Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Spring an d s ummer passed. Nixon did more convalescing. He kicked a heavy pain-pill habit. At Ontario's season-eoncluding road national that October, Kanemoto had another formidably modified Suzuki for him to exercise. Crashing in practice in more Ontario oil, Nixon at first thought he'd fractu red his shoulder, b u t it was only a chip. Then he spilled all over again. Riding through the intense temperatures of the National with a broken toe, he was second to Kenny Roberts until breaking down. For 1976 a new opportunity opened up . Maybe Nixon's last. Europe was N ixon had no ideas of overreaching. The series was brand new . They'd spend 1976 figuring things out, do nothing heroic, then regroup for a grand assault in 1977. But at Daytona, Nixon did the impossible by finishing second to one of the overpowering factory Yamahas. Traveling to Venezuela for the next Grand . Prix, he actually appeared to win . The temperature hit 118 degrees, and all afte rnoon he was in a running battle wit h an Englishman and a Frenchman. Fainting after the finish, he was slowly rec upera ting when the ever-attentive Sheene arrived with a d ri nk of water have put him on Imo la's front row the previous year, Nixon relaxed. But he was being misinformed and suffered the humiliation of not qualifying at all. Following this, he and Kanemoto were on the verge of looking for an excuse to pull out and return to the U.S. for good. But they we re still leading the standings. And how do you quit something when you are leading a World Championship. Home was as hostile as abroad. Nixon cras hed at Loudon, rip ping open his shoulder; at Lag una Seca he unloaded again on the sa me very sore sho ulder. ru bber, got caught in a Netherla nds rainstorm, b roke a gear-shifter, and slipped and skidded and surrendered the point lead to a Spaniard. Fortunes sinking, he headed to Germany and the last two heats of the championship at Hockenheim, where he had zero hope. But he naturally procee ded to win the final heat anyway, exactly as he won at Oklahoma City and Ascot Park an eternity earlier. He was two points shy of the championship, but still pend ing was his official protest of the ridiculous Venezuelan Gra nd Prix. If the protest was upheld at the FIM Congress, he would be World hosting its first global titl e for the big 750cc pavement bikes and Nixon saw a possible World Championship in the cards yet. But his attempts to loca te sponsorship funding to send him overseas were, p red ictably, a farce. Sardonically, he afterward recalled some of them: "So I walked in on these big corporations and I say, 'Hey, I've had two broken arms, and they've been broken ag ain, and I ain't raced in a year and a half but twice, so would you give me a hundred thousand to sponso r me?' " Some of hi s adherents actually seemed relieved that Nixon was fund less. Lurking in some anx ious comers was the fear that Nixon, who was only five years short of 40, might in 1976, at last be physically beyond it. There was lots of skepticism. Even the U.S. distributors of Kawasaki, who finally agreed to su pply motorcycles and a limited budget, did so with the understanding that Nixon not tell anyone. The kick off meet of the 750 series was at Daytona. And, as if in some way he, too, had been touched by the Nixon he x, Erv Kanemoto arrived at Daytona on a .la rne ankle of his own. He and telling him he'd been declared the race's champion. The n, in what d eveloped into an in terna tiona l scandal, the organizers of the Grand Prix declared there'd been a scoring m is ta ke and that they were d educting $12,000 from Nixon' s wi nnings and naming him onl y the runnerup. Nixon ho llered swind le and filed an official protest. The more noise he mad e, the bigger the backlash he created. Now the organizers wouldn't even meet their promise to reimburse his hot el accommodations - the American reporter Jack Mangus had to use his credit card to bail out Nixon and Kanemoto - and Nixon barely escaped Venezuela at all. Italy was hosting the next 750 round, but the Venezuelans managed to lose the Kawasaki for two weeks and Nixon arrived at Imola w ith nothing to ride. Throwing himself at the mercy of Kenny Roberts , he bartered the loan of a spare Yamaha. Welcome as this was , the substitute machine gear-shifted on the wrong side for Nixon, it wasn't jetted for fast laps, and raw gasoline boiled out of its overflow vent. Told that the lap times he was turning in spite of this would Wound s ooz ing, he returned to Europ e a nd the deadly s ta n d off. A Frenchman challenged the points lead, b u t went down and out of the point stan dings wi th a broken ankle from an auto mobile accident. Fluke disast ers occurred such as ha ving a chain master link fly off, get swallowe d in th e engine, and then utterly d es tro y on e of Kanemoto' s rare cu stomized cylind er heads. Th en , w it h a fres h Kanemoto motor, Nixon tra veled to the series' Belgian round. A Suzuki and tw o Kawasakis shot ahead of him. The Suzuki lost its water pump, one of the Kawasaki's sha ttered a pi ston, and the other had a sp a rk plug let go. Nixon wearily captured the wi n ner's prize money plus a case of cha mpagn e he used to get bombed out of his mind on the ferry back to Eng land. But the financial stakes of racing on the international level were crippling. By the year's second to last Grand Prix, the 750 series had cost Nixon $10,000 of his savings. Kanemoto was similarly out of pocket. Things go particularly sadistic. In an ill-advised tactic, Nixon mounted slick Champion after all. All that had to happen was for the American Motorcyclist Association to vigoro us ly back up N ixon's protest. And when th e AMA proceeded to do a half-hearted job instead, that was the end of that. Making h is way to th e podium to accept some smaIl tribute at the AMA's 1976 awards banquet, Nixon was ready to settle accounts. He had been drinking and knew e xa ctly what la ng uage -h e intended to use on the sanctioning body he had faithfully pa id dues to for 19 years, and to whom he had contributed so much animated history, and who had let him down. But the entire hall was on its feet applauding him, and he got choked up with emotion. Ni xon 's anger melted, and he held his tongue. Perhaps saying nothing was the best and most difficult thing he ever did in his long career, which he finally brought to conclusion in 1978. The audience in 1994 seeing Gary Nixon competing in the BMW Legends series may not be seeing h im in his prime, but it is see in g Gary Nixon nonetheless. He's taught all of us so much. a 29

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