Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

........ ,. Bill Buchka and the Hurricane Kid .. "If I don't win I'm a crybaby for sure." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! their bikes will ru n before practice on Sunday. Then they use up all their practi ce time on Su nd a y trying to get the b ike right. When the Nationals are b ack East, these guys fly into the races on Saturday. There's no way they can test their bikes . " I' m not very good at setting up my own bike. I'll come in from ridi ng it , a nd Bill will tell me what's wrong before I ca n , I reall y won 't kn ow wh at's wro ng , a nd Bill will say th a t it's maybe too stiff. So he will change the springs and I' ll ride it and say, yeah, you were right. O r the bik e is too rich . He'll ask if it's m id -range rich and I don't know. So he 'll switc h it a nd sure enough it's right. I'm not very goo d at di ali ng- in a b ike be cause I' ve had so little ex perience." Bill - "1 ca n pretty well tell how a bike is be hav ing on th e race course even th ou g h I'm not rid ing it. I think th is whole tuner th ing has gotten blown out of p rop ortion. People a re calling thi s guy or tha t guy a super tuner and now everyone has to live up to a reputa tion . I j ust do m y job . I thin k I do it pretty well and the resul ts speak for themselves. "As most bikes are sent over from th e fa ctory , they are pretty well set to race . All that's required is making sma ll changes for the individua l rider and other changes from week to week to su it the track . Modifications I might make are minor , like a little porting on the 400cc for more power , or building a lighter front wheel assembly to cu t down on 'some of the weight. The monoshock unit on the big bikes never has worked too well all yea r , a nd it wasn 't until we went to Europe for the Mot ocross des Nations that Ak e Jonsson m od ified it so it d id work right . That guy is really good. " Th e amazing th ing ab out 8 0b is his ability to ride and win on any size bike, ' 125cc, 250cc or Open. Marty Smith is proba bly as versatile as Bob , but Marty has never won , a maj or 250cc race and Bob has. Though I never got Bob to admit how hard il was to handle th e heacyuieig h: f acto ry Yama has, he did say that fo r a liu lefella, he had a hard time holding on. Bob - "Almost anybody ca n go fa st on any size cycle . It's just that I don't know a ny better yet. I' ve never limited myself. I thoug ht I liked 125s, but now I find myself liking 500 class bikes. At first the 400 Yamaha wasn't worki ng too well , but we got it a littl e lig hter and working righ t, so I like it. " It' s hard for me to hold onto because it's so fas t ~~Lr m s~ light, J':" only a 140 po unds. If I'm m gass in' the 40 0 I' m ei ther looping ou t beca use I don 't ha ve eno ug h weight over the front end or I'm not getting any traction . " Last week a t Sea rs Point I had pro blems. I had to be right u p on the cross bra ce 01 the ha ndl ebars or I' d fli p on the u phills , and then I can't get any tract ion on the sta rts . It makes setti ng up the bike really hard . Her e it is the last race of the Trans_AMA and we fina lly got everything working right." 1976 was Bob' s first year tin th e AMA motocross circuit. We talked about what it was lik e for him and some of the things that he had learned. Bob - " I've learned a lot. My riding abi lity ha s improved 100 percent. When I signed with Yamaha for the first year, I figu red I'd be fired by th e tim e the season ended. I hadn't even bee n racing for a yea r and a ha lf at that time , but a t least I figured I wou ld have known what it was like to ra ce for a fac tory. "T hen in Florida I started winning. I had to win , or I'd ge t mad. I a lways get m ad if I don't win. Now it's worse. If I don't win I' m a cryb a by for sure, The reason I do good is I'm devoted. I don't do a lot of ou tsid e th ings . A lot of th ese fac tory guys ca n ou tride me. They'll pull awa y at the start of th e moto, but I catch up with th em a t the end . If I wasn 't catch ing up at th e end I'd be in trou b le with the sta rts I get ," Bill . "God b less those people who aren 't as serious as Bob; because it makes th em just that much easie r to beat." Bob - " Europe is still probably mor e important th an everyone realizes. I learned when I went over th ere for the first time th is pa st fa ll that being ' N at ional Champion in Am erica is like winning the Little Leagues. Goin g over there is like tryin g to tu rn Pro . You ca n be the fas test over here . (I kn ow that Kent a nd T ony D. will say th e sa me thing. ) You can be fast over here, but over th ere you 're 6 nobody . You 're going to have to race over there for at lea st two years before you start win ning anything. Over here you can goof off and still make money. I don't think you can in Europe," - With the attendance at outdoor motocross events falling off while stadium motocross continues to in CTease in popularity, what were th eir tho ughts on sta dium racing which seems to be a hotly argued su bject these dayst Bob - "Stad iu m events are kinda fu n , but they 're reall y dangerous when you think