I've been fortunate enough to interview Kevin Schwantz a few times. Saw him race in England too. Even got changed in the same room as him before we went to ride MotoGP bikes, but I never knew he was a dirt tracker. I knew that most US racers had raced on ovals, but it was so rarely mentioned in the Schwantz stories I'd read it had passed me by. Then I found these photos in a dusty corner of his website and they're gold dust. I love the ABC leathers, so I dug about to see why they had Darryl on the front and discovered this on the AMA Hall of Fame website 'He also raced a few amateur dirt track races using motorcycles borrowed from his uncle, AMA Grand National racer Darryl Hurst. Schwantz got his first taste of road racing at an event through the streets of Austin, Texas. Schwantz won the race over a slew of the best road racers in Texas riding his uncle’s Yamaha short-track racer.'
And he's setting the bar high with the outfit in the family photo, but his dad edges it in the style stakes. GI
Thank you for another valuable lesson guys!!
ReplyDeleteso what's next?
will you tell me that Rossi too was secretely practicing on the dirt ovals?
or will he remain the odd one out?
What you didn't say about that street race was that Kevin was riding his uncle's dirt tracker against the roadracers, but he was jumping over the curbs and shortcutting the corners - the roadracers went around the corners.
ReplyDelete