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 Born
May 27, 1957 in Rochester, New York, Stephen K. Inoue was a face not
only on both the East and West coast drag racing series but he
marked a name for himself on the WERA roadracing circuit as well
during his racing career. And those where just the bookends of a
racing life that included a dirt bike racing mix of cross country,
scrambles, ATV motocross and flat-track. Before moving on to a life
outside of motorcycling Stephen served the sport not only as a rider
but also as a Star Racing crewmember during the debut of Angelle
Seeling.
After Stephen’s family moved from Rochester, or as Stephen’s mother
would call it Rotten-chester, to Florida to escape the frozen north
he started his motorcycle-racing career first by racing his Kawasaki
750 triple at Sunshine Speedway in St. Petersburg, Florida. He then
drag raced a Yamaha 250 with a road race engine before moving up to
a Suzuki GS1000. Those were the years when Terry Vance, Dave Schultz
and Paul Gast were just making names for themselves. They set the
benchmark in Pro Stock racing and were the people Stephen wanted to
race with.
Stephen had some great years of racing with other genres but it will
be drag racing that he will cherish. It’s the magical years of
1996-1998 that cemented his mark on this sport. In 1996 John Myers
was in the twilight of his Star Racing years and Stephen became a
part-time crew member with Star and a full-time Pro Stock racer
running his own program as a Star customer parked in a nearby
trailer. It was also the same period when Angelle Seeing burst onto
the scene. Stephen says he was lucky to have the opportunity to work
with George and Jackie Bryce and be a part of the Star team during
those John and Angelle years. John Myers was the reigning NHRA and
Prostar champ that year. Stephen got to make the first side-by-side
pass with Angelle during her NHRA debut during the first round of
qualifying at the Denver event. He said she dusted him.
At an AMA/Prostar event in Atlanta, Stephen was paired up against
John Myers in the first round. Stephen hole-shotted John and was
still leading him at half track when Stephen realized John was
having some problems, so he backed off the throttle enough to let
John win. That gave John’s crew chief Ken Johnson time to fix the
problem and have three more rounds to tune the bike in preparation
for the upcoming NHRA round. They won the Prostar event and the NHRA
event which resulted in that Wally, living at Star Racing
headquarters, to be named after Stephen.
Probably the best thing about being a part of such a historic team
was life on the road away from the track. Stephen said that both
John and Angelle were terribly funny and entertaining to be around
when they could be themselves and let their guard down. Stephen
said, “John Myers made the funniest squealing pig sound I’ve ever
heard, and Angelles’ N-awleans (her accent) jokes used to crack me
up.”
When Stephen started working with Star Racing he was at Star’s shop
in Americas, Georgia when Clyde Day from Oklahoma City was visiting.
Stephen’s meeting Clyde was the performance turning point for him.
Clyde and Stephen soon ran into each other at an IDBA event at
Thunder Valley in Oklahoma. Clyde offered to help Stephen that
weekend and they won. A new partnership resulted in Clyde building
Stephen a new four-valve engine and soon they where racing together.
Clyde taught Stephen about racing, life, and set Stephen straight on
who he could trust during their time together at the track. Clyde’s
brutal honesty often rubbed people the wrong way, but he always told
the truth, no matter how much it hurt. He is a brilliant engine
builder and also the guy who did Elmer Tretts’ porting and seat
installation on Elmer’s billet cylinder heads. Clyde is also
responsible for Sid Pogue’s Pro Stock wins. He’s also credited as
the man who designed many of the camshafts still being sold by high
profile companies today. Most important to Stephen, Clyde was the
builder of the one Pro Stock engine that he kept running so well
that they won not one but two Pro Stock Championships in 1998. In
1998 Stephen and Clyde won or placed runner-up at every event except
one event when a connecting rod escaped out the side of the block.
After the remarkable
1998 season, ran on only one engine, Clyde told Stephen that he had
to build a second and third engine to compete on the same level. But
Clyde also knew Stephen could not afford it. Not being able to
afford the needed engine program he settled on running the 1999
season alone. He still managed to pull off a #3 plate in IDBA but
decided to call it quits at the end of the season.
Today, Stephen and his
wife Claudia own an automotive service shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico
called Toy Auto Man. It’s more of a Starbucks, complete with WiFi
setting for those waiting for their Toyota, Lexus or Scion. They
purchased the shop in 2000 from the original owner who started the
business in 1981. Stephen’s always been a Toyota man and said during
the magical 1998 season he logged 660 miles on his truck for every ¼
mile pass down the track. Stephen isn’t racking up many miles today
but does not regret a single day. So the next time you find yourself
trekking across the USA and you cross through Santa Fe, stop in have
a Latté, a tune-up and make sure to say hey for me.
Other Areas of
Interest
Current Residence: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Spouse: Claudia
Children: (Well sort of) Nita, Max, Tula and Merlin (2 Dogs
and 2 cats)
Occupation (at time of competition years): Motorcycle
mechanic, motorcycle repair business owner, PR person at Star racing
Occupation (today): Owner of Toyota/Lexus service and repair
facility in Santa Fe, NM http://www.toyautoman.com
Home track (at time of competition years): Tampa, FL &
Albuquerque, NM
Team Names (at time of competition years): Santa Fe Racing
Crew Members (at time of competition years): I met my future wife
Claudia just before my last race the Memphis IDBA World Finals in
1999, at Clyde Day from OKC (engine builder, coach, and mentor) Paul
Tierney from Philadelphia used to fly in to help me out (paying his
own way since I was very low budget) and young Bryce England
(1985-2011) who was my favorite apprentice.
Accomplishments: 1998 IDBA Pro Stock Champion, 1998 AMA/Prostar
West Coast Pro Stock Champion, Multiple time 1988-1998 SWDRA
Albuquerque Pro Bike Champion, 1st Place Road Racing with WERA 500
mile endurance on a 750 Ducati in 1976. National Event Wins (all
classes combined):8 total- IDBA P/S, AMA/Prostar West P/S, WERA
(Road-Racing)
Special Recognitions: 1996 IDBA P/S Rookie of the Year, 1997
IDBA Sportsman of the Year
Sponsors (at time of competition years):
Clyde Day and ABC Racing in OKC, and all of the contingency sponsors
made it possible for me to race.
History of racing bikes and classes:
1975-1977 Road Racing
1978-1996 Off road scrambles, cross country, ATV motocross and
flattrack
1978-1999 Dragracing, ET, Sportsman, Semi-Pro and then Pro.
Who are some of the officials that you remember? Scooter
Kizer from Prostar and Lee Ann Min and Nina from IDBA were always
friendly at the races, and Carl Stieffenhofer doing tech inspections
at NHRA events was hard to miss.
Interest outside of racing: We just moved to a large house on
ten acres, so the majority of my free time is spent making
improvements to the house and property. I took up golf when in
Georgia at Star and am now seriously hooked. I play golf once or
twice every weekend and compete on a regular basis.
First motorcycle: 1971 Yamaha 80 Scrambler
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