Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

that." By Gary Van Voorhis Tuners are the unsung heroes of motorcycle racing. They are the men in the trenches who burn midnight oil seelcing extra power or an edge in handling that wiU make the bike a winner. They work in allforms ofthe sport from motocross and drag racing to road racing and dirt track. What we've endeavored to do is grab a slice of life on tuning from eight of the best on the Winston Pro Series circuit. They represent three separate schools of tuning .. the factory tuner, the tun.er who works to make a litting from sentices lie sells, and the privateer tuner. Bill ~erner and Brent Thompson work for HarleyDavidson while Jerry Griffith is employed by Honda. Mert Lawwill, Shell Thuet, Harry LIllie and Storme Winter make their litlelihood from racing and through race related sentices. The pritiGteer in the ranks is Tex Peel. The format rellOltied loosely around five questions on why the eight are tuners, how they became involved, what traits they look for in a rider, pinpointing a high point in their careers and how each would like to be remembered in a history of dirt track racing. Mert Lawwill probably hit the bottom line in answer to a question about what motivates someone to become a tuner. He said, "Down deep we're all poor losers, .. • Jerry Griffith began his tuning career, depending on how you look at it, back in the late 19605, when he raced and did his own work on his bikes or in the mid -19705 when he worked with Kenny Roberts or in 1979 when Honda hired him to work with Jeff Haney on their dirt track program. Actually, the work with Roberts and his frame building business eventually led Griffith and Haney, who rode for Roberts at that time, to Honda. Griffith remembers starting out as a Novice along with Gene Romero and progressing through the ranks. However, in his first Expert race (1965) he broke a leg and decided to hang it up. "I didn't really have any support and in racing you've either got it (talent) or you don't. I had it on the little tracks, but 1 didn't have it on the half miles and miles. "Once I quit racing 1 worked in shops that did a dirt track trade, mostly sportsman racing, until I got involved with Kenny. We did a lot of things including the frame building business (where Griffith was shop foreman/manager). I learned a lot and I think in helping out Kenny with his Yamaha I worked harder than I ever have. Griff\.lh doesn't pull any punches It 42 about his reasons for working for Honda. "It's the money for one thing." says Griffith. "I also made a deal with Jeff (Haney) to help him until he got a ride. Then he got the offer from Honda and Honda made me a good deal so here I am. Sometimes I wonder why, because it's no small job to come up with a Harley beater from a 500cc engine. I have some friends in rodeo and it's the same for them. You get pounded every week, but you have to keep coming back. Working with Mickey (Fay) and Jeff has its ups and downs, but overall it's a lot of fun. We've got a big job to do to try and beat the Harleys. We all handle it pretty good because you know you're going to get your butt beat, yet you've got to keep trying. The potential is there. Wl1at I would like to have is'a new engine to work with." Anyone who saw Griffith's 500cc creation for the (spring) San Jose Mile utilizing the Honda CX four-stroke engine in a Harley-like configuration knows he has a lot of ideas lurking up his sleeve just waiting to take shape. "I think I learned more from working with Kenny than anything else. We would do so many changes on something we were working on that I gOt frustrated and began keeping notes myself to learn ,as much as I could. I don't like to say it, but I think Kenny hurt himself a lot. He's the best rider that ever lived, but he shouldn't have been involved in his race program the way he was. It was frustrating. We went to Ascot for the half mile and broke the track record and then he wanted to change everything. He was running dead last in his heat. I couldn't believe it, I worked so hard to build that bike. That's the way it goes sometimes. "I guess the best thing that's happened to me lately is Mickey (Fay) beating Kenny in the Houston (Short Track) National. 1 tbought Roberts could run away with it and he just beat himself. Kenny won Terre Haute (1976) on a bike I built. I wasn't even there, but it was a good feeling. "I don't know how I'll be remembered. I hope it's because I did my best. You can't do more than Men Lawwill spent 19 seasons racing the AMA Grand National Championship Series, winning 15 Nationals and collecting the championship in 1969. A student of the "no brakes" school of racing. Lawwill's flick·it·sideways style of riding suffered when the AMA allowed brakes to be used. He hung up his leathers in 1976. Today, he has Mert Lawwill Racing Products which offers Harley-Davidson XR750 racing parts and frames plus Yamaha TT500 speed parts, a bicycle manufacturing business, and still has time to do development work for Yamaha under contract. Lawwill still looks like he did in On Any Sunday although there may be a few age lines around the eyes. Like many riders who started in the early 1960s, Lawwill found being your own tuner was the most economIcal way to race. "I guess the reason I got into tuning is that in order to have any money I had to be able to keep it all, the rider share and the mechanic share. In the beginning I did all my own work and as years went on I guess I was too stingy to give up half the purse to anybody, so I simply had to develop into a better tuner. It just carried over when I quit racing." Lawwill still resides in Tiburon, California, and in the same house he did when On Any Sunday was made. It's bigger now, to accomodate extra space for the business, He built some houses on speculation and sold them giving him a cushion to "support his habit." Among those who have ridden and won on Lawwill·tuned machines are Mike Kidd, Garth Brow and Mark Brelsford. That's pretty good company to keep. "I think the one reason I like tuning, and 1 think it's the same with anybody, is the satisfaction of accomplishment that can be measured only by racing and winning. "There are two different ways to look at a rider," says Lawwill. "There is the rider who is going to win today or a rider that might not win, but who In appears to have a good future. With that thought in mind, I'm working very closely with Jimmy Filice. We've tied up a little partnership which will keep us together for the next several years. I believe there's a great future for Jimmy and I'm very interested in helping him fulfill that promise. "I also at times look for a good test rider, somebody with good feedback. Whether he can win or not might be immaterial. If he works well with what you are developing at that time then he's the guy you want." Lawwill split his career into two segments -- racing and tuning -- for highlights. "The Columbus National (1972) had to be a highlight. I was riding for myself and simply won the race by mechanically figuring out the right things to do. I felt a big sense of accomplishment and it boosted my ego. h was like a double victory. "It's been 'a hard transition for me, having someone else riding the bike. All I do now is see how it's handling and performing. I think Kenny's (Roberts) win in this year's Houston TT was a real thrill because I felt at the time our equipment was superior to anything there. Of course, Kenny had a bit to do with it. "I would like to be remembered as somebody who contributed a lot to the sport. I like to think that I've done a lot, that I've done my part as far as the fans are concerned and racing and development are concerned. It's hard to say, but I'd probably rather be remembered as a good racer rather than a tuner. I just hope I've left my mark." Harry Lillie is a Yamaha holdout in a Harley-Davidson society, although Lillie will admit he tried to obtain a Harley in 1972. There weren't any available and he's been doing his thing on Yamahas ever since. Lillie was building and tuning sprint car engines before he turned to motorcycles in 1957. He picked up his philosophy of taking the time to do the job right from his four wheel stint. "I was in the Air Force in Japan and I had a fast bike. We used to race with

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