12 7
BOB MOORE (Chesterfield
Yamaha): I grew up racing
minicycles and doing Loretta
Lynn’s and Ponca City, but
I was just more focused on
the motocross side of things
[than supercross]. Growing up
and seeing Roger DeCoster
and Brad Lackey and Danny
LaPorte and those guys going
overseas and racing the FIM
World Championship was just
amazing to me. I loved the
European tracks on the sides
of hills with all green grass and
natural jumps and stuff like that.
That really appealed to me. So
when I got the chance to go in
1986, I took off for Europe.
BADER MANNEH (Team
Honda Italy): I got hurt at
the end of the year in ’86. I
was just sitting at home, and
a guy called from Italy and
asked me if I wanted to do a
supercross race. He told me
they’d pay for my trip and
give me $1,000. I got there
the day of the race, won
one heat and got second in
another heat, and the guy
says, “Hey, next week there’s
another race. Do you want to
stay?” And then it happened
again and again. I didn’t get
back home to California until
two years later!MOORE: I was really, really
young—18 years old. I had
some semi-okay success the
first year, and I think that kind
of sprung some interest in
some of the other guys, like
my old 125 Suzuki teammate
Mike Healey, to give it a shot.MIKE HEALEY (Bieffe
Suzuki): Me and Bobby had
been buddies ever since wewere little kids racing 50s and
60s against each other. We’ve
been tight our whole lives.MIKE KIEDROWSKI (Team
Kawasaki U.S.): Nothing really
materialized here for those
guys, and Europe was their
only option. That makes a
difference when you go, “Hey,
I need to make a living. I have
to go over there and do well
or I won’t have anything.”STEFAN EVERTS (Bieffe Su-
zuki): Donny Schmit came to
Europe in 1990, and we wereteammates. He won the 125
title the first year. The second
year, I was getting better, and
we started to become rivals. I
was with him for a few years,
and we traveled a lot, and I got
to know him pretty well. He
was a bit of a funny guy some-
times. He was very extreme in
his training and his work and
his food and everything. He
never touched alcohol or ate
candy or anything. He was
very strict on himself.MOORE: I finished second in
both 1990 [to Schmit] and ’91
[to Everts] in the 125 class.
I wanted a change, and I
approached Michele Rinaldi
about joining his 250 team.
Unfortunately, he already had
Donny Schmit and Alex Puzar.
I said, “Look, I’ll race for free.
Just get me some bikes with
some suspension and I’ll give
it a whirl and race for bonuses
and stuff.” He was able to put
together kind of a separate
team within the team for me
because we had three riders
that year with Chesterfield,
only I was on production
With two AMA 125 National titles to his credit, bikes, which we kitted out.
Micky Dymond (opposite page) was the best-
known American in Europe in 1992—but Donny
Schmit (above center) won the most races.PACINI