the lead. Weinert and Ward were a distant second and third. Flat tracker Steve Eklund broke the monopoly of the MX riders by scoring fourth, and Reid picked up his bike to finish fifth.
Howerton earned $11,000 for his Superbikers victory. “This was in the days when you might win three or four hundred bucks for a moto win at a national,” Howerton said. “So, it was a pretty good paycheck. I’d even take it today.”
One thing that really sticks in the mind of Howerton from that first race in 1979 was a discussion he had with Formula 1 World Champion Jackie Stewart, who was providing color commentary for ABC. “Jackie came up to me afterwards and asked if he could get my jersey, and if I would autograph it,” Howerton says with a grin. “It was for his son who happened to be a big motocross fan. He said, ‘In my house you are everything and I am nothing.’ That was one thing I’ll never forget.”
The first ABC Superbikers win was not only a point of pride for Howerton, but for Suzuki as well. “Suzuki worked really hard on making a good bike for that event,” Arnette said. “This was the highest rated sports show in America and all the major manufacturers wanted to put their best foot forward. It was really cool to be a part of that. People still talk about the ABC Superbikers today, that’s how big it was. I still have a photo of me pushing the bike up to the line and reminds me of when motorcycle racing finally broke through to the big time.” CN