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/126308
. (; DII ~ t 00 1:' 0') ....-4 • l.O CN .- I-< 0.. < John D. Ulrich e've got Gary Fisher riding our bike now, " jio Yoshimura tells a reporter in the pits at Willow Springs Raceway. "Yeah, that cLaughlin was too much. So now Fisher will 0 ride for us, You know, he used to beat Kenny.Roberts. .. Some people were surprised when Gary Fisher. .who hasn't L__ _ '0 ' . eeen on a racetrac.. In over a year·· . . ed R P' d W cOOl JOin on ierce an ~ ey on a restructured TeamL Yoshimura after . b L __.. a dISpute ro..e out eerween Daytona "-. Superb ...., Produ cti on WInner Steve ..I.I;ft Mc La.." 6 - and the Y01him ura. ' But Fisher's connection with the Yoshimuras goes back more than seven years. Fisher led the Daytona 200 in 1971 and 1972 , until mechanical problems stopped his Yoshimura Honda CB750 both years. ~ides having 'worked with the Yoshimuras before, Fisher is also a proven Superbike Production threat. During 1976 , Fisher jo ined McLaughlin and Reg Pridmore in a Butler-and -Smith sponsored BMW team effort ' that completely dominated Superb ike racing that year. Knowing those facts , it isn't so surprising to find Fisher practicing on the Yoshimura GSl000 at Willow one weekday morning. But 14 some quest ions remain : Why d id Gary Fisher quit racing following .the 1976 season , and what made him come back in 1978? . Fisher pu lls in to t he pits. A . " I b mechanic grabs the bike s hand e ars while Fisher climbs off. After a few . . . .. minutes 0 f c --_ _tlon wit h F UJIO , Fi h er sI'des off L' _ L_Imet an d p Iops IS I ROD ne: . I L_ :_ Af id . Into a awn c...... . ter consi enng h ' iii bs ff d t e qu~~, . e!T~ a ara l-:sre tape recoroer mocrop ne an ta . "We were ~ to arrange a spon· sorship deal with some people at the beginning of 1977 , working on them to spon~r my GP bikes plus the ~roducnon bike. It came close to the time for I?ayton.a and I had my Yamaha TZ7~0 sItting In the box. But the sponsorship deal didn't come through. The~ was no money and no money and still no money. Finally, I just decided that it wasn't wonh while for Gary Fisher to spend $1~,OOO to go ou t a~d stay up half the mght for two weeks In a row at Daytona, with a chance of winning maybe $10 ,000. I could stay home and S make some money. So I dec ided to sell the bikes . get what I could out of them . and wait for the right oppor· tunity, "Everyone who has followed raadracing in the Un ited States for the last couple of yean knows what the situation is, as far as the cost of running a TZ750 and traveling thousands of miles a year for only "four or five races .. not counting races overseas. It's just too expensive for what you get out of it. " W hen T riumph, BSA , HarleyDavidson , Yamaha , Suzuki and Kawasaki were racing in the late '60's and early '70's, anybody out of 20 guys could win a race. It was really ex cit ing. Now , if a privateer like myself goes to Daytona , he's racing for founh place. Not that many privateers have dynos to work with like Kel (Ca rruthers) does to help get the restrictors dialed. In fact, I'm sure that most of the guys at Daytona probably had never ridden their bikes with restrictor plates in them until they got to Daytona. How can you go to the biggest race in the world and do your tuning at the track? If you go to Daytona and you have to figure out what the engine's doing, it's Friday morning of Speed Week before you know it and you're sitting there going 'Baaaaaa.' Usually the races aren't much better. If you don't have your I I r I stuff together before you get there, you might as well stay home. " I've always been of the mind that if I can't do the thing properly, if I 9n't get in there with a chance of winning the race, then I'd rather sit home and watch a ball game or play tennis or go cow trailing. You can have fun doing those things. But I've done enough racing that going out there and beating my head against the wall just to show somebody that you can get fourth or fifth place is not my idea of good competition, " Loo k at Ron Pierce. He did a hell of a job with his own motorcycle. He bought his own bike, went down to Daytona and got founh place. He ac tually won his race, the privateer race, He made a good sum of money, but if he counts his expenses and the price of the motorcycle, he's probably only a bout $5000 or $6000 shy of what it cost him to go to Daytona. Ron digs it, but when it comes to the bottom line , . it's as simple as this : How long can a private individual afford to do it? "We could say, 'OK , this';s gonna ~ a fun thing and we're gonna do it for the love of the sport. ' Fine. Lot' s do " it for the love of the spon. But let's Cl.u it having all this hogwash about it being a professional thing. " Every week you can sit home and watch a bowling tournament that will pay you $15 ,000 for beating 600 other