Thrice And Future Champion
THRICE AND FUTURE CHAMPION
For Bubba Shobert, it's just a matter of time
DON SHOBERT, SR. SAT WITH HIS ELBOWS ON HIS knees, surveying the meticulous Honda paddock in the heart of Daytona International Speedway. His eyes passed over two immaculately prepared Honda VFR750 Superbikes and the high-priced mechanics who had built them, stopping when his gaze reached his son, three-time Grand National Champion Bubba Shobert, laughing and talking with fans on the other side of the paddock fence. "Yep," drawled the elder Shobert, "he outgrew me. All boys should outgrow their daddies."
Don Shobert shouldn’t feel alone. His son, sporting a boyish grin that suggests he is in on a joke the rest of the world is yet to hear, is on the verge of outgrowing everyone in American racing. Still, this puckish West Texas native, for all of his racing maturity and sound business sense, remains a fun-loving, free-wheeling, 26-year-old kid, a Tom Sawyer on two wheels.
Like most champion racers, Bubba Shobert makes riding and winning look deceptively easy, a result of the dedication to racing that has always been a part of his career. He got his professional license when he was just 16 and still in high school back in Lubbock, Texas. And his racing took up so much of his time that he was forced to make concessions in his education. “In my junior year of high school,” he recalls, “I went half-days and worked in a bike shop the other half. My senior year, I went to night school two nights a week. I may have given up some social things, but I learned a lot on the road. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Shobert’s steady growth as a racer since he turned pro in 1978 has been planned every step of the way. His father claims that Bubba had thoughts of becoming a roadracer in the back of his mind all along. So, as he evolved from just another talented rider with a dream of winning the national championship into the best and most dominant dirt-track racer in the country, it was all a part of the overall plan. And now, in only his second full season of roadracing, he is considered the most talented and promising pavement racer currently competing in America.
As a way to gain valuable experience on GP bikes, and to prove his talents to potential sponsors, Shobert has been riding selected 250cc roadraces this season. And at the Laguna Seca GP in April, he jumped out in front of the world’s best riders, holding onto the lead for several laps before ultimately finishing fifth overall. That would be quite an achievement for anyone, but Shobert was particularly pleased. “There was a time when I wondered if my roadracing would ever come around,” he said a few days
after the race, “but now it feels pretty good.” Shobert sees his time on the 250s as a natural stepping-stone to the 500 GP bikes.
As eager as Shobert is to chase a world championship, dirt-track racing still holds a special place for him. “The miles are still my favorite,” he says. “I get up there and feel more confident banging handlebars than I do when racing gets close on the roadracers.” As evidence for this affection, he holds the AMA record for mile victories, having won 23 of them during his career.
Unfortunately for dirt-track fans, this season may well be Shobert’s last on the miles and half-miles, for he’s looking toward Europe and a shot at a world roadracing title. But American Honda is doing its best to keep Shobert racing at home for at least one more season. In addition to the possibility of a lucrative deal from Honda, Shobert may have another reason to remain stateside: his reluctance to jump into anything before he’s ready. “I’ve had calls from Europe from pretty good teams with first-class bikes,” he admits, “but I turned them down. I’m not going to leap into a contract to ride a 500cc GP bike before I’m confident that I can be competitive.”
Whatever happens, one thing is certain: Once Shobert goes to Europe, American racing will be much the less. But as his father put it so simply at Daytona, sooner or later, everybody has to grow up. For Bubba Shobert, that simply means more races to win, and more championships to earn.
Camron E. Bussard
