TIME REMEMBERED
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got the hol esh ot, and Howerto n stayed a
little ways back, and he let me hold the
lead until th eIast lap. Th er e was one
place before one of the big do ubles and
yo u -ha d to swing wide an d nail it in
order to clear the thing. H e took me to
the inside on that tu m to take my out side momentum away. So I did a hard
brake and cut hard behind ' him, gassed
and clutched it, and cleared the dou ble
wit h almost no run. Ijum ped right over
the top of hi m. H e th en hit me in th e
shou lder over th e n e xt ju m p an d it
knocked my hand off the bar, but I held
on and won ."
As a rew ard for his d azzling consistenc y on the AMA circu it, Gibson was
se lec ted as a member of the 1982 U.S.
Motocr oss a n d Tro p h ee d es Na tio ns
team. A flyin g squ ad ro n tha t included
th ree of his Honda teammates - Danny
Ch andl er , Da vid Bail ey a n d Johnn y
O ' Mara - the fo u r you ng A merica ns
we re shuffled onto a transatlantic jumbo
jet an d sent to Gaild orf, Germany, and
the next week to Wohl en, Switze rland .
Back to d efend the two titles that the
U.s. team had won for th e firs t
time a yea r pri or, the team, led
by a da zzling Danny Chandler and his four consecutive moto wins, left Europe
w it h th e sa ti s fa cti on o f
defending both World Team
Cha mpio nship events.
"They thou ght I would be good
for the team because of how consisten t I was, how good my sta rts were
an d th at I always fin ishe d races an d
never crashed," Gibso n said. "I did n' t do
as w ell as I h op ed , but we won as a
team. It was a great experience for me
but it jus t didn't jell for me over there. I
did w ha t I a lways d id at th e ra ce: I
blocked everything else ou t and I wo uld
just be m yself on th e bike an d track. I
had the mea ns in my career to block certain things ou t, and I think tha t's w hat
led to my success in the sport. I was realIy happy for Magoo Chandler those two
weekends in Euro pe. When I first started
racing, I would go u p north (to Northern .
California) to wa tch him race, and I was
jus t awestruck by his riding style - the
way he wou ld hit jum ps in fifth gea r that
were jus t scary . And not only wo uld he
hit th em a t th at ra te of speed, but he
would th row it into a tabletop. He was
ju st so awesome. O n th e d ownhill a t
Carls bad, he wo u ld hit it so fast tha t he
would tou ch the ground jus t two times
and be in th e co rner. Th en a t th e des
Natio ns h e wo n fou r back- to -back
m otos. We wou ldn' t have won those
races witho ut him."
"That was grea t;' Cliff White said of
the victories. "The team we selected to
race over th ere ,w ere a bunch of rebel
kid s with lon g hair and they just stood
ou t agains t the European hierarchy - the
Ma lherbes a n d Noyces , Th e y were
yo u ng, special kids tha t clean ed th eir
clocks , Jim made a big con tribu tio n to
the tea m and rode very steadily for his
firs t time in Europ e."
"Jim was a solid guy to ha ve over
th ere - just solid:' O'Mara sa id . "You
kn e w you w e re goi ng t o ge t s trong
results from him . We need ed that then,
and those solid, top-five finishes Jim got
over there helped us wi n. He was perfect
for those two races ."
And w hile Gibson m ay be a bit too
critical of his ow n performance at th e
'des Na tions in Europe, his resu lts caught
the eye of Yamaha's Grand Prix racing
ch iefs. Foll ow in g the swing th rou gh
Europ e, Gibso n was contacted by an old
Ame rican friend, Bill Butchka . Butchka,
wh o h ad left for greene r p a stures in
Eu rope, twirled spanne rs for Gra h am
- Noyce and N eal Hudson, both of whom
wo ul d wi n World Ch ampion sh ip tit les
with the mechanic . '
"Bill But ch ka, a mechan ic, and I were
supposed to hook up at Hond a in 1979,"
Gibson said . "I had a contract to ride factory Ho nda 125s. They had a last-minut e
cha nge in management and they laid me
off because of financial reasons. I didn't
d em and any mon ey and I was back to
starting the yea r wi tho u t any bikes. Fortunately, Suzuki stepped in an d helped
me out. By the end of 1979, I was back at
Honda, but Butchka we nt to Eu rope the
same yea r to wren ch for guys like Brad
Lackey, Graham Noyce and Neal Hudson. Bef ore th e 1983 season s ta r te d,
Bu tch ka as ke d m e to co me over to
Europe to rid e the 125cc World Champions hip for Team Yam ah a under a twoyear contrac t.
