Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• • stroke 1,000 . In the case of running at Daytona with the machinery I know exists in this country now , I think it would be difficult to make one of our so-called super machines , with a fairing and so forth . win a race of Daytona status. But at least you know we suggested to the AMA . which would have been like them bending just halfway. just a little bit. We suggested ' Let's just try it , let 's just try it for one or two races . Let 's just try it for one year. Let 's see if we can arouse some interest. ' And they just flat voted it down. They'd sooner let the Yamahas go around and bore everybody to death . Maybe I'm too young and don't have this aged thought behind me. I don't foresee certain things that these m en of age do see. It 's like looking down at a child and saying 'don't do this because I did that when I was a kid and I got hurt .' Maybe those guys are looking at us and saying 'don't do that because we did things like that when we were racing and it didn't work.' Maybe that's what they see . I don't know . ' I II ~ t en t- en ~ ~ ~ ..c: 83 u I-< C':S ~ Along with the strong Vetter Superbike Production effort. Reg also pilots a sidecar. with passenger Kenny Williams. . said to Pops (Yoshimura), 'we would like you to build us three machines. ' And if that was to be the case, we Though we have all the respect in the world for Pops, we decided -to run what we already had . Kawasaki of America has been most helpful. ,We got a brand new machine to start from scratch on . But it's not a direct factory effort. We bought our transmissions from Pops. We bought our cams from Pops, along with our pistons. Anybody can do that , anybody can go buy it from Pops. That precisely what we've done. As far as eligibility for the contingencies goes, it's something that Kawasaki and I have a good understanding on. There is a little co-sponsorship program Craig Vetter had worked out with Kawasaki. But I'm not riding for Kawasaki . I'm riding for Vetter ; Vetter Fairing Company. That is my total sponsor. I have a letter in my file to state that I am eligible for the bonus monies. I asked them to ' print that simply because I'd heard things that I ~as riding for a factorysponsor. That is not true . We have our own 100% effort. I am eligible for all of the winnings, plus if I make number one at the end of the year, I'll get the additional $15,000. You have to be on a Kawasaki and you have to be first place. It 's as simple or as hard as that. Do some of the tracks add to the problem being createdbj the faster Superbikes? 1 cari only say that maybe the speeds are getting higher. We're running machines comparable, weight-wise, to TZs right now, within 30 to 40 pounds. We'll have our tire problems possible. I don't think the speeds are going to hurt other than un-faired motorcycles. Un-faired motorcycles, once the suspension gets heated up, start to do different things . Possibly different than what a faired motorcycle would do. You 're riding with big bikes , for instance. your arms out there, you've become a sail. With fatigue, and the suspension warming up , you're going to get some big, waggily machines at 150·160 mph maybe rather than at 120 ·130. I don't know if it's dangerous or not; I'm sure there's a certain amount of danger, but it just depends on the riders. If it scares them enough they'll pull out. If they haven't got much brains, they'll just continue. like most of the top riders do. 22 What about guys like Wes Cooley and Steve McLaughlin who run at , .. the front of the pack on Superbikes and then run fifth or sixth on TZs? Is there a special talent to riding Superbikes? My views are somewhat varied on that. I think the guys who I have the ultimate respect for on Superbikes, like most of the guys I run with Wes, Steven, Baldwin , just all of the good guys - well I'm sure if they just had GP equipment that was comparable. - equal I should say, not comparable. If they were to run together, you 'd see a much closer race. You'd see Cooley up with Kenny. We've seen Baldwin up with Kenny; we've seen him beat Kenny. Have you thought much about getting on a GP bike? Yes. This year was going to be my first year on a real fast two stroke. I had an RG (Suzuki) but unfortunately, due to my heavy commitment in Superbikes, my sponsors didn't want me to ride GP. Craig has some co -sponsors in with him and they all have one big interest: That they make number one and that their products are on the motorcycle and that their .products get all the exposure they pay for. Craig is like a business manager. He's done a lot of promoting, he 's worked hard to generate enough dollars for us -to produce a number-one type effort. We don't intend to let him down . The offer to ride a' 500 Suzuki was very nice , but maybe next year. Where would you have campaigned? • The World Championship? No. just in the AMA , because you can run a 500 unrestricted. I think it would have been competitive with the 7505. In fact , I think Kenny would have run a 500 this year which I'm sure would have been more than competitive. But I think there's a whole handful of riders out there, that given equal equipment, would all be right up front . There was a race on TV with a bunch of car drivers with all identical cars and they were all one big glob of drivers clustered together. That's the way racing should be, somewhat like that. It 's just that one or two guys have the advantage of factory backing, factory technology and ' su peri or machines. You're one of the leading Superbike rjders. Do you make most of your personal income from Superbike racing or from' the shop and its related activities? I would say that the Superbike money .is kind of secondary. I make fairly good money , but still it is kind of secondary. My business here is pretty good , it pays the bills . I've got four or five guys here who work for me. The business works very well and racing is a big part of my actual , every day business. People come to me for my experience. for what I can help them with as far as things to help their bike. whether it's a BMW or not. My business is big and strong and getting bigger and better every year. I feel that racing is one of the parts of living that helps my business get bigger and stronger. Racing is and has been very good to me. Even just as a cash up front type of thing, it's been really good to me. Do you think they're running too many classes and splitting up the purse too many ways? Yes. I think 250 racing is a fine class. but "it's .a lso dying. There's nothing but Yamahas in the race. You know what's going to win. If you don't know the rider out there , there isn 't much objective in watching that race. The 250 racing at Daytona should be cut down . It's too drawn out , a lot of time taken up for -practice. This year you'll see more interest in the big class because there will be some variance in the machines. I would have liked to have seen them follow' up on Steve's suggestion at that AMA meeting I attended in November . It was brought about very strongly that something was needed to create more interest in the 750 class. So the proposal was made that four -strokes up to 1,025cc be allowed to run in with the 750s . I think that would have been a good move . Would you have entered the 200? Sure. Steve said he could have named probably 10 who would have jumped in to get the exposure they need for their products. Now Vetter won 't sponsor me on a 750 Yamaha . He would have sponsored me on one of his machines with "Vetter" stamped all over it and with some Vetter products on it, even though it's not his fairing . He can get money from people and that's what it all comes down to - getting promo· tional type money to back the products. Vetter could have done that. Yoshimura was very much for the proposal and I think it would have given the 750s a run for their money. In all truthfulness , it would have been very hard to make one of those machines win a race like that. In japan : Wester beat a TZ750 in an eight hour race. That might have been a second string TZ750 for all I know , but Wester won the race on a four -. , , i, . HI think you're going to see the forming of a union before too long if things get out of hand too much; if Sliperbike racing becomes what I. think It will become." y Steven feels pretty strongly about that and I think he's right. 1 think it could be pulled off. 1 think it would upgrade rhat particular class and it would create a lot more interest for the spectators, and after all , who is paying for the race? They pay for a large percentage of it , apart from the co sponsors. They pa y a tremendous amount of the upkeep and the prize money and so forth . But the AMA never seems to take this into consideration. They dictate very strongly, and I don't agree with that. I'd like to see the AFM (American Federation of Motorcylists) come along and generate some purely professional races, like the Six Hours coming up in j une, which is paying excellent money. I'm sure if it's a big success, and I know it will be, that their next events will get bigger and bigger and better. A ctivity in the shop went back to normal. Pridmore was confident about his chances in the lOO-mile Daytona Superbike race; he felt good about the dyno tests on the Axtell/des Roches Kawasaki engine and was looking forward to Daytona and the '79 season . • ., I':'

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