Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

o 00 ...... •• AFM ~1: Rudy Galindo, up again When Rudy Galindo decided to WIn the Number Oneplate In the largest road race sanctioning organization In America, he had By John Ulrich neither a racer nor mon ey to buy o ne . Scrap ing enough togeth er t o assemb le co mpo ne nts, he bui lt o ne . On e year lat er, a m ix of a Rudy relaxes un tli friends and wife J osie in the lair where the garage spe cial was born. , TZ·350 engine, an RD-3 50 st reet hike fr ame (altered with th e help of DeWay ne J o nes), a TD- 2 fro n t end, an d m ag wheels originally used on a TR-3 had carried Galindo to hath the American Federation of l\lotorcyclists (A F1\I ) National Champio nship and the 3 50 GP Championship as well . Topping th e AF1\I points list after a crashless seas on is the res ult of things fin ally starting to fall back into pla ce for th e 26-ye ar-old ra cer. Galin do helped deve lop th e TA ·125 Yamaha ro ad racer while working fo r Yamaha In terna tio nal as a test rider. His work in the fa med " 0 0 7" sec ret develo pme nt room at Yam ah a Was o ne of the m o re exciting phases of his seven year relatio nship wit h the corpo ra tio n , between 19 66 an d 1973. In 1968 Rud y was th e fift h ran ked A.\IA di r t-t rac k Novice , in th e same crop as David Aldan a, Don Castro, and Keith Mash burn: Swit ch in g to ro ad racin g, he won th e 125 GP class race at Daytona in 1969. Following th at , he embar ked o n a ca ree r largely m arked by spe ctacular bad lu ck an d numerous cras he s. " Every time it lo o ked like I was goi ng to m ak e the winner's circle, everything 'j ust fell apart, " he explains . Loudon in I 9 70 found him fourth in the 25 0 Expert /J unior co mbined , well in front of th e next J u nior, when a rider he was lapping ch ange d his line . Rudy cras hed, pinched a nerv e , an d m issed the Junior fin al. On tari o in 1971 Rudy was second behind Kel Carruthers in hi s heat. but .." . broke th e cra n k in later practi ce , and missed th e Expe rt/J u n ior fin al. Dayton a 19 72 t he disaster was a 100 mph bar tan gle and enda whi le lap p ing slo wer rid ers. Afte r leaving Yam ah a an d goi ng to work fo r Jones MX Products, Galindo led t he 19 73 Daytona J unio r race un til pipe fell off his an e xha u st Jones-sponsored TZ 3 50 , the resu lt of a known about by factory defect everyone - except Rud y . A giant cras h involving a dozen bikes de moralized Galind o a t an AFM race th e same year. Even though he escaped w ith h is "no broken bones" record intact, he couldn 't get his he ad str aigh t before th e next A1\IA National . J ones MX so ld th e bikes he h ad been rid ing , Galindo gave up on A1\IA Nationa ls (excep ti ng Day ton a, by whi ch h e co un ts th e passage of time), an d work on the " garage special" 35 0 GP bike began. " I decided to ge t Numbe r On e in A FM. I kn ew the AMA scene would be worse, an d felt th at if I co u ld just keep riding an d do a lo t of racing instead of just Nationals, m ay be I could get on top of it again. " Posa Fuel ca rbu re t ors an d Duralube oil kicked in support as the points ran up, and o th er bikes j oined the 350. When Ron Pierce made a st ab a t winning the plate, th e co ntest came dow n to the last race of the season. Galindo, alrea d y blown up, had loaded his bikes and wa s driving out of th e pits with Pierce solidl y in the lead . Suddenly, over the loudspeakers came th e word th at Pierce was dropping ou t (wit h a broken cha in ). Looking over at his tuner, Bob Bresach , Rud y said, ':' Loo ks Iik~ the old lu ck is p!'ck .again. "

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