"At the first race in Holland, we raced
on a deep-sand track. I d idn ' t like sand
becau se I always d id better on hard pack.
I came from behind in both motos to get
seco nd o ve ra ll a n d tha t looke d real
good because at the worst race track,
I took a second ."
'
Th e firs t race in Holl a nd
would ulti mat ely en d up
giving Gibson a fa lse
sense of security. As th e
125cc circuit caug ht fire an d
moved across the mo tocrossing nat ions of Europe, Gibson
began to face the stiff competition
and mind-boggling adversity that is
so rem ark able in Grand Prix
mo tocross.
"I was having a tou gh time adapting
to the groove becau se their riding sty les
were so different tha n in the U.S.:' Gibso n sa id . "They rode wide th rough the
turns to kee p momentum up, and I was
use to b eing much m ore precise and
using the ru ts and using traction to my
advan tage . It took me a while to get u sed
to it all over there, At Helsi nki, we raced
on a fast sand track, and I sta rted dead
last d ue to first-turn crashes in both
mo tos and came back to finish 2-2 for the
overall. Heikki Mikkola was the re and
he was a type of team ow ner /team manager for the team , and he said to me: 'I
was told tha t the tea m wasn' t hap p y
wi th some of your rides, and I was sen t
here to see how you rode. I can see you
have no problems:
"There was a lot of competition in that
class, Whe never Eric Geboers, whom I
race d aga ins t in the class, climbed on a
250cc bike for the big international races,
he wou ld a lways bea t allof the best
guys. I felt good about tha t because I
knew I was racing against the best g uy.
In fact, in my very first internationa l race
in Euro pe, which was held on a real slick
race track, I rode a 125 and wo n it. I beat
Hudson, Noyce - everybody - on my 125
and was real stoked ."
When all was said an d done, Gibso n
ended up an impressive th ird overall in
his firs t season in Europe. But perhaps ,
even mor e encouraging to hi m was the
fact that he had now figu red out how to
win - Jim Gibso n was on his way .
Then it all wen t wrong.
Prior to the star t of the 1983 season
Gibson was told that the deal was off:
Yama ha wo uld n ot be field ing a 125cc '
Worl d Championship effo rt in 1984 .
Flustered and heartbroken, and witho u t
any thing going in America, Gibso n was
n ow a man wi thou t a co u n try . Depressed a nd d isap p oint ed , Gibson
was left to stand at the edge an d decide
the fate of his career.
"1983 was a terrible yea r for b ike
sales an d the bott om fell ou t of racing in
Europe: ' Gibson said. "I couldn' t continu e wit h the factory in 1984, because they
cu t th e program back. That's w ha t go t
me started on retirem en t. The sit ua tion
broke m y career at th at point. I cou ld
have come back and raced supercross
back in the States , but I made my d ecision to retire. I still have thou ghts abo ut
retiring when I did . I really missed it. I
wish I wo uld n 't have quit. I wa nted to
go back. At my last international race,
which was held afte r the last 125cc GP, I
passed Eric Geb oers o n m y 125, a nd
pulled away and won:'
"When Jim re tired, he wasn' t all tha t
old; he cou ld've kept racing:' O'Mara
said . "Bu t b efo re h e wen t away to
Europe, he was on the best team w ith
the bes t bikes and didn' t want to come
back with a team that was n't as good:'
Today, 15 yea rs af ter his last season
in the world of professional motocross,
Gibson, th e co mple te fa m ily m an,
doesn't regret his decision, '
"I had mad e m y d ecision to retire,
and it was more of a career move based
on my family," Gibson said. "I wanted to
sp end more time wi th them . It was more
of a spiritua l move; I' m not a minister,
but my family was more im portan t to
me. My wife's na me is Ch risty and I
have two d aughter s. Alyssa is 7 years
old, and Shay lee is 5. It's better than rae, ing, an d my family mean s a lot to me.
