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/127386
r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- ~ - - -- - - - - - - -- INTERVIEW·Ronnie Jones keeping up w ith th e other H onda guys." An d their new fram es. . Man y th ings changed in Jones ' life after that fatefu l day ..in Louisvill e. Things th at weren ' t im portant before sudden ly becam e important. H is o u tlook ch an ged. H e found other things in life besides raci ng motorcycles. " I just realized that racing wasn't everything, " J ones sai d. ''' Before that racing was everyth i n g . After m y brother was killed, I kn ew racing was important but it wasn't everything. There's a lot more to life. When I was in high schoo l, for exa m ple, and all the other kids went snow skiing, I didn't go. I was afraid I'd break my leg, but al so if I had an extra $300 to spend on snow skiing, I was 'setting it aside to buy new tires for my 250. I didn 't spe nd any money that wasn't on motorcycle stuff: " It wasn't until after th at when I learned how to snow ski and water ski . and all the things I hadn't done. I knew there were no guarantees in life and you might as well do wh at you can while you can." , Although he returned to 'racing, Jones refused to go back to Louisville. But five years later, in 1985, he decided it was ti me to return. " I just decided that if I was going to be successful, I wa s going to have to go to Louisville," Jones said. " I was getting my head back into it, and I realized I could n't afford to give up all those points. I figured I might as well 'go back and get used to the pl ace again." J oined by his mo th er, J on es returned to the track where his brother was killed , e '" c.o C\.l ~ l:: ;j ~ . and although he didn't make the main that year he went on to win his thirdever National in '85, at Ascot. Dirt track racers qualify via a single flying lap, each having th e option to wave off that lap and get back in line . It's a difficult split-second decision the rider has to make wh ile negotiating his lap. After all, if you screw up the second time, you 're out of luck . Jones did his flying lap in 32.150 seconds . Fast qualifier Scott Parker stopped th e clocks at 30.514. One and a half seconds on a half m ile is an eterni ty, and conseq uently Jon es was only 17th quickest and still up to his boots in trouble. "1 should have waved off," Jon es said imm ediately aft er his time trial run . " I got in to (tum) one a bit hot, but I though t I got a decent drive ou t. I'm probably 11 th or 12th fastest." " As per normal," George Garvis said with a smile of his 'rider, w ho's never been much of a qualifier. Does he ever wave off? "N ever," Garvis said. " Well, only w hen we plan it, when I'm timing 22 - · h1m. " Th e work was far from over: "I think it was too soft," Jones said, hammer back in hand as he worked th e rear shoc k's adjust ment back the other way. " H opefu lly, th is th ing (the track) wi ll get damp, m oisture w ill come up and we'll be in th e hunt." There's big money to be made for qualify ing in ,th e top six , as that deserving sextuplet earns a spo t in the $17,500 Camel Challenge. But Jones, who sat atop th e po int standings after two races, shrugged off the thought of not being included. "I' d lik e to make th e Chall eng e, but getting points is more important," he said. Dirt track racing almost lost Ronnie J ones a second time, after the 1988 season. This time h is reasons for wanting to hang up the steel shoe were strictly financial. He was tired of putting his life on the line and returning home to Oklahoma City with nothing to show for his efforts. " By the time I paid for everything, I thought, 'This is stupid, I can make more money staying at home.' J ones said. " I didn 't hav e any idea what I could do for a job, but I knew I could make more money." Then J ones was handed a rather interesting offer. Harley-Davidson 's Bob Conway offered him a job as a district sal es manager for HarleyDavidson in Utah. J ones wa s flattered, and almost accepted the job. Enter George Garvi s. J o nes heard Garvis was interested in going racing, and he ga ve the H onda dealer a call. Soon it was a done dea l. The two now sp li t all the earn ings in half, and have argu ably the best privateer team in th e bu siness. " George is doing a gr eat job on th e bikes , no question about it," Jones said. "Last year , we finished every race. I feel like I'm riding better than I ever have , and George has given me a good motorcycle to go out and race with." Jones took part in the secon d heat race of the night, but so far there was no sight of the moisture he was hoping for. Still, he grabbed th e holeshot, only to be passed on the entrance to ,tum three by Rusty Rogers, one of the H onda riders wi th th e newer chassis. Soo n it was a four-way fight for th e lead with Bill y Herndon and legend Jay Springsteen joining R ogers and Jones. First