A GATHERING CHAMPIONS OF

Lawson. Rainey. Shobert. You don’t get any more blue-chip than these guys in the sport of professional motorcycle racing.

Between them are seven 500cc World Championships. Five AMA Superbike titles. And three Grand National dirt track championships…plus a trio of Daytona 200 victories, as well.

One could argue — and many have — that these three are vital elements of America’s last great golden era of racing, although it’s a little ironic that, despite there being only five years of age difference between them, they really didn’t compete against each other consistently during their professional careers.

AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famers Eddie Lawson, Wayne

reunite at this year’s outstanding

BY MITCH

Blame some of that on four-time 500cc world champ Lawson, senior of the three at 65, who left AMA Superbike competition early in his career — in ’83, when he was just 25 — for the Grand Prix circus with Yamaha’s GP squad. While “Steady Eddie” was winning his four 500cc titles during the middle and late 1980s, Rainey — now 62 — was battling fellow AMA Hall of Famer Kevin Schwantz in AMA Superbike on his way to winning a second Superbike title in ’87 (his first came in ’83), while Shobert, now 60, was grabbing consecutive Grand National dirt track titles during that same time, along with his own AMA Superbike title in ’88. Rainey, of course, would dominate the GP scene in the early 1990s with three consecutive 500cc titles, with Lawson not quite able to match his pace on the Cagiva. Still, they are of a piece, two young Southern Cal dirt track phenoms and another from Lubbock, Texas, who’d take their pitch it in there and turn left skills (much like AMA Hall of Famer Kenny Roberts did a few years before them) to AMA roadracing in Superbike and Formula 2, and then to Europe and Asia (and America, starting in ’88 at the refurbished Laguna Seca) in Grand Prix competition.

Shobert, as most know, would have his fledgling GP career cut short at the dry lagoon in ’89, the victim of a freak, post-race crash on the cool-off lap when he ran into the back of Kevin Magee (who was doing a burnout in the middle of the track) while high-fiving Lawson and not looking straight ahead. Despite that terrible luck, Shobert continued to work in the motorcycle industry off and on, while also helping run the family beef jerky business his father started, and more recently in the custom-cabinet business.

And so it happened in early May that all three ended up at this year’s Quail Motorcycle Gathering at the Quail Lodge & Golf Club in beautiful Carmel, Calif., just over the hillside from that so-special place called Laguna Seca, where all three competed, won races and thrilled enthusiasts for so many years.

Shobert was Grand Marshal of this year’s event, and was flown in from Texas, and with Rainey being just up the street from the Quail grounds and Laguna Seca, and with Lawson not too far away down south, it wasn’t that big a stretch for Quail Gathering architect Gordon McCall — who’s friendly with all three — to gather them together for a couple of days, especially considering the personal and pedigreed bikes they and others brought to display.

And what a list it was.

Shobert’s piece de resistance was the Honda RS750 dirt tracker he used to win his Grand National Championships, owned and fettled and kept pristine by Motion Pro chief

Chris Carter, a collector extraordinaire with a gaggle of special motorcycles in his garages.

“At a previous Quail Gathering I’d entered a couple of really special Harleys,” Carter told me just after this year’s event, “a Cal Rayborn short-stroke KR750 and an amazing iron-barrel XR750. I also brought Bubba’s RS750, which ended up winning the Spirit of the Quail award. Very cool. So when Gordon [McCall] called and said Bubba was going to be the Grand Marshal this year, it was a no-brainer that I’d bring the RS. We figured we’d have Bubba sign some of my books [When Honda Went

Dirt Tracking] for fans at the AMA tent and donate the proceeds to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, and also display the RS…it’s such an impressive piece, such a big piece of racing history. Bubba seemed to enjoy the entire weekend, which was really great to see.”

“I’d been wanting to attend the Quail for a while,” Shobert told me, “because I’d heard what a cool event it was, and that Chris [Carter] had my bike there a year or two earlier. Wayne said he was gonna go, and he told Gordon that I was interested, and then Gordon called and invited me to be the Grand Marshal. It’d been a while since I’d seen a real RS, but seeing my old bike in the flesh like that, the bike I won a lot of races on in the Grand Nationals, well, that was pretty special.”

“Wayne and I’d been talking about Bubba and figured it would be great to get him up here for this year’s

Quail,” McCall told me, “and we were able to make it happen. It’d been a while since we had a dirt tracker as Grand Marshal, and while Bubba was also a world-class roadracer, his roots, like Eddie’s and Wayne’s, are on dirt.”

Lawson and Rainey each brought three bikes, Lawson a pair of TT500-powered flat trackers (one from AMA Hall of Famer Shell Thuet, and another a factory Yamaha machine) and the Bultaco Astro 360 he won his Novice championship on in 1976. Rainey brought his 1990 YZR500 GP bike (which he won his first 500cc title on), a Shell Thuet Yamaha 750 dirt tracker from 1979 (Wayne’s rookie year), and a bike from the way-back-Wayne machine — the Yamaha JT1 Mini Enduro dirt-tracker his father Sandy built for him when he was just 12.

