They would pay us to test a bike on the sly, and, of course, we would do that. THEN HONDA CAME AFTER YOU? Yes, at the end of 1972, Honda asked us to test their bikes. I still believe I won four 250 National Championships, not three. My series didn’t count as the 250 National Championship but Mark Blackwell’s identical win in the 1971 500cc Trans-AMA series did, which bothered me. But, it did not officially count as an AMA Championship that year, although in many minds that series was the first official 250 National Championship. I was the first American to win an international series. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE EUROPEAN GP RIDERS CAME BACK OVER FOR EDISON DYE’S INTER-AM? I won the 1971 series overall. We started racing those and doing more modifications to them. Of course, they gave me new bikes and said, “Here, do some more racing.” Later, when the YZ version came out, which looked a lot like my old race bike, they gave us some of those. Yamaha asked if they could borrow my bike, but I never saw it again. WHAT WAS YAMAHA’S REACTION? We won a bunch of races on this bike, and Yamaha said, “We will give you $1500 if you can win this Cal Expo Motocross (the first one that Mike Goodwin promoted).” It was at the California State Fair. My dad named it “A–Z” because we changed everything on a Yamaha DT1 from A to Z. They said, “Let’s build a really trick bike.” When they were done, it had a titanium frame and axles, with magnesium side cases and heads, hard-chrome cylinders and titanium shift shafts and shift drums. He knew where to get trick titanium and how to weld it. My dad had a buddy from the Jet Propulsion Lab. HOW DID YOU COME TO THE ATTENTION OF YAMAHA? We were racing these DT1s and had them working well. Back then, if you wanted better footpegs, handlebars, levers, controls or chain guides, you had to make them yourself because they were basically street bikes that we were racing in the dirt. We made lighter fiberglass gas tanks and later made fiberglass fenders. So, we started lowering the frame and changing the fork angle, the angle of the swingarm, moving the footpegs back, and a bunch of different things on the DT1. Gary racing the DT-1 based YZ250 prototype.ĭID THINGS CHANGE WHEN YOU GOT ON THE YAMAHA DT1? It was a super lightweight bike, but it would throw me off for no reason. BUT BEFORE THAT, I RODE BSA GOLDSTARS, 441 VICTORS AND A 650 TWIN.” WHEN THEY CAME OUT WITH THE DT1, I STARTED RACING THAT. “MY DAD BECAME A YAMAHA DEALER WHEN YAMAHA FIRST CAME TO THE STATES. I was on the 441 BSA, and he was on his lightweight motocrosser and smoked me! I said, “That is not going to happen again. Of course, Torsten Hallman was riding Husqvarnas when he came over here. He was my hero when I first started riding motocross. My dad said, “We need to get you a lighter bike.” So, we got a BSA 441, which was a great bike. I thought I was a great racer, but I did not even see which way they went! They knew how to get through the rough stuff. I was on my 500 BSA, and they were on 360 CZs and Husqvarnas. WAS MOTOCROSS CATCHING ON? It started in Southern California. Then motocross started coming out, and I began racing the 441 BSA and making more money there. Then a buddy said, “Let’s buy Gary a speedway bike so he can race that.” He bought me a JAP, and I raced speedway and was making money. WERE YOU COMPETING IN ALL FORMS OF MOTORCYCLE RACING? I was racing everything that I could (flat track, TT and scrambles races) where I could ride the same bike. You had one bike and rode a flat track one week, then the next week you would change the tires and ride a desert race or you would ride a TT. ![]() Later, my buddy Gary Sewell bought a BSA from him for me to race because he saw potential in me. Anything that he learned from the racing, he handed down to me. ![]() He sponsored a couple of flat-track guys. I won hill-climbs and desert races before I ever started riding Yamahas.ĭID YOUR DAD SPONSOR YOU? I was lucky that my dad was a BSA dealer. But before that, I rode BSA Goldstars, 441 Victors and a 650 Twin. When they came out with the DT1, I started racing that. My dad became a Yamaha dealer when Yamaha first came to the States. ![]() Used motorcycles were where the money was. My dad would buy old, crashed and broken bikes, fix them and sell them. My brother DeWayne and I pushed it more than we rode it. WHAT WAS THE FIRST MOTORCYCLE YOU EVER RODE? It was a Villiers Dot 125.
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