Chuck Sun
By Shawn McDonaldBackground
Born: Kansas City, Kansas
Height: 5’9"
Racing weight: 170 lbs
Sister/Brother: Ron, Mark, twins Kenny & Susan
Business: KTM NW Regional Sales Manager-Husaberg, Magazine Test Relations, Epic Motorcycle Adventure Tours out of Las Vegas (www.sunsepicadventures.com)
Championships: ’73-’75 NW series #1 plate Pro
Trans-AM 250 support class championship series
USGP Carlsbad Top American 3rd Overall (Husqvarna)
AMA 500 National MX champion
World Championship MX & Trophee Des Nations 250 & 500 US Team
Honda Members: Chuck Sun, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O’Mara, Donnie Hansen
1st Overall USGP-World Championship Carlsbad.
Major sponsors in your career: American Honda (mechanic Eric Crippa), Husqvarna 78-79, JT Gear, Pirelli, Super Seer Goggles, Bel-Ray Oil, Bell Helmets, KTM/Husaberg Motorcycles, Arai, Smith, Fox, Alpinestars, Spectro oils, Dicks Racing Suspension, NW KTM Dealers.
Chuck Sun was dedicated, determined, driven to win everything in front of him and those of us who raced against him never knew it. All we knew of Chuck was that he was damn fast, but he never looked like he was trying. Sun, like many great champions, was so focused that anything that wasn’t committed to racing was not thought about, or wasted vital energy on. Looking at Sun from the outside was like viewing a small river. On top was smooth, clear water with no ripples on it. Underneath the surface brewed strong undercurrents that could drag you under. It almost drowned Sun. Like Yin and Yang, you cannot talk about Sun without mentioning Burgett. They were two candles that burned twice as bright but only half as long as other riders. Would there have been one without the other is a question that can never be answered. Some people are born to greatness while others have to earn it. Chuck Sun earned every inch of being a legend and a champion.
Bench Racer: What got you started in motorcycles in the first place?
Chuck Sun: I used to pick strawberries, berries and beans in the summertime when I was eight or nine years old. At the end of that summer I had $150 of berry stained bills that I was going to buy a minibike with. I went out and bought a Cat minibike at the local hardware store. That was my first two-wheel vehicle. My Dad told me "No wheelies on the minibike." So I went over to my Grandparents to practice pulling wheelies out of my Dad’s sight.
BR: What role did your family have in supporting your early riding?
CS: My mother and father were very supportive of any of the activities their kids wanted to get into. They weren’t into dirt bikes; we got them into dirt bikes. As my Dad and Mom saw how much fun the kids were having they then got dirt bikes also. I got that first minibike and it got handed down from one family member to another and infected the whole family. It was absolutely addictive to the family. Everybody wanted to ride. It’s not hard to imagine since riding is so much fun. It became a very healthful outlet for the whole family. My Dad spent a lot more on bikes for the whole family than he should have. I’m not complaining because it was great for us. Each of us contributed what little we could to have six or more bikes in the garage.
BR: How long after you started riding did you start to race?
CS: I had a Kawasaki Greenstreak 250 with a Bighorn tank on it. When I went to the sign up window the lady asked me what number are you. I said, "I don’t have a number." She replied, "Well then how old are you?" "Today’s my birthday; I’m 14" I told her. "Then your number 14." She answered back. Each motorcycle that I got from the age nine I would wear out real quickly. I would add some more berry money and get a newer bike. My Dad and I went down to the local Kawasaki dealer and he said, "We have a problem here because this kid keeps on wearing these bikes out." The dealers’ suggestion was to get me a bigger bike because I wouldn’t be able to use all the power and thrash it as much. So the solution to me wearing out bikes was to get me a bigger bike.
BR: Were you successful when you first started?
CS: I can remember my very first turn at Dover Park Raceway in the 250 Junior Class. It was a big long sweeper and I tried to pass everybody on the outside of the corner, but I spun out half way through the corner. For some reason I was just Hell bent to win. I would try to hard and fell down all the time. I was not immediately successful. I loved it so much that I was hungry to keep doing it as much as possible. I almost quit racing until I got my first trophy and then I was hooked on racing.
BR: What was your first race that made you stand out from the rest of the crowd?
CS: Probably that first race because I was so wild. I would like to say it was become of some heroic win, but it was usually because I was so wild. I think they wanted to ban me from one of the tracks once. Nobody really wanted to race in my class because I didn’t have much respect for life and limb. I would just hold the throttle wide open and crash all the time. Quite a contrast to the smoother style I had later in my career. My style quieted down when I began racing Bultaco’s.
BR: What was your biggest regret?
CS: One of the reasons I retired early from racing was that I felt there was a dark cloud hanging over me. Every waking moment was in preparation for a race. I couldn’t think about other things in life or broaden my horizons. Everything I did was focused on doing well on Sunday. As a result it was depressing sometimes. I put to much pressure on myself to win, rather than accepting the variables that allowed me to get a fourth or fifth place. I needed to learn more from the experience and improve versus placing this huge pressure on me to win every single race. It became to where I wasn’t really enjoying my life because I put so much pressure on myself to win. When I retired there was a huge release that was lifted from my shoulders. I was finally able to enjoy and learn about other things in life. I wish I could have had a better relationship with the pressure I put on myself so that I could have enjoyed it a little more at the time and had a longer career. It wasn’t an unhappy experience; it was an experience of a lifetime. I try to encourage young riders to accept themselves. When you get sixth or tenth place to objectively look at your performance and learn from the variables that put them there. Not to become emotionally upset and depressed over it.
BR: When did you retire from racing?
CS: I retired from American Honda after the 1982 season. I wanted to go out on top more than just hanging in half ass.
BR: What is the "True" story behind the Chuck Sun jump at Washougal?
