Now retired, Steve Dick recently spoke to Inside Motorcycles from Mexico. The former Suzuki Canada factory racer was happy to remember some of the fascinating details of the national competition career that moves him into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame later this month.
Here is part two of our conversation with Dick.
One of the fan favorite aspects of the CSBK tour in the late 1980s was the arrival of a large group of top BC racers, all joining the series for the first time once the Westwood venue was integrated into the eastern series – and Race City came on line in Alberta – starting in 1986.
“Yeah, we were all close competitors,” reflects Dick, who had moved to British Columbia in the early 1980s primarily due to the success of the suburban Vancouver Westwood circuit.
“In 1986, we took kind of a strange journey south on the coast, most of us together,” continues Dick of a non-competition adventure to the Laguna Seca, California AMA National in a motor home borrowed by the late Tom Walther (Class of 2010).
“A bunch of us really had a fun trip, even though I managed to break my wrist on a peddle bike, racing Gary Goodfellow! We were already quite close, the whole Westwood group, but this just increased our involvement.”
BC’s legendary six-time CSBK Pro Superbike No. 1 plate holder Steve Crevier (Class of 2018) tells a great story of the first group drive to Shannonville, ON. The west coast contingent left Highway 401 at the Shannonville Road exit east of Belleville but didn’t know what to do when they reached Highway Two, just minutes from the track. So, they set up camp at the junction, and waiting for daylight to find the track, sleeping by the side of the road, or in Walther’s case, on top of the van!
Walther died in late 1987 in a Japanese National test session on a foggy day when the track should not have been active. Filling in for the injured Goodfellow in the Japanese series, Walther was next scheduled to meet up with fellow Honda Interceptor racer Dick in South Africa for an invitational series backed by tire provider Metzeler, now owned by Pirelli.
“All the top racers came to Tom’s funeral, and then I went off to South Africa by myself,” confirms Dick. “It was my first trip like that, and quite a shock in so many ways.”
At the time, Walther had announced his departure from Honda to join Suzuki Canada’s program the next season. Dick had the opportunity to continue with his regional-based Honda effort but instead opted to go all-in for 1988.
“Suzuki wanted me to join, and I decided to focus on the nationals, take the time needed. I started at Daytona; it was my first and only trip there. We were really competitive in Super Sport, and while Polen ran away for the win as usual, I battled David Sadowski, that’s a good memory.”
“That season, I put together about $ 75,000 in support, I wasn’t working during the summer, but in the end, I spent about $ 100,000! My ex-Jo Anne moved back east, and I decided to relocate too, and base my racing in the east. My brothers were in the Toronto area as well. I got a lot of help from Suzuki Canada and their team, working on my bikes in their service shop.
“I was racing my production bike, and then I got to ride their Superbike built by Mike Crompton, they supplied the tires and transport, so a factory deal. Jamie James rode the superbike at Shannonville and then I got the bike for the western races, but at first, I struggled with the setup.
“Eventually we got to a place where I could work with the bike, but it took so many changes. Then came Westwood. It rained cats and dogs, and that was okay, we had the best Michelins. On Sunday in the 600 Super Sport race Yamaha’s Tommy Douglas oiled the track, and with the weather, it took forever to try and clean up.
“The organizers gave us a couple of laps to review the conditions, and then we came it, discussed things, and went out for a couple of more laps. We didn’t have tire warmers in those days, but there was enough time to get going and then try to adjust the set up.
“I asked Mike Crompton for a bunch of changes, to try and make the bike super friendly for the conditions. My trick was to install the front rain tire backwards, it helped with the braking, and that was so critical at Westwood. And I was considered the rain god at Westwood.
“I learned in those warm-up laps that I could lock the front brake and stay up, something I had learned from the Metzeler front tire on the production bikes. We eased the power delivery, lowered the gearing a little, and really, that bike was perfect.
“I passed a few people on the first lap, then at Deer’s Leap (mid-back stretch) the bike wheelied immediately, then it spun the tire all the way to the hairpin. I knew what to do next time, so I sat up and let it wheelie.
“I was plowing the front a little bit, but I could slide the back to balance things out, we were in control. I was more than ten seconds ahead at the end of the first lap, and Mike Crompton figured I had missed a red flag!
“On lap two I was 18 seconds ahead, then I eased back and just held the margin,” reflects Dick on a dominant performance. “That first lap was a pretty good lap, and I just went balls-to-the-wall, and I knew I could, it was really fun.”
This success put Dick into 1988 Championship points contention with one round left at Shannonville, another race with terrible weather. Dick suffered a Sunday warm-up crash due to a bad (old) tire choice and wasn’t fit enough to be a factor in a tense race. The final encounter of the season featured a battle for the win between Miguel DuHamel (Kaw) and Michel Mercier (Suz) and yield a new number one in crash-and-continue Rueben McMurter on his ex-Bubba Shobert Honda.
At the next year’s Shannonville summer National, Dick overcame a bad start, chased early leader McMurter until he fell, then battled top local knowledge racers Norm Murphy and Mercier to score another memorable success, again with the late race arrival of rain.
“There were some great races,” remembers Dick. “But even with the success, I realized I wasn’t going to be a World Champion, so I decided to retire.”
“As far back as 1985, I was at the Invitational F1 race at Laguna Seca, when the Americans like Kenny Roberts and Randy Mamola would come back from Europe,” explains Dick. “I remember getting passed by Roberts exiting the Corkscrew, he was so close to the edge of the track, kicking up dust. I though he had no chance, but he made it, and I realized these guys are pretty special.”
This experience mirrors his second ever race at Edmonton when he watched Steve Baker on the works Yamaha Canada machines tuned by Bob Work.
But in 1996 Richmond Motorsports offered Dick a chance to try the brand new GSX-R750 “bob tail,” and Steve fell back in love.
“It was just ridiculously light and fast,” explains Dick of his 1986 return. “These new bikes, the radial tires, the performance was really unbelievable.
“John Hellam was putting on a race at the Chilliwack Airport, and I went out there on that new Suzuki to try out potential configurations for the track. I scared myself but we figured out a pretty good layout.”
Dick competed at the non-Championship Chilliwack event, then returned for 1997 when the race was a national round, prior to the Alberta event at Race City.
“I was on Dunlops, this was just before warmers, and lost the back end and low sided, a fairly minor fall,” explains Dick of a pre-race crash. “I broke my collar bone, but there wasn’t too much pain. When they strapped me up, I figured I could still race.
“I lead from the start, but there was another red flag when some bales got displaced. I was rarin’ to go, but by then the pain was just too much. Still, it was good to get another taste of national level competition.”
Since then, Dick has taken part in various track days and raced regionals in the west including in the U.S., initially with Westwood buddy Troy Burstyk. Dick also supported up-and-coming teen-aged Canadian competitors, especially Royce McLean and Brett McCormick. Dick first noticed Saskatchewan’s McCormick on mini-bikes as a 12-year-old, quickly moving “the kid” to a Yamaha YZF-R6.
In 2006, Dick was competing in a Westwood Club organized event on the Delta at Mission, “already thinking about retiring again. I crashed in the damp; I high sided and hurt my shoulder again. I decided I should focus on the kids; I was trying to compete at too high a level.”
The Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame will stage their 17th annual induction event at the Aria Convention Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, on Saturday, February 15. Tickets are available at: MClegends@aol.com.
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