Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

IOpposite page, t op) Pomeroy between motos at t he Swiss Grand Prix during his first season in World Championship competition. He beat reigning champ Joel Roben in both motos. Joel came over to the young American's van for the first time ever.IOpposite page, center) When t he word filtered back to the U.S. that Jim Pomeroy had amassed the highest point total to w in the opening 250 Grand Prix in Spain, people were still saying " J im who?" His only national exposure had been in a Cycle News interview the week before he left for train ing in Europe. Nobody had reckoned w ith the young (20) American's skill and determination. IOpposite page. bottom) Bimbo had the U.S. tent to hi m self in Yugoslavia. Iro nically, the stripes on the flag were blue; the fi eld of stars. red. Bot h he and Marcel Wiertz, his Belg ian Bultaco mentor, shaved off their Fu Manchu moustaches for the foray into Communist Europe in 1973. They had t o match t heir passport photos. IA bov e) Int ern atio nal motocross produces strange politics. It I. strange politics. Pomeroy lined up for ri der prese ntation in Yugoslavia and the guy with the Soviet Russ ian fl ag marched out and stood in front of hi m . It didn't slow him down. (Right! Pomeroy and mecha nic Merle Anderso n wait for the stan of the Dallas Supercross. " I think th e AMA should be smart enough to want to work with th e riders. And I think th e riders should be smart enough to ask th e AMA to hel p them . If the two strings were tied togeth er the n th er e would be twice as much pow er as th ere is now with th e AMA a nd th e riders workin g apart. Righ t now there is too much conflict. People with too many ideas who don 't have th e expe rience ' to base th eir ideas on. It's just like a good business wh ich really ca n't be considered esta blishe d unt il it ha s 15 yea rs experience behind it. Motocross in Am eri ca isn't 10 years old yet. I have only seven yea rs of professional racing expe rie nc e. "W hen you' re talking abou t ch angi ng rul es you don't ask som ebody who is 18 years old , no matter how fast he is, because he doesn 't h ave th e experience to m ake good judgements. You have to have somebody who ha s the experi ence a nd has dealt with the same problem before . Or else he won 't know how to solve it. Nobody h as that kind of experience over here in America , You can't get anybody to agree on anything over here. That's what so weird. " O ne thing that really bothers me is how th e racers and their teams are treated by th e promoters and the AMA . Riders and teams ha ve to pa y to get into a race. no one pays them to come, and yet they're always being told what to do and if they break a rule they're fined , or kicked out. They'r e professionals but they have to suck hind tit to everybody. The mechanics are treated worse than anybody, even the riders. They can't go in and out of the pits without being bugged by th e guards. T hey tal k about safety on t he race track , but at the Su percross races and even some outdoor races the riders aren't allowed out on the track on foot. You almost endoed in practice. or you did endo, and you want to check out the track but they won 't let you, You can't go out on the track so you never do find out why you crashed in p ractice . That's what isn' t safe. T he AM A is trying to be too professiona l for themselves and the promoters wh ile overlooking the riders. " Another point in rid er safety wh ich is overlooked , along with disr espect for th e m echa nics, became apparent later t hat evening in t he Dallas Supe rcross race. It was ann ounced at th e tra ck tha t rid ers would ge t one 15-20 minute practice session, with rid ers only being allowed out on t he track in t he one of four groups that th ey wou ld qua lify in lat er th at evening . Eith er a rid er werlt ou t with his group or 'he couldn 't pra ctice. It did n 't ma tter t o th e A MA if a rid er f ound his bike 's jetting wrong on the f irst lap of pra ctice and had to go ba ck to the pit so his m echa nic could make adjustments. Becaus e of th is, many rid ers did no t have adequate pra ctice. Wh en th ere was tim e to hold a seco nd practice session grou p , th e AMA would announce it at t he last possible secon d wh en everyone was ca ught offg uard . R id ers wou ld be