Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TIME REMEMBERED Jim Gibson By Er ic Johnson n the lat e 1960s, a r ace dri ver named Chris Am on competed on the World Championship Formula O ne circuit a s a m ember o f th e mighty Ferrari team . Brilliantly fast and de termined, the young racer from New Zealand wa s graced with a significant amount of driving talent and was in possession of the best and mos t exotic race machinery the Ferrari operation had to offer. Amon had everything it took to make a serious run at the Formula One world title. However, somehow, alo ng the way, it never came to pass . Chris Amon wo uld ultimately d rive in 96 Grand Prix events in a career that spanned 10 years. Unfortuna tely, during a solid and consis ten t race career, Amon wou ld never win a Form ula One Grand Pr ix. And while this di st inc tion m ay so u nd so me w ha t dubiou s, Amo n was cited as being one of the grea test race-car drivers of the era . In fact, England's Fl Racing magazine recently went as far to includ e him among the 35 grea test Formul a One racers of all time. And that' s lofty company wh en one conside rs the F1A - the Federation Int ernat ionale d e L' Au to mobile - has been sanct ionin g events since 1950. American motocross has its o w n version of Chris Amon and his nam e is Jim Gibson . Reared on the baked-out, highspeed playground of Saddleback Park in Sou thern Ca lifornia, Gibso n had a sho rt-li ved , incandescent professional ca ree r that lasted just five ye ars. And w hile he never wo n an AMA Nationa l -or su percross even t, the rid er known as "D iamond Jim" was ama zingly consisten t. During his tenur e as a member of Team Hond a, he placed in the top six of eve ry series he competed in. Furtherm ore, the California n closed ou thi s career in Europe riding a factory Yamaha in the.125cc Worl d Cha mpio ns hip Se ries, a n d i n th e p ro cess won t he G ra nd Pr ix o f Finland a nd fi ni s hed th ird in the fina l point sta nd ings. But perhaps his 'finest momen t came in the a u tu mn o f 1983, when Gibson joined teammates Danny "Magoo" Chandler, Da vid Bailey a nd Johnn y O'Ma ra to w in the Mo tocross and Trophee des Nations in Europe. All things considered , the qui et and reserved Gibson enjoyed a prolific racing care er , and one tha t is certainly worth documenting. Brought up in the hills of Orange Cou nty, Californ ia, Gibso n was living a t g ro u nd zero of A merica n motocross, and as fate and natural talent wo uld have it, he pr ogressed th rou gh the Sou thla nd local ranks to ran k-andfile professiona l at an alarming pace. " I grew up in O ra nge Par k Acres, near Sad dleba ck Park in Irvine," sai d Gibson from his home in Mu rrieta, California. "I s tarted racing w hen I was a you ng kid, bu t my parents d iscouraged it and I gave the sport up. Then, when I . was arou nd 16 or 17 years old , my dad ga ve me the okay and I s tarted racin g again. My first race was at Sadd leback in the Junior class and I went pretty crazy and cras hed. So the next race, I moved Late In his career, Jim Gibson foll owed the 125cc GP circuit for Yamaha. Gibson was a member of the winning U.S. MX des Nations team In 1982. u p to the Intermediate class an d started wi nning right away. Shortly after that, I moved up to the Pro class a nd was a midpack pro almost immediately. It was at that poin t in time that John Bassett s ta r ted giving me help. Basse tt mad e boat headers and he got into motorcycles a little bit , fabrica ting sw ingarm s and doing some porti ng. He has since passed awa y, but his sons are still involved in th e busin ess. Joh n go t me a bik e an d parts and I started doing pretty well, and by the end of the year I was racing the Tra ns-AMA races for him . So, in th e span of one year: I we nt from being a Ju nior-class racer to racing th e TransAMA events. Thin gs ha p pene d so fast for me. Although I was n' t racin g from the time I was 9 years old, I was riding every day. However, once I started and got it all down, thin gs moved quickl y -

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