CS: There are about three or four different versions about what actually took place there. I can’t make up a story because it was documented on a local TV show called "Faces and Places" that was doing a story on Washougal that day. The Northwest racing fans really get the local guys fired up at Washougal. That is as true today as it was 20 years ago. In 1980 I won both motos at Washougal and had the number one plate for 1981. I was struggling for the National Championship in 1981. The year before I was able to dominate the championship where this year there were some new guys in the class like Broc Glover who was riding really strong on his factory Yamaha. I was in 2nd place in the series just a few points behind Glover. There were only two National races left and the tension was building up. I got the second pick on the starting line. They had this barricaded big pole that they pushed to drop the starting gate. You could see the lever move forward and get a holeshot if you were watching close enough. The starter pushed the pole. The gate didn’t drop, but I saw the pole move and took off into the upright gate. I pulled the bike back from the gate and then the gate fell on the second push of the bar and everybody took off leaving me dead last. I knew that I had to make up a whole lot of time real quickly. In the first two laps I was passing on the outside of turns groups of five or six racers at a time. I used a huge amount of energy fighting through the pack. At the halfway point I passed Mike Bell for first place. Broc Glover started to catch up to me because I was now getting a little tired from the charge through the pack. The last quarter of the race it was just Broc and I going back and forth for the lead at least 15 times. I went for the turn on the inside and he would go on the outside. Earlier in the moto I had fallen and broken the number plate bolt, which allowed the throttle cable to fall between the plate and the triple clamps. The cable now could catch on the CDI box that was mounted to the steering head. Coming up to the jump Broc and I were side by side. The finish line was right around the corner and so was the race. As I came up to the jump I rolled off the throttle and the cable wrapped around the CDI box and the 50 horsepower Factory Honda stuck at half throttle. I went up so high I could remember looking down and seeing the top of Broc’s helmet. There was no way I could have saved it so I leaned back and pushed off the bike. In hindsight it was a pretty minor injury in that I tore up my ankle. The bike passed Broc in the corner but it wasn’t good enough to win. That is the true story!
BR: If you were in your racing prime and riding the same equipment as today’s racers, how do you think you would do?
CS: If they once again had 500cc outdoor National races I think that I would do quite well. A lot of today’s racers haven’t developed the skills to ride the larger bikes in the last few years because of the loss of the 500cc class. Very few of the riders have the skills to handle a big bore motocross bike for the 25 to 30 minute motos. Today’s racers run out of steam because they are used to riding 125cc or 250cc bikes. The 500’s have a different power delivery that starts low and then hits all at once.
BR: What attributes make a championship racer?
CS: There is one primary ingredient that really makes the difference and that’s the pure determination. There are a number of talented riders, but the champion is the one who can dig down deep and hammer it out when things are painful. I used to train for 45-minute motos to get accustomed to the pain at the end of the race. That way when the pain came at the end of the race I was prepared for it and was able to keep going. That’s what makes a true champion is the preparation to do whatever it takes to win.
BR: Who do you think was the most talented racer who didn’t make it to the top and why?
CS: I can go back to my childhood hero Rick Poulin from Yakima. He had this smooth, fluid incredible style that I thought was going to take him all the way to the top. At one of the first ever AMA National races it was real dusty and he broke his wrist. That was the end of his rise to the top.
BR: Throughout your racing career who was your greatest rival?
CS: There was a huge rivalry between Broc Glover and myself in the last years that I raced. Broc was the golden squeaky-clean boy out of southern California. The press loved him. Broc came from the El Cajon, California birthplace of many top motocrossers and came up the textbook way of factory support throughout his career. I was from a different world. I was from dark, rainy Oregon. I went out with ugly trucks as a privateer traveling across the country. When Broc came into the 500cc class it was a battle royal. It’s one thing going after the first title. Nobody expects a lot from you. Anything that you do looks great. When you win a championship anything less than first place everyone asks, "What happened to Chuck?" It puts a lot of pressure on you to defend that championship. The only thing that was acceptable was to win. There is no long-standing feud between Broc and I because he is a great rider. I sure wish I didn’t crash at the Chuck Sun jump and won the championship.
BR: Who was your greatest NW racing rival?
CS: Certainly it would be Rick Burgett. At my very first pro race I remember seeing this guy just fly around the track. Burgett was a year or two older than me so I was racing in his shadow until I gained enough experience and became bigger and stronger. Eventually we got to the point where we were racing neck to neck all the time. This is where I learned to work with pressure. Here was a guy that I could bank on that any time I went to a race he was going to be there and give it 110% to win. I couldn’t just kick back and win because I was going to be dealing with Burgett. I have to credit our racing together with both our future successes that we had. Rick won the 1978 500cc National Championship and I followed up winning the 1980 500cc National Championship. There were a lot of good NW riders but Rick and I pushed each other to a higher level. It was that racing rivalry that I credit to my early development that allowed me to win a championship.
BR: Who was the best racer you saw or raced against?
CS: One of the best racers of my era or anytime was Marty Tripes. Tripes could go out in any given era and win a Supercross against the best riders at the top of their game. If you went outdoors he would beat Bob Hannah who was at his peak for one moto. The next year he would do the same thing on a different bike. He had awesome talent. In 1978 I was able to beat Roger DeCoster at the Mid-Ohio Trans Am by winning the 2nd moto on my Husqvarna. I was able to beat "The Man" at least for one day.
BR: What do you think made you different from all the other racers and made you a champion?
CS: A little bit of luck probably. Pushing myself to be in prime physical condition and being prepared with the bike and mind. Not winning was such a huge, horrible consequence that just wasn’t acceptable to me. I don’t feel that way anymore thankfully. It would have been hard to win a championship without my mechanic Eric Crippa. He guided Kent Howerton through two championships and was totally dedicated to winning. I always said jokingly that if we lost it was his fault and if we won I did it.
BR: If you were to start motorcycle racing today, what type of racing would you do?
CS: If I were 18, I would do motocross. If I were 43, I would do desert racing. I have to admit in recent years I have become a road-racing fan. If I were going to do anything I would hope that Super TT becomes more popular. Then I could run a dirt bike with roadrace tires and race on the dirt and pavement and have all those experiences wrapped up into one.
BR: What was your favorite track?
CS: Washougal was like a second home to me. Another reason why Rick Burgett and I excelled at racing was because we had one of the most challenging versatile terrain tracks to train on. We both rode incredibly hard on the uphills, downhills, off-camber corners, bumps and jumps throughout the years and the races. Everything you could want in a motocross track was there. I raced at the Fox Hollow racetrack in Oregon so much that I got burned out riding there. I used to love the action at the Thursday night motocross race at Delta Park. That was the thing to do in the summer was to race against Burgett in a fast and furious fashion under the lights. Burgett would knock me down and then I would knock him down. We just crunched each other over and over. We used to race four times a week back then at Albany on Wednesday or Friday, Asbury Park, Delta Park on Thursday, Woodland on Saturday and Washougal or Fox Hollow on Sunday. All summer long with 20 to 30 Pros in each class. When I was a longhaired 19 year old I had a 125 Yamaha, a 250 and 360 Bultaco so that I could run three races a day. They paid good money back then and I had dollar bills in my pocket. Life was good as a teenager.