out of th eir leathers an d m echan ics wou ld have th e bik es tom d own fo r inspectio n or ma int enanc e. On e f actory mechanic ha d bot h wheels and th e air filte r out of rid er's bik e whe n th e A MA m ade th e announcement that his rid er would be allowed 15 minut es more pra ctice - beginning imm ediat ely. It n ever occurred t o th e A MA to ask th e riders or m echanics fo r a bett er approach . An open pra ctice session du ring th e 1 - ~ to 2 hours allott ed practice with th e nu m ber of riders out on th e track at one tim e controlled by th e pit steward would ha ve solved th e whole problem . R id ers would g et all t he pra ctice th ey need ed , wh en th ey nee de d it . M echa nics would kn ow th ey had tim e to set up t he m ot orcycles .prop erly and safely. I next askedjim about start mo n eyfor American races. W eren 't he and t he othe r riders professionals putting on a show fo r th e promot ers, and didn 't th ey d eserve something for coming to th e racer "At these races like th e Supercross Series, which is in vitational , and even th e Nationals to some ext ent because riders have to qualify. the riders in the Feature shou ld be assu red of earning something. There are only 24 or 25 rea lly top riders anyway. T he y all should get start money. I never raced the Supercross Series before , and I wouldn't without start money. Now it's a little different because I'm contracted to Honda an d they want me to ride . . But still , I feel th at I draw a lot of spectators to a ra ce because of who I am. And so do most of the other fa ctory guys like Ma rty Smith. People come to see us in parti cul ar , and those are the people who dese rve st art mon ey because the promoter is cert a inly mak ing his money off the ir appea !ance at his ra ce. " If I'm su re of mak in g start mo ney, the re's no problem if a p ro mo ter asks me to come to his ra ce a few days ea rly to he lp him wit h promotion. I'm more tha n willi ng. But m ost of the time th e promot ers don 't wa nt to p ay us anyt hing to come, a nd yet th ey b itch bec au se we won 't hel p th em wit h promotion . T he ,' always want to scre w us over, SO it's no wonder the riders a n: ge tti ng bitter about helping th e promoters advertise their race . " I fed m y salary at Honda is to tally to develop tha t mot or cycle , because they're experime nting with parts a nd ideas for use on fu ture p roduc tio n bikes. My jo b at Honda has not hi ng 10 do with act ual race pr omot ion. "These $25 ,000 p urses for Supercr oss are good . T hey don 't need to be any high er. They sho uld be fixed at wh at th ey a re. But wha t we sho u ld d o now is begin a ddi ng in sta rt mon ey for th e rid ers. Wh en th e a tte nda nce figu re re ach es, say 25 ,000 peo ple .; th en we sho uld ge t a percent age of th e gaw ad ded to th e pu rse , pe r ha ps in th e form of start mon ey. That assures the promoter tha t he's not go ing to hav e to pay O UI mor e than th e gua ranteed p urse if he has a sma ll crowd . But then , if he does mak e a lot of mon ey wit h a good crowd . so do the riders. Everybody stays happy. There a re ways to work everything out. " Po m er oy obviously feels t here 's ro om f or improve ment i,! A merican m oto cross racing. H e feels t he re are a lot of good th ings taking place, and he 'd like to use his ex perience and a bility t o ma ke it even bett er. H opefully , there will be some open ears to ideas h e has to of e r before h eading back over to f Europe next year. M eanwhile th ough, Pom eroy is enjoying his 'visit ' to America . " I'm enjoying it here. I'm more relaxed tha n I ever was in m y four yea rs in Europe. I'll be ra cing all the 250cc a nd 500cc Nation als , the Ca rlsba d and Canadian GPs , and th e Trans-AMA s. Aft er that it 's back to Europe and the W orld Championship. I'll try to cut down m y time in Europe probably to just t he 4 ~ months it takes to run th e Champion ship . I want tocome b ack here, as well as go to othe r countries to race d u ring th e rest of th e year. T his is my profession - racing and I want to do wha tever I ca n to help the sport bu ild , because I know it will help me as well. It's motocross tha t I love . and I like it now for the sa me rea son s that I did when I fi rst started racin g ." 7

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