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/126251
Marty Moates overcame incredibly bad luck in the past to do well in Florida. Marty Moates: From local 'shoe to factory rider 'A Shaking off a history of incredible bad luck, MartY. Moates took third in the Winter-AMA Series 2S0cc' class. He is personable, soft-spoken, easy-going talkative•..and very fast. ' By Jim Gianatsis had f orgott en all about Marty Moates. I had seen him race in the west coast Trans·AMA Support class races last Ylfar, and th e 20-year.o ld rider -from San Diego was impressive as he and his Mid- Valley Ossa f ought it out with th e factory I (To p and Bottom ) Moates in actio n at t he Winte r AMA. (Ce nter) Marty and m ech anic He n ry Gref await t he St . Pete start. 6 supported riders. T hat wasjust fo ur months ago. Now it was February; the pla ce, th e 1977 Florida Winter-AMA Series . Marty was in Florida .. bikes and m echanic an d all .. as Ossa 's first fac tory ride r to cam paign on th e' entire A MA circuit. Ma rty was proving himself to be t he only ride r in th e Florida series' 250c c class capa ble of staying up wit h Yamaha 's in credi ble Bob Hannah even if it ~as only fo r a fe w laps befor~ Marty bailed off or something happened to th e bike. Still , he was g ett ing closer to th e "H urricane " than Suz uki's T ony D or Billy Grossi could. In a yea r where th e only question will be -- who can catc h .Hannah? -- Marty Moates was looking like a very logical answer.Int erviewing Marty turned out to be easy. Th e guy who looks as to ugh as Mohammad Ali ready to nail Howard Cosell in ' the mouth is actually a p ersonable. sof t -spo ke n and easygo ingfellow. H e also likes to talk a lot. A II I had to do was sit back and let Mart y and th e tap e record er carry on a sort of one -sided conversation . " I sta rt ed racin g when I was four teen -- I talk ed my mom int o it afte r taking her to see On Any Su nday . In m y fir st two races I finis hed in last place on a She rpa 5 th at I had . The next two races, I finished th ird a nd really bega n . to like raci ng . I tr ied really ha rd , a nd by th e next year I had m oved up to Expe rt . For th e ne xt \,,!o yea rs I raced in CMC . " I bough t a ll my own bikes -- well. my m om did . W e di d n't tell my dad . He was in the hos pita l for two years a nd didn't wa nt me to race . We did n't tell him . Now he likes the racin g. bu t he thinks the re's a better way to m ake a living . Like working .(Marty chuc kles a lot. ) " I neve r d id fin ish high school. T hree years ago I ca me ou t for t he Florid a Seri es, a nd I quit high school so I could come out her e. I was never very sm art in high school and could n' t see continuing it if I planned to make my career racing. It wasn 't going to help m y raci ng. A factory's not going to say they don't want you because you d idn't finish high school. So I talked m y mom into letting my quit . and I came out here to race. ~ "T ha t was in 1974 , and I got a ride on Rickman with Marty Tripes. When I rode the bike the first week out here at St . Pete, it blew up . I rode it the nex t week, and it blew u p again dow n in Hialeah. An d then the next weeki I was doing rea lly well, and then hurt my foot. I didn't race the next mota. R ick m a n then deci ded we wer e breaking too m a n y bik es -- they kep t b reaking -- so we quit a nd th ey fired us all at the same time . We never madea di me from them and they never made anything from us. " I liked Florida so much I stayed down here for six months. I met a ~ . , ' " i