Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

NOW ABOUT THA By Dave Swift Viewed from a proper perspective, Ttirry Clark may be the best desert rider in the country. Armed with only a 100cc Harley-Davidson Baja, this 17-year-old high school senior has been delivering solid blows to scores of Heavyweight Experts, coming ever closer to an overall win_ Last February he finished fourth overall in an 80-mile Hare & Hound behind such aces as Larry Pfutzenreuter, Whitey Martino, and Tom Muto. One month earlier, in fact, he had beaten Pfutzenreuter in the Lightweight European Scrambles on his experimental 125. The 1970 Trailbike crown was a - hotly contested affair that ended in a tie and Clark, although not exactly bettered, kept his number two plate. Now that Jack MO~l[an has moved to the Lightweights, Clark seems to have it sewed. i met with Terry at his home in Palmdale, California, a once-sleepy desert town that has been aircraft-industrialized. He is tall and slender, easy to mistake for a box-boy if his blond hair were shorter. He is also a bit amused and perplexed about all this attention being paid him. "I'm bored with the desert... " CYCLE NEWS: How did you start this whole motorcycle thing? CLARK: I used to race go-karts when I was nine. Everybody in town did, just like everyone rides bikes now. I first started on 250's - my dad's BSA's - and my first bike was a Yamaha 80, then a Hodaka. I started racing at Ponderosa and then, on a new Hodaka, I went to a point run. I fmished 20th in that race and won the next one. I didn't lose a race I finished until I made the Experts. (Note: This took ahout eight months.) I rode a Hodaka until last year's Barstow-to-Vegas. Then I got a Kawasaki from the Roehr Brothers. They didn't help me a whole Jot. I got a lot of offers and I went with Harley. CN: How do you like Harley now? TC: Well, I had a lot of problems with rings at first but now we go great! I think they're about the best sponsor going. CN: Tell us about the bikes. TC: I don't have a bike I own. I have a factory bike I keep at home as a play bike. I have last year's racer as a back-up bike and a new one I've raced twice. The bikes are kept at Filtron. CN: Who does your tuning? TC: Dean Goldsmith. He does all of it. CN: You never tune them yourself? TC: No, I used to all the time with the Hodakas. CN: Would you like to do your own tuning? TC: I'd like to know everything about the engine but I'd rather have Dean do it. If H'!rley wanted 1De to, I would. CN: How "stock" are the bikes? TC: Mine's pretty mild. It's not really radical at all. No one believes it but my Baja is about the tan:.est in the desert. We like to keep it reliable. CN: What do you like best about your Baja? TC: It doesn't really seem like a trailbike. It's heavier and handles more like a big bike. And it's reliable. Two-strokes usually lose power during a race but this one doesn't. CN: What do you like least about it? TC: The one I ride is perfect. CN: Oh, come on, now. Surely there's something_ .. TC: Maybe one thing_ ..it's hard to turn on a motocross course. CN: Are you going to get on higger bikes? Terry Clark's experimental racer is based on a 125cc Golden Wing, an extremely successful road-racing engine. Made in Italy by Aermacchi, the subsidiary of Harle u

• Cover