Back in the early 1990s, Charlie Dunaway was a rising talent in the AMA District 11 and District 5 racing circuits. Spanning eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, these regions hosted some brutally competitive local motocross racing. Dunaway was sponsored by Kawasaki’s Team Green program, and he grew up banging bars with guys like Broc Sellards, Jimmy Evans, Greg Rand, and Josh Sweat. And while he may not be a household name in the record books, Dunaway scored three podium finishes at Loretta Lynn’s. He turned pro in 1997, and racing as a privateer, he was a consistent threat to finish inside the top twenty on any given weekend.
However, Dunaway’s career was cut short with an injury in 2002. Since then, he’s kept a low profile in the sport, but like a true professional athlete, he hasn’t stopped moving forward and has no regrets. Today, Dunaway lives with his family in Lucasville, Ohio, which is about two hours south of Cleveland, near the Kentucky border. After several rounds of phone tag, Racer X finally found Charlie at home on a Monday evening and chatted with him about life and racing.
Racer X: Hi, Charlie, what’s happening? What are you up to these days?
Charlie Dunaway: Hey, no problem, thanks for thinking of me. For me, I’ve been working on my eBay business and playing the guitar as much as I can. Between that and my doctor’s appointments, I’m pretty much busy every day.
eBay business? Self-employment is always a good thing; what are you selling?
All sorts of stuff. I help out my dad a bit with his business, but on my side of things, I’ve been selling different decals. I have a vinyl machine where I’ve been cutting and printing my own decals. I’ve been doing it for a few years now. I got the machine when I was racing RC cars, and I thought I could make some cool graphics for the car. So I was lettering up my cars and then started making the same for the other guys, and it kind of went from there. So I just made a bunch of different decals over the years and have a good little business selling those. It’s funny, when I raced I was always big into stickers. I was one of those guys who cut out stickers and put them on my helmet and made sure everything was placed perfectly and color matched, but those were the nineties, and people did stuff like that.
Doesn’t your dad run a shop that caters to racers?
Yes, it’s called Ohio Moto-Sports. Some people call it OMS Racing, but for us it’s Ohio Moto-Sports. It is really my dad’s business, but I’ve been helping him out when I can. My dad is really mechanical, and he can pretty much do anything and everything to the bikes. He basically works on bikes and sells parts. He still goes to all the local races and basically does what Jeff Cernic does out in Pennsylvania. He will work on bikes at the track, sells tires and all sorts of hard parts, and also provides services during the week. He can do suspension and motor rebuilds. Pretty much everything there is to be done on a modern or vintage bike, he can do it.
Looking back at your career, what were some of the highlights for you, personally?
Well, I had a few and lots of good memories. I think it was 1996—I got third in the 250 A class at Loretta Lynn’s. Then the next year, I turned pro and raced a few supercross and nationals for Team Green, so when I went back to the Ranch, I had to ride the Mod class. I tied for third overall but got bumped to fourth, as the other guy [Jimmy Polvony] got a moto win, so he had a better score. So I had some good finishes down there in the A classes—a third and fourth were big highlights. I also got some top-fives in the 80cc and Intermediate classes as well. You know, I always liked racing there at the Ranch because I liked the track, as it really suited my style.
You turned pro in 1997. How did that portion of your career go?
It was good. I only did a few top races that first season. My first national was at Kenworthy’s and I think I got a sixteenth or something in the first moto. But man, it was so hot that year; it was crazy. It was so hot and humid that some of the California guys couldn’t handle the heat, but it was easy for me as I was used to it. I just kept going, and meanwhile these factory guys were pulling off and quitting. Growing up in Ohio, the heat and humidity did not faze us one bit. But I did a lot of local and regional races and was always a top runner in those events, so that was fun.
What about supercross? You were always a threat for the top twenty whenever you raced.
Yeah, I loved supercross. For me, 2001 was a good year in supercross. I never seemed to finish a whole season of supercross and outdoors together without getting hurt. But my best season was in 2001. I rode F&S Suzuki and I got sixteenth overall in the East Region. Joe Oehloeff and I were the only guys who were privateers that finished inside the top twenty. Also, that year I won a bunch of arenacross races; that was a good time as well. And I made some good money with those races.
Who were some of the guys you grew up racing with?
We had a lot of fast guys in the area back then who raced pretty much every weekend—guys like Mark Burkhart, JD Collins, Jimmy Evans, Josh Sweat, Nick Wey. Wey was a few years younger than me, but we raced together a lot. There was a lot of guys out of District 11 that became really good pro rides. But Greg Rand was probably the best—he was another local to me. Back when he was on the mini-bikes, he was faster than both Kevin Windham and Robbie Reynard. But then he hurt himself—I think he broke his arm—and he was out for over a year. When he came back I don’t think he was really as into it as he was before. Around that same time, I started riding with Broc Sellards. He lived about three hours from me, and during the season I’d go and stay at his house for the whole all summer up to Loretta’s. Then we’d load up and drive down to the Ranch.
After a few years of that, I stayed at his place pretty much year round. Then he got his factory rides and would go to California for the winters. But then once the nationals started, he’d come back home and I’d go stay with him.
A lot of those guys went to Florida for the winter series back then. Did you do those events?
I didn’t do that so much. I stayed home and raced as much as I could locally in the winter. Around here we had a pretty strong little indoor series. I’d stay home and go to those. I really liked those events, and they kept you sharp and were lots of fun. The tracks were tight but cool.
If you don’t mind me asking, but can you tell me about your injury, and how things are for you today?
