Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

When did you decide to get serious about your racing? . m e and I b ecame their num ber one off-road rid er. need about 18 more, I got t ho se p o in ts riding GP eve n ts. A bout 1970. I start ed rid ing District • 37 events a lo t and go t more serious ·abo ut co llecting p oints. Du ring th e week I rode as much as I could in th e fields near ho m e, no body co m p lained abou t it out t her e: Th at sam e year I rod e my first big off-road ev en t in Mexico too. Th e Lagu na Salada 200. I Was on ly about 12 'cause I was still in J unior High. Dales Mod ern Cycle was sort of sp onsoring me on ~ Harley 1 25. I . ended up second motorcycle ouerall. . first 125 cc. The pr ize money totaled $540. Everyb ody was really jazzed abou t th e win, t hey were all .drin k ing beer and celeb rating, so I did too. I got drun k, got really sick, - I didn't dr ink beer fo r a LON G ti me after that. And I had t o go to sch ool th e next da y too. That was my first money race and my first ex perien ce in M ex ico. It was re'all y "n ea t ! N ex t race J remember real well was th e Elsino re GP. I got 1 7th overa ll, th ird Trail Expert. Dad and I rode t he Greenh orn and w e got f irst Fath erf Son Team and I was t he youngest finish er. Th ose were the best things t hat happened though, because that y ear I also bro k e my . arm, and about tw o months later I broke my hip riding in th e Check Chase. Bo y did the h ip hurt. It was m y first h ospital ex p erien ce. Why did you switch from Harley to .Husqvarna? You were in a good position as their number one man weren't you? But, how can you do that - ride two ' different classes and still get number one in both? Because of t he breakdowns. I j ust got tired of not being able to f inish a race .because of the eq uipmen t. Last year at th e Riverside off-road race I bro ke in z qualify ing and it just tic k ed me off. I really wanted to ride t hat race and go f or ' it. When t he b ike broke, Bru ce Ogiluie, uiho was n ext in lin e to m e, was standing th ere w hen I came bac k into th e p it s and i just hand ed th e bik e over to him and said goo d lu ck. T hat 's when and w hy I we n t t o Husk y. It's to o bad · Harley won't pu t m ore m one y in to t he ir racing pr ogram , if th ey did t hey would pr obabl y be winning more races. Well, t his is only the halfway p oin t of the y ear and there are still a lot of races t o go y et. I already have 17-1 8 wins in th e T railb ik e class, on the 250, and I can safely say I'll proba bl y end up w ith t he . number one p late again for ' 77. N ow I can concen trate on the Open class. I'll be riding a 360cc in that one. No on e has . been dominating the Open class it 's been d ivided up f airly even ly ; so I still stan d a chance. You and A.C- Bakken have won When you started breaking your body up didn't you start to have second thoughts about t his racing business? \ No, n ot reall y. A s soon as m y h ip healed I was ready to go again. I saw it hap pening to other p eople all the t im e and my dad got hurt too . . . but I knew tha t co uld happen w hen I was racing. Actually, I get hurt m ore often just screwing arou nd, no t racing. Were you ever fully sponsored back then or did you have to pay your own way most of the time? . Back in 19 72 I was riding alm ost all Distr ict 37 races and I fina lly got th e num ber two p late. That y ear I rode my f irst M int 400, on a Harley 125 cc still, and I go t seco nd 125. Mit ch (May es) and I rode t he Baja 500 t ogether and Kat f If th overall, f irst m otorcycle. Mit ch was t he on e that was sponsored, / was ju st nex t on th eir list, so it urorke d out good. I still had , to go around to dealers trying to get my own supplies. I rem ember th e firs t t im e I went to Bill Walt er s L eathers: J needed som e leathers real bad and figu red ma y be I co ~ ld talk him ' into giuing me a set. I told th e w oman up fro nt w ha t m y name was and ask ed to talk t o BilL Sh e went back and got him, he cam e up f ron t .and ask ed, "What di d you say yo ur nam e was?" I was really nervo us and fel t so sma ll . . .. I