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May 13th, 2012 interview of David Aldana
By Jamey Blunt

Former national #13 David
Aldana, always a crowd favorite on
the grand national dirt track circuit, whether for his skeleton or
superman
race leathers the crowd could always count on Aldana for excitement for
his
riding style and never give up attitude. David was on the west coast
over the
Mother's Day weekend when we caught up with him at Perris Raceway at
round four
of the S.C.F.T.A. series, where David was gracious enough to answer a
few
questions.
What is your fondest
memory of Perris?
"Oh gosh, probably riding
my Suzuki, at that time
though I was sponsored by Ossa which then was run by Kenny Clark.
(Kenny Clark
ran the racing effort for Ossa and then moved on to be race team
manager for
factory Yamaha for many years). Kenny Clark was my first sponsor when
he gave
me that Ossa Stiletto to ride. But at the same time I was riding an
80cc Suzuki
and I was racing against Freddie Edwards who in fact helps run the
Perris
raceway. We had a lot of good battles together along with me and a guy
names
Stevie Nichols. Keith Mashburn would come out sometimes on his Honda
and would
win back when he rode for Skip Fordyce. This sure brings back a lot of
old
memories, but it was really a stepping stone to get to Ascot.
I'd race at Ascot on Friday nights
and then a
scrambles race here at Perris on Sunday. But I guess the best memory
here would
have to be what I said earlier about riding my Suzuki and the guys,
Freddie,
Stevie, and Keith."
You mention Ascot, what's
your fondest memory of Ascot?
"I think
it would be the weekend that I won the Yamaha
Gold Cup on the Norton. Prior to the TT national that I ended up
winning the
following day, it was one of those exceptional weekends that I had
never
thought would happen in a million years and it all happened in one
weekend. The
Friday night ½ mile then the Saturday national TT, then it was also the
first
national Norton had won in over twenty years, and then we all know that
a
couple years later Alex Jorgenson won another national on another
Norton, a Ron
Wood's Norton. But I was the first in twenty years so that was
something I'll
remember for a long, long time. Because not only did I win the race,
something
that hadn't been done in a long time but the bike caught on fire in the
winners
circle and that made it that much more spectacular. Where as now days
you can
go to Supercross and they have fires, and gas, and bombs, and rockets,
that go
off to accentuate whatever it is their announcing, well in this case it
was
accidentally induced by leaky carburetors on a good running Norton."
Tell me; what is David
Aldana doing with his life now?
(Laughs)
"I always tell people I'm an estate manager. Then
they ask me, oh yea, for who or what, then I say well it's really a
glorified
house husband position but all the same I make sure the garden is kept
up, the
clothes are washed and folded and the house is dusted and vacuumed, the
meal is
on the table at six o'clock so that when she gets home from work that
everything is all done. I feed the animals, take the pets to the vet
whenever
need be or necessary I should say, that's a full time job in it self
trying to
keep the little lady happy. What do they say? Happy wife, happy life
(laughs)
and I'm here right, so I must have done something right to be able to
get out
away from the house or a hall pass as they say. Oh, and we do have
rental
property here in California
and another place in Florida.
So I mean between those investments here and there I stay pretty busy
without
having to get a real job."
At this point David needed
to secure the motorcycles he had
been slated to race in two different classes and attend to the business
of
racing. David currently resides in Fayetteville, Ga.
and is one of the few people
who's hair seems to get thicker with age.



Sammy Tanner,
K&N's Norm McDonald, John Kocinski and Dave Aldana at SCFTA Perris.,

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