Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

the locals and I met this one fellow don't ever really lose. You've got to give 'em hell every time and hang in there." who was pretty fast. We got to know each othrr and I used to VISit him and we would occasionally go to races together. His name was Yoshimura, Pops Yoshimura. I learned a lot from him." Racing bikes and working on them was fine, but then Lillie decided to make a change. "I went to Europe and raced sports cars for awhile and got out of bikes until I came back to the U.S. I did a little work on road racing equipment and then built some indoor short trackers. FinaIly, Jimmy Odom, A&A Manufacturing and I got together and I've been at it (tuning) every since. "Now I have my own shop (Harry Lillie Racing) and I work there. I do mostly development work with the people at Megacycle Cams. I enjoy it." Lillie has done work for Pat Hennen, Randy Mamola, Rick Hocking and many others. He was associated with Zanotti Enterprises during 1978-79 in the TT portion of their program. Steve Eklund rode a Yamaha TT500-based machine or a 750cc twin, depending on the track. "I like to have an aggressive rider on my machinery," says Lillie. "But he also must be a rider who thinks and plans ahead on the race track. I feel those are two of the most important traits a rider must have. You can be aggressive and foolish, but if you can ~ aggressive and smart then you're going to get someplace. You have to know when to stop and when to go. One other very important thing is that a rider should present a good image and ~ aware that he is in the public eye." Do you remember the Yamaha TZ750 dirt tracke.r? Lillie does. He got in on the bottom floor. "A famous road racer, I won't mention his name. came back from a testing session and stopped by A&A where Ray Abrams and I were working. He said, 'Hey you guys are crazy enough to do it, so why not build a TZ750 dirt tracker?' That afternoon we called up Doug Schwerma of Champion Racing Frames and he went for it also. The first time we ran was at Ascot and that night Yamaha ordered four more for the riders involved." Kenny Roberts, Steve Baker, Rick Hocking and Skip Aksland rode the screaming machine at various locations, mostly mile Nationals. Ro~rts won Indianapolis before multi-cylinder dirt track engines were banned. "The reason I do everything is that I love to develop engines, pieces or parts. It is reaIly a thrill to be with a good rider and see him put something you've done to use. I like to see people do good. I really enjoy it. There's a lot of satisfaction in it." The 1980 Peoria TT was memorable for Lillie. His rider, Scott Pearson won the National to chalk up his first career victory. Lillie was overjoyed. How would he like a history of dirt track to remember him? "I'd like it said that I was fair and tried to provide good quality in whatever I did. I can't ask for much more than that." Tell Peel is called "Big Man" by rider Ricky Graham. It's a fitting description of both Peel's size and his determination to build the fastest Harleys around. Peel, immodestly feels that he has two of the five fastest bikes on the circuit. To back up that statement one need only look at this year's Sunday Indianapolis Mile as proof. Graham averaged over 100 mph in the 25 mile National, something that had never been done ~ore. It was Graham's first National win as well as Peel's. Tex didn't get directly into bikes, but came from tuning drag race cars with a bit of tuning on what he calls "circle burners" or super modified stock cars. "I quit cars in 1969 when things just got too expensive. I rode bikes on the street until 1972 and then ended up working with Cummings H-D (in Flint, Michigan) and that started the whole thing. I never even saw a bike race until 1971. We went to Daytona and I got jazzed watching the Daytona Short Track. Hey, the Harley V-twin is just like a Chevy V-8; all you do is saw off the front two cylinders and, the back two then turn it sideways and you've got an XR." Peel is a privateer tuner. He works an early shift at the Buick Motor Division plant in Flint where he is a transportation supervisor where trilevel freight cars are loaded. He heads for work at 5:!!0 a.m. and returns home at!! p,m. "When I get home I turn on the lights and go to work. This year I've had three bikes to keep running and that's a handful. I've got a lot of help because it's the best organizer that wins. I try to gather all the best help available to do the job. Dick O'Brien at Harley helps out. Ron Alexander who developed the XR into what it is today built my heads, Jimmy Clarke does my cranks and then there's help from the sponsors and we even have people who help out virtually for nothing ~cause they love the sport. Building winning machinery is eXpensive, but I think it's money well spent." Peel is most honest in assessing why he does it. "It's just an ego trip, that's all it is. I want to make my bikes go faster than anyone else. I've always wanted to ~ first. The bottom line is ~ing Num~r One. "If I had to race the rest of the season for no money I'd work just as hard. That's the way I like my riders. I want somebody who will ride just as hard as I work. There isn't anybody on the circuit over the period of a season who puts in more hours on the machinery than I do. That's a fact. I virtually don't sleep." The career high point for Peel? Easily his Indianapolis (Mile) win. Beaming from ear to ear which made his bushy black ~ard seem that much larger, Peel said, "Indy without a doubt and then the Santa