told him and he said " I on ly sponsor nu mb er one riders. " I said, but I AM number one, in t he Trailb ihe class. Bo y, was I em barrassed! I really had t o grow up fast. N obod y was going to go around asking f or a sponsor fo r m e, except me. How about your bikes ; did you do all your own wrench ing or did you have help? Dean Goldsm ith did all the wrenching f or Harley back t he n. I sti ll w orked on m y ow n bike f or i~ca l even ts, but Dean wo rke d on Mit ch and Terry Clark 's bikes and mine too, fo r the big even ts. Wh en Mit ch wen t to Husk y, so d id Dean. And now, I' m with Hu sk y an d h e's back w ren ch ing fo r me again too . It work ed ou t pr etty good. After Mit ch lef t Harley that lef t t he d oor open f or • • 1 What does racing, or working, for Husky as a factory rider involve? What do they do fo r you and what do you do for them? Ob vi ously, t hey give m e bikes to ride and m y jo b is to go out to District 3 7 races an d try to get n um be r one, talk t o p eople and ge t th em to buy Hu squarna m otor cycles. I k n o w of quit e a few p eople who have bought bik es because of my wins. I ju st try to be f rien dly to the p eople wh o st op to ask qu estions and talk. I really enjoy it when a little kid co mes over and asks for " my autograph ." I tell th e p eople th e truth an d don 't try to k eep any big dark secr et s ab ou t t he bike. Husk y pays my t rave l ex penses, gas m on ey , win money f or first 25 0 an d a bonus fo r overall. I ge t 125 f or a class w in and $75 for overall w ins, plus ex pense money. It 's pretty good right no w because I' ve been winning, but if I wasn 't , I' d b e pretty bad of f. 1 100 a w eek, for m e, is REAL easy to go t hr ough. Tha t 's it to o, I'm not on a salary lik e Mitch is. That sounds really tight. How do you ever manage to get by without a regular job? Did you ever think of maybe going into professional motocross or something that pays better money? I get: by because I still live at hom e. Don 't get me wrong though. For years now I' ve been pa y ing m y OWft way. I've bought my ow n clo th es, my own gas, and stuff lik e that. I go rid ing a lo t du ring t he w ek and t hat d oesn 't cost m u ch. It 's hard t hough: I go to a lot of races and m y gas money is on ly $25 from Hus ky, if I spend m ore than t hat it comes out of my ow n p ocket . I nev er t hough t about pro motocross u ntil the last co uple of yea rs w hen I fina lly g ot goo d eno ugh. I already had a sponsor th en and a Dat sun tru ck t o boot. Everything was going f ine an d back then I d id n't have t o t hink abo ut a' lo t of m on ey. N ow , I'd really lik e to ride m ot ocross, if" so meone w ould give m e th e chan ce. I rid e motocr oss in all th e GP events and I love it. I'd really lik e for Husk y to giv e m e th e chance, b ut I haven't pro ven m ys elf to th em in m otocross y et. I do n't kn ow, Husk y is reall y go od t o m e. I can walk in t here an d t hey make me fee l lik e I o w n th e pla ce. Th ey really seem to resp ect m e and that's im po rtan t. (overall) just about all the super big off-read races around this year. How much money do you t hink you've made risking your life and pay ing a $250 entry to do it ? Well, are you read y for th is? A . C. and I won the Park er 400 ouerall. It's a j ok e - the SCORE chec k given to us was $1050. That's it. We p roba bly go t about an other $ 1000 in con ti ngen cies. It was really cute, S COR E sen t m e an 8x l 0 A . C. and Bill glossy of myself, Silverthor n, w ho won the overall class one, and it said, "Here are Larry, A . C. and Bill ge tting t heir shar e of t he 1120, 000 purse fr om th e biggest off-road eve n t ever held," and I' m j ust ga in' OK uihere's my m on ey ? When we sp lit it up w e en de d with $5 25 apiece. It 's a joke and a ripoff. People t hink y ou ma k e so mu ch money - hal We beat Silverthorn and he probabl y m ade seve n or eight t housand dollars. Boy, that p ict ure blew me away. Th e Min t 400 was next. R olf T ibblin was sched uled to ride w ith me bu t he had hu rt him self and Mitch had hurt h is knee at OCMC ( The Great Bear GP) so we pu t t he two