BR: Do you still play ride today?
CS: Oh yeah! I like to do more long distance riding and see more things around me as I ride. I have fun racing at real high speeds in the "Best in the Desert Series." The racing I have done in the last three years is to do different types of riding. I was fortunate to race the AMA National at the Laguna Seca road racecourse in the Pro Thunder class. I’ve done some Hare Scrambles events and adventure riding with Dual Purpose bikes. I enjoy that so much that I started a company called Epic Adventures with a fleet of KTM bikes in Las Vegas. We get to go riding through the trees in the mountains to the desert below.
BR: What do you miss about racing?
CS: One of the things I miss today is the single focus on doing one thing extremely well. In business you get diluted and split in so many different directions. I am not able to experience that focus and become the very best at one thing. That is something I miss about racing.
BR: Define your riding style?
CS: I was wild and crazy when I first started racing and then one day I suddenly switched to being smooth and calculating. I realized that being crazy was not going to get me the results I wanted. If I had to go wild to pass another racer I wasn’t happy with that. I wanted to go by the racers with a zap and pass so that they couldn’t come back on me. Smooth and calculating while having fun.
BR: Best party?
CS: I wasn’t a big party boy in my younger days. I made up for it later of course. One of the best parties I went to was in the mid 70’s where I was a privateer fly on the wall. I was an up and coming rider surrounded by racing heroes. It was at Brad Lackey’s ranch in the San Francisco area after the Trans-Am (Jim Pomeroy also mentioned Lackey’s party as the best ever). I can remember Brit Graham Noyce flirting with Gaylon Mosier’s wife. All the names were there and it was just great. Weinert was always great at parties in his hotel room or wherever. He would just pick up his guitar and start making up songs as people came by. He would sing "Tony D, you wanna be like me" and everyone would start laughing. You don’t see that anymore these days.
BR: Most memorable moment as a racer?
CS: Winning the United States 500cc GP at Carlsbad in 1981 was one of the highlights of my career. But even more than that was being part of the first US team to win the Motocross and Trophees Des Nations in 1980. There was so much drama about the event. We were one team from one motorcycle company (Honda) with a very limited budget. We went to the hub of GP racing in Belgium and got laughed at and then preceded to kick their ass in their own backyard. Seeing all the faces of the Europeans just drop after we won was great. It was an incredible experience to have the laurel wreaths put around us and be carried around like the new gods of motocross.
BR: How did it feel to win the Bel-Ray 500cc US GP?
CS: In the 1979 US GP I wasn’t well known and was riding for Huqvarna. ABC Wide World of Sports did stories on the world GP stars and the California boys. The only time I got mentioned was when they showed the overall results where I finished third overall and top American. In 1980 Marty Moates became the first American to win the event. In 1981 I became the second American to win the US GP and it was great from being hardly mentioned to winning one of the most prestigious events. The quest to be recognized is one of the strongest forces behind my drive to win.
BR: How was it to be a factory racer?
CS: My mechanic Eric Crippa and I went to the US GP in our box van to meet the other Team Honda racers. They would all go testing someplace and Eric and I would go to another place to test. I don’t know if I could have existed in today’s semi trailer truck world where everybody is together all the time. The Japanese technicians told us to use the 500cc motor that World Champion Andre Malerbhe had used because it had so much more power than our 480cc motor. We nodded our heads and promptly went to the back of the building and took out the 500cc engine and replaced it with our own 480cc motor that we had won the championship with. Saddleback was your typical southern California track in that was made from hard adobe clay and you would leave a blue groove on it from the rubber layed down from accelerating. You needed a broad power range in the motor to hook up to the track. We won that GP at Saddleback and the Japanese technicians came back with a big smile on their faces saying, "Big motor not so bad?" Eric Crippa calmly wiped the engine off where it covered the engine markings and said, "Oh, this is a 480cc motor." Their faces turned to stone. It just goes to show that sometimes you have to go with what you know instead of what people think is good for you.
BR: What rider from another era do you wish you had a chance to race against in your top form?
CS: I was in a position in my career to race a little bit against the riders in the past and the riders in the future. I got to race against Mikkola, DeCoster, Pomeroy, Graham Noyce, Lackey of the old school and David Bailey, Johnny O’Mara, Jeff Ward of the new school. It would be fun to race outdoors against the riders of today like Vullemin, Tortelli and Windham. I like racing outdoors because it goes back to what you like to do. I like carving a turn by laying the bike over and picking the lines through natural terrain. In Supercross you have to corner really well but it’s a different type of turn where you brake-slide-accelerate and then you have to be a good jumper. Even though I finished second in the Supercross one year and have won Supercross races, that just wasn’t what I liked to do. I don’t have an interest in doing triple jumps. I still have a great love for riding a motorcycle in the original true form, which is outdoor motocross. I don’t think I would want to race against Carmichael though because I think he is an animal. I would hate to be racing against him on a daily basis because of the factor that he is so prepared mentally and physically.
BR: What was your biggest disappointment?
CS: There are moments when I still can’t sleep about this (just kidding). I was racing at the New Orleans Supercross race and they put a waterhole on the track. I could pass people through the waterhole because being from the Northwest I was used to riding in the mud. I was in the lead and on to winning my first Supercross. Three laps from the end some sand and water found it’s way into the carburetor slide and started sticking it. When I shut off the throttle the engine would stay wide open for a few seconds. So I used the clutch when I came up to the jumps to slow down the bike until the slide finally dropped back down. Mike Bell on his factory Yamaha caught me in the last two laps because of my sticking throttle. On the last corner he got a better drive and beat me by half a bike length. God that made me nuts! I was so frustrated because the race was in the bag. I had it won and I had to settle for second.
BR: Your favorite racing bike?
CS: I am always fond of the works Honda 500 that I won the championship with. It was a true works bike from the ground up. You got to ride a bike that was developed for three to four people in the world. It was a tremendous feeling to see this works bike without a production bolt on it. It had a huge amount of useable power from the engine. One of the reasons that I won the championship was because I had more power than everybody else. Today’s bikes are so advanced with water-cooling and disc brakes that if I could have transported a new Husqaberg back in time I would have won the championship with that.
