Cycle News

Cycle News 2013 Issue 09 Mar 5

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/113223

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CN III CARRUTHERS SAYS... P100 BY PAUL CARRUTHERS THANKS, HRAY W hen I called the girl at the Hampton Inn at Daytona Beach last week to tell her that my Daytona roommate of the past 23 years had passed away, she said she���d switch the reservation to my name. Shortly thereafter, the confirmation email arrived. My room was set, as always, thanks to my friend and colleague Henny Ray Abrams. 2 DBL BEDS POOLVIEW NOSMOKE Preferences: Two Beds; Low Floor; Away From Elevator This year the bed closest to the bathroom will remain empty. And that makes me sad. The last time Henny and I weren���t in that non-smoking poolview room at the Hampton Inn was in 1989. Not sure there���s much irony in it, but there���s plenty of coincidence as that was the year my daughter was born and the year that Henny got called away from Florida after the unexpected death of his brother, Ricky. It was also likely the worst week of Brian Catterson���s journalist career as he was suddenly on his own for Bike Week, or what most of us who work there every year in March refer to as hell week. Naturally, Henny and I always remembered the 1989 race for so much more than John Ashmead���s victory in the 200. My world was rocked on Thursday morning when Dave Roper called me to tell me the news I already somehow knew. Henny Ray Abrams was dead. At his computer, in his Brooklyn apartment. He was working. Of course he was working. Work is what Henny did. Constantly. It was a non-stop obsession and although it saddens me to think of him dying while at his computer, there was a 90 per- started working with Henny in what was probably 1986 until just a few years ago to get over the guilt of simply not being able to match him word for word. If I wrote until 11, he wrote until midnight. I wasn���t a night person. He was. Those were just two of the many differences between us. I was Southern California. He was interviewed ���...by now he���s probablymaker to be whoever he believed his and is in the process of transcribing his every word. ��� cent chance that was always how he was going to die. Put it this way, by now he���s probably interviewed whoever he believed his maker to be and is in the process of transcribing his every word. I���m certain it will show up in my inbox any day now. And the email telling me about the attachment will be signed, as always, with a simple ���Thanks, HRay.��� But I���m not going to say that Henny died doing what he loved most. We had a long-standing joke about never doing that. Unless Henny died with a chocolate shake in one hand while��� well, this is a family magazine so come ask me about the punch line if you ever see me. It took me from when I first New York during the week; Wilmington, (���the Ton���) Delaware on the occasional weekends when he wasn���t working. I had a wife and two kids. He was a bachelor. I had a pool. He had a ���super.��� He was tall. I was��� well, not very. Like our physical statures, our political and religious views were also vastly different. But we knew better than to go there very often. Henny was more political than me so my mouth stayed mostly zipped as I agonized away many nights of him chuckling his way through another Bill Maher. And one more thing: He always had control of the remote. I think that was just to make certain that I didn���t let things stray too far away from CNN.

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