Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

CN M , V ..c S v > o Z You've got to make a total effort • By Terry Whytal • I son I } The scene is Saddle back Park on a typical SoCal mid-winter day with temperatures hovering in the 60s and the air very calm. CMC is hosting today's races and the 250cc Pro class is about halfway through the second moto. A yellow and black blur flashes past the scoring tower with a 20-sec.ond lead on the pack. Jim Gibson, sporting a Bassett Racing jersey arid working his Yamaha for all it's worth, is repeating hzs feat of the previous week and indeed many past weekends, the total and complete destruction of the Pro class. Still a newcomer to racing, Jim was riding under the Yamaha support program with additional help from Bassett at age 18 and soundly thumping many of the more experienced riden. He fmaUy attracted the attention of tnighty Honda, and team manager Terry Mulligan gave Jim the chance to ride two of the '78 Trans·AMA races on a 450. "Those 4501 are really hard to ride'" explains Jim, "They gave me a chance to ride them as a test kinda, and they thought I did pretty good 'cause I got a third.place start at the Sears Point race until I got tired and faded back to eighth. They figured that was pretty good anyway 'cause of my size and that 1 should be just right for the 125 class. n 2'1 So '79 looked like it would be a good year for the little-but-powerful rider from Orange Hills. Mulligan set him up with a bike, mechanic and a small salary to pay the bills. Unfortunately, what Jim had earned on the track was undone by a management shakeup. The new decree cut the budget, and the last to sign was the first to go as, "They just pulled the rug out from under me'" Gibson was left worse off than before. "By the time Honda dropped me, we were all set to go, and so were the other teams. I tried to get a ride with someone else, but all the positions were filled - even the small teams like Moto-X Fox and LOP." Scott Gillman, a close friend, had been picked up by Suzuki, and he managed to help Jim talk to Tosh at U.S. Suzuki. "He wanted to see how 1 would do during the Golden State series. 1 had some bad luck, though, and the bike broke a bunch of times. 1 twisted my ankle and didn't finish too well. So Tosh just gave me bikes and parts, and we wen; gonna race the Nationals that way, plus whatever help we could get' anywhere." With things going rather poorly, it would have been easy for Gibson to be bitter towards Honda but he figured, "They had to do it. They had to make a decision between me and Warren Reid and they chose me because 1 was new and unproven." Then, as so often happens in racing, someone else's bad luck gave Honda a chance to change their decision. Jimmy Ellis got hurt practicing, and they moved Steve Wise from the l2Scc class into the 250. At Brian Lunnis' suggestion, Honda offered to provide Gibson with a bike for the Nationals although they couldn't guarantee anything else. Jim accepted with some reservations; he figured, "It was a pretty thin deal, but I thought it was better than the Suzuki 'cause 1 would get to ride a works bike." Gibson and his mechanic Bob Stem received the Honda with just one week to prepare for the first National at Hangtown. While Jim tried to get used to the bike, Bob spent hours attempting to straighten out some of the 125s problems. They asked that the shocks be changed, and they were modified and returned to be used on the bike at Hangtown. After easily winning his qualifier Gibson came to the line for the first moto with confidence. A bad start left the Honda rider with a lot of ground to make up. "I was workin' up through the pack, and 1 flew off this jump, and 1 thought 1 was leaning too far forward but it was the shocks ltickin' up. Then 1 hit this bad section and bottomed out, and the damping on the forks worked and the shocks didn't. 'Luckily, 1 didn't get hurt." The next t.hree Nationals saw Jim do better, however, and Honda, rJlting what they saw, started helping more and even gave them a truck to use for the second half of the 125cc National season. With Stem's expert wrenching and Gibson's blazing speed, they proved.tb be a formidable duo, often beating the other factory riders and always staying in the hunt. Not without. a few problems, however ... "I had to get used to a different bike every week. You should have your bike a couple of months before the start of the Nationals so you have time to practice and set the bike up. That should be basicaUy the bike you will ride. You'll be familiar with it, and that way you can trust it 'cause you know what it's going to do." Add to that the difficulty of

• Cover