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/159279
CN III ARCHIVES P152 BY LARRY LAWRENCE WOLFF IN SUPERBIKE CLOTHING W es Cooley had an unofficial Yoshimura Thad Wolff Suzuki teammate in the early 1980s in the at speed on form of racer Thad Wolff. Wolff quickly rose from his Suzuki the Southern California club road-racing scene Superbike. and went directly from novice road racer to AMA Superbike and Formula One competition with factory support. Wolff's rapid move from novice to expert didn't sit well with some in the racing establishment, but he proved he belonged when in his rookie campaign he scored a podium finish in the AMA National at Road American in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Wolff grew up in in the Los Angeles-area community of Thousand Oaks, California, where he still lives today. When he was a kid he shared a Honda Mini Trail 50 with his dad and brother; and Cycle News' Gary Van Voorhis wrote the headline as a teen and did a little motocross racing, support- "Wolff Howls in Runaway Win." After his next win at ing his love of the sport by delivering papers, cutting Loudon, Van Voorhis wrote, "Wolff Growls Again." grass and doing any odd job that came along. When In addition to helping him get on the National cirhe got his driver's license in high school, Wolff sold cuit, Schilling also helped launch Wolff into what his Suzuki TM125 dirt bike to buy a street-legal Honda would ultimately prove to be a longer-lasting career, SL100. One day a buddy brought a Cycle magazine to one of photo-shoot rider. "Phil asked me if I could school and showed Wolff an article about converting a come to Indian Dunes for a photo shoot of a KawaHonda 350 into a road racer. His buddy wanted to do saki KX125," Wolff recalls. "And that's what got me it. Wolff thought it was a crazy idea. started doing magazine photo shoots and in turn "Well several months later we're putting together our eventually doing them for the manufacturers." [Yamaha] RDs trying to get ready for Ontario," Wolff For 1981 Wolff hooked up with Minoru "Matsu" said. "I got a small amount of help after I went to Cycle Matsuzawa, the iconic Yoshimura engine-builder, magazine in Westlake Village and introduced myself to who had a sister team to Yoshimura called Team EsCook Neilson. I told him I wanted to go road racing. cargot. Going directly from novice to racing AMA F1 He threw an AFM rulebook across the desk to me and and Superbike instead of running a season as an exsaid, 'Read it and make sure you get that drain plug pert 250cc GP rider didn't go down well with famed nice and tight kid.'" racing announcer and journalist Roxy Rockwood. So Wolff started road racing in 1977 and by '79 he "Roxy didn't mention me by name, but he wrote an was AFM production champion and overall points editorial after Daytona saying the AMA shouldn't allow leader. Cycle's Phi Schilling helped introduce Wolff to riders to go straight from novice to the Formula One Neil Sorensen from Minneapolis, who went in with him and Superbike classes," Wolff recalls. "Then in the on a Yamaha TZ250 so he could hit the AMA road race next race when I got on the podium at Road America, circuit. It was a fruitful relationship as Wolff won the Roxy came up and apologized to me and I thought AMA Novice Road Race Championship in 1980. that was awfully nice of him." Wolff's last name was ready-made for headlines. The race Wolff referred to was the 1981 Elkhart When he won the novice road race at Road America, Lake AMA National where he earned a podium finish