Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'" 1 Donch, Hansen, Rice, Markel and Lee. Armed with a high-performance t4fJe recorder and the idea that this "Robert E. Lee" guy was an UPSt4rt who won a National on a flulte (it was actually an Ossa), Editors John Bethea and David Swift bribed "The Little General" with a meal at Denny's after the Race of ChamfJions in San Jose and fJried the following information out of him: CN: Who's Lee? Lee: Yeah, who's Lee? What the hell is the "Little General"? CN: Isn't he the one who won the Short Track National at Santa Fe? What happened to you after that win? Lee: Well, it didn't bother me too bad but it sure did tear my wife up. The thing is, I expected from the minute that I rolled off that race track that I expected a cut. ~ w Z w oJ Part One of two parts (,) > (,) CN: When did you start racing? Lee: I guess it would be '64. My first class of motorcycle event was enduros. It was the first time I seen a motorcycle get·together and then I went on from that. I won Southwest championship (in enduros) two years in a row. I groove on that trail riding...1 got me a new trail bike just last week. CN: Do you want to go into motocross, then? Lee:'I used to motocross before it got so specialized. Man, those cats have gotten fast. I went out the other day and watched th<;m. They race a lot in gravel pits. CN: You went into enduros and from there, what? Lee: I started IT; I rode IT for a year... that's where I got my IT experience - in sponsman, and then I got my license the next year to race professional and...I can tell you a story I don't think a lot of people know and I don't tell a lot of people but when I got my Novice card, all I had ever hear about was going east nothing in TexasI got my lice BSA, that old I headed off fa to Granite City e - couldn't the race track, and I got disill I had to tum .' way back that? CN:D Lee: Yes, to have b there, somebody helping me out who could just tell you, "Hey, you were doing good, 1 was watchin' ya'" That would help out. I think, though, next year, my wife is going to go with me all the time because she can't take it no more. CN: Do you have any kids? Lee: No kids. We haven't planned for any. CN: Going across the country' and sleeping in your van, do you ever get into any hassles? Lee: Never have. I try and stay out of trouble. I'm sure not going to profit from getting into trouble. CN: What kind of physical preparation do you do for racing? Lee: I just eat good foods. I don't smoke; I don't drink and I ride all the time. I'm always racing and if I'm not doing that then I'IJ1 trailriding. I love it. Every time I get on a motorcycle I grin inside. When I get depressed or sick all ~ want to do is get on a motorcycle. It'll make me feel better when I'm sick! I've been like that smce I was II years old. CN: Is that when you got your first bike? Lee: I got it when 1 was 12. The fast year 1 just hounded my parents to death. I remember I had a Harley 74 when I was 14 and I wanted to go to the drag races real bad. My parents told me not to go to them drag races. They went away on a trip for the weekend and when they came home I had won me a troph y at the drag races and I didn't know what to do with it. 1 wanted to show it to 'em cause 1 was so proud, but I had to hide it. And, I got caught and he just walked outside and c . Harley to the g chained for abo CN: What do you mean by "cut"? Lee: I expected... uh, bad publicity over it. I just sat tight waiting for them papers to come out and I read them just as soon as 1 could get my hands on 'em; 1 was afraid they was really going to be a cut to me. I was disappointed that I didn't see any more pictures than what there was; I was wanting just an address of someone who I could write and get some prints but all the pictures I saw were those that came out in the newspaper for the whole race: CN: Did you get your contingency check from us? Lee: Sure did! CN: You're welcome. Lee: You betcha; it helped. CN: Are you looking for a follow the whol ' . Lee: f mpetitive? Lee: Because I've got the desire, I've got the equipment - I'm pretty close to having the equipment - and ' improved with each year. '11 you, from the frrs . track I w . gotten b t uh, you e gotten better th ooking forward being be er next-year! going to be doing now? Lee: Now that the season's over, 1 go back to Texas and get a job with one of the local motorcycle shops. I imagine it'll be the Ossa dealer I'm presently riding out of...Yankee's supplying us with all the stuff :.- we've got a good setup with them. CN: What are your plans for next year? Do you plan on riding the circuit? Lee: As far as riding the circuit, I'm gonna ride. everything that's feasible. If I'm making money as I go along next year, I'll go, you know what I mean? But, if it were to put me in a bind, well, I'd have to stay around the place where 1 make money. 