Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125872
UJ 51 5iQ a= gg ..,; g BRAND NA ES GET IN THE WAY: =- g BillyUhl ... talkslSDT& team politics '<::!" r- O"l ....... eo til ;:j ::P ... -e Billy Uhl IS tied with [ack Penton and Carl Crank e for the National ISDT Qualifiers Champion ship. Yet, he say s that because he chose to ride a Can-A m and live ioherc h e wishes, he isn't on th e V. S. Trophy Team. Marty Gregory talk ed with Billy about where he came from , why he rides, and th e politics of picking an ISDT team. By Marty Gregory Bill Uhl has been riding sinc e before he was b orn (inside his mother who was on a bi ke ) and, at present , must be co nsider ed o ne o f, if no t t he best, ISDT riders in thi s co un try. His Gold Medal rid e and fifth in class fin ish at the 48th ISDT in Dalt on , Massachusetts was th e best of an y A merican rider . Riding fo r Can -Am this year, Billy ha s won two of the six (SD T Qu alifiers, placing h im in a three-way ti e for the Nat ional Championship with Carl Cranke and Jack Penton . I remember when I wa s growing up in Bo ise, Idah o and divided my time be tween schem ing o n how to tal k my dad into letting m e ta ke a few hot laps aro und the back yard o n his 350 J awa and st anding, drooling o ver the ne at est machine in town. the 2 50 Honda Scrambler in Herb UbI's bike sho p. My dad bought a Honda from Herby and used to go riding with him sometimes . He would tell me abo u t th ose rides and how Herb's son, " Li t tl e Billy," would go alo ng on a 250 Ducati . Dad said "The Kid" couldn't touch the ground with both feet and so m e one would have to sta rt the machine for him. But once underway ... he was nearly impossib le to keep up with. When I talked with Bill in his home July 23rd, he was trying to get everything ready to go up to At lanta, Idaho where he has a c ab in . The Qualifier Series had been a long. tough one and he wanted to get away for a week o r so to "mellow o ut in the mountains," He will depart for Canada shortly to confer with Bombardier regarding his ride in this year's Six Days in Italy. Billy Ubi is a modest, straightforward indiu id ual: As a Penton-mounted member of the U.s. Trophy Team for the past two years, he always st ood o ut in th e team pi ctures as the one with a beard. His father, Herb , and his brother, Mike, also wear beards and they all act, talk and, no doubt, feel the same. They're Ubls. Bill was very quick to point out at the stan o f our talk that his dad, brother, his mother, Ros e, and , more recently , his girl, Debbie, have always been right behind him in his efforts and that he wouldn't be where he is today without their guidance, encouragement and support, Billy is his own person. He's 24 years o ld and very near the top of the he ap. The 49th running of the ISDT in September will see him riding his Can -Am aga inst the finest men and machinery that the world ha s to offer. Win or lose, Bill UbI will do his very best. Beginn ings 6 CN: Let's start at the beginning, Bill. When did you ride your first race? BU: I believe it was in 1960. The bike was a Honda 50cc p rototype and the race was a cross country. CN: Did you win? B U: Yeah. Fortunately or unfortunately . CN : Did you stick to cross co untry after that or did you branch o ut? BU: I got in to other types of co mpetition besides cross country. I rode TT, scramb les , flat tr ack, you know, that so rt of thing. I got a Class "C" lice nse and rode track for a couple of years. CN: What about motocross? BU: Well, motocross was just getting started around here back then a nd I . kinda worked in t o it as a natu ral extension of scram b les. I got to ride a few of the California races like West Lake Village with the Europeans. In fact, I rode the entire Summer Series in '69 . I was always pla cing in the top seven Americans, they were only paying the top five so I didn't make an y money .. . had a lot of fun , th ough . CN : T he same year you won the Idaho State Motocross Champio nship, you took a Bul u p to Puyallup and rode th e lnter-Avl , didn't you? BU: Yeah. I rode t he Support Class and finished 18th or 1 9 t h or something . .. Not very good .. . I wasn 't in shape for it. CN : What do y ou think about motocross racin g in general? Would you like to do it all the time? You probably could be a professional motocrosser if yo u wanted to . BU: No ... 