Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

guys at a bowling alley. Sure, a professional bowler goes through a lot of crap , but so far I haven't seen too many people break arms, legs, collar bones, hit th eir heads and get concussions bowling or playing golf or tennis. "For the amou n t of risk involv ed , why should a qualified , expert rid er hang it out that extra little bit to the point where he mi ght damage his body and destory his motorcycle, his invest ment? For fun ? To satisfy someone sit ting in th e stands? It sure isn 't fo r th e mon ey 'a priva teer ca n win . It 's just a cou ple thousand dollars . It takes me a long tim e to heal now . I'm ge tting old , and I don't like to pi ck m yself up off th e ground . "Look at poor Gary Nix on. He's th e premier ra cer, a living legend . What is th ere in racing th at Ni xon hasn't done? Nothin g . But here th e poor gu y goes to Dayton a without a good spo n_ sor or full spo nso rship, unabl e to spend money like th e Yamaha fa cto ry. Either Ken ny Roberts or Stevie Baker or J ohnny Cecotto is go ing to win th e race. T hei r factory bikes aren't going to be any slower th a n they wer e be fore th e restrictors. They' re all good rid ers, and thei r b ikes are still much faster tha n the p riva tee rs' bik es. When you have a good rid er on a bike th a t' s better than yours. you ca n't co u nt on them fall in g off or blowin g up . "So Ni xo n goes to th e race, seizes both his mot orcycles up, a nd it bums him out to th e point whe re he does n' t even want to ride th e m at ch races. What has motor cycle racin g don e for Gary Nix on lately? He's su re done eno ugh for th e sport. Why doesn 't t he spo rt do somet hi ng fo r him ? It 's rid icu lous . "W ha t would Calv in R ayborn be doing right now if he wer e still her e? Would he be ra cing Italian HarleyDav idson in Europe? W ou ld he be rid ing th e Superbike class on a bla ck Spo rtster? W ould he be rid ing d ir t tra cks, traveling a ro u nd the co u ntry? T ha t ge ts old a fte r about 10 yea rs. But wha t is th ere , reall y,' in th e spo rt of m oto rcycli ng on a pro fessiona l level? "T he purse money for th e Sea rs Point National now--in 1978 --is $2800 to , win th e race . If you pre-enter th e 'race and win , they give you an ext ra .$310 , That brings th e total purse mon ey, not cou n ting co nt ingenc ies, to .$3110 to win a na tional ra ce . When I 'won La conia in 1972 , th e ra ce paid .$4500 in purse mon ey a lone, plus lap money and con tingencies. I m ade a lot of mon ey th er e . That was six yea rs ago. If you' re making less mon ey in 1978 than you did in 1972, you r expen ses tr iple, a nd you pa y for you r racing out of your own pocket, th en you' ve gotta ei ther be awfu lly rich or a wfu lly stup id . 1 kn ow I'm not rich a nd I like to think I'm not too stu p id, bu t here I am aga in. :>~ 'The wa y thi s all happened ," ca n.tinues Fisher , " is really strange. We moved out to Cal ifornia from ou r shop in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania because I .vias tired of being cold, tired of working six da ys a week , 12 hou rs a day . If you own you r own motorcycle sho p , when th e time co mes at t he e nd of th e month to pay th e bank the ir money. you hav e to really scra tc h and run arou nd to ge t th e mon ey together . No w, I'm working in a sho p with Art Baumann , a co m bi nation motorcycle dealersh ip /spo rt ing goods sto re called Fireside Sports, right on Va n Ness Avenue in downtown San Fr ancisco . I p~ nc h a tim e clock , wor k 8: 00 a .m . to 5:00 p.m . , a nd do n't have to wor ry abo u t any of that. After I leave, I ca n '. go home .and du whatever I want. I'm making about as much money as I did when we owned our own shop , so that isn 't bad. "Anyway , Art and 1 talked about how when the new Suzuki 1000 came out, it would really be the thing for the Superbike class. My boss, J oe Fireside, said , 'Hey, we ought to look into doing that, get into it. ' I told him how m uch it would cost , but th at didn't seem to deter him. Finally, one day he said 'Let's see if we can get an engine and stuff from Yoshimura and lets try to run Sears Point. ' I said 'fin e, OK ,' So 1 called up Fujio th e day he go t back from Daytona, He told me th ere was no way they could get an engine done in time for Sears Point, because Pops was go ing back to Japan for awhile . I told Fujio that was fine , that we'd just try to do something- later in the season. "A cou ple of days lat er , Fuji o calls me up and asks if I want to ride the spare b ike , (the 944cc GS750 that Shohei Kato rode at Da yton a ). I said 'Sure.' "The n, after th e situ a tio n happened with Steve (Mcla ugh lin), Fuji o call ed me agai n and aske d me if I wa nted to rid e the GSI 000 , soI told him yes. You ca n't do much better th an to j u m p on a Daytona -winning bik e. If a bik e wins a t Daytona you kn ow it's a good b ike . I a lways say th at if you ca n go to Day ton a at th e beginning of th e yea r a nd win, tha t sets th e pace for th e rest of th e season. It ca n't gel any better. If you have a fast bik e at Da ytona, it's not going to slow up by the time Sears Point rolls around . It's as sim ple as that. That's wh y, I'm here, I'm b ack . " I would have sat out thi s seaso n if m y boss wasn 't generous enough to say, 'He y, spend the money a nd get out th ere a nd do it. ' And if th ings hadn't work ed ou t with Yoshimura, I wouldn't be riding a t Sears Po int. But we still intend to prepare ou r own b ike--sponsored by Firesid e Sports-after Sears Point. But I would also like to do some of the European endurance ra ces a nd I ha ve already mention ed someth ing to Fujio abou t Bol d 'Or. Reg (Pridmore) and I went over there in '76 , T ha t's an in credible ra ce, "The way it's going, th ou gh, t he Su perbike Production class in th e Un ited States is going to be ,the sal vat ion of road racing , The Yam aha 750 class isn't goi ng to draw th e specta to rs ou t. The production bik es, if Suzuk i a nd Kaw asaki a nd Hond a a nd Yamaha and everybody gets interested in the cla ss, will save 'racing as we kno w it. T he producti on racin g ca n be d irectly oriented to the gu y on th e st ree t who has a Z-I or GS 1000 Su zuk i or 1000 cc Hon d a or whatever. He cou ld say 'H ey, man , I saw th a t pipe on Soa nd- so's bike a nd he won th e race. If I put one of th ose birch en bla ck pipes on m y bike I ca n get another seven horsepower , a nd ma ybe I'll p u t some smooth bore ca rb uretors on it a nd buy a camshaft, ma ybe put some m ag wheels on it .' " You ca n see th at kind of ca rry -over fro m the racin g at th e cas h regi ster. It 's eco nom ica lly feasi ble to justify Superbike Product ion racing , say ing 'We do th is because we want to sell our produ ct .' It 's very sim p le, It' s a d irect tie -in. On th e ot he r han d if you sho w somebody off the st ree t your T Z750 Yamaha a nd tell t he m it's got 30m m whatevers a nd it's water-coo led , th e guy says 'W ha t's tha t do?' T he first thing they as k is if it's a d rag b ike. T o ge t peopl e int er ested-in racing , it has to be somet hing di rec tly rela ted to what th ey un d er stand . Sound, Sigh t. Most people ca n relate to the Su perbike ma chines as th ey a re now. They sou nd and.look like motorcycles.' : . . • , ...... .... $.0 .~ Mrs, Pretty and Mr. Go-Fast. Christie and Gary Fisher. Sunshine. avocados and Frisco fog keep 'em smiling, .,15

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