BR: What was your worst crash?
CS: Ouch! Most significant and horrific crash was the Chuck Sun jump. In the 1978 fall Trans-Am series I started a series of three injuries in a row. There is a tree named after me in Lake Whitney, Texas. I think some of my skin is still hanging off the limbs. The throttle stuck again and I hit a tree where a sawed off branch opened up my leg. That took me out for two months and then I was off to Europe to race the 1979 World Championships for Husqvarna. I was so hungry to ride after the layoff that I went to Belgium to race in the fog and ice and fell down and broke my wrist. Cortisone shots and a few tenth place finishes summed up my year in the European rounds of the World Championships. After finishing third at the US round I went home and tore the cartilage in my left knee, which ended the season. I came very close to retiring after three injuries in eight months. I wasn’t sure that my knee would hold up to any more professional racing. Then the next year I won the National Championship. That just shows you how up and down racing can be.
BR: Which racers did you hang with in your career?
CS: Being from Oregon I didn’t do much hanging around with the other racers. The guys from southern California would catch a flight out the night of the race to get back home as soon as possible. If there were two races back east I would just stay back there and train and get used to the humidity. I figured I wouldn’t be traveling my whole life so why miss the experience while it was there. If I hanged out with anybody it was my mechanic Eric Crippa.
BR: Which northwest racers did you look up to?
CS: In the beginning it was Bill Cook and Bob Leach. They were the professional riders who were archrivals and went neck to neck each week. Leach had the smoother style on the Husky while Cook would slide around the corners on his Maico. They were the early versions of Burgett and Sun I guess. I just dreamed as a kid of being able to race against those guys. After them everybody looked up to Pomeroy and Poulin.
BR: Your 43 years old now. Will there be another national class MX racer from the northwest?
CS: I certainly hope so and there should be no reason not to. It may not be this generation, but there are a lot of young riders that have a lot of talent. I was the last MX National Champion from the Northwest and there will be another. 20 years is too long to wait for Northwest fans to cheer another champion.
BR: You went from racer to stockbroker and then went back to motorcycles. Why?
CS: After I retired I had a number of people telling me to make my own clothing line. I got into the "Chuck Sun Products" line of clothing and dealt with manufacturing and distribution. During the mid 80’s the motorcycle industry was condensing and the interest rates were close to 20% and everybody was jumping into the market. The clothing market was low profit, very crowded and required a huge amount of money to compete. I was working seven days a week and a buddy of mine was a stockbroker working five days a week and making really good money and he was home by four o’clock. I decided to get out of the business and go into the stock broking business. I don’t regret the decisions I have made because I’m a product of all the experiences I have had. It was a great experience being a broker for eight years. I was in my suit and tie one day in spring looking out the window at people playing in the park and this feeling just overcame me. I said, "That’s it. Tie is coming off. I’m going to resign and go buy a dirt bike and a truck and take the summer off." It happened that quickly.
BR: Tell us about the infamous 1966 Chevy truck, trailer and gas stove you drove to all the races in the mid 70’s?
CS: My parents bought the truck so that the family could go camping in 1966, and they put sleeping bunks in it with storage areas for food and equipment. When I graduated from high school and wanted to follow the National racing circuit they gave me the truck as a graduation gift. It was a great way for a young kid to travel the roads of America and stop off anyplace and explore and then go race. I had various people travel with me at times so I wasn’t alone all the time. One traveling companion who was a real positive influence on me was Rocky Corson. Rocky was a Harvard educated hippie who ate granola and did meditation while in a yoga position. He taught me how to eat well for racing and how to stretch before races. Jeff Spencer was the Honda trainer who trained all of us in the proper dietary needs and training for top-level racing. Many people have come in and out of my life that have helped me throughout my career. My main focus though was to concentrate on what needed to be accomplished to win on any weekend. Therefore I didn’t have a huge crew around me that I had to pay attention to or take care of.
BR: Was it more fun to race in the 70’s professionally than today?
CS: It seemed to me that the riders’ personalities were more in the news in the earlier days. There was just such a broad range of unique characters like "Jammin" Jimmy Weinert, Tony DiStefano, Jimmy "Cobalt" Ellis, Brad Lackey, Gaylon Mosier, Steve Stackable, Rick "The Lumberjack" Burgett, Bob Hannah and so many more. A rich diverse bunch of characters that you don’t really see today that would always make you laugh. I would like to see more demanding natural terrain for motocross because that is where you see the skills of the riders. To see David Bailey being able to carve some beautiful corners and jumps. I think that they groom the tracks so much today where you just hammer a berm and hit a jump.
BR: You were the first racer of note to have an ethnic background different than the other racers. What was that like?
CS: When I was young I grew up in a white Anglo-Saxon society and that’s what I felt like. Sometimes I forget that I’m ethnic and I’m a result of a mixed marriage. That just sounds funny to me. My Mother is Swiss-Austrian and my Dad is 100% Chinese. When I was very, very young and in grade school the kids teased me a lot and that difference came out. That created a desire to prove myself and to do well. Later on in life that became an asset that I could draw on to prove to people that I could kick their ass. Being of a Chinese persuasion was actually a benefit because it set me aside from everybody else. Throughout my career there were no prejudices or improprieties that I can remember. That is kind of a fun thing about racers is that they judge you on the track and not off it. The fact that I had an Asian background did not hinder my climb to the top.
BR: What do you ride better in mud or dust?
CS: Right now I have been riding in the biggest amount of dust than I have my whole life in the Best of the Desert Series in Nevada. At first I didn’t know how anybody could ride in all that dust. To ride it you get on the edge, you gas it when you can and hope for any sort of wind to blow it away. I mean this dust is huge, billowy and choking that you never see in the Northwest. Without a doubt though my choice is mud. I love the mud.
BR: Corners, jumps or bumps where were you the fastest?
CS: The corners were fun. The greatest skill you can bring to the races is what you have the most fun at. I used to watch the berm master Kent Howerton just lay it down in a sandy corner full throttle dragging the handlebars. One of my best races was in Castle Rock, Colorado because I was able to pick out lines that nobody else saw. I could see them, and it reduced my lap times by a few seconds. Cornering was the most fun at the racetrack.
BR: In one word what would you say about your racing career?
