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FEATURE STORY

DIGGING DEEP
While Todd Huffman of the MX Files was looking for some old shots of me, he grabbed this gem up at Motocross Action. This was coming out of the “Gravity Cavity” during the 250cc Unadilla GP in 1983 late in the second moto. Danny LaPorte is up there ahead of me leading. I had won the first moto and Danny finished 4th or 5th. I didn’t need to beat him, but I wanted to! I led early, but felt awful in the heat and Danny, Brian Myerscough and one or two others blew by me. I had won the first moto in 1982 only to blow it in the second moto and it was looking like I would give it away again. Then something happened. I decided to really dig deep to at least try to climb back up a couple positions and make it a 1-2 sweep for Honda since Brian had taken the lead and appeared to be on his way to a major comeback win. However, as I made a pass or two, I noticed Brian fading. He hit the wall harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. My dad has some footage of it and it is painful to watch as he was collapsing over the bike through the big bumps, but he wouldn’t quit! He kept going, but his pace slowed dramatically during the final laps and Danny and I moved into first and second. So there we were, flying out of the Gravity Cavity in a dogfight for the moto win. Danny had lost the 250-world title to Jorges Jobe and had lost the first moto, but no way was he going to give up the lead. I on the other hand had blitzed the first moto, was on my way to a supercross title and maybe a 250 national title and I didn’t want to win the overall by laying up! Those are the fastest laps I ever rode at Unadilla, but they weren’t fast enough for the defending 250-word champ. Danny held on to win and I got the overall while Mysercough put in the ride of the day to round out the podium!

It was an honor to race 45 minute motos with those guys that day and on that track before modern times took away the deep loam and huge bumps that made it legendary. I remember parts of that day like it was yesterday. If I had won easily, it would’ve been long forgotten.

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