Huffman Gets Set for Outdoors

Damon Huffman of Valencia will be facing another challenge when the American Motorcyclist Assn. Chevy Trucks U.S. Motocross Championship holds its season opener today at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

Huffman, 25, who finished 11th in the 250cc class of the recently concluded AMA EA Sports Supercross Series after having a rod removed from his right leg during the off-season, will be seeking his first outdoor series championship. He won consecutive AMA Western Region 125cc supercross championships in 1994 and 1995, and posted a career-best third-place finish in the 125cc outdoor series in 1995.

For Huffman, facing challenges is not new. He started riding at age 6, began racing at now-defunct Indian Dunes in Valencia at 7 and turned professional in 1992, when he was 16 and a junior at Saugus High.

At the time, he considered himself shy, and did not talk about his career to his classmates and teachers. They learned about it during Huffman’s senior year, when he joined the Suzuki factory team and won four 125cc West Region supercross races on his way to a third-place finish in the points standings.

“I became cooler that year, and that was kind of neat,” Huffman said. “I was real shy, and I’m happy that’s behind me now.

“When you sign with a factory team, you’d better learn how not to be shy real quick, because that opens it up.”

Huffman credits traveling to the Suzuki factory in Japan and meeting workers and executives there with helping him change to “quiet” from shy. He graduated on schedule, with the help of teachers who knew of his career.

“[Graduating] is something I am proud of,” Huffman said. “A lot of riders don’t follow through with that. They take their racing and think that’s going to take them where they need to go.”

In 1994, Huffman won two supercross races and won two outdoor races at Sacramento and Troy, Ohio, on his way to a fourth-place finish in the series.

Huffman’s star continued to rise in 1995, when he won six consecutive 125cc Western Region supercross races. He left Suzuki for the Kawasaki factory team in 1996 and moved to the 250cc supercross class.

Huffman had second-place finishes in supercross events at Anaheim Stadium, the Kingdome and the Astrodome, and was second in points to seven-time champion Jeremy McGrath coming into a supercross race at Tampa Stadium.

Huffman crashed during the race, tore knee ligaments and missed the rest of the supercross season and part of the outdoor season after arthroscopic surgery. After his return, Huffman posted third-place finishes in outdoor races at Troy, Ohio, and Delmont, Penn.

In 1997, Huffman won his first 250cc supercross race at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta but broke an ankle two days later in a practice run in Palmdale.

“That was a bummer, coming off of the high of winning my first 250 race and breaking my ankle two days later,” Huffman said

He returned and won the world supercross championship, then disaster struck again in 1998.

Huffman was competing in a supercross race at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., when he went wide over the finish-line jump and landed on top of hay bales. He broke a femur in the crash.

“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Huffman said. “I came down and the wheels came out from under me. I came down real hard, but I was conscious and I knew what happened right away.”

Doctors in Michigan inserted a plate in Huffman’s leg, but he later learned from his doctor he needed another operation to insert a metal rod.

Huffman missed the outdoor season but won in his first race back--the inaugural U.S. Open of Supercross at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, featuring a $100,000 first prize, the richest in supercross history.

“The track was really suited to my style,” Huffman said. “It was small, required real good starts and it’s hard to pass people.”

Huffman rode in the 250 class in 1999 and 2000, finishing sixth in supercross and 13th outdoors in 1999, and seventh in supercross and 11th outdoors after returning to Suzuki in 2000.

Suzuki dropped all its riders except for teen sensation Travis Pastrana following the season, and Huffman signed to ride a Yamaha for San Diego-based Team Motoworld.com.

He is taking advantage of an AMA rule that allows 250cc four-stroke engines to compete in the 125cc class against 125cc bikes with higher-revving two-stroke engines.

“[The 250] suits my riding style and in 125 you need every advantage you can get,” Huffman said. “I felt the 250 [four-stroke] had a little power advantage, it felt like a 125 with more power.”

Huffman’s teammates, Greg Snell, Keith Johnson and Kevin Johnson, planned to ride conventional 125cc motorcycles bikes until they tried Huffman’s bike.