"I live in Murrieta, California , an d d o
land surveying. The busi ness is based on
construction, so it kind of goes u p and
down. When I first got out of it, I di dn' t
reall y follow the sport at all. It was so
hard for me to stay away. However, I'm
more into it now and wa tch it on TV , I
also found a way to be dr awn back into
the sport. For the pas t couple yea rs I've
been involved with So , Ca l. Riding
Tours . Mike Fedorow, his wi fe, sister
and myself are involve d in the fami lyb a s ed b usi ness , whi ch is b a sed in
Canyon Lake, Califo rnia, and orga nizes
off-road mo torcy cle tours, Mike, his sister - who raced the wome n's motocross
Nationals - and myself ride, and we all
wo rk together on setting up the cam ping
areas and cooki ng."
Then , as the interv iew wound down,
came the inevitable question: Why di d
Jim Gibson, so fast and co ns istent in
America, and a wi nner in World Cha mpionship mo tocross, fail to pull off that
big wi n in the Un ited States of Ame rica?
"Pa rt of that came about by my d ad
always telling me to jus t go out and do
the best-yo u can," Gibso n said . "In add ition, John Bassett once told me that Ton y
DiStefano wo n a 250cc Nation al Cha mpions hip by getting thir d-p lace finis hes .
That all stuck in my mind, I kept thinking, 'Don' t crash an d stay con sisten t in
racing' . It stuc k with me and that 's how I
approached it. At that time, I didn't have
the kill er win instinct . Th en, whe n my
career developed, and I we nt to Europe,
1 d ecided to put more em phasis on winnin g, and I started to do that late in my;
career. I knew it was time to start push- ~
ing harder. I realized that it was all a big
ment al game. Just when I started d oing
that, I quit: W hen I thi nk back on it, I
could have go n e a long way. I wasn't
racing over my head, an d I was winning.
I di dn't burn out on racing. I could have
carried m y long-t er m ap proach a long
time. I rode motorcycles because I loved
to ride mot or cycles, I'm so rry I d idn't
have any American wins, but I have no
prob lem w ith m y career, I' m happy with
where it was and how it progressed ."
Th rough ou t the cou rse of this in terview, an d th rough talking to a number
of former Honda teamma tes and technicians, I was left wi th the impression that
Jim Gibso n didn't let the little things get
him down. In fac t, he is rem em ber ed
vividly for his laid-back Califo rn ia persona lity . and attitude. White recalls an
incident tha t he still gets a big lau gh ou t
of.
"We really liked each other and had a
grea t re lationship . He was really laid
b ack an d so non ch al ant about ever thing that he used to forget things all the
ti me. We used to joke with him a 10
about it. O ne time w e were at a test at
Saddleback, and Jim came s tro lling in
with his gear bag . We had ridden him a
few days ear lier about forge tting thing,
so he ca me in a ll p roud that he h ad
packed everything. He said to me, 'Cliff,
you 'll be prou d of me: and he started to
pull ou t everything to show me, So he
p u lls o u t tw o left bo ots a nd we a ll
lau gh ed so h a rd . He was so e m barrassed , but he wore them in testin g anyway:' '
Much like th e aforemen tio ned Formula One racer Chris Am on, Jim Gibson
was a very talen ted an d calculated racer.
And the era in w hich Gibson had to do
battl e was, in the eyes of many, the most
co m pe titive in th e sport's hist or y. On
'a ny given weekend, the relaxed Californ ian had to suit u p and wage war
agains t such formidab le and ruth less
com petito rs as Broc Glover, Jeff Ward,
Mark Barne tt, Kent Howerto n, Bob Ha nnah, Mike Bell, Chuck Sun, David Baile ,
Don nie Ha nse n and Rick Johnson . The
ge ne ration was a ve ritable m u rderer's
row of racing talent and Gibson mor e
than held his own aga inst all of them , In
fact, if not for some bad timing and bad
luc k, Jim Gibson may have very well
been a champion. History w on' t forget
that - it can't.
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