Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.- "I ~~y have taken fifth today . fifihtoday but 1 learned something." sOInething." CN: . Was Romero an inspiration when R om ero in spirati o n you talked to him? ta lk ed h im ? yo u so m e thing. An I' ll Lee: I'll tell you something. A n isnpiration was - did you read Gary read G ary Nixon ' s b o ok? He fought, man. If that Nixon's book? H e fo ug h t, t hat b o ok is re all y true, then he fought to book really h e fo ug ht get where he got. Be had it rough. h e go t. H e it '" ro '" '" Q. C1. ;:: r:: 0> ~ g0" CO) ~ z CN : "How did you like the course?" Is CN: " How d id li k e th e a common question you receive? Do you find yo urself giving pat answers y o u fin d yourself givi ng a ft er awhile to questions like that? q u est io ns lik e t hat? after aw h ile Lee : Lee: I'm afraid that if t h ey asked m e they as k ed mc th at I'd t ell t he m the truth.. that tell them th e truth CN : Have you paid your dues, so to CN: d ue s, speak? Lee: I've been payin' 'lem as I go along;; I 've em alo ng year by year. y ear. y ea r CN: Did yo u ever have a n y of those C N: Di d you h ave any th o se "hairy" crashes? " hairy " Lee: Well, I guess t he worst crash I've L ee: the wo rst I'v e ever had was when I was riding TT and w as rid in g IT an d messed my shoulder up p ret ty bad. m y sh o u ld e r u p pretty A fter I h ad the o p era tio n on my After had t h e operation my sh o u ld er shoulder,, it took six hours, - I h ad two to ok ho urs, I had sep ar a te op erations t o separate operations to get it done vit d one when I came b ack and sta rt ed racing w h en ca m e back a nd started agai n 1 w as rea l ca u tio u s again I was real cautious and wo u ld n 't wouldn't charge in with the pack or nothing. ch a rge th e p ack o r n oth in g. What ended up happening was that I h appening w as tha t I e- (J) :;: ~ w Z W ..J U ~ U CN: Well, how did you like the co u rse h ow d id y o u lik e th e COUTse at San Jose, then ? J o se, then? at Lee: Well,. it was a hard race track; it Well it was h a rd tr ack; it didn't h ave any cushion on it. So I lik ed have a n y o n it. liked it I li ke it.. I like grooved tracks. I've rode on t rac ks. I' ve ro d e o n these hard, grooved race tra cks more th es e h ard, ra ce tracks m o re than any t h ing . I've never had a ny tha n anything. I' ve n ever any problems p assin g on grooved race problem s passing o n tracks. CN: (-lave you stud ied how you do it? Have y o u studied y ou it ? Le e : alw ays Lee: I always pass coming out of the co ming o u t o f cor n ers. . corners. CN: Getting back to b ad crash es, you C:o.I : G ett in g b ac k bad crashes, yo u ever had a n y other ones? had any o ther o n es? Lee: Yeah , p le n ty of 'em. I'll t ell yo u Lee : Yeah, plenty o f ' em . tell you wh at sca res m e m ore what scares me more than anyth in g, it anythinl(, isn ' t the b ad crashes, it's those isn't bad c ras hes, th o se n earl y -b ad o nes. Th en you think of nearly-bad ones. Then thin k o f what could happen.. 1 came out of t h e co uld h appen I ca m e o u t o f the corn er at this o ne , running wide open corner th is one, ru nning wid e o pe n and ran into the r et ai n er fen c e - 1 must in t o th e retainer fence m ust have been running 90 miles an hour h ave 90 a n ho ur 'cause it was geared for 113 miles an ' ca use w as geare d 1 13 m iles an hour and I h ad it in the top gear and had to p a nd had it nailed wide open. And 1 hit that w ide o pen . A nd I fe nce w en t Io c k -to -lo c k fence and went into a lock-to-lock wobble down the straightaway. Man, d own th e