CS: Great adventure!
Born: Kansas City, Kansas
Height: 5’9"
Racing weight: 170 lbs
Sister/Brother: Ron, Mark, twins Kenny & Susan
Business: KTM NW Regional Sales Manager-Husaberg, Magazine Test Relations, Epic Motorcycle Adventure Tours out of Las Vegas (www.sunsepicadventures.com)
Championships: ’73-’75 NW series #1 plate Pro
Trans-AM 250 support class championship series
USGP Carlsbad Top American 3rd Overall (Husqvarna)
AMA 500 National MX champion
World Championship MX & Trophee Des Nations 250 & 500 US Team
Honda Members: Chuck Sun, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O’Mara, Donnie Hansen
1st Overall USGP-World Championship Carlsbad.
Major sponsors in your career: American Honda (mechanic Eric Crippa), Husqvarna 78-79, JT Gear, Pirelli, Super Seer Goggles, Bel-Ray Oil, Bell Helmets, KTM/Husaberg Motorcycles, Arai, Smith, Fox, Alpinestars, Spectro oils, Dicks Racing Suspension, NW KTM Dealers.
Chuck Sun was dedicated, determined, driven to win everything in front of him and those of us who raced against him never knew it. All we knew of Chuck was that he was damn fast, but he never looked like he was trying. Sun, like many great champions, was so focused that anything that wasn’t committed to racing was not thought about, or wasted vital energy on. Looking at Sun from the outside was like viewing a small river. On top was smooth, clear water with no ripples on it. Underneath the surface brewed strong undercurrents that could drag you under. It almost drowned Sun. Like Yin and Yang, you cannot talk about Sun without mentioning Burgett. They were two candles that burned twice as bright but only half as long as other riders. Would there have been one without the other is a question that can never be answered. Some people are born to greatness while others have to earn it. Chuck Sun earned every inch of being a legend and a champion.
Bench Racer: What got you started in motorcycles in the first place?
Chuck Sun: I used to pick strawberries, berries and beans in the summertime when I was eight or nine years old. At the end of that summer I had $150 of berry stained bills that I was going to buy a minibike with. I went out and bought a Cat minibike at the local hardware store. That was my first two-wheel vehicle. My Dad told me "No wheelies on the minibike." So I went over to my Grandparents to practice pulling wheelies out of my Dad’s sight.
BR: What role did your family have in supporting your early riding?
CS: My mother and father were very supportive of any of the activities their kids wanted to get into. They weren’t into dirt bikes; we got them into dirt bikes. As my Dad and Mom saw how much fun the kids were having they then got dirt bikes also. I got that first minibike and it got handed down from one family member to another and infected the whole family. It was absolutely addictive to the family. Everybody wanted to ride. It’s not hard to imagine since riding is so much fun. It became a very healthful outlet for the whole family. My Dad spent a lot more on bikes for the whole family than he should have. I’m not complaining because it was great for us. Each of us contributed what little we could to have six or more bikes in the garage.
BR: How long after you started riding did you start to race?
CS: I had a Kawasaki Greenstreak 250 with a Bighorn tank on it. When I went to the sign up window the lady asked me what number are you. I said, "I don’t have a number." She replied, "Well then how old are you?" "Today’s my birthday; I’m 14" I told her. "Then your number 14." She answered back. Each motorcycle that I got from the age nine I would wear out real quickly. I would add some more berry money and get a newer bike. My Dad and I went down to the local Kawasaki dealer and he said, "We have a problem here because this kid keeps on wearing these bikes out." The dealers’ suggestion was to get me a bigger bike because I wouldn’t be able to use all the power and thrash it as much. So the solution to me wearing out bikes was to get me a bigger bike.
BR: Were you successful when you first started?
CS: I can remember my very first turn at Dover Park Raceway in the 250 Junior Class. It was a big long sweeper and I tried to pass everybody on the outside of the corner, but I spun out half way through the corner. For some reason I was just Hell bent to win. I would try to hard and fell down all the time. I was not immediately successful. I loved it so much that I was hungry to keep doing it as much as possible. I almost quit racing until I got my first trophy and then I was hooked on racing.
BR: What was your first race that made you stand out from the rest of the crowd?
CS: Probably that first race because I was so wild. I would like to say it was become of some heroic win, but it was usually because I was so wild. I think they wanted to ban me from one of the tracks once. Nobody really wanted to race in my class because I didn’t have much respect for life and limb. I would just hold the throttle wide open and crash all the time. Quite a contrast to the smoother style I had later in my career. My style quieted down when I began racing Bultaco’s.
BR: What was your biggest regret?
CS: One of the reasons I retired early from racing was that I felt there was a dark cloud hanging over me. Every waking moment was in preparation for a race. I couldn’t think about other things in life or broaden my horizons. Everything I did was focused on doing well on Sunday. As a result it was depressing sometimes. I put to much pressure on myself to win, rather than accepting the variables that allowed me to get a fourth or fifth place. I needed to learn more from the experience and improve versus placing this huge pressure on me to win every single race. It became to where I wasn’t really enjoying my life because I put so much pressure on myself to win. When I retired there was a huge release that was lifted from my shoulders. I was finally able to enjoy and learn about other things in life. I wish I could have had a better relationship with the pressure I put on myself so that I could have enjoyed it a little more at the time and had a longer career. It wasn’t an unhappy experience; it was an experience of a lifetime. I try to encourage young riders to accept themselves. When you get sixth or tenth place to objectively look at your performance and learn from the variables that put them there. Not to become emotionally upset and depressed over it.
BR: When did you retire from racing?
CS: I retired from American Honda after the 1982 season. I wanted to go out on top more than just hanging in half ass.
BR: What is the "True" story behind the Chuck Sun jump at Washougal?
