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What was the experience like after working with privateers to get the job with the Norton | Triumph Factory team? Well, it was definitely a challenge and it was interesting. You go along and you’re learning these different skills to go with your trade, and it takes a little bit of everything to build a complete motor- cycle. You’ve gotta be a little bit of an electrician, a little bit of a mechanic, a little bit of a welder; all the different skills that you need. When we got to Norton | Triumph, they had nothing. We started from scratch with bare TrackMaster frames and used all the normal fenders that you’d use,
the bars, wheels, and Ken Bailey did the fiberglass for those bikes as I recall. You basically had to take a bunch of parts, make it into a working motorcycle, and make it competitive. It was a cool thing because you’re really im- mersed in it and I can’t tell you how many hours we put in ‘cause we were there...gosh, it seemed like all day and all night most days. Then you’d take all this stuff and throw it in a big diesel truck, drive halfway across the country, and go racing.
It had to be pretty disheartening after put-
ting all those hours in for them to close up
shop in the middle of the season... Oh yeah, we
were all really surprised by that. Obviously we weren’t
privy to their financial situation, but we were all really sur-
prised when they said “That’s it boys, you guys better start
looking for jobs,” with no notice. We all started looking for
jobs and Brett Thompson (who also worked at Norton | Tri-
umph) and I sent applications in to Harley Davidson, never
heard anything back. In the meantime, some of the other
employees had gone to Kawasaki to work in their techni-
cal department and oddly enough the White brothers were
just about to start their business, so I took Dan White’s job
when he went to join his brother. Anyway, I did that deal
and it was okay, it was a steady job but nothing as exciting
as going racing. Basically, we were testing pre-production
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