Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

In one of the unfortunate incidents of las t year Pierre Karsmakers in sulted DiStefano , Lac key, and Weinert by accu sing them publicly of co nspirin g to knock him out of the 500 Na ti onal Championship. Since that tim e DiStefano has not going out of his way to be frien dly to th e Dutchman, But th e mechanics keep up the barrage of j o ing, even ab o ut the sullen Karsmakers, Following a 25 0 qualifer in Ohio Tony and Pierre were dri ving out to the airport together when Pierre suddenly yelled, "S top th e car, st op th e car!" Keith puts on a European accen t to tell this story even though h e has a lot of sympathy for Pierre's situation. "Pierre yelled stop th e car and got ou t and lay on th e side of the fr ee way. with his leg muscles all cram ped and th e blood vessels popping ou t. He was ye lling, 'My legs! My legs! Tony rub my legs!' Ton y looked at him laying on the side of th e fr eeway in pain and said, 'Pierre, is this what I'm going to look' like in ten years?' Now every time y ou go thro ugh the pits y ou can hear all these people saying, 'Tony rub m y legs!' And what does Keith think of Pierre 's conspiracy theory at New Orl eans. He will tell you in a clear voice that leave s no doubt that he knows from where he speaks. "When every one is out on th e track there is only on e person on each bike and all th e team stuff stops. I don 't think anyone is on friendly enough terms to do anyone a favor by kno cking Pierre down. " DiStefano did hit Pierre going over a jump and Pierre did cr ash . But DiStefano was the one hurt and he was the one who went to the hospital later. The AMA refused to ac cep t Pierre 's protest based on his conspiracy th eory, but Karsmakers still pressed the issue. . Tony sm iles as he tells this story, but deep inside it hurts him to have to even mention it . "I always thought Pierre was an okay guy. He trained and was serious about racing. We had a good tight battle in New Orleans. I went over to see Pierre after th e race. I knew he would be mad because he crashed but that's racing. I was hurting myself. Pierre said to m e, 'Ho w much did Weinert pay you ?' If I had been fe eling any better I would have thrown him ou t of th e back of the van." There are b ad da ys for racers and conversely there are even worse days for mechanics. Perhaps one of the worse days for McCarty cam e at the first 500 National in Baldwin, Kansas. The night before the race he filled the gas cans and put them in th e back of Billy Grossi's rent-a-car. That way when Tony and Billy arrived at the track so would the race gas. . . Grossi gave Gayl o n MOSler a n de ou t to the tra ck and Tony rode out with a j o urnalist. As far as Keith was concerned everyt h ing was running smoothly and it looked like the 500 series would be reall y succ essful. When the two cars pulled up and the riders op ened up the trunk to get out their leathers the gasoline had spilled so aking everything. Mos ier and Grossi demanded to know what fool had forgot to put on the gas ca ps. Keith said he put the gas in the trunk, but was positive that the caps were on. Everyone yelled at him for abo ut 20 minutes and then went on to wash the gas out of t he equipmen t. The day didn't go any better with Tony breaking down in the first moto an d not scoring any points af ter crashin g. Perhaps wh en the tru th ca m e out later th at the riders had been racing the rent-a-cars out to the track in a fashion similiar only to figure-eight demolition derbies co u ld the day even reach up to glo o my. When DiS tefano stopped at the pit gate to drive into the tr ack that mornin g Grossi, who was co m ing up . fast fro m behind after missing th e turn , collided at ab o ut 40 mph into the back o f the car . This drove th e startled Tony D. and Fo rd t hro ugh t he pit ga te an d of co ur se. knoc ked off th e gas ca p s. Th at was . a bad day and ' there is no way that man can con q ue r m achinery every time. Even with th e be st o f factory su pport t he m an -time ho urs too sh or t to guara ntee becom e malfunction-free equip me nt. It costs U.S . Suz u ki $3 00 a week to keep o n e m ech an ic o n th e n at ional trail, not cO':'9tjl}g his J s.aJary .o r benefits, At • (Top) Keith McCarty supervises every phase of Tony're preparation. (Right) Keith was fifth in the mechanic's World Mini Gran Prix. themselves o n th is importan t patch of terrain . Th is is the me ch anic '5 arena and it is o n ne utral ground. Race t ime is when th e mechanics pl ay o u t their fantasies as m asterminds, con troll ers, cheerleaders, an d powers be hind the thro ne. "Some mechanics try to psyche out your rider, " says Keith. This is Keith's domain an d he knows all the tricks. " Th e riders don 't kn ow how much tim e is lef t and so metimes another rider 's m echan ic will jump out in fro n t of his rider and hold up a sign that says ' 30 MINUTES.' There is actually only 20 m inu tes to go in the race, but th e sign was m eant for th e rider chasing th e m echanics man. Th e rider behind bec omes shook up because he do esn 't th ink that he can k eep up th e chase for another 30 minu tes. It is really a mental thing with all th e riders, and a certain am oun t of ps y ching takes place with the signbo ards. " The Na ti o nal m echanics are all good They help each other . fri ends. throughout the week. It is almost a that they share the necessity co m modi t ies in parts an d services with other m echanics. even those from rival factories. But when the gat e drops the friendship stops. The Suzuki mechanics and Bill Buchka, Weinerts mechanic, are close friends and often tr avel in caravans together . Yet McCarty explains what happens when th e race starts, "Bill and I are good friends and Tony and [amm in , have had some good racing this year. Things have been on the serious side seve ral tim es. At time s we'd look at each other in the mechanic's area, and with out try ing to p syche each ot her out , there would be no facial ex pre ssion whatsoever. It 's in the air that there is going to be a big race. .. When there is a b ig ra ce i t is no h olds barred on the track or at trackside, but later all is forgotten and they will all go out to dinner to gether . Sometimes there is humor in the pits, although it more likely than not co mes at someone's In any . competitive e x pen se. environment the nature of re laxation is o ften sarcast ic , if not hostile. " The best signboard I've eve r heard of was in Ohio wh en Jimmy Weinert was . riding pre tty bad, and his dad was there fr om N ew York to watch him ride. His fath er grabb ed th e signboard from Jim Felts and wrote on it 'YOU STINK,' th en threw it on the ground, got in his m ot orh ome and drov e back to N ew York , That was one of the best. " Sometimes a mechanic 's frustrations are so bundled up into his work that when the rider is not putting out en o ugh the signboard is h is only weapon. On Mic key Kessler 's signboard they write 'SHI FT' to remind him to go faster. Some boards say 'HOLD ON ,' but to he ar Keith tell it Ron Pomeroy's mechanic summed it up for all the mechanic s when "Ro n wasn 't going around the track too fast and his m echanic wam't pl eased about his perf ormanc e. So he wro te 'YOU'RE TOO SLOW - I QUIT' thr ew th e board do wn, walk ed off th e track and left him there . .. Fo r Keith this ye ar the pit board has mostly said 'P I' because that's the place that Tony has been in . For any mechan ic the dream of only having tcl write 'P I ' is too good to be true. Even DiStefano faltered during t h e 500 series an d found himself in the ba c k of the pack . For T ony it was startling, but he too k it with grace and said, "I t was kinda nice. I got to see a lo t of guys I never saw before and got lo ts of rest because I would fall over every cou ple laps. .. Tony D. did w ork h is way back to the top ten, but crashes and bad starts only rejuven ated his will to do be tt er in the Trans-AMA. Tony D. not o nly did better, but he d id the best that any Ame rican has ever don e by winning three Trans -Al\i As and fin ishi ng third overall. Being o ne of America 's brigh te st rn o to cross stars DiStefan o attracts a cr ow d wherever he is in the pits. For Tony th is is a gian t ego bo ost, he lik es it, and it is a measure of ho w far he has co me in t he last t hree years. But for Keith and Brian the instant p opular ity means mor e and more hassles. Reporters want to in terv iew them, photographers nudge them o u t of the way to click sna ps ho ts of the machines, and > this price it is ch eap co n sideri ng the long ho urs and seven day work weeks that the Team Suzuki mechanics pu t in. In the course o f an average we ek McCarty will have little or no time to spend to himself. On the Monday following the ra ce Keith will Call Su zuki to give them the results. tell them what happened and whe ther or not they ne ed additional parts. "We wash th e bik es and th e riders boots. .. Cleaning th e bikes is not a hose them off affai r, but rather takes several hours an d a fist full of quarters to get the job done right. The box van also receives a washing and straightening up. Since they rarely race in the same region on consecu tive we ekends McCarty and Grossi's me chanic, Brian Lunnis, load everything up, chec k out of the Ho liday Inn, and start driving to the next race town. If they are luc ky and the AMA used th eir head s the schedu lin g is w ithin one day 's d rive. Often th ey are fo rced to drive from Los Angeles to New Y ork and b ack in a three ra ce sp rint. Keith feels qui te lucky if they are able to make it to t he nex t town by lat e Tuesday. On Wednesday "we tear th e bik es apart and go over every part. Tha t 's what our job is all about. To find ou t what is going to happ en bef ore it hap pens. " Keith has not und er-est ima ted the to tal ity of the tear down . Tony 's bike co me s d own to th e bare fra me , th e fo rks are reb uilt , sh ocks a re checked , th e cr itical items are go ne over three times to in sure t hei r reliability. Ke ith and Tony sha re a good working rel atio ns, partly because DiStefano spe nt h is firs t two years as rider/mechanic an d ap preciates the care tha t Keith takes in p repping the b ike. As Keit h philo sophizes, " The good mechanic doesn't Uf,ait fo r ,a part to I oJ W '3: " w > o o ., > ... ~ '" s l- o ~ break. He usually figu res that if you push it (the work) it will take you three days to do the jo b. A day for the f ram e, a day for the engine, and a day for the little th ings lik e wheels, tires, air filt ers, spro ck ets and spares. You have to put ou t every thing you can when your rider is pu tting out his maximum. There is no real reason f or a break down. E very one has access to the parts, even if they have to go and buy them. As hard as the rider works I think th e mechanic has to wo rk as hard to k eep up with him . .. During the race th e mechanics are co n fined to a small track side co m p o und called the m echan ic 's area. It is o nly in this area th a t a rider can I receive assist ance, gaso line , water, or pit board signals. The tension in this area increases as the race wears on . Many times a race is won or lo st because of the way . t he . mec hanics co nduct ' . .' .. _, . _ . (Continued on page 13) 7

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