stra ighta way. Ma n , you think about that. ... yo u th in k abou t t hat.. used to my new IlSA IT bike and to us ed n ew BSA TT stay in shape. That Houston TT is gonna sta y T h a t H oust on go n na b e like a motocross ... be lik e m oto cro ss... CN: you h av e a ny tro uble coming C. ': Did yo u have any trouble comi ng up through th e ranks? the Lee : Lee: In my first year as an Amateur, I my came out second in the nation in short sec o n d sh ort track. ra cing? CN: How about road racing? Lee : I 've never fini sh ed Lee: I've neveT finished one yet. I've y et. always had bad equipment and the only equip me n t a nd th e t ime I had good equipment 1 was at time h ad equip ment I was Talledega a nd I w as on K&N stuff and K& N st uff a nd and was th ey they said I could ride thei r stuff for any their fo r road race that comes up. And I got on ro ad u p. A n d go t o n their 250 and started off - ok,, [ went 25 0 a nd sta rte d o k I we n t o u t an d qualified a n d had out and qualif ied and h ad to qualify on q ua lify o n one cylinder on the little Yamaha twin,, cylin der o n littl e Yama h a twin a nd that p ut me on the last row , th e and th at put m e o n th e last row, the slo wes t slowest guy, man,, th at 's li ke something m a n that's like like 46th p o sitio n . Man,, I was in eighth li ke position. Man w as eig h th spot when I crashed , and there were five w hen I cTashed, a nd th ere the ca m e arou nd laps left in t he race. I came around on the first lap and I was in 17th spot. [ th e lap a n d was sp ot. I it. liked it. CN: What don't you lik e rid in g? Wha t don 't y o u like riding? Lee: [ like it all. I'm gonoa ride two or I lik e it a ll. I' m gonna rid e tw o three motocrosses next month to get m o n th ~. )- YAMAHA WITH A 1101 E. 6th St. - Corona St. ~ Y..q ~..q 4i..q.. 41..qL• DYKES RING PISTON availa bl e in 6 oversizes from 1" t hru 6 !!! over ~ YWHA YAMAHA of COlONA instant horsepower • _ . t" ~ O~ Mike Patrick's Patrick' s CO) M N CO< - .. cras hed crashed with a no ther fellow going down another go ing d o wn th e fro n t straightaway a nd the front strai gh ta w ay and I tumbled tumbl ed a n d tumbled when I fell and I got u p and w h en and go t up an d said 'tHey, m an and sai d "Hey , man,, I'm not gonna get n ot go n na hurt - get after it." It took another ge t it. " t o ok a no th er c ras h crash to show m e everything was going me eve rything w as to b eOK. beOK. CN: H ave you fought? CN : Have yo u fough t ? Lee: Yeah, I really have. I've taken Y eah , reall y h ave. I' ve more s - off of p eople than you can mo re s-people ca n imagine. You asked m e if I have to fight as ked me h ave fi gh t and that's tru e because anything worth t hat's true a nyth ing w orth having is worth ...well, you know, you're h av ing k n o w, yo u 're grin n a h ave, t o gonna have to pay fo r.it. fOL it. ... FITS HONDA 500. CB450, CL450. & SL350 CB450. Dress up your cycle ! Top quality cast up y o u r cycle! q ua lity ca st aluminum. Bolts on in minutes to all stock alum inum. on to st oc k 750 Hondas using handlebar mounting u sin g ha nd le ba r bor is - no rew ir in g necessary.. This NEW bolts··no rewiring nec essa ry Th is convenience panel features ra ised center co nven ienc e pa nel featu res raised ce n te r p laq u e for decal s, e ngravin g o r mountin g plaque decals, engraving or mounting switches. Complete w ith ch rome au to sw itch es. Complete with chrome auto·motive type cigarette light er, w iring an d ty p e c igarette lighter.! wiring and instructions. Finished in st ru ct io ns. 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