1979 and 1980 AMA Superbike Champion. Eight AMA Superbike race wins. Member of two winning Suzuka Eight-Hour endurance race teams.
Wes Cooley was a young, hard-charging rider who helped bring AMA Superbike racing into the modern era. Before Cooley, many of the riders in Superbike were older, more conservative and rode European twin-cylinder "cafe racers." Cooley, riding powerful but ill-handling big-bore Japanese four-cylinder machines, came in and stepped up the level of competition in the series.