Cycle News

AMA Western Regional 125cc SX Champion Kevin Windham Team Yamaha's Kevin Windham pulls off a "heek:llcker"to celebrate his 125cc win at the 1996 Anaheim Supercross. p~ogress at By Eric Johnson Photos by Kinney Jones, Karl Ockert and Fran Kuhn s a Pro-Am racer, little-known Kevin Windham from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, captured the attention of the factory teams when he basically came from out of nowhere and nearly beat all of the fastest 125cc National stars in a moto at Highpoint Raceway in Pennsylvania, at a young 17 years of age. That moment of brilliance essentially led to a factory ride from Team Yamaha and a year later, Windham responded by earning the AMA Western Regional 125cc Supercross Championship and finishing second in the.AMA 125cc ational Motocross series. Serious, cool-headed and smart, Windham is destined for stardom. 1997 sees Windham defending his crown in supercross and striving for the numberone 'plate in the outdoor nationals, before moving up to the competitive 250cc class for the 1998 season. Your situation in racing is very unique in Louisiana - an area with very few, if any, motocross tracks in the vicinity. How did you deal with that? A • There is now like one track, or two, to ride here, but they're pretty ridiculous to ride. Lap times are really short, so to do a moto, you have to go around and around and around. We just traveled a lot from the start. There were a lot more tracks ba.ck in the days when motorcycles were cheaper and there were a lot more people into it. As far as our state is concerned, it kind of died down a little bit, but now it is on the rise again, but the tracks are just a bit small. It's a meUow s.cene because it is just a lot of people having fun with it. We just did a lot of traveling. In grade school, we were gone every weekend and always traveling to Texas and Florida or Georgia or whatever. My parents have been very supportive. Did Trampas Parker (who is also from Louisiana) deal with the same situalion? 1'm not too sure. I knew him a little bit when I was just a kid, but we are good friends now and I've known him for quite a while. I was at the Las Vegas NMA World Mini Grand Prix in 1992 and I remember watching you ride. You were just a young, small, skinny kid who was doing well in the 80cc classes. At that point in time, did you realize that you had the potential to go this far in the sport? I didn't really know what to think back then. I was always taking it seriously. H's been my whole life and .I've never really done anything else. But you just never really know because such a 's-mall percent really ever make it, so you're just praying, you know? But that was definitely the goal and that was definitely what I wanted to do, but until that time comes, it is so far away. When you turn pro, you just don't want to sit there and say you're going to make it because things can really turn right around on you. The American Amateur Intermediate classes seemed to be a great transilion into the professional classes - and onto the bigger bikes - for you. Any truth to that? Yeah, I think all the levels are pretty good. I spent a fair amount of time at each level, starting out so young. I was able to ride every year in each age group because I entered each level as the youngest rider and left it as one of the oldest. It is a good system and you can a good level. You can take it fast and progress fast, or just go through at your own pace. Or you can go pro and learn it all at once (laughter). When you get there, it can definitely be overwhelming. You get there and have to learn all of the new steps because it is definitely a new ball game. You were a member of Team Green for nearly your entire amateur career weren't you? Yeah, I was with them from my days on 60s all the way up to my start as a professional. Were they a little bit heartbroken whe(l you left for Yamilha? No, not really. There just wasn't a place on the team for me back when Robbie (Reynard) was the 125cc guy. There just really wasn't room. At the time, I felt it would have been good to stay, but 1 am definitely happy wftb tbe situation I have now. It was just one of those deals that didn't work out. In 1994, you shocked the collective American motocross scene when, as a Pro-Am rider, you came within one lap of winning the first moto at Mount Morris. What do you remember about that race? I remember everything (laughter). I just basically - I don't even know how I got the holeshot - I was so nervous. But anyway, I got the holeshot and just p t my head down and went. Everything was going so great - you coutdn't ask for anything better. The only thing bad was that it was taking 100 percent - everything out of me.. At such a young age and I don't want to make excuses for anything - I think that was th-e best race I could have possibly done. With the situation, I just wasn't physically fit. 1 was coniing from racing amateur events where you're running just four to five laps, and here I am rurining a 3D-minute moto, and with the pressure of Doug Henry behind me, it was just overwhelming. It was good for me. to know that I could do it, but it was also good for me that I didn't win because it made it real hard on me and I realized how hard I was going to have to work for it. Was it a real shock for you? You obviously did quite well in that moto, but what else about being a professional surprised you in the races to follow? Was it the pace or the aggressive riding? A little bit of everything. It is definitely aggressive and you have to get into the rhythm of that and the pace is fast. Anybody can ride that pace for a few laps, but it matters how fast you are riding after 25 minutes. At the last meet this year at Steel Gty, when (Steve) Lamson and I were battling so good, we were turning faster lap times on the last lap of th.e race than we were on the first. You entered the professional ranks the next season - the year after Robbie Reynard·. As we alI know, Robbie faced a 101 of pressure and challenges when he first turned pro. Did you worry about that at all, or could you feel any differences between what you faced as opposed to Robbie? I think Robbie malie more of a splasln when he first entered. I think there was' a lot more pressure and fanfare for him. I just kind of came in slow and went for· ward with it and I am real happy with the way I entered the pro ranks. There was a big difference between the two of us. It's hard to say really because I don't really know the situation all that well, but I came in with no pressure on me.

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