CS: There are about three or four different versions about what actually took place there. I can’t make up a story because it was documented on a local TV show called "Faces and Places" that was doing a story on Washougal that day. The Northwest racing fans really get the local guys fired up at Washougal. That is as true today as it was 20 years ago. In 1980 I won both motos at Washougal and had the number one plate for 1981. I was struggling for the National Championship in 1981. The year before I was able to dominate the championship where this year there were some new guys in the class like Broc Glover who was riding really strong on his factory Yamaha. I was in 2nd place in the series just a few points behind Glover. There were only two National races left and the tension was building up. I got the second pick on the starting line. They had this barricaded big pole that they pushed to drop the starting gate. You could see the lever move forward and get a holeshot if you were watching close enough. The starter pushed the pole. The gate didn’t drop, but I saw the pole move and took off into the upright gate. I pulled the bike back from the gate and then the gate fell on the second push of the bar and everybody took off leaving me dead last. I knew that I had to make up a whole lot of time real quickly. In the first two laps I was passing on the outside of turns groups of five or six racers at a time. I used a huge amount of energy fighting through the pack. At the halfway point I passed Mike Bell for first place. Broc Glover started to catch up to me because I was now getting a little tired from the charge through the pack. The last quarter of the race it was just Broc and I going back and forth for the lead at least 15 times. I went for the turn on the inside and he would go on the outside. Earlier in the moto I had fallen and broken the number plate bolt, which allowed the throttle cable to fall between the plate and the triple clamps. The cable now could catch on the CDI box that was mounted to the steering head. Coming up to the jump Broc and I were side by side. The finish line was right around the corner and so was the race. As I came up to the jump I rolled off the throttle and the cable wrapped around the CDI box and the 50 horsepower Factory Honda stuck at half throttle. I went up so high I could remember looking down and seeing the top of Broc’s helmet. There was no way I could have saved it so I leaned back and pushed off the bike. In hindsight it was a pretty minor injury in that I tore up my ankle. The bike passed Broc in the corner but it wasn’t good enough to win. That is the true story!
BR: If you were in your racing prime and riding the same equipment as today’s racers, how do you think you would do?
CS: If they once again had 500cc outdoor National races I think that I would do quite well. A lot of today’s racers haven’t developed the skills to ride the larger bikes in the last few years because of the loss of the 500cc class. Very few of the riders have the skills to handle a big bore motocross bike for the 25 to 30 minute motos. Today’s racers run out of steam because they are used to riding 125cc or 250cc bikes. The 500’s have a different power delivery that starts low and then hits all at once.
BR: What attributes make a championship racer?
CS: There is one primary ingredient that really makes the difference and that’s the pure determination. There are a number of talented riders, but the champion is the one who can dig down deep and hammer it out when things are painful. I used to train for 45-minute motos to get accustomed to the pain at the end of the race. That way when the pain came at the end of the race I was prepared for it and was able to keep going. That’s what makes a true champion is the preparation to do whatever it takes to win.
BR: Who do you think was the most talented racer who didn’t make it to the top and why?
CS: I can go back to my childhood hero Rick Poulin from Yakima. He had this smooth, fluid incredible style that I thought was going to take him all the way to the top. At one of the first ever AMA National races it was real dusty and he broke his wrist. That was the end of his rise to the top.
BR: Throughout your racing career who was your greatest rival?
CS: There was a huge rivalry between Broc Glover and myself in the last years that I raced. Broc was the golden squeaky-clean boy out of southern California. The press loved him. Broc came from the El Cajon, California birthplace of many top motocrossers and came up the textbook way of factory support throughout his career. I was from a different world. I was from dark, rainy Oregon. I went out with ugly trucks as a privateer traveling across the country. When Broc came into the 500cc class it was a battle royal. It’s one thing going after the first title. Nobody expects a lot from you. Anything that you do looks great. When you win a championship anything less than first place everyone asks, "What happened to Chuck?" It puts a lot of pressure on you to defend that championship. The only thing that was acceptable was to win. There is no long-standing feud between Broc and I because he is a great rider. I sure wish I didn’t crash at the Chuck Sun jump and won the championship.
BR: Who was your greatest NW racing rival?
CS: Certainly it would be Rick Burgett. At my very first pro race I remember seeing this guy just fly around the track. Burgett was a year or two older than me so I was racing in his shadow until I gained enough experience and became bigger and stronger. Eventually we got to the point where we were racing neck to neck all the time. This is where I learned to work with pressure. Here was a guy that I could bank on that any time I went to a race he was going to be there and give it 110% to win. I couldn’t just kick back and win because I was going to be dealing with Burgett. I have to credit our racing together with both our future successes that we had. Rick won the 1978 500cc National Championship and I followed up winning the 1980 500cc National Championship. There were a lot of good NW riders but Rick and I pushed each other to a higher level. It was that racing rivalry that I credit to my early development that allowed me to win a championship.
BR: Who was the best racer you saw or raced against?
CS: One of the best racers of my era or anytime was Marty Tripes. Tripes could go out in any given era and win a Supercross against the best riders at the top of their game. If you went outdoors he would beat Bob Hannah who was at his peak for one moto. The next year he would do the same thing on a different bike. He had awesome talent. In 1978 I was able to beat Roger DeCoster at the Mid-Ohio Trans Am by winning the 2nd moto on my Husqvarna. I was able to beat "The Man" at least for one day.
BR: What do you think made you different from all the other racers and made you a champion?
CS: A little bit of luck probably. Pushing myself to be in prime physical condition and being prepared with the bike and mind. Not winning was such a huge, horrible consequence that just wasn’t acceptable to me. I don’t feel that way anymore thankfully. It would have been hard to win a championship without my mechanic Eric Crippa. He guided Kent Howerton through two championships and was totally dedicated to winning. I always said jokingly that if we lost it was his fault and if we won I did it.
BR: If you were to start motorcycle racing today, what type of racing would you do?
CS: If I were 18, I would do motocross. If I were 43, I would do desert racing. I have to admit in recent years I have become a road-racing fan. If I were going to do anything I would hope that Super TT becomes more popular. Then I could run a dirt bike with roadrace tires and race on the dirt and pavement and have all those experiences wrapped up into one.
BR: What was your favorite track?
CS: Washougal was like a second home to me. Another reason why Rick Burgett and I excelled at racing was because we had one of the most challenging versatile terrain tracks to train on. We both rode incredibly hard on the uphills, downhills, off-camber corners, bumps and jumps throughout the years and the races. Everything you could want in a motocross track was there. I raced at the Fox Hollow racetrack in Oregon so much that I got burned out riding there. I used to love the action at the Thursday night motocross race at Delta Park. That was the thing to do in the summer was to race against Burgett in a fast and furious fashion under the lights. Burgett would knock me down and then I would knock him down. We just crunched each other over and over. We used to race four times a week back then at Albany on Wednesday or Friday, Asbury Park, Delta Park on Thursday, Woodland on Saturday and Washougal or Fox Hollow on Sunday. All summer long with 20 to 30 Pros in each class. When I was a longhaired 19 year old I had a 125 Yamaha, a 250 and 360 Bultaco so that I could run three races a day. They paid good money back then and I had dollar bills in my pocket. Life was good as a teenager.