H erndon wen t by, then Spri nger, an d J o n es w as . quick ly relegated to fo urth . He wou ld have to try t.o qual ify for the N ational via a sem l . " T he problem is in th e middle of th e comer," Jones said. "I can't get it to tum down low. I' m going to lower the front and see if that'll help me just a little. It's just on e of those nigh ts w here we're chasin ' our tail." The respect the younger riders have for th e veterans in dirt track racing is im m ense. Shortly after th e heat race, R ogers approached Jones and said: " W hat was 1 doing wrong out there?" Th is from the kid who'd finished three spots ahead of the struggling Jones . The m echanical experiment went on , w ith Jones adding another tooth to th e rear sprocket. Surprisingly, his RS750 's rear sprocket ,was still two teeth sm aller than the other Hondas and Jones was somewhat mystified. With the taller gear, the wheelbase on the Honda was lengthened roughly a quarter of an inc h: " T hat might help stabilize it in the middle of the comer," Jones hoped. "I've got my work cut out for me tonight, I can tell you that . But it ain 't over till it's over." Jones started his 1991 season with a win at the Daytona Short Track, the seventh National win of his career. He followed that with a second place finish at the Sacramento Mile, and headed south to compete at Pomona. But the tools were still flying in the I Garvis /Jones pit. The latest experi: ment was go ing from a three-inch -» wide rim to a three-and-a -half-inch model. Due to the pre-mentioned truck breakdown, Jones was forced to borrow the wider rear wheel from Scott Stump, who fail ed to transfer to the h National. A In addition, the forks were dropped in the triple clamps, to a po int somewhere in between where they had started the day and where they had ended up. . George Garvis is a motorcycle racing enthusiast and a Honda dealer in Iowa. His reasons for putting money into a dirt track effort are simple: "I just like I working on things," he says while putting Stump's wheel in Jones ' swingarm. He's not pleased that the borrowed wheel has aluminum spac- 11 ers. "1 take them out and put steel ones in ," he said. (Right) Jones struggled to get his bike dialed in for the slippery, !Ii-mile track at the Pomona Fairgrounds. (Below) With seven National wins under his belt, Jones (16) is no stranger to the head of the pack. Jones is intelligent enough to know that the road to the championship goes directly through Milwaukee. In order to win the title, one must contend with Team Harley-Davidson's Scott Parker and Chris Carr on a weekly basis. "If I don 't win, I can be 90 percent sure that one of them (Parker and Carr) will," Jones said. "Every now and then, (Steve) Morehead or somebody will win one or I'll win one. But 90 perc ent of the time it's gonna be one of those two guys. So I feel that this year I have to win at least six races to win the championship. I have to keep those guys behind me in points at least that many times. I just can 't finish third all the time like last year. I have to win some and finish second so I can split those points up and keep th ose guys behind me." Six riders advan ce to the Nat ional via the tw o sem is. Jones lined up in th e second of the two races and headed into tum three in third pla ce. H e quickly moved past Dan Ingram and into second place behind Keith Day. The order stayed the sam e to the [inish, and Jones was in the National. Jones is relatively relieved. He's had a tough night. Eight laps of practice on a troubled day like 'this is not > enough, but as Jones says: " Well, we're in th e main event ." Jones is a realist. He knows motorcycle ra cing isn 't baseball. But he is also optimistic that with dirt track racing now having a TV package, th ings can get better. "Everybody knows that to bring sponsors in you've got to be on TV," he said. "We had some interest from sponsors back when we had the Stroh Mile deal - froni people like Planter's Peanuts. But when that TV deal went down the tubes, nobody would even return our calls. "Everybody is always talking about ~ fixing the problem of not having I enough riders coming up. They say we need to do it though improving the grass roots. But I've always felt that if you can get it on TV, junior's going to be pulling on dad's shirt like I was when I saw " On Any Sunday," saying, 'Ge t me a minibike.' But if the kids ne ver see it on TV, and all the y ever see is baseball, basketball and football, they want to go out and do that. I think you need to bui ld the top and let i t trickle dow n." Financially, a privateer dirt track racer can 't get rich even if he wins the cham pionship . J ones exp lains : " Realistical ly, if I wo n the championship, I' d p robabl y end up gross ing, wi nni ngs-wise, $60,000. The points cha mp ionship is $100,000, throw in a couple of Camel Challenges, another $20,000, so maybe that 's a total of about