about it , As long as you don't let yourself think a bout what migh t happen you can do OK . " I didn't ride a ll the stadium events this past yea r , though I wanted to . Yama ha sent us hom e after the su pe rcro ss race in Da llas , supposedly to ge t read y for the Nationals, and we missed th e Po n tiac Supercross race. It was proba bly for ot her reasons which we don't wa nt to men tion , but a nyway , that left me out of the top five in poin ts go ing in to the Su perbowl so th ere wasn 't m uch po int in racing there. I'd ra ce at Anaheim if it was pa rt of 'the Trans-AM A Series or such , b ut since it' s just an unim porta nt race a dded on to the end of the year a nd Goodwin didn't want to pay me start money I planned to sit it out. In 1977 , I will race a ll th e stadium races." Bill - " I' m pretty frustrat ed with th e wh ole thing . Probably because I got started when motocross was still real motocross. When the Trans-AMA had 20 or 25 Europeans. It was mor e than th e cold, cru el business that it is now . Things a ren't like th e 1969 · 73 era which I liked. You came. to th e races then to sec everyone and it was fun . I wish it cou ld be like it on ce was. "Sta d ium ra cing is just another case for th e defens e of motocross. You can't even call sta di u m racing mot ocross. Even th e format is changed now . They shou ld just call it stad ium ra cing using soca lled motocross rid ers and bikes. Pretty soon there won't even be motocross ra cing outdoors. Even tua lly motocross , as it was origina lly designed , will be put out of business . Pa rt of the reason wh y outdoor ' motocorss is losing in popu larity is oversaturation , Why do we need ten Trans-AMAs wh en we could have six good races? Have th em in good locations throughout the United States. Ma ybe it would draw more Europeans because they wou ldn't have to spend so m uch time away from their homes, Let 's get some mo re Eu ropea ns over her e, pay t hem start mon ey so they can afford to come , a ndmaybe the ra cin g will improve to where outdoor m otocorss won't continue to decli ne in popula rity. I rea lize the American public is cr eature comfort oriented ' towards stadi um events, but thi s is going to come at the expense of real outdoor motocross. " Bob · "Stadium raci ng will hopefully bring more spectators and mon ey into the sport, Perhaps some d ay riders will get a half million dollars like football players do. Bu t for me , I like racing ou tside. Lon g motos. Big tra ck. In Europe they don't worry about stadiums. Specta tors come out in the thousands eve n if it's pou ring ra in ." Ba ck on the su bject of th e 125cc N atio nal Championship, I asked Bob an d Bill how th ey f elt it had been won. T hey already said it wasn 't the bik e. Obviously their combined talents as rider and me chanic had a lotto do with it . Was there mo rel Bill · "The biggest factor in our success th is past year has been p lanning our strategy a head of time. Not just go ing ou t there a nd saying, ' Hey Bob , hold the throttle wide ope n. You 've go tta bounce off trees a nd win this inoto or it's no goo d .' We never went to a race no t su re of wha t we were go ing to d o. We never roll ed up to th e sta rt ing lin e figuri ng we'd have to kn ock fourteen gu ys down a nd han g on to th e bike u nt il th e end of th e rnot o . W e went into every ra ce with so me sort of ba tt le p lan , a nd I th ink , ' that's wha t won us th e 125cc Championship . " In most insta nces, we didn' t go out th ere to ste p a ll over Ma rt y Smith , a nd it worked out the best for us because Marty kind a of defeated him self. The race I ca m remember the bes t was Delta , Ohio , where Marty crashed with a lapped rider. W ha t happened there, I don't know , but it's always been my feeling that that sort of thing should never happen. Not in th e position he was in at that time. so far out in front . We were sitting well enough in the Championship that we knew we didn't have to beat Marty at eve ry race and because of Marty's mistake we ca me away with the Delta win . " Of cou rse, strategy changes d uri ng a ra ce. Like at San Antonio wh er e Bob sa w tha t he cou ld beat Martv ." Bob - "W hen we went to Hou ston we were going there for a top five finishing posit ion . Don't break the b ike for sure . Don 't cras h for su re . Just get in the to p five and that's all . And that's just what we did . I got a fourth , my worst finish of the series. Ma rty got fifth . I actua lly slowed up for Marty a nd signa led hi m to go by, beca use I didn't know wha t he was doing going so slow. I'd never seen the guy going so slow. I wasn 't even p u tting m y foot down in the corners and if Marty was be hind me , something m ust ha ve been wro ng. He flies. He a lways goes to win and to th is day I've never understood why he was go ing so slow the Sund ay before H ou ston a t Sa n Antonio. If I was in his posit ion I would h ave won tha t race, beca use he had to win tha t race to keep me from ta king the Cha mpionship ." Sinc e the whol e claiming rule controversy during 1976 arose over Bob's use ofth e watercooledfactory

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