Ricky Graham
RICKY GRAHAM
PROFILE
An Aggressive Privateer Leads All the Factories in the Winston Pro Series
Allan Girdler
When Ricky Graham first got involved with wheeled competition, it was on eight wheels. Rollerskates. He and his sisters competed in skating dance contests. Did pretty well, too, but one day 11-year-old Ricky decided his older competitors didn’t provide much of what's now known as a role model.
Instead, Ricky decided, “I'll race motorcycles like dad does.”
Twelve years later Ricky Graham is the hottest rider on the AMA national trail. So far in 1982 he’s had two wins, three seconds, one third and been in the winner’s circle six straight times. Halfway through the season he’s leading on points. Graham and tuner Tex Peel haven't yet tried removing the 4 from Graham’s No. 41 number plate but there is a substantial prize for the Winston Pro leader at mid season and they are figuring what to do with the money.
Graham is enjoying the big time, while still feeling surprise at being there. His father raced for fun. When Ricky hung up his skates dad got him a Yamaha mini. Father, son and two other brothers rode as a hobby, a family outing. Motocross in the winter, flat track in the summer and when there wasn’t a race Ricky rode the beach, conveniently located behind dad’s shop.
Graham was good. He didn't win every time but he attracted local help—he mentions Leo Cohen and Pete Pistone—and worked his way up through the AMA district system, sportsman to first year full pro expert. He and riding pal Buddy Robinson, who also made expert, came down from northern California to run Ascot, the west coast mecca.
“That’s an odd thing about racing. We’d drive down together and help each other with the bikes, then in the race Buddy and
1 would be coming down the straight, side by side, neither willing to back off and we'd both hit the haybales, side by side.”
He learned first, that he could ride with the national racers. Second, that he needed equal equipment, that using his obsolete 750 Yamaha, with an ex-Kenny Roberts frame but nothing else in its favor, wasn’t the way to succeed.
Then came two strokes of good luck, Karma as Graham would say.
His father was willing to help. They'd both seen fresh talent worn down by struggling with inferior machines. The grapevine turned up a good Harley-Davidson XR750, owned by Michigan tuner Tex Peel.
First, the Harley was competitive. Second, Peel delivered the bike and kept an eye on the new owner. Graham didn't win right olí, but that didn't matter.
What did Peel see? “Aggressiveness. That’s the first thing that caught my eye. He was determined. 1 knew he was going to be good.”
Graham signed with Peel, suffered a badly broken leg that kept him out for several months, rode for Ron Wood and for 1982 teamed again with Peel. Team is the right word here, in that Graham still owns the XR his dad bought from Peel. They use that one for the miles and half miles, Tex’s own XR for TT. Peel knows what works and what Graham likes, Graham trusts Peel.
“I'll come in from practice or a heat and 1 like to go off and think about the bike, what it’s doing and what I’m doing. Usually I’ll come back and Tex will say ‘I did such-and-such’ and I'll say ‘Yeah, that’s just what I was going to ask you to do.' ”
Graham is what every press agent and public relations man wishes all racers were. He’s handsome and photogenic.
He’ll arrive in town a few days early, happy to visit the local newspapers, radio and television stations to plug the races, racing and motorcycles. He likes the fans and they like him.
He can be a deceptively smooth rider. Learning the trade on Honda minis, Kawasaki Big Horns, outmoded Yamaha Twins, etc., has developed his anticipation of what the machine's going to do next. He doesn’t move around on the bike much, and seldom needs to wrestle it. Again, that could be because Peel knows what will work and Graham knows what to expect.
When something does go wrong, the determination Peel spotted comes through. At the Ascot TT Ricky dropped the bike in his heat. He got going again in dead last, worked his way through the pack into a strong starting position for a semi, won that and was second in the main event. You don’t see that often.
Another possible result of those formative years is that Graham likes and respects all bikes and all forms of racing. For fun, he rides in the woods. “Sometimes when I was a new expert and the others would run off from me, I'd tell myself if I took them riding in the woods, I'd blow them off.”
(His present rivals and riding partners, guys like Scott Parker and Jay Springsteen, say Graham is as good in the woods as anybody there is.)
For training, Graham rides motocross, during the week at local tracks. Most motocross tracks are available for practice, while you can't borrow, say, the Indiana State Fairgrounds mile for the afternoon.
How good is Graham at motocross? Not as good as some. “Parker and I went riding with Larry Wosick, the Team Hbnda man. He set up a stadium type track and he could ride it faster than we could. Wosick impressed me.
“I could probably do motocross, especially an open track so it would be more like TT, but it would take a lot of training and a lot of time.”
Road racing?
“I’ve never done it, but I’d like to.”
Bouncing as it does between desperate days and weeks off, the racing season gives Graham time to do other things. Sometimes he hangs around with Parker and Springsteen in Michigan, hunting, fishing and riding. Other times he comes home to Pacific Grove.
“I can fly home for not much more than I’d pay to stay back east. Besides, those guys are the best friends 1 have in the world and I wonder if maybe being too close will hold me back on the track.”
What’s it like, beating Springsteen head to head?
“Oh, it feels good. I sure hope he doesn’t get sick again. Even now, if I beat 'him Em never sure he’s the Jay Springsteen of three years ago.
“If he beats me, I've got no problem.”
Unlike most of the pros, Graham didn’t begin with the idea of becoming rich, famous or even a champion. “When I was a kid I wanted to be a carpenter. I still like it. I’m not good enough yet but I work as a helper during the off season. I need to do other things besides race.
“One reason I help with publicity is because when I’m through riding. I'll want to do something else. Meeting people and learning how to talk to them is important. I’d like to do something with motorcycles.”
When the 1982 season began, Graham had enough money from last year to start this year. He won the Houston TT. In the pits for the Ascot TT. he commented that he hoped he’d do well because that morning his grandfather, who keeps the books, called to say the Houston money was .spent.
Graham did well, and since has done better. He’s now sponsored by Iron Horse Magazine. That was a surprise. Iron Horse is Harley oriented but is more famous for shapely ladies who sometimes wear skimpy costumes and sometimes don't. The magazine staff in turn wasn't too sure about this clean-cut kid who’s been known to tie his own necktie. But they all like motorcycles and racing, so the sponsorship is going well.
As is the season. “It’s definitely different now. I used to just worry about each race as it came, and not keep track of points. Now there’s more at stake. Some of my friends made up a No. 1 plate and I told them to ease up, we’re a long way from that.
“With luck and machinery, the best rider’s going to win.” Si