Fe TT. Ricky (Graham) is a damn good TT racer, but he really showed his talent on that short twisty track. As for Indy, I think both (Saturday night and Sunday) were superb rides." How will history remember Tex Peel? Probably as a penon who never quit. "People who don't quit," said Peel, "are usually going to end up winning. Now they don't win all the time, but if you don't ever quit, you Brent Thompeon ended 1980 in style, bringing the Num~r One plate .. with a bit of help from Randy Goss -back to Milwaukee and HarleyDavidson. Thompson has been in the tuning business in one form or another since 1971. Prior to that he worked in a shop while in high school and dabbled in club road racing. He moved to California after graduation in 1970 ~cause "there weren't enough places to road race around Evansville, Indiana." That move proved to be a step in the right direction for the following year he landed a position with BSA/Triumph. "It wasn't a glamorous job," says Thompson. "I washed parts. did odd jobs around the shop and in general was a go-fer. The next year I ~came a full team mechanic and worked primarily on the Triumph Trident and BSA Rocket-!! road racers. "I worked there until 1975. During that period 1 briefly worked with Dick Mann, Gene Romero, Mike Kidd, Gary Scott and others who were road racing. The first dirt track program I worked on was with Kidd (1974) until he broke his leg in the middle of the season. I also worked for five months on the Norton streamliner Bonneville project. "Unfortunately, the racing department went under in 1975 and I went looking for another job. That's when Dick O'Brien offered me' a position at Harley. " Thompson's work at Harley added to his rac.ing education. He worked on Jay Springsteen's 250cc road racer and then served a stint working with Marty Tripes and Rex Staten on HarleyDavidson's short· lived MX program. From there he went back to the racing shop to work on dyno development and fabrication. When 1980 rolled around and Randy Goss was hired, Thompson was tabbed as his tuner. "I find that I work best with a rider who is sincere about his racing and actually lives it day to day like Randy. I like someone who can give me mechanical feedback because I'm not the one riding the bike. I never raced dirt track professionaIly so feedback is more critical to me than to those tuners who have raced." Why is Thompson a tuner? It certainly isn't for money. "Sometimes I wonder why I do it, but I think it all boils down to the fact that I love working on machinery. I love building bikes and then getting out to the track .. the proving ground -- to see how well I did. I think money would have to ~ last on the list of reasons why I do it." The high point of Thompson's career was the joint success of Randy Goss and he winning the Winston Pro Series title. "You may not ~Iieve it, but I never set working on championship winning machinery as one of my goals. It jllSt sort of happened. Naturally, if you are going to ~ a tuner then you set out to do your best and the ultimate example of that is being Num~r One. Now the hard part is doing it again, and again and again. "I'd like people to remember that I built safe, reliable and fast machinery, that I was easy to work with and I always gave 100 percent no matter what I was doinS'" Shell ThUel isn't a man of many words. Anyone who has ~ in the tuning business since 1959 doesn't really have to say anything because a record like that speaks for itself. He got into the game when his best friend, Jimmy Kelly, asked him to help with his race bikes arid Shell has ~ at it ever since. Thuet was never a professional racer although he used to kick up a lot of dust desert racing. He has seen both sides of the business, as the man responsible for Yamaha's dirt track program in the early 1970's when Kenny Roberts won his National championships and then as a showcase for his business, Shell Racing Specialties. . It's easy to guess why he is still in the sport. "I love it," says Thuet with a smile that tells all. "I'm just trying to do something that might end up being something nobody else has done. I'm not in the sport for the money, that's for sure. It's the satisfaction. Everyday you learn something and everytime you race you learn. Then you put it into the development of new pans or projects." Shell Racing Specialties' main business is manufacturing racing parts to convert the 650cc Yamaha engine to 750cc dirt track and street application. Thuet has been working exclusively with Yamahas since 1970 and sees no reason to SlOp. Although introduction of a 750cc V-Twin by Yamaha for 1981 has ~ seen by some as a machine for Yamaha's reo entry into the dirt track wars full scale, Thuet doesn't. "I don't ~lieve the Vtwin is the answer, " he says. . "I started working on Yamahas in 1970 with Keith Mashburn and then there was Kenny, Don Cutro. Gene Romero, Rick Hocking, Hank Scott, Eddie Lawson and others. All of those riders had a common trait .. they were chargers and didn't falloff and wreck my equipment. If there's one thing I hate it's a bent up bike." Thuet reached way' back in his memory for a highlight in his career, all the way to the early 1960'•. "I'd have to say that holding aU the track records at Ascot was a high point. Allen Shultz was riding for me and we had a Royal Enfield, a scrambles setup that wasn't made for that kind of racing, but Allen made it go. That was along about 1961 through 1965 or '64. "I've been fortunate to have had a long and satisfying career and if my hea.Jth holds up I'll probably be I e

• Cover