BR: Do you still play ride today?
CS: Oh yeah! I like to do more long distance riding and see more things around me as I ride. I have fun racing at real high speeds in the "Best in the Desert Series." The racing I have done in the last three years is to do different types of riding. I was fortunate to race the AMA National at the Laguna Seca road racecourse in the Pro Thunder class. I’ve done some Hare Scrambles events and adventure riding with Dual Purpose bikes. I enjoy that so much that I started a company called Epic Adventures with a fleet of KTM bikes in Las Vegas. We get to go riding through the trees in the mountains to the desert below.
BR: What do you miss about racing?
CS: One of the things I miss today is the single focus on doing one thing extremely well. In business you get diluted and split in so many different directions. I am not able to experience that focus and become the very best at one thing. That is something I miss about racing.
BR: Define your riding style?
CS: I was wild and crazy when I first started racing and then one day I suddenly switched to being smooth and calculating. I realized that being crazy was not going to get me the results I wanted. If I had to go wild to pass another racer I wasn’t happy with that. I wanted to go by the racers with a zap and pass so that they couldn’t come back on me. Smooth and calculating while having fun.
BR: Best party?
CS: I wasn’t a big party boy in my younger days. I made up for it later of course. One of the best parties I went to was in the mid 70’s where I was a privateer fly on the wall. I was an up and coming rider surrounded by racing heroes. It was at Brad Lackey’s ranch in the San Francisco area after the Trans-Am (Jim Pomeroy also mentioned Lackey’s party as the best ever). I can remember Brit Graham Noyce flirting with Gaylon Mosier’s wife. All the names were there and it was just great. Weinert was always great at parties in his hotel room or wherever. He would just pick up his guitar and start making up songs as people came by. He would sing "Tony D, you wanna be like me" and everyone would start laughing. You don’t see that anymore these days.
BR: Most memorable moment as a racer?
CS: Winning the United States 500cc GP at Carlsbad in 1981 was one of the highlights of my career. But even more than that was being part of the first US team to win the Motocross and Trophees Des Nations in 1980. There was so much drama about the event. We were one team from one motorcycle company (Honda) with a very limited budget. We went to the hub of GP racing in Belgium and got laughed at and then preceded to kick their ass in their own backyard. Seeing all the faces of the Europeans just drop after we won was great. It was an incredible experience to have the laurel wreaths put around us and be carried around like the new gods of motocross.
BR: How did it feel to win the Bel-Ray 500cc US GP?
CS: In the 1979 US GP I wasn’t well known and was riding for Huqvarna. ABC Wide World of Sports did stories on the world GP stars and the California boys. The only time I got mentioned was when they showed the overall results where I finished third overall and top American. In 1980 Marty Moates became the first American to win the event. In 1981 I became the second American to win the US GP and it was great from being hardly mentioned to winning one of the most prestigious events. The quest to be recognized is one of the strongest forces behind my drive to win.
BR: How was it to be a factory racer?
CS: My mechanic Eric Crippa and I went to the US GP in our box van to meet the other Team Honda racers. They would all go testing someplace and Eric and I would go to another place to test. I don’t know if I could have existed in today’s semi trailer truck world where everybody is together all the time. The Japanese technicians told us to use the 500cc motor that World Champion Andre Malerbhe had used because it had so much more power than our 480cc motor. We nodded our heads and promptly went to the back of the building and took out the 500cc engine and replaced it with our own 480cc motor that we had won the championship with. Saddleback was your typical southern California track in that was made from hard adobe clay and you would leave a blue groove on it from the rubber layed down from accelerating. You needed a broad power range in the motor to hook up to the track. We won that GP at Saddleback and the Japanese technicians came back with a big smile on their faces saying, "Big motor not so bad?" Eric Crippa calmly wiped the engine off where it covered the engine markings and said, "Oh, this is a 480cc motor." Their faces turned to stone. It just goes to show that sometimes you have to go with what you know instead of what people think is good for you.
BR: What rider from another era do you wish you had a chance to race against in your top form?
CS: I was in a position in my career to race a little bit against the riders in the past and the riders in the future. I got to race against Mikkola, DeCoster, Pomeroy, Graham Noyce, Lackey of the old school and David Bailey, Johnny O’Mara, Jeff Ward of the new school. It would be fun to race outdoors against the riders of today like Vullemin, Tortelli and Windham. I like racing outdoors because it goes back to what you like to do. I like carving a turn by laying the bike over and picking the lines through natural terrain. In Supercross you have to corner really well but it’s a different type of turn where you brake-slide-accelerate and then you have to be a good jumper. Even though I finished second in the Supercross one year and have won Supercross races, that just wasn’t what I liked to do. I don’t have an interest in doing triple jumps. I still have a great love for riding a motorcycle in the original true form, which is outdoor motocross. I don’t think I would want to race against Carmichael though because I think he is an animal. I would hate to be racing against him on a daily basis because of the factor that he is so prepared mentally and physically.
BR: What was your biggest disappointment?
CS: There are moments when I still can’t sleep about this (just kidding). I was racing at the New Orleans Supercross race and they put a waterhole on the track. I could pass people through the waterhole because being from the Northwest I was used to riding in the mud. I was in the lead and on to winning my first Supercross. Three laps from the end some sand and water found it’s way into the carburetor slide and started sticking it. When I shut off the throttle the engine would stay wide open for a few seconds. So I used the clutch when I came up to the jumps to slow down the bike until the slide finally dropped back down. Mike Bell on his factory Yamaha caught me in the last two laps because of my sticking throttle. On the last corner he got a better drive and beat me by half a bike length. God that made me nuts! I was so frustrated because the race was in the bag. I had it won and I had to settle for second.
BR: Your favorite racing bike?
CS: I am always fond of the works Honda 500 that I won the championship with. It was a true works bike from the ground up. You got to ride a bike that was developed for three to four people in the world. It was a tremendous feeling to see this works bike without a production bolt on it. It had a huge amount of useable power from the engine. One of the reasons that I won the championship was because I had more power than everybody else. Today’s bikes are so advanced with water-cooling and disc brakes that if I could have transported a new Husqaberg back in time I would have won the championship with that.