1 really don't want t o and fo r o ne ma in reason : you don't ge t to ride enough. And you really don 't ! The pr eparation time is about the same as it is for trials and you only get to ride for an hour or so. When I go to a trials, I get to ride for about 400 miles, I get to see co un try that I normally wouldn 't get to see . .. if my bike holds together and th at's all up to me. A green (SO T rider silver o u t of stupidity but - that 's jus t part o f being a green Six Days rider. CN : In 1971 you rode a Puch at the Isle of Man? BU: Right. I DNF'ed there. I made it halfway through the fifth day and the crankpin sheared off ... something th at doe sn 't happen to motorcycles nowadays. Up until then I was running on gold and I was the last Puch to retire. CN: After Isle of Man was . . . ? 8U: Czechoslovakia . Uhl and Penton CN: What abo ut yo ur first ISDT? Wasn't that in Ge rmany in 1969 ? BU: Right. My dad and I rode as a father-son tea m. It was the fi rst time in the history of t he Six Days, as far as we co uld find out, that a father -so n team was entered . C N : We re you sponso red or independent that year? 8U: We were sponsored by Hercules Distributing for motorcycles only. They sup p lied the bikes and p arts for the tri als and we paid for everything el se. CN : Herb ended up with a s ilver and you won a gold th at yea r, didn't you? 8U: Yeah. CN : How abo u t the next year in Sp ain ? BU: I DNF 'ed .. . n o , I guess I got a bronze. That was o n a Pooooo k ! CN : You were on the Vase "B" team that year? BU : Yeah. That was the start of a b ad cou p le o f ye ar s on the Pu ch. Don't like to knock their motorcycle but I didn't ha ve very good/lu ck with it. CN : Who determined that yo u wou ld ride a Puch ? BU: That's what the AMA slated me on . After that I decided that no one would decide wh at I rode. I did have very bad luck with it but even with the worst luck I had, there were only two Puchs out of all the ones entered from all the countries th at fi nished and I rode one of them . I d id n' t do we ll an d part of it was my la c k of knowledge . . . I fo und I couldn't change a tire fast enough. I lost my go ld . .. I los t m y silver .. . ou t of stupidity. The rules state that once you're la te , you stay that amount late for the rest of t he day at each individual check po int. Well, I tried to make up the time and I'd make it up at one spot, then drop back and lose a mark. I just wen t on that way all day long. I lost m y CN: That was the first ti me on a Penton , wasn't it? BU : Right. CN : Had you acq uired a Penton sponsorship before that ? BU: Well, I was a sal aried employee with t he Penton co mpa ny, a "technical road representative. " I got a regular paycheck, had a social security number and all of that government stuff. Penton is a professional team. Almost all of their riders are employees and they make the sam e am o unt whether they're working o r r idi ng. You can look at it any way you want. CN: Do you want to talk about Pent on? 8U: Sure. I d on ' t mind talking a bo ut Penton. John treated me very, very well during the yea rs I rode for him. I a lso feel th at the money and effort that he put forth for me were more than ju st ified in the good I did for his product. When I left, there were no hard feelings between us. It was a very good relationship . CN: Did you lea ve Penton so you could ride what you wanted and d o wh at you wanted? BU : No. I ju sted wanted to live in Ida ho. When I worked for Penton I had to live in Lorrain, O hio and I don't like Lorrain, Ohio . I was born in Wooster; Ohio but t hat doesn't m ean t ha t I live there. I like the mountains of Ida ho and I decided th at it j ust wasn't worth it to me to live there under those co nditions and in that society just to ride mo to rcycl es. ( co uld do t hat here . CN: So this Can -Am thing works out a little better for you? BU: R ight . . . well, sec, a fter the Six Day s last year, I wasn't asked to ride Penton again. I was never asked by John P~nton to ride his m o t orcy cle. He may