Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

1'1 0 career h as been more mark ed by seriou s fo ugh t battles to th e top or caref ree, com ical loo sen ess than th e tuio-tim e . ~ National Champion J immy Wein ert. For 'Jam min ' Jimmy th e battles started on th e half-mil es and sh ort track circuits of th e East under th e tu te lage of th e master, Gary Nix on. Th en w hile motocross was a y oung fl edgling We inert threw himself in to it. In 1974 y oung privateer To ny DiStefano came on th e scene and qu ickly grabb ed the p oints leads in the 500 class aft er so me tita nic du els with Weinert. A broken thu mb dampened Tony D. 's ch arge, but his p oin ts lead sto od almo st un beatable, but J im m y ' Weiner t fought back and scored four National wins in a row to w in th e Na tional Championsh ip. A record that stands today. . In 197 5 five riders travelled t o a mosquito and alligator infes ted bayou of Louisiana t o settle th e 500 National Championship. Sitting quietly in their isolated cam pgrounds of precious shad e Howerton, Grossi, Karsmakers, Sta ckable and Weinert shared a unspoken in tensity to go out into this n igh tm arish scene and w in the National Championship. While m echanics fiddled and sp ecta tors th rew rocks at th e alligators from th e levee th e heat and hum idity got more oppressive. Hours passed and the races were delayed. Finally at · four a 'clo ck in the afternoon , after sitting on the line for over on e h our, th e gat e dropp ed and fiue men with a mission went for it. The. battle of the Louisiana swamp was one of m oto cross' historic moments and the man who emerged victorious fr om th e most grueling race ever was Jammin' Jimmy Wein ert. In 1976 the nemesis from the past, Tony D., n ow th e 25 0 National Champion would return to haunt Weinert. Throughout the 250 series they engaged each other in corner after corner, week after w eek . "Jus t like th e old days in '74" Weinert would say after he and Tony D. had traded the lead over ten separat e times at Hang town. Jammin ' easily won at Phoenix in April, but th e crowd talked about the back of the pack charge by Tony D. DiStefano easily won in Houston wh ere Weinert suffered his "worst day. " J immy won his second National of the seven race series in Georgia, but DiS tefano had the points lead. "I have to go for itt" said th e Jammer and go for it he did in Maryland by scoring 1·2 and pulling within 15 points of Tony D. In Allentown, Penns ylvania with only two races to go the Suzuk i and Kawasak i riders tied. With only on e race to go in Southiuick, Massachusetts they mo ved to Mexico , New York to start the 500 series before finishing what th ey had started. In Mexico it was all over before it eve n starte d. A rock , ironically thrown up fr om the rear wh eel of Tony D. 's Suzuki; fo und its mark at over 100 mph. Wein ert was struc k directly on th e kn eecap, crack ing the pa tella diag onally an d en ding n o t only his . sh ot at th e 250 Championship, but also h is chance to rep eat as 500 Champion . What are your plans for the rest of the year? According to my do ctor my knee has six or seven wee ks of healing time. He plans to have me in a cast for . three weeks. Then I'm going to start exercising a nd hopefully should be ready A ugust first. That's Un ad illa, New York. I'll miss three 5 0 0s, th e USGP, the Can adi ari GP and the Superbowl. I plan to get right back in sh ape and ge t re ady for the Trans-AMA. I was h appy with th is year. My strategy for Ilangt own was tha t I didn 't kn o w wh at kind of shap e I was in be cau se we had never been tested for 40 minu t es. We h ad two 3 0's in Florida, three 30's at Daytona a nd the indo ors, but no 40's. I kn e w lwas in good eno ug h shap e to go fas t for o ne m ota . I coul d p ro ba b ly cr uise the other. So what I pl anned to do w as to ta ke it easy th~ firs t m ota , la y back and then go for it . And in th e sec o nd mota go fo r it from 'th e b egin n ing . So I tried it , b u t I waited too long an d let Ellis and the D. get to o fa r ah ead. Everything I was go ing for went away th is year. The 25 0 Nat ional Championship, th e 50 0 Na tional Ch ampionship and th e Super Series. How did your knee get broken? Very simple. I was riding aro u nd in p ra ctice and ca m e up to the D. We started to race. I d on 't think we were really ra cing; I follow him, he follows me, trying to learn lines. I was going to pass h im an d when I cut behind him a rock came up and hit me in the knee. I've broken my collarbone, knee and wrists. The wrist at Saddle ba ck and this one at Unadilla. Knees! Now I ca n see hor Pomeroy felt. I can sympathize with him now. This is the first time I have broken something in three years and it's not because I did something dumb. I didn 't run off the track or crash. So it's not too bad.. . How much money will it cost you to break your knee? Boy, it 's a lot of money. Now ·I've ruined my day ! I don 't think of it that way. I was