David Bailey
DAVID BAILEY
Motocross Grand National Champion
The dominant force
DAVID EDWARDS
EMBARRASSING IS WHAT IT WAS. David Bailey had left the start line 20 feet behind everybody else, and on this day there would be no stirring slashes through the pack, no oohs and ahhs from the crowd as Bailey picked off rider after rider. On this day there was only dead-last; and whether you're playing tiddleywinks or racing motocross, dead-last isn't a good feeling.
Especially if you're~lO years old, it's your first race, and your father happens to be Gary "The Motocross Professor" Bailey, one of America's first motocross stars and the origina tor of the foremost motocross riding school in the country. Before that first race, young Bailey had been cir cled by his friends and congratulated on his upcoming victory. Piece of cake, they said, in the bag, they said, and where ya gonna put the trophy?
After the race, Bailey remembers today. nobody would talk to him, and hejust knew his father was sorely em barrassed. Of course, it wasn't really that bad, but when you're 10 years old, these things weigh heavy. Still, Bailey didn't give up. Even if he wasn't winning he was riding, and from the day he climbed on a
Yamaha Mini Enduro 60, dropped the clutch and slid to a halt a few breathtaking moments later, Bailey had a consuming passion to ride. Be sides, he knew he'd get better.
Thirteen years later, David Bailey is much, much better. The minibike is long gone, replaced by a megabucks works Honda, and the last-place finishes have been erased by a string of championships that has made Bailey the dominant force in U.S. motocross. In 1983, Bailey won every series he entered: the 2 50cc Na tional Motocross Championship, the Supercross Championship and the Motocross Grand National Champi onship, which combined points from the outdoor nationals and the sta dium supercrosses. Icing on the cake was his inclusion on the American team that ran away with the Trophee and Motocross des Nations, which are international competitions against the best riders in Europe.
Stil1, Bailey had something to prove. Like any racer, he wanted to show-to the motocross community and to himself-that his titles weren't flukes. Figuring that the best defense was a good offense, Bailey leaped into the 1984 season with a yengeance. In only his first year as an Open-class rider, he took control from the onset, battling-and with rare exception. beating-seasoned ri val and defending Open champ Broc Glover. Of the first 16 motos, Bailey won 15 and had the title clinched be fore the last race of the series. Bailey also had enough points to repeat as Grand National Champion, although the importance of that series was di luted because the AMA had sanc tioned only two supercrosses to go with the outdoor events. - -
As you might guess from Bailey's less-than-auspicious beginning, his rise from inept minibiker to world star was anything but meteoric. In fact, Bailey's success is proof that hard work, determination and proper instruction are as important, if not more so, than some God-given ability to ride the wheels right off a motorcycle.
Bailey supplied the determination; the hard work and instruction came at his father's motocross schools, where he worked as a minibike-riding go-fer. But he also listened to the lec tures, watched the mistakes and noted the successes. The information he gleaned during those classes, and the varied track surfaces he rode on during the school's round-the-coun try tours, weren't lost on Bailey. As an Intermediate-ranked rider, he started winning two classes every weekend. The jump to Expert was equally rewarding. especially since he'd been warned not to expect great things right away. After all, he was running with the big boys now. Bai ley fooled the doomsayers. though, and won his very first Expert race. Suddenly, that embarrassed 10-yearold minibike rider seemed very far away.
B~ti1ey capped his amateur career in 1978 by winning the 250cc Ama teur National Championship. He then turned Pro. Two years of dues paying came next: No factory con tracts were offered despite some good finishes in a few 250 Nationals. The motocross world is full of fast kids who can place well in a race or two; a factory wants to see more before it lets loose with a works bike, a me chanic and air fare to the races.
Bailey showed them. Hisfirst glimpse of notoriety came in the fall of 1980 when he won the Trans-USA support class on a supposedly un competitive production Kawasaki. In 1 98 1 he campaigned the entire 2 50cc national series and gained top-priva teer honors week after week. In 1 982 Honda wanted to add two more rid ers to its MX team: Bob "Hurricane" Hannah, unhappy at Yamaha and still mending from a badly broken leg, got the call. And so did Bailey.
The pairing was fortuitous for~the hungry-for-knowledge Bailey. If rid ing at his father's schools could be likened to primary education, then being around Hannah must have been like earning a master's degree. Yet it's to Bailey's credit that he didn't try to imitate the high-flying Hannah; he just took what he could use and amended it to work with his style.
lndeed, natural ability versus learned skill couldn't be better illus trated than with Bailey and Hannah, right down to the way the two riders came to national attention: Hannah burst onto the scene with all the sublety of an air strike: Bailey eased in less conspicuously, almost tenta tively. Hannah was spectacular be cause he rode with wild abandon at a point well beyond reason; Bailey was conservative, always under control. Hannah elevated the miracle save to an art form: Bailey rarely bobbled. Hannah went fast by breaking all the rules and getting away with it; Bailey simply rethought and reapplied the basics. He is smooth, precise, consis tent and yen' fast. There is no mis guided motion, no wasted energy. To the untrained eye. Bailey is anything but spectacular, almost boring. To insiders, he is a study in efficiency.
There are other differences be tween Bailey and Hannah-actually, between Bailey and almost every other top motocrosser. In an age when coming from California seems a prerequisite for motocross promi nence, Bailey lives in Axton, Vir ginia, far from the west-coast-based motorcycle industry. Perhaps be cause of his distance from the hub of the business, Bailey has escaped the jet-set lifestyle that afflicts many topline stars. About the only extrava gance he has allowed himself is his house on 200 acres in the Virgina woods; and when he talks of a yet-to be-delivered BMW sportscar, there's just a touch of guilt in his voice. Bai ley also does things differently when it comes to preparing for a race. Bai ley doesn't go in for a heavy regimen of weight-lifting, racquetball, aerobics or special diets. He says run ning is the only thing that gets him as tired as a 40-minute moto. so he runs-about 1000 miles a year.
Getting in that many miles is tough. considering Bailey's schedule. a Europe-this-week. Japan-the-next. don't-ask-after-that agenda that leaves him with about two weeks of free time per year. It's that sacrifice in time that bothers Bailey most about racing. Still, in the precarious game of motocross. premature retirement can be as close as the next muffed double-jump. Soldiering on through the withering timetable while he's on top means that Bailey should be able to retire in a few years and never have to work again, a millionaire before he's 30. 1_______
But somehow, you know that money isn't the driving force in Bai icy's life, that if factory contracts and high-pressure championships and all that prize money had never come along, he'd still be out there, racing with the same passion he had when he was 10 years old.
Except that he wouldn t finish dead-last. And no one would be embarrassed.
