Dropping In On: Kent Howerton Part Two

One Of Three Racers Tied For 4th On All-Time MX Win List

Dropping In On: Kent Howerton Part Two

One Of Three Racers Tied For 4th On All-Time MX Win List
Story and Photos by Pete Peterson and the DR Archives

Kent Howerton’s fourth-highest record of 18 motocross wins was in jeopardy of being surpassed a few weeks ago from James Stewart, but with James just returning to racing and Dungey on a streak, we now have three riders tied for fourth-most wins.

I spoke with Kent when Stewart looked to be on the verge of displacing him one line down in the record books [you can read that interview HERE], and I thought it would be fun to talk to him again now that Dungey and Stewart are both trying to do that. We wound up covering everything from how Dungey races and rides like Howerton, the power of confidence, and how an underpowered minibike changed the way you ride today.

-Pete Peterson: We have three racers tied now with motocross wins of 18. You’re one of them, and it looks very likely one of the other riders is going to surpass that record at this next race. Between Stewart and Dungey, who would you rather see pass your record and who do you see more of your racing style in?
Kent Howerton: I feel that Dungey is more like my riding style and my philosophy of racing. He likes to take things seriously and he likes to have a plan and calculate out what he needs to get done for the day to get the best results he can rather than just go for speed and maybe take the risk of getting hurt or maybe crash out. Other than that, both of them are going to end up passing me, so it doesn’t really matter, but I prefer Dungey.

How about riding style?
I gotta say I do enjoy watching Stewart. The guy can just pull out some phenomenal speed when he wants to.

Next weekend is at Millville, which is considered Dungey’s home track. How much of an advantage does that hometown track play for a racer?
I think the biggest thing is you feel more relaxed. If it’s a track that you’ve practiced on a lot then you feel more comfortable on it, you feel more confident in your line selection, and just how things will go through the day.

Howerton still motos whenever he gets the chance.

If you were the team manager of either one of these riders, what advice would you give to both for this outdoor season?
The biggest thing obviously is trying to win the race, but be as consistent as you can and just not take chances. You’re going to take chances at some point but they have to be measured chances. To win a championship is different than winning a race, you’ve got to be there at the end, and whatever it takes to be there is what you have to do. You’ve got to think about things long-term rather than short-term.

It seems to me lately that racers will get on a win streak and just knock off 5, 6, 7 wins in a row. I don’t believe it was the same in your racing era. Was that the case? Can you explain the streaks of today?
Well I think that’s always been the case in just about any kind of sport. When you start to win, first it signals you that you can win; and that first race, or whatever sport you’re doing, is the most difficult to do because you’re not sure if you really can do it. You want to do it, but you’re not sure you can do it. I know in my case winning that first national was really tough, but once I did it, I was ready to go do it again, because I knew how to do it at that point. It’s kind of like double jumping a jump. Once you jump it the first time you know how to do it the second time. Each time you do it, it gives you more and more confidence and makes you stronger and stronger. That confidence is a tough thing to beat.

His modern KTM is nothing like the Husqvarna's he rode in the mid 70s..

Back to riding styles, you pioneered using the clutch while out o the track. Can you tell me that story how that came about?
When I was first learning how to ride I had a Kawasaki 100 Trail Boss. It didn’t have much power, and I liked making a roost. I’d go down to the trails and try to make a roost with my rear wheel but I didn’t have enough power to do it. So I found this little hump in the road and realized if I put the bike in a higher gear, lightened the bike as I went over and then revved the motor and slipped the clutch at the same time, I could make a big roost. I kept making a bigger and bigger and bigger roost like that. Then when I started racing on the track I noticed that my bike didn’t have enough power to pull third gear around the corner, and second gear was too low, so I started using third gear coming into it, getting the motor revved up and slipping the clutch until I get to the right ratio, then lock it up and come out of the corner.

This is Howering racing supercross for Factory Suzuki in the early 80s.

Since you were racing professionally, how many major technique developments like this have you seen this sport take?
I think probably the first was using the rear wheel to control the attitude of the motorcycle on jumps. Locking the wheel up or accelerating it to control the bike. And as bikes have gotten better and better and riders have gotten better and built their confidence in doing things – to go to the freestyle field and do backflips and the things they’re doing now, it’s just phenomenal.

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