sitting down in my bedroom earlier thinking I'd be pretty dumb to worry about how much this had cost me. Do you race in practice often? It depends on what the mood is. I remember Roger D . and I had a race at Carnegie. Do you remember that? It was heavy. I be at him. .I really enjoyed that race! He came up later and said that it was fun. I know I can run with th ose gu ys, but I was never in shape. I figure th at by the third ra ce of the Trans-AMA I should be a b le to r ace with them. No problem. It 's go n n a be a heavy Trans-AMA. Brad says that more Europeans are co m ing this year. Do you have any European plans? I th ink I'm going t o st ay right here. Why go over there? What d o es it mean ? It 's n ice to be World Champion, but the wa y it's becoming over here it's ge tting pretty ferocio u s. The way it's go in g right now I think we are getting better. We 're gass in' it . We 're getting in better shape. We'r e ge tting the good bikes. The purses are getting bigge r a nd each ye ar m ore people are coming t o watch . There's a lo t o f m oney to be made here. T hey're no slouchs, The y've been doing it for a long time and have a lot of skill an d tal en t. I think we do some crazier things, but yo u h ave to watch the Russian s to see crazy th in gs. That 's what GP's ar e all abo u t. I can't wait to ra ce Trans·AMA wi th Roger and them. Last year I didn't ge t the ch ance to race with them. I started slow and fizzled a wa y. How come? I didn't like the machine ; the forks. We co uldn ' t ride with them. Does the bike make a difference? I think so. Some guys can't ride this or that. It's nice to have a good machine that you like. Last year we couldn't get the Yamaha forks fixed and it affected my riding. We had two good sets of forks for the Nationals and that wa s the end of the forks. They said they improved them. Bill (Buchka) and I knew we were in trouble then. Finally they sent over a pair of Ake Jonsson kind. They worked good at Carnegie. Why did you leave Yamaha? That's a good question. I th ink it was organization. I don 't think Pete (Sch ick ) and I got along that well. He 's not a bad guy, but he has his ways and I have mine. You have to keep the co m p any happy, but they never advertised my wins and th at pissed me off. This year I was so happy to be on Kawasaki and winning. I think they appreciated it too. If you could change motocross in any way how would you? I like the outdoor ra ces the way they are. Naturally we want bigger purses, but that is going to take a little time. Indoors we just have to simplify the whole thing and get one champ. They talk ab ou t a plan for the outdoors where everyone will rid e all three class es, and then they take your total accumulative points. They'd have about 15 races, but not as many 125's as 250's and 500 's. I don 't lik e the way the points ar e this year. I like the new system, but I feel th at we shou ld have been able to drop a couple bad motos. It 's not like that now so we . have to ride with the present rules, but I'd like to see it chan ged . What do people want? Sure he's the 125 ch amp, Tony D. is the 250 champ andJim Weinert is the Open ch a m p. Who's the ch amp th ough ? Whi ch o ne o f these guys is the be st? Maybe the solution is t o co m bine them all. It's hard to sa y how I would ch ange motocross. The best thing would be to ge t every one toge ther and talk ab o ut it'. How would you change road race? It wo ul d be unfair fo r m e to say 'cause I'm no t doing it now. T hey have their own gig. I t hin k th ey sh ould lo we r the p u rse s and have m ore races, but not 20 0 m ilers all the time. Do like Europe and have 75 an d 5 0 mil e rs. I wouldn't take a road race ride. There are so m an y thin gs that can go wrong on a road racer tha t are critical . The o nly thing that can break an d you wo uld n 't get hurt is th e z ipper o n your leathe rs . How old are you? 24, 111 be 25 in Au gu st. Pierre is the o ldest and Timmy Hart is 26. I feel I' ve just starte d. I was never in sh ape befo re. Do any companies have retirement plans, _workmans camp or benefits? No t for their racing! Boy, they don't have nothing for the riders. We are self-employed. I don't go down and co llec t any mone y. Should you? I don't see why not. Everybody else who works at the factory does. What do you think of Tony D? He is a natural comedian. Everything he says comes out funny. He's not dumb. He is very smart. You don't get to be Number One by being dumb. Maybe he does it to make everyone laugh. I saw him at the Holiday Inn in New York. I said; "You won D." and he goes, "No, Jammer you'll be there." I said, "No, you got the championship . My knee is broke. " We were all standing around and 1 kept saying "Smile , go ahead and smile. You can smile now." He had his old silly grin on his face. That's why I said if 1 showed up in Southwick with my green leathers on and went to the line he would pass out. • 41

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