Rainey re-acquired the little Yamaha a decade ago and it had sat, unrestored, for years until he and McCall had worked out the dirt-track theme for this year’s Quail event — and figured it would be a good addition.

“Once Gordon settled on that dirt track theme I got hold of Shaun and Terry Sage,” Rainey said, “some of the best tuner/builder/restoration guys anywhere. They agreed to restore the thing, and got it done just days before the event. It turned out so great! It’s just the way it was back in the day…a total time-machine for me. I know my dad would be proud.”

Lawson had planned to attend for a while once Rainey and McCall told him what was happening theme- and Grand Marshal-wise, but the idea to bring a few bikes was totally last-minute.

“It’d been a while since I’d attended the Quail,” Lawson told me. “I was Grand Marshal a while back. But when I heard Bubba was gonna be Grand Poobah this year [laughs] I figured it would be fun…and it was. Gordon said to bring a bike if I wanted, and once I sent him photos of the dirt trackers I had restored, he said, ‘Heck, bring ‘em all!’ So I did.”

While these three have been friends for a long time (Rainey and Lawson, for instance, met when they were both riding minis in flat track competition more than 50 years ago) and still get together once in a while at various rides and functions, being together at the Quail, honoring Shobert and sitting down for the “fireside chat” McCall puts together during the event was a bit more personal for the guys.

“Yeah, we go back a long way, and we’re close,” Rainey said. “I met Eddie back in 1969…he wore white leathers — really fancy! — and had a chrome steel shoe that sparked when he dragged it. People freaked out. We raced minis and 125s and 250s in AMA District 37 all over Southern California, and then, of course, I joined Eddie on the Kawasaki squad after he suggested me for the slot… and that changed my career, for sure.”

“I met Bubba at the Peoria TT in about 1980 when he was a rookie,” Rainey added. “I was riding an XR750 and he was on a single, and we were battling, him a little faster over the jump and on the tighter parts, me faster on the straight. Freddie Spencer was there, and when his bike blew up on the straight he put his hand out right as we approached. Freddie heard my Harley and moved to his right, and Bubba, not seeing him because I was in the way, dodged right…and hit Spencer and tumbled, breaking his arm. We got together later that year, and I haven’t been able to get rid of him since. He was my best man at my wedding, and I was his.”

Shobert was especially affected by the get together, reuniting with his compatriots, for sure, but also being near Laguna Seca, a place filled with both good and not-sogood memories.

“What happened to me at Laguna was unfortunate,” Shobert told me, “but things happen, and I still have a lot of great memories of the place and area. I do enjoy being here, as I used to live in the Carmel Valley. I got to ride around the track a bit on Gordon’s VFR750 with my wife on the back, and that was really neat; I was wanting to go faster, and my wife was telling me she could tell that I wanted to lean into the corners a bit more!”

On reuniting with the guys, Shobert had this to say: “You know, we’ve always been good friends. But when you’re racing your buddies, you always wanna beat them more than the other guys, and that keeps you from talking about your real feelings. It’s the competitive thing, the manly-man thing. But now that we’re all retired, things are different. We share more stuff, we’re more sentimental, I guess. Heck, up on stage talking with Gordon and the guys, I had a tear or two!”

Lawson echoed that. “It was emotional up there, talking about all the good times and races and fun stuff we did over the years. I told Bubba, ‘Shut up already, and quit crying! You’ll make me tear up!’”

Part of Shobert’s wave of emotion came when Chris Carter rolled his RS750 up on stage…and promptly pulled out a rear-wheel starter and fired the thing up for all to hear.

“I thought, ‘This is really happening!’” Shobert said afterward. “It gave me goosebumps, hearing it again.”

All that emotion got mixed with a decent shot of laughter when Shobert excused himself from the stage…and a few minutes later rode Rainey’s little Mini Enduro flat track racer up onto it. As Rainey was about to discover, the bike had won the AMA’s Hall of Fame Heritage Award, and he was clearly moved by the moment. He was also amused, telling Shobert, once the bike was shut down, “Good thing it was all left-handers getting up here!”

What’s a reunion without a bit of humor, right? AMA

BY JOY BURGESS

Once again, motorcycling finds itself at a pivotal moment. In the middle of the pandemic, motorcycle sales and activity soared to levels not seen in years — and lots of new riders joined our sport.

But as life has returned to something resembling normal, a big question remains unanswered: How many of those new riders will continue riding?

There’s plenty of data around to show that there’s a problem retaining new motorcyclists at around the two-year mark. So what’s the answer to keeping more people on two wheels?

While there’s no single answer, one of the best ways to keep growing our ranks is to get more kids on bikes while they’re young. Pushbikes, STACYCs, electric bikes, dirt bikes…

And that’s the idea be hind the AMA’s Take a Kid Dirt Biking Month, which takes place in the month of May. This was the campaign’s first year at this level, and we not only encouraged parents to get their kids out riding throughout the month, but the AMA also worked with organizers across the country — from California to the Mid-Atlantic.

The goal? More kids on two wheels! Here’s an overview…