Oh, I don’t mind. I had my crash in 2002. It was at a private practice track, a small little place about thirty minutes from my house. My injury is at my chest level, and I think it’s called the T8. It only bruised my spinal cord, and the doctor called it a contusion. But that was enough to leave me with no feeling. It is about maybe an inch long and shows up as a black spot on my back. But a bruise on your spinal cord does not ever really heal. I have full use of my arms, but anything below my chest, well, it probably doesn’t work that well. I can’t control my stomach muscles, but I’m lucky in that it does not affect my breathing. But if I have to cough it’s almost impossible to get a full cough in. If I choke on something, that’s bad because I don’t have the normal reflex or strength to cough whatever it’s back up.
Wow, that’s gnarly, man. It sounds simple enough, but I know it is probably a lot more complicated than that.
When I crashed, I didn’t break any bones or anything like that, but where the bike hit me, one of vertebrates got a compression fracture. Imagine this: Take a marshmallow and squeeze it between your fingers—that’s what happened to me. When the vertebrate compressed, it got my spinal cord and the damage was done in a split second. That’s basically it. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but the damage was done.
And how are things on a day-to-day basis for you?
Well, it’s kind of weird, when someone gets paralyzed there’s a lot of stuff that can come along with it. Each injury’s different. For me, I have a lot of pain. It’s hard to describe, and people think you are paralyzed so you can’t feel anything, but that is not the case. I have a lot of pain with my injury; it’s mostly a lot of burning and tingling all over my body. Sometimes my body will burn real bad like it has road rash from my chest down. It just depends on the day, but seems like it’s the worst when I wake up in the morning for about fifteen minutes.
Also, a lot of my pain is based around my tailbone, around my upper thighs. I think that’s because it’s where the tailbone and spinal cord comes together. Since my cord is damage but still partially works, if you grab my foot it tingles and I know you’re touching my foot, but the nerves only sort of work. The sensory nerves work, but not properly. That’s why I have a lot pain. And sometimes I feel like I am sitting on a block of ice as well. There’s always something going on with my injury.
Wow, Charlie, that is really tough. Is it like that every day?
Yeah, pretty much. It has been twelve, maybe thirteen years now. Being a motocross racer, I know how to deal with it and how to be tough. But since [2002], I have only had a few days where I have been pain free. Sometimes it goes away, and sometimes it eases up. I do take a special nerve medication called Neurontin, and that helps. But honestly, there are some days I feel so bad that I can’t get out of bed. But not every day is like that. On a good day, the pain would be at a level of 3–4 on the doctor’s pain scale of 1-10.
But you know, every day I always try and get up and do something. A lot of times once I get up and start doing something, then it gets better and it takes my mind off things. But sometimes, if that pain is at the 6-8 level, there is no getting around it. That makes it hard to do stuff, but I try to keep as busy as possible regardless.
Charlie, I give you a ton of credit for being as positive as you are. Do you still follow the sport?
Yeah, I do. I don’t know everything that goes on anymore, but I see what happens on the tube. When you’re racing, and that‘s what your whole life revolves around, you know a lot more about the sport. Now I don’t know every exact little thing like I used to, but as far as racing on TV and who’s doing what, I’m up to date with that.
Do you still keep up with any of your friends from your racing days?
Some but not that many. I talked to Greg Rand for a while; I think he’s doing really well now. He stayed in touch with me, along with Mike Katin. I also talked to Mark Burkhart. I guess Broc helped to get him a job with WPS, and now he’s a rep with Parts Unlimited. He was down this way visiting some shops and stopped by my house, and that was nice. He visited me for about five hours or so. I had not seen him since I got hurt. He came to see me in the hospital. I guess he lives in the Columbus area.
You know, when you are racing and winning, everyone wants to be your friend, but when things get tough, it’s harder for people to come around. But I also keep a lower profile as well and have not been that active with the sport.
Let’s go back in 1997, back when there was a really big jump at the High Point National. I think you, Brian Swink, and “Mad” Mike Jones were the only ones doing it. What was the deal with that thing? It was huge.
Yeah, it was the year it was all muddy and Damon Bradshaw won. It was the jump before the finish line, and it was a double-double or something. But they put in a tunnel jump before it, so the fans could get into the infield, and it was this huge, steep face. I don’t think Big Dave [Coombs] thought anyone would jump it. I saw it in practice on Saturday and didn’t even think it could be jumped—just to do the doubles, they were pretty hard and weren’t really peaked up. You had to put a lot of body English into getting over the first one, like pick up on the bike with your body.
Anyway, I remember I was sitting on the starting line for my Saturday qualifier. I looked up that way and saw Brian Swink go flying through the air. He was super high and jumped real far. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, he must have hit that wide open.’ The tunnel jump was there to slow you down, and instead, he was hitting it way faster and using it as a launch ramp. So after seeing him do it, I went out in my heat and just hit it fourth gear and didn’t let off. I landed it perfect, and it wasn’t really that hard. But it was just so big, and I was one of the only guys that did it.
After my race, they took it out because they didn’t want to see the entire pack jumping it, because it wasn’t supposed to be jumped. It threw you really high, was completely blind, and all you could see is sky and jump. But it was fun while it lasted.
That’s awesome, Charlie. Thanks for chatting. Good luck with your health—you really seem like you are staying strong and doing well. Any closing thoughts?
I just wanted to thank those guys over the years that helped me. I appreciate the interview. I’ve always been a fan of this sport, and even today I still am. I was lucky enough to ride for Kawasaki Team Green, and I want to thank them. Also, Thor sponsored me for many years; they were really good to me, along with Bevo from Scott. But I know he’s not there anymore. I was lucky that I had a lot of good sponsors during my time. F&S Suzuki out of Dayton, Ohio, and of course Pro Circuit—Mitch Payton did my stuff, and it was always killer. Those people were my main sponsors and allowed me to accomplish so much. There are others, but I want to thank those folks for helping me.