cripp les t ogeth er and A . C. an d I t eam ed up. T wo da ys befor e the race Mit ch go t off hard an d br ok e both his collarbone s; that left R olf teamed with J ack J ohnson and th ey won overall: A . C. and I fin ished second and our f pay of was 115 00, or thereabo uts. Most peop le th ink, wow - yo u're a big buck hero - bo y 'f I ju st told th em th e tru t h . . . th ey'd n ever believ e it. Th e Baja 5 00 was n ext. A.C. an d I won, overall 'again, and th e pay of f the re was $240 0. Th e first buggy in got abo ut 58000. Th e y pa y according t o t he number of entries p er class, b u t an overa ll win should be wo rth so m ething ex-ra. t Do you get really nervous before .a big race, like the Baja? N o t really - no t an y m or e: Th is year at the 5 00, I'm in the m otel get ting ready to go over to t he start area an d Terry Clark say s, " let's go eat breakf ast. " Now, I do n 't lik e to eat bef ore a race, bu t w e w ent down to th e Bah ia and at e an yway. I was one of the fi st bikes sch ed uled to go of! th e line r and som eone said , " hey y ou be tter get go ing." It was ·ten to six and I was supposed to start at ten after. I was pr e t t y far from t he impound area so I thought, gee, I'd ha te to miss it, so I started jouing down the street through tow n, bo o ts , h elm e t , ev eryt hing . . • f inally somebo dy asked if I wan t ed a lif t and by th e time I got to the line, all I had t im e to d o wa s fix t he lens on my goggles. Tha t was close, bu t it worke d out OK 'cause I did n 't have .ti m e to think' ab out th e start. A lot of racers have superstitions about colors, clothes, all kinds of things. Do you have any? Yes. I w on 't wea r green sock s. I kn ow, you hear all that stuff ab o ut green being a n o-good co lor for racers and all that . . . and I just t ho ught it was sill y - until I bro k e do w n every time I wore green sachs. Yell ow socks us ed to treat m e t he sam e way, but I finally got over t hat. And every time I th ink I'm really go ing to lik e a race, I end up doing bad. S o, I try no t to th in k ab ou t it at all; Do you a good luck piece or carry something like that? Nope, I don't carry nothin'. M y leat hers don 't have any po ck ets. A ll I ever carry is a spark plug wr en ch and a lot of times I forge t tha t too. I get too conf id en t so m etimes, bu t my . bike hardly ever break s do w n. Wha(s going to happen to your off-road career if the BLM closes so much of the desert they can't throw any more big bucks type events? Well, I do n't kn ow w hat anyone else is gonna d o, bu t I'm in t he proc ess of bu y ing a sp eedway bik e. I'd still ride whatever off-road events were left, but if t he desert is shut off, I'll ha ve t o sw itch. I kn ow J im Fishback real w ell and h e's been af ter m e fo r a long time to try speedway. What I want to d o is get the speedway bike now, sta rt riding during the week, and sort of see where it 's at. It w ouldn't interf ere w ith my District 37 racing at all; besides it would be good ex p erience and practice. It 's so com ple te ly dif f eren t from what I'm d oing no w. EDITOR'S NOTE : This interview t ook place the day before the SCOR E O ff - Road World R i v e rs id e Champ ionsh ip. Larry was looking forward to th at race with .hopes of proving his mo tocross ab ilities to his sponsor. Unfortunately, he crashed hard . in his qualifying rac e and severely injured his thumb. But - it could have been worse. He will be out of action until the Baja 1000 where he will probably team up with Jack Johnson. He knows what he has to do towin and he doesn't have to prove that to anyone. just a frgment of Larry's imagination right now• • •• What does Husky hilVe planned for you in the immediate future? 'They want m e t o go f or number on e in both t he Tra ilbike class and t he Op en class. l t 's never been d on e in th e same y ear before. It 's d one all t he tim e - in m otocross, t hat's easy, bu t never th e desert. I n fact I alread y ha ve tw o wins t o my cred it in the Op en class, so I only but one of these days•••• enthausan easy essans 17

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