Most people remember Wes Cooley as a factory Yoshimura Suzuki Superbike rider. Some might even recall his days with Kawasaki’s factory Superbike effort. Even though he will always be most closely associated with AMA Superbike, Cooley had his share of success in the old AMA Formula One class. Cooley won a pair of AMA Formula One Nationals and scored a slew of podium results. In 1984 Cooley had perhaps one of the most unique arrangements in AMA road racing history when he was a factory Suzuki and Honda support rider at the same time. Cooley signed a contract in 1984 to contest West Coast AMA Superbike rounds with Suzuki. At the same time he was one of Honda’s factory supported riders in Formula One. While many riders of the era dreamed of earning a factory ride, Cooley actually had two factory seats in a single season.
Wes Cooley races his factory-backed Honda RS500 in the wet AMA Formula One National at Mid-Ohio in 1984. Cooley had a unique arrangement that year where he had a contract with both Honda in F1 and Suzuki in Superbike. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
You gotta love those “high heel” Fox boots.
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Wes was the man back then-i remember him losing it in turn ten at a Loudon national with the bike spinning like a top.
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The first time I recall seeing Wes was at Willow Springs riding an Greeves,he had to be very young.I’d guess about 14.
I was also standing on the inside of the bridge where Cooley had his big crash,very very scary crash
Gary
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Wes Cooley is a class act. I remember talking to him at a WERA National Endurance at Indianapolis when he rode for Cycle Tech (I was riding Ned Harts Interceptor Superbike with Ned and out of retirement Dirk James)in 1985 I think. And later at the Cinninati dealer show. He was always a gentleman and you could tell he loved racing.
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I have those boots. Autographed.
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How much for the boots? 🙂
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