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/126041
"I'm tn too deep to pull out now" A no vice loses again Gary Moo re surveys his new white cas t. Inside th e hip -to-toes pl ast er lies a sha tt ered right leg. Reddish-st ain ed ban da ges co ver his bi g toe, whi ch stic ks out from the bottom opening o f tile cast. Moore is a Nov ice a t Day to na. He cras he d in practice, probably be cau se of an engine seizure, but he isn't sure. . "All I know is that I was go ing into th e ch icane, " he says . "I can't remember anything else." His Bell Star is sp lit up th e back like the San Andreas fault sp lits his home state, Cali forni a. His T Z2 50 is tras he d , tbe unbro ken parts of his body ba dly bruised. Itisn ' t the first tim e Mo ore has crashe d ..and it won' t be th e last. Like most Novi ces, he knows th at he does not reall y hav e a chance at winning a Novice rac e. Yet he continues, and will continue after he heals from Daytona, to tr avel great distances from his home in Edwards, California to race in Novice Nationals. His journey from Edwards to Daytona this year took 55 hours in a Dodge Karyvan, along with six other people and four motorcycles. Since arriving, an d before crashing, Moore has purchased two sets of cylinders, four pistons (complete with rings) , a Goodyear sli ck, seven clutch plates, and a host of assorted other parts for his ill-fated racer. . The cylinders replaced sets ruined by seizures. ,The Goodyear slick replaced a new one punctured by a piece of sharp scrap metal left by someone else on the floor of the open-air covered pit area where Moore worked before his crash. The clutch plates replaced ones worn out in practice. Before leaving Edwards, Moore did a beautiful job of painting numbers on his machine's fairing. When he arrived at Daytona, he learned that Novice numbers are now white on black, not white on red as he had thought. His replacement number paint job wasn't as pretty, but complied with the rules. . Even before his crash, Moore's wallet was flattened by his bad luck at Daytona. But his spirit showed in his determination to race. . "The bike's fast, " he said, shortly before crashing. "If it stays together and I don't fall off, I just know 111 be in the money." . Even a win wouldn't have allowed Moore to retire, though. First in a Novice event pays just $615, second $415. A finish low in the first ten wouldn't even have paid for the parts Moore bought at Daytona. Moore races for the reasons that compel every competitor to enter every event. But to continue in the face of Financial disaster, with little or no chance of compensatory reward? What makes Garry Moore. Novice ro ad racer, carry on? ''I'm in too deep to pull out now," he shrugs. .- I-< 0.. < H feel like a specimen" I A lady doing a mechanic 's job "1 ..ish I was a Kawa," says the tourist from France. He stands outside rope and pennants isolating the Kawasaki garage from milling pit crowds and gazes at Karen Germo, 20. Her brown hair pulled back into a single tail reaching down her back, and wearing a one-piece mechanic's coverall, Karen works on Gary Nixon's Kawasaki 750. The observing French tourist sighs. "If I was a Kawa, every time I broke down she would work on me," The tourist's reaction is not untypical. "Most people don't get the idea - they just don't think it's possible," Karen says. "I feel like a specimen." It is possible . Karen is Irv Kanemoto's ace helper. She pulls engines, helps with pipe welding, pulls clutch cases, polishes bubbles ; in her words, "whatever comes up. " Back in Los Altos, California, Karen owns a Yamaha 400 monoshock motocrosser and a Bultaco 200. Now a dedicated trail rider with two years' experience , she plans to take up TT and short track this year. Karen became interested in bikes through a former boyfriend. "He raced our first date," she says. "By the third race 1 just said, 'I gotta try this,' " She gained much of her mechanical experience working on the former boyfriend's bikes while he was at work. He'd leave her in the morning with instructions on what to do, and she'd have the work done by the time he got home. Most recently, Karen worked as a parts lady at a shop near her home, but quit to become Irv Kanemoto's help er . "Most of the guys from Kawasaki understand," say s Karen Germo. "And lTV needs the help," 32 . By John Ulrich