Page 16 - ISSUE-5-PULSE-BIGVALLEY-HONDA

interviewed with them and got the job as a race mechanic. My first job was to build a 250cc twin and a DT1 because that was the first year for the DT1, nobody had even seen ‘em yet, and the rider was Keith Mashburn. They told me to build two twins: one for Keith Mashburn and one for Don Dudak. So I said this is what I need, I put the bikes all together, and they came down to see the bikes. The first thing out of Keith’s mouth -- re- member this is an eighteen year old kid and I had been around the block a little bit - was “I can’t ride that bike,” and I say “Why not?” “Well, it’s got to have a long seat on it so I can move around.”
I said “Well, you’re not going to ride the bike ‘cause I don’t want you moving. If you’re moving around, how will I know how to set the chassis? One lap you’re on the front of it and the next lap you’re hanging off the back. You’re going to ride
it with a solo seat or you’re not going to ride it.” (laughs) We went to Ascot with Keith as a novice and he won the first main event with the Yamaha twin and he thought that was really great. The second week, the racetrack changed, and I told him “Keith, you can’t ride the way you rode last week. I’m gonna change the gear and you’re go- ing to have to ride the way I tell ya.” He said “Oh no, everything will be fine,” and he got second. From that night on Keith said “If you told me that I had to ride it in the parking lot, I’d ride it.” (laughs) We became really good friends from then on and raced all over the country; we still have the record both with the twin on half-mile and the single on TT’s for the most novice wins.
Although your roots as a racer and tuner were in dirt track, you eventually branched out to motocross, road racing, land speed competition, etc...was there any specific discipline that you favored
the most?
Well, that’s an easy question to answer ‘cause I’m going to Springfield next week. (laughs) Flat track is my passion. I do love land speed; I love Bonneville. When I left Yamaha, I went to work for Bombardier on on the Can-AM motorcycle proj- ect. I was in charge of the engine development for Can-AM and Gary Jones had won the AMA 250 Pro Motocross Championship on the Yamaha
on my team. When I
left, he went to Honda
and won the Champion-
ship, and when I went
to Can-AM he followed me there and won the Championship. Back to Bonneville, in 1974 one of my projects was to do a bunch of motors for land speed -- I did a 125, a 175, and a 250. The 175 and the 250 were production classes, so they had headlights and everything. We set the records in those and the 125 was more of what you call a class C, it was like a road racer. It ran on gaso- line, it was water-cooled with no radiator, and we ran 136 mph for the record. Between 1974 and ‘75, my engines did eleven records at Bonneville. The 125 record wasn’t broken until 2010 by the Factory Aprilia team.
What are some of the unique challenges
that come with competing at the Bonnev-
ille Salt Flats?
The problem there is that if the weather is perfect, Bonneville is still 4,000 ft. above sea level. So y’know, compression and some tuning as far as fuel and air. Sometimes the altitude density there was over 9,000 ft. so it was kind of tough to tune for there.
What do you remember about the 1974 AMA Motocross season when you swept the top three spots in the Championship with Gary Jones, Martwell doney Tripes, and Jimmy Ellis? That had to be pretty
cool...
(laughs) It was very cool! It was very self-grati- fying because Can-Am motorcycles (that stands for Canadian and American), but the principles in the motorcycle department were all American. It was Gary Robinson who was the boss, myself in charge of motors, Bob Barker in charge of chas- sis, and a fellow named Scotty Seider was the guy who made sure everything bolted together, and that was Can-Am. To beat the Japanese,
to beat Husqvarna, and all those factories with these nobodies (all of us) in Canada; that was pretty gratifying. >>
16 THE PULSE • ISSUE FIVE
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