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The men behind the machines at Moroney's race team
Lance Oliver
Pat Moroney knows the addictive power of the smell of race gas mixed
with flat-track dust and the burst of speed from a race bike. He's been
handlebar-deep in motorcycle racing since he was old enough to climb onto
one.
Check
out a few pics of the race shop
photos by Lance Oliver
But a year ago, one thing made him think seriously about quitting.
It happened on the first lap of the Grand National at Sedalia,
Missouri, on August 25. His rider, Will Davis, and several others tangled
and crashed. Davis, one of the genuine good guys among the riders on the
AMA Flat Track Championship circuit, did not survive.
"When he got killed, I lost pretty much my best friend, my best
rider, my mechanic quit, and my sponsor quit and got out of it because he
felt so bad," said Moroney. "I was on the bottom looking
up."
It's not like it was Moroney's first brush with the hardships racing
can dish out. A former motocross racer who qualified for the International
Six Days Trial, Moroney's own racing career ended after a road racing
crash put him in the hospital and nudged him into the race team ownership
role.
The hardest part was how far Moroney's emotions had fallen on one night
in Missouri. In the 2000 season, Moroney and Davis had been in contention
for the championship, but a freak injury, during a church softball game,
of all things, put Davis behind in the points chase and left him in second
place at year's end.
The Moroney's Harley-Davidson team, with Davis and mechanic Mike
Wheeler back aboard, confidently planned to challenge for the title in
2001. Davis was third in the points standings when tragedy ended his run.
It would have been easy to quit. Moroney thought about it.
But racing set its hooks in him one more time.
As the 2002 season got up to speed, Moroney was very glad he didn't
quit. Starting from scratch, he put together a new team, one that he says
has the best chemistry ever. First, he rehired Mike Hacker, who rode for
Moroney in 1999. In the shop, George Sudziarski devotes himself full-time
to building engines, while Rich Hansen works the chassis, drives the truck
to the races, and wrenches for up-and-coming teenager Jake Johnson.
Mechanic Clayton Oliver works on Hacker's bikes at the track.
The combination gelled.
"It ended up being twice as good as I hoped for," he said of
his 2002 team last month, while his crew assembled no fewer than 12
motorcycles for the big weekend at Springfield, Illinois.
After the first two races, Hacker had recorded one failure to make the
main and one win. Going into Springfield, that victory was enough to have
Moroney thinking that his goal, a national championship, was within reach.
But the hard side of racing was not yet finished with the Moroney's
Harley-Davidson team. At Springfield, Hacker's foot slipped off the peg on
a jump on the TT course and his left leg snapped.
Another championship run over before it ever got into top gear.
"One minute you're on the top of the world, the next..."
Moroney said afterwards. Still, he's nowhere near quitting.
A big part of what kept Moroney going when Davis died, and keeps him
going today, with his first rider sidelined, is the satisfaction of
watching Jake Johnson grow as a racer. The 17-year-old from Deptford, New
Jersey, has the raw talent of a future star, and helping develop that kind
of talent is one of Moroney's greatest satisfactions.
Road racing fans may recall that current AMA Superbike racer Aaron
Yates made a name for himself aboard a Moroney's 883cc Harley-Davidson in
the SuperTwins class.
Since Hacker's injury, Johnson has moved up from the 883 class to focus
on riding the XR750 in the top class.
Meanwhile, 2001 AMA Horizon Award winner Jared Mees will ride full-time
the rest of the year in the Sportster Performance class. He repaid
Moroney's confidence by winning the Sportster Performance race at
Hagerstown, Maryland, putting him near the top of the points standings.
"They've pulled together," Moroney said of his team,
following Hacker's injury. "I still think we can win races and get
podiums."
The race team operates out of a back room at a busy, multi-brand
dealership outside Newburgh, New York. The team has sponsorship from
SuperTrapp, Biker's Choice and Tucker Rocky, but the main support comes
from the in-house 800 FastHog mail-order Harley-Davidson parts business.
"That racing is bringing some business back in here for mail
order," says Pat's father, Jim Moroney, who bought the dealership in
1955 and built it into one of the top Harley shops in the region. With
nearly 50 employees, Moroney's Harley-Davidson now also sells Honda,
Suzuki, Yamaha and KTM motorcycles.
Soon, the dealership will be split in two, with a new shop and showroom
being built for the Harley-Davidson dealership and mail-order parts
operation, while the other brands remain at the current location. Business
is good.
Still, the father periodically offers a pointed reminder to his son
about the addictive, and expensive, nature of racing, and how easy it is
to go too far.
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