BR: What was your worst crash?
CS: Ouch! Most significant and horrific crash was the Chuck Sun jump. In the 1978 fall Trans-Am series I started a series of three injuries in a row. There is a tree named after me in Lake Whitney, Texas. I think some of my skin is still hanging off the limbs. The throttle stuck again and I hit a tree where a sawed off branch opened up my leg. That took me out for two months and then I was off to Europe to race the 1979 World Championships for Husqvarna. I was so hungry to ride after the layoff that I went to Belgium to race in the fog and ice and fell down and broke my wrist. Cortisone shots and a few tenth place finishes summed up my year in the European rounds of the World Championships. After finishing third at the US round I went home and tore the cartilage in my left knee, which ended the season. I came very close to retiring after three injuries in eight months. I wasn’t sure that my knee would hold up to any more professional racing. Then the next year I won the National Championship. That just shows you how up and down racing can be.
BR: Which racers did you hang with in your career?
CS: Being from Oregon I didn’t do much hanging around with the other racers. The guys from southern California would catch a flight out the night of the race to get back home as soon as possible. If there were two races back east I would just stay back there and train and get used to the humidity. I figured I wouldn’t be traveling my whole life so why miss the experience while it was there. If I hanged out with anybody it was my mechanic Eric Crippa.
BR: Which northwest racers did you look up to?
CS: In the beginning it was Bill Cook and Bob Leach. They were the professional riders who were archrivals and went neck to neck each week. Leach had the smoother style on the Husky while Cook would slide around the corners on his Maico. They were the early versions of Burgett and Sun I guess. I just dreamed as a kid of being able to race against those guys. After them everybody looked up to Pomeroy and Poulin.
BR: Your 43 years old now. Will there be another national class MX racer from the northwest?
CS: I certainly hope so and there should be no reason not to. It may not be this generation, but there are a lot of young riders that have a lot of talent. I was the last MX National Champion from the Northwest and there will be another. 20 years is too long to wait for Northwest fans to cheer another champion.
BR: You went from racer to stockbroker and then went back to motorcycles. Why?
CS: After I retired I had a number of people telling me to make my own clothing line. I got into the "Chuck Sun Products" line of clothing and dealt with manufacturing and distribution. During the mid 80’s the motorcycle industry was condensing and the interest rates were close to 20% and everybody was jumping into the market. The clothing market was low profit, very crowded and required a huge amount of money to compete. I was working seven days a week and a buddy of mine was a stockbroker working five days a week and making really good money and he was home by four o’clock. I decided to get out of the business and go into the stock broking business. I don’t regret the decisions I have made because I’m a product of all the experiences I have had. It was a great experience being a broker for eight years. I was in my suit and tie one day in spring looking out the window at people playing in the park and this feeling just overcame me. I said, "That’s it. Tie is coming off. I’m going to resign and go buy a dirt bike and a truck and take the summer off." It happened that quickly.
BR: Tell us about the infamous 1966 Chevy truck, trailer and gas stove you drove to all the races in the mid 70’s?
CS: My parents bought the truck so that the family could go camping in 1966, and they put sleeping bunks in it with storage areas for food and equipment. When I graduated from high school and wanted to follow the National racing circuit they gave me the truck as a graduation gift. It was a great way for a young kid to travel the roads of America and stop off anyplace and explore and then go race. I had various people travel with me at times so I wasn’t alone all the time. One traveling companion who was a real positive influence on me was Rocky Corson. Rocky was a Harvard educated hippie who ate granola and did meditation while in a yoga position. He taught me how to eat well for racing and how to stretch before races. Jeff Spencer was the Honda trainer who trained all of us in the proper dietary needs and training for top-level racing. Many people have come in and out of my life that have helped me throughout my career. My main focus though was to concentrate on what needed to be accomplished to win on any weekend. Therefore I didn’t have a huge crew around me that I had to pay attention to or take care of.
BR: Was it more fun to race in the 70’s professionally than today?
CS: It seemed to me that the riders’ personalities were more in the news in the earlier days. There was just such a broad range of unique characters like "Jammin" Jimmy Weinert, Tony DiStefano, Jimmy "Cobalt" Ellis, Brad Lackey, Gaylon Mosier, Steve Stackable, Rick "The Lumberjack" Burgett, Bob Hannah and so many more. A rich diverse bunch of characters that you don’t really see today that would always make you laugh. I would like to see more demanding natural terrain for motocross because that is where you see the skills of the riders. To see David Bailey being able to carve some beautiful corners and jumps. I think that they groom the tracks so much today where you just hammer a berm and hit a jump.
BR: You were the first racer of note to have an ethnic background different than the other racers. What was that like?
CS: When I was young I grew up in a white Anglo-Saxon society and that’s what I felt like. Sometimes I forget that I’m ethnic and I’m a result of a mixed marriage. That just sounds funny to me. My Mother is Swiss-Austrian and my Dad is 100% Chinese. When I was very, very young and in grade school the kids teased me a lot and that difference came out. That created a desire to prove myself and to do well. Later on in life that became an asset that I could draw on to prove to people that I could kick their ass. Being of a Chinese persuasion was actually a benefit because it set me aside from everybody else. Throughout my career there were no prejudices or improprieties that I can remember. That is kind of a fun thing about racers is that they judge you on the track and not off it. The fact that I had an Asian background did not hinder my climb to the top.
BR: What do you ride better in mud or dust?
CS: Right now I have been riding in the biggest amount of dust than I have my whole life in the Best of the Desert Series in Nevada. At first I didn’t know how anybody could ride in all that dust. To ride it you get on the edge, you gas it when you can and hope for any sort of wind to blow it away. I mean this dust is huge, billowy and choking that you never see in the Northwest. Without a doubt though my choice is mud. I love the mud.
BR: Corners, jumps or bumps where were you the fastest?
CS: The corners were fun. The greatest skill you can bring to the races is what you have the most fun at. I used to watch the berm master Kent Howerton just lay it down in a sandy corner full throttle dragging the handlebars. One of my best races was in Castle Rock, Colorado because I was able to pick out lines that nobody else saw. I could see them, and it reduced my lap times by a few seconds. Cornering was the most fun at the racetrack.
BR: In one word what would you say about your racing career?
CS: Great adventure!
