Larry Lawrence | November 28, 2021
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
This Cycle News Archives Column is reprinted from the September 24, 2008 issue. CN has hundreds of past Archives columns in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road -Editor.
Fast Man Haney
Jeff Haney was an early bloomer. As a youth, the strongly built rider from Monterey, California, showed so much raw racing potential that Kenny Roberts hand-picked the 15-year-old Haney as the rider to help introduce his new line of flat-track racing frames, Roberts’ first business venture.
Haney’s progression as a racer accelerated at a rapid rate. He became Honda’s youngest factory-sponsored flat-track racer, and, when he moved from dirt to pavement, it was the same story. Haney was a consistent top-10 finisher in his first year of AMA Superbike in 1984 and turned in a surprise podium finish in the 1985 Daytona 200.
The strange part was that the Daytona podium was the pinnacle of Haney’s racing career. He turned in a few more decent rides in both the Formula One and Superbike classes, but nothing approaching his Daytona 200 performance. As quickly as he had risen to prominence in the sport, he was equally rapid in making his exit. Always a fitness enthusiast, Haney started working as full-time trainer for Kevin Schwantz as the Texan quickly rose through the ranks in AMA and launched his career in the road-racing World Championships. With that, Haney had found his calling. He became one of the most in-demand trainers of that era. As a racer himself, Haney could easily explain to the riders with whom he worked the goals behind the training methods, which at the time were considered somewhat unique, though they are now commonplace.
Haney went on to work with up-and-coming riders, regarding training techniques and nutrition. The list of riders with whom he’s worked over the years is long and impressive and includes racing stars such as Bubba Shobert, Scott Russell, Miguel Duhamel and Jason DiSalvo, to name just a few.
Haney grew up in Monterey and started riding a Honda 50 when he was a kid, under the tutelage of his father, Terry, who was a motocross racer. He progressed to a Honda XR75 and started running it in youth flat-track races all across the Monterey Bay area and the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. Haney raced against some of the best youth riders of the area, such as Doug Chandler, Ricky Graham, Fred Merkel and Jimmy Filice, among others.
“I was fortunate to grow up racing in that area during that time period,” Haney said. “You really couldn’t have asked for better competition.”
When he moved from minibikes to motorcycle-racing divisions, he caught the attention of Kenny Roberts.
“I was racing at a track in Oakdale and Kenny had just started a company that built racing frames,” Haney said. “They were looking for an expert to ride one of their bikes, and no one wanted to race it. They asked me if I wanted to give it a try, and I said, ‘Sure! I’ll race it.’ I went out and won two races on it, and that began my sponsorship from Kenny Roberts.”
Doug Chandler’s future father-in-law, Jerry Griffith, was building the Roberts bikes, and Haney’s career was off and running. The combination won several AMA District 36 Amateur titles. When he turned Pro, Haney dominated the Friday night Ascot Park races in Gardena, California, winning every heat and main event in the Novice Pro ranks.
In 1979, Griffith developed a new flat tracker based on the new XR500, and in one of the bike’s first races, Haney won the Junior main on the Ascot Half Mile, against all the Harley-Davidson XR750s. Haney went on to win the Junior National at Castle Rock as well.
Honda was pleased with the results Haney was getting, and at 17 he was signed by Honda to race and work with Griffith to help develop the team’s flat-track machines. In 1980, Haney turned Expert Pro and rode Honda’s CX500-based flat-track bike from its earliest days of development in the AMA Grand Nationals. While he had some decent finishes on the XR500 short-track and TT bike in his rookie year, good results were hard to come by on the CX500 (with its sideways-mounted motor) on the Half Mile and Mile races.
“Riding the XR500 kind of kept my spirits up,” Haney said. “While we were trying to make the CX500 work, and it was tough, I at least was able to win some races and keep my confidence high on the small bike.”
Haney’s stint on the Honda flat trackers proved to be right combination at the wrong time.
In 1981, they punched out the CX to a full 750 and called it the NS750. At the Friday night Ascot race prior to the AMA National there, both Freddie Spencer and Haney won their respective heat races in the NS’s debut. Haney went on to win the race, with Spencer taking second.
“We thought, ‘Man, we may have something for these guys,’” Haney said after the bike’s encouraging start.
Unfortunately for Haney and Honda, the teething problems with the bike were numerous—most notably, overheating—and Haney only qualified for a couple of Nationals that year and scored only one top-10 finish.
“Jeff was heading in the right direction,” said three-time AMA Superbike Champion Doug Chandler. “He just happened to be with Honda when they were first trying to get into dirt track, and to race new bikes against the Harleys was a pretty tough assignment.”
Along the way, Haney rode in the Wide World of Sports Superbikers, predecessor to modern-day Supermoto. While racing in front of a national audience was great, Haney was outgunned.
“We had a good-running XR500-based bike,” he said, “but it was no match for those works 500cc two-strokes.”
Haney finished 10th in the 1979 made-for-TV event and said the best part was that the next year, they used footage of Haney coming off a jump on commercials to promote the following year’s broadcast.
He also raced the Suzuka 8 Hours in 1980 as teammate to Roberto Pietri, on a Honda RSC Superbike. The factory Honda pair was doing well until the bike blew up at top speed with Haney aboard.
“I just remember being in a full tuck and all of a sudden the bike going completely sideways,” Haney said. “I went into the grass at close to top speed and somehow got it stopped without crashing. I pushed the bike all the way back to the pits and got a hero’s welcome by the crowd.”
After his time as a factory rider, Haney kicked around and rode miscellaneous Grand Nationals, but a local sponsor, Dr. Mac Archer, gave Haney the opportunity to go road racing. In 1984, Haney turned in several top-10 results in both Superbike and Formula One. It was a precursor to Haney’s awesome ride at Daytona the following March.
At the start of the 1985 Daytona 200 (the first year the race was Superbikes), Haney started on the third row, but on the first lap he made a spectacular move that got him around six or seven riders in one swoop.
“I remember going into the chicane and all the leaders sort of ran single-file into the chicane and they were on the inside of the track,” Haney said. “I just went in deep on the outside, and that set me up for the next turn, and I passed a big group of them all together and came out of there, I think, in second.”
From there, Haney ran a clean race and shocked everyone with his third-place finish, behind Freddie Spencer and Wes Cooley.
“It was just one of those magical races where everything fell into place,” Haney said proudly. “I had a great team behind me, with Dan Kyle building the motor and Bob Hyshita, Dr. Archer and Eric Berhard all helping out. It was just a bunch of Monterey guys who got together and went out and put it on the box in the biggest road race we had back then.”CN