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.,