Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• • • 11II Gary ... 11II E , Winning races is more important to Gary than big bucks factory sponsorship. He will finish out the Trans-AMA series on a new 400 GP Maico, then maybe next year ride Can Am. \ By Jim Gianatsis company in the world. The first question was to find out what it took to be National Champion. 1973 marks the second year in a row thal Gary Jones has captured the AMA's 250 Nalional Motocross Championship. It "For one thing it takes a motorcycle that's pretty good. It's got to handle good. We had to do a lot of work on them ourselves, We had to change the frames and change them around so we could get them so we could ride them. Both the Yamahas and the Hondas, we had to make them so they fit the rider. And another thing, the rider's got to be in better shape then the 0 ther guys. And that's well I'mnot saying I'm in good shape or anything, but I am in better shape than the 250 guys. Even the Open guys, I'm in a little better shape than most of them." - Gary. The Jones Team's, and hence Gary's reason for no longer riding Honda this year and their quitting of Yamaha last year were based on what seemec,l the same problem: Don Jones wanted to develop and set up the factory bikes the way he thought was best; the way his sons could ride them the fastest and expect them to fmish races. Last year during the Trans-AMA Series, Yamaha had Gary racing the unproven 500 prototype which seemed to break in every race it entered. This year, Honda wanted Gary to race their 450 prototype in the Trans-AMA. Like Yamaha, Honda wanted the bikes kept the way they were brought over from Japan and maintained by factory mech""lics. In no way did they want the J ones modifying the bikes. We asked both Gary and Don why they felt they could do a better job than the factory in setting up a bike. "We're not any better than them, it's wasn't easy. The title is awarded to the best placing American rider in both the 250 class of an National motocrossers for the year as wen as in the 250 International class of the Inter-AMA Series. Last year Gary won the title riding for Yamaha, a brand that had raced on privately before signing any factory contracts, His performance on stock Yamahas which he, his father Don Jones and brother DeWayne, had modified into competitive machines had gained their family Yamaha sponsorship. This year the Jones Team (the only way they can be referred to becalUe with one Jones comes the other two) joined American Honda and right away they began winning races on the new 250 Elsinore, a stock production motocrosser that was readily available to the public. Gary and DeWayne rode a almost the entire 250 circuit aboard basically stock Elsinores, and it was >yith this bike that Gary won his second 250 National Motocross Championship. We figured that an interview with Gary was in order to see what were the reasons he attributed to his second NatioDa1 Championship. We talked at the Philadelphia and the Mid-Qhio Trans-AMA's where Gary was riding a 400 Maico, his own personal machine. The .J ones Team bad terminated their contract with American Honda, a division of the largest motorcyck just that we've been around it all our lives. We can do it, they can do it too but they don't know how to do it. All they want to do is pick your brain. They rip US off by wantinK us to do it Jor nothing. J mean, ,hey pay us money but you need to finish the race too. Eventually they _will learn, but they want to learn with me and I could be going out there winning races instead of having them break down every weekend and let them learn on their own. We already know it's going to break!' r.ary. Last year was really Yamaha's fust year of involvement in motocross competition. This year it was Honda's. Didn't they both need at least a year to sort out their bikes? "We raced Yamahas two years before they did and we'd already done all the pro to typing and changing frames and such. We had full control of all the Yamaha parts and we could do all we wanted to do to them. They'd let us. .. - Gary. "We had every YZ part in the country plus the stuff that we'd done, and they left us alone and we did our job. When we saw that we were going to be screwed with and told what to do with Yamaha, we decided we didn't want them anymore. Then we tried Honda for five months, or six months, then they brought their prototype and we diUn't like what was going on. ... Don., "Their prototype wasn't as good as the standard bike. .. - Gary. "So we told them it wasn't as good as the standard bike and that wasn't what they wanted to hear. So we said give us standard motorcycles, leave US alone, and we'll go win. And we did. And if it wasn't for that we wouldn't be National Number One again this year because we had to.K2 on our own tn do it." - Don. "We won one race on one of their prototypes, and the rest, all the Nationals, were won on standard bikes. " - Gary. "The way we feel, there's a Honda racing team and a race manager from Japan, that has maybe been to two races in his life, that's going to tell US how to do it when we've been racing all our lives. They hire three guys from Japan who've never been to any races, and. along with the race manager, these guys are going to tell US what to do. We took it for five months, then we couldn't take it any more. 1 don't care if they hal1e a hundred million doll4rs." . Do... The Jones have very defmite ideas about the way a racing team should be operated. If prototypes need to be developed and tested, it should be done during the week and not on SUDday when races need·to be won. FuJI time develop men t engineers can never become National Championa. The European Grand Prix circuit is the best example of the Jones Tilerum where next year's GP bikes are, developed and tested during the winter, then, when race time comes around, the bikes are left alone, except perhaps to copy off of someone else's proven idea which works better. Racing is everything to Gary Jones, and winning is the most imponant thing. He and Jim Pomeroy are probably ()ur two fastest Americans at this time. Gary has already proven he is the fastest 250 rider for the second year in a rowand, perhaps, if he had the right Open class bike he'd have that title as well. .• 11

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