1 got to make a living to keep going. I'm gonna try a lot harder on half-miles next year. I hadn't rode half-miles until this year, see. I learned a lot this year and nex t year I'm gonna • put a push on it. CN: You did quite well at San Jose (Race of Champions). ,Lee: I was catcbin' Dave...ab, is that his name, Dave Sehl? In the heat. It was CN: How do you know you haven't reached your limi t? Lee: I just don't feel that I have. I'm not riding over my head; I'm not pushing it. CN: How long before you become Grand National Champion? Lee: My plans were three years from now. I have to have a goal to work for and I can always alter it when I have to as 1 go along, but I want the thing three years from now. Now, that there, people will just take that and look at me and laugh. Oh, shoot, that's ridiculous, like who's Robert E. Lee? But, man, I'm gonna work towards that three-year goal. If I'm still moving forward - that's the main thing - if I'm still climbing the ladder and keep seeing progress and not being a hanger-on has-been - I'm gonna stay with this racing. CN: What makes you want to do it in the first place? Lee: Well, a man has to do something. Motorcycling makes me feel like a man. It's man, machinery, the speed, you know, I'm doing something not everyone else can do. It's a competitive sport. I picked this out to be my dung in life and...l just can't believe I'm so happy in it. I'm honestly doing, and going through life, doing the thing I want to do and just grinning all the time because of it. CN: Were you a local hero after your national win? Lee: Oh, no. Well, in a way, what you say is true, but then your local heroes are there every night. Like Mike Kidd, he's there every week. I'm the only one there who goes out and does anything. CN: Don't,You think you'll get a lot of applause at the Houston Short Track National next year since you're a local and a National Short Track Champion? Lee: A what? CN: National Short Track Champion, at least one of the two. Don't you think it will affect you? Lee: No. CN: Has it affected you at any time? Do you listen for applause? Lee: Uh-huh. It matters to me if they dislike me; I want everybody to like me. eN: Has anybody ever booed 'Iou? Lee: Oh, yeah. At Oklahoma City.,.I don't think they were booing me as much as they were the starter because I ... .w'!.U~!.tin.i !mn~1!9.0,:,.s ,thirt!.r9W !t"arts ~ year-;I was being third row on the half-mile and being first one out of the comer...I'd be running second gear before the flag came up. I had him wired. It scared them guys; they had a couple of races protested there because of my starts and it'd scare those guys to death. They'd just be ready to get on with it and I'd come blasting through and they'd just - whew - shake. The starter, he was nervous. Every time I'd come to that line, he'd look at me and smile. I'd start off starting from the frrst row, then the second row and wind up on the third - I nearly got put in the pits one time. • CN: Quickly guessing, based on your National win, you'd probably be listed as a short track specialist. You're from ;r exas, yet general consensus is that Northern California produces the best short trackers because they have so many short track races. Is Texas the second biggest short track area? Lee: Yeah, but it's not professional. In Texas, I've ridden only two indoor short tracks that were professional, I mean ever. I rode one last week and one a year ago. They got some wormy promoters there in Texas. They'd rather pay them sportsman 25 OT $30 for a win then pocket all that extra money rather than run a professional race. There at Ross Downs in Ft. Worth where they run every Friday night, they pack that . there like you wouldn't believe - just fabulous thing to be a sportsman thing every Friday night - and pay the guys hardly nothing. Beautiful track built just for motorcycle racing, got all the facilities ... future of ow; looks nna get good. mgs ough t to be goin' ...a man ought to be able to make a livin' at it - get rich. CN: What about the sportsman classes? Lee: I irnagine it'll be just like it is; it's gonna just keep gettin' more and more riders, but it's a necessary evil, you got to have training grounds. CN: What do you mean by "necessary evil"? Lee: I guess I may have phrased that wrong, but what I've seen of the sportsman racing around there in Texas it's been a hassle. Like I say, you've got a 250 .Main there and everybody in there is holding a license and then they run it for 35 or $40. But, you've got to have it so the younger fellas starting off can learn to race. CN: Do you look to make a lot of money? Lee: I'd like to. I save a lot of money; everytime I make any I put it in the bank. I want to get out of this business some day when I'm an old man' with more than a broken body - to be able to live a life of ease. Have a house and go into the motorcycle business,' some part of it, stay with it, then fmd me a novice that's deserving and help him out. CN: How would you spot a deserving novice? Lee: Determination to start with; how bad he wants to win. If it scares him in tight situations, stuff like that. Mike Kidd, for instance, he's got what it takes to be Number One. That Kidd is abolutely fast - he's got bunches of talent, he's like Gary Scott - except here is what has hurt Mike: from the frrst time he ever got on a motorcycle up until this very day, he hasn't laid a wrench on one. And when he goes off on the circuit, he will have to have somebody with him to load and unload his truck, to start him, to regear it, to put his tires on. All he can do is ride. If he can overcome that, he can be a big name some day. If he got a factory ride, then they'd have to send a mechanic along with him everywh.ere he goes. That's knowledge of your equipment he's got to have that, too. Then, like me this year, you've got to take your fifths, your fourths and lasts, all that, and try and get the best knowledge you can out of it and go on to the next race track rather than letting it eat your guts out and be ashamed and hang your head down. Because that's the kind of guy who, if he doesn't start winning soon, you know he's gonna quit. Next week: Conclusion

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