Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

all I did was race. Pro gressing into .the cha nges to Gibson 's race program. He pro classes that quickly didn't intimidate was matched up with a new mech an ic, Cliff Whit e, and moved to the 125cc class me too mu ch. [ rem ember John Bassett to ride in tand em w ith cha ris m atic saying to me , 'Jim, if you keep riding like tha t, y o u' ll g e t a factory r ide: Jo h n home boy Johnny O'M ara , That su m mer, always helped me sta y focused. one of the most competitive seasons in "I did 90 percent of m y rid ing and AMA 125cc Na tional Cham pionship hisracing at Saddleback, and I also compettory , Gibson rod e for all he was wo rth to pla ce fourth in poin ts behind legendary ed at Carlsbad, Indian Dunes, and a t times in the night races at Ascot," Gib125cc sp ecia lis t Mark Barnett, O 'M ara son said. "A lot of people I raced aga inst and Jeff Ward. came from El Cajon, California - guys "Honda moved me in to th e 12Scc like Marty Tripes, Marty Smith, Tommy class in 1981 and I was happy about that Croft, Broc Glover and Rick Johnson. because I wanted to rid e th e 125 fro m the beginning," Gibson said. "I finished And from my area near Irvine, there was Scott Gillman, Mike Bell, Micky fo u r th in the p oints, a n d it was a Dymond and Doug Dubach: ' tough year because there were so "M y Following the lead of the fast many good racers in the class. first race Gu ys like Barn ett , O'Mara a nd aggressive Saddleback was at s peci a li s ts 'w h o came and Ward, and some of Saddleback in the the oth er guys like Don before him, Gibson decidJunior class and I ed the time had come to ni e Cantaloupi, w ere went pretty crazy .lea v e th e familiar b akedalways there. They were all and crashed." adobe, blue-grooved world of good starters and a ll v e ry Saddleback and hit the AMA pro circuit. "In 1978, I rode the entire TransAMA series and finished LOth in the points," Gibson said. "I also did a 250cc National at Escape Country in Southern California, where I rode pretty well. Then 1979 was the first year that I rode an entire series. Suzuki helped me out with a support ride and I received bikes and parts from them. I had a good series and finished up seventh in the points." : Through his consistent, eyebrow-raising results, Gibson was approached by Team Honda. The Big Red Machine, which was struggling with poor results and bad decisions a t that point in the early 1980s, decided to jump out of the . rut they were in by utilizing a unique talent-scouting system. , "We got Jim on th e team by taking the bus out to Saddleback Park and load ing it up with him, Johnny O'Mara and Donnie Hansen," said longtime Tea m H onda technical overlord Cliff Whit e from th e team race s ho p in Torrance, California. "Before that, the team didn't ha ve th at direction th a t was need ed. Ther e were a number of probl em s and th e team wasn' t being ma na ged very we ll, so it was hard to ge t good rid ers. Even tually, Gunnar Lindstrom, who was the new manager of the tea m, said , 'Let's go ou t and get some good you ng kids at the local races and try and find the .next Bob Hannah: Things improved immediately. Th ere was good direction, th e eq uipment improved and we received strong ded ication from the factory. 'Gibbie' got swept up in all tha t: ' In his firs t year as a member of the factory contingent, Gibson rod e the big 500 to an encouraging fifth-place position in the 1980 AMA 500c National Championsh ip Series . Runni ng in terference for teamma te and ev entual class cha m p io n Chuck Sun, Gibson was . pleased with {he result - especially since he was shoved into the class somewhat u nexpectedly. "1980 was my first year with Team Ho nda," Gibson said. "I was at a test at Carlsbad and I jumped on one of the big 500s and was immediately a few seconds a lap faster than everybody. From that test, Honda made me ride a 500 in 1980 and I had fun wit h it, but the tracks back East wo uld ge t deep, muddy and slick, and it was real d ifficult for me because [ only weighed 145 pou nds . If the track was technical and mental, [ would d o great, but if it was muddy, all the weight of th e bike made it rea l tough for me. How ever, Chuck (Su n) won the title, and we got along rea l we ll during the season." The 1981 season wou ld b ri ng b ig strong. I tended to be more consisten that year and was always pulling seconds, thirds and fourths in the National motos." Ultimately, the seas on would se t a precedent for his entire racing career. Jim Gibson, through consistent second-, third- and fourth -place moto scores, would become typecast as a racer who would be in the hunt ea ch and every week, but who would always, for on e reason or another, come within an eye. lash of winning. "Jim was a real So-Cal guy and ge tting out on the Nationals and learning the tracks took some time, but he picked it up," Wh ite sa id . "He and Johnny 0 were very close on the track, but Johnny would just edge him out. He was kind of second-place Jim. Th ere was always someone on the team that was a little bit better than him, but he was a great rid er on a great team and Jim is right in ther e with the best I have eve r worked with. He was always very tal ented a n d smooth and very good on the 125:' "We were 125cc specialis ts and we also rod e the 250s toge ther in the sta diums," said John ny O'Mara. "Jim was so nice a nd me llow. Wh en Donnie a nd I came on, we we re more ou tspoken an d had a lot of fun . Jim was real conserva- Jim Gibson - perhaps the fastest factorybacked rider never to win a National MX or a supercross. tive bu t sometimes he wo uld loosen up. He had to ge t to know you before he could ope n up. We always had a go od time. "In my opinio n, he was Mr. Con sistency, bu t h e lacked that little bit" . O'Mara said . "Jim always go t the s tart and would be in th e top three, four or five - he got so many seconds . Even in supercross . He just couldn't get over the top. Honda tried .putting him with Cliff (W hi te) to try a nd push him over the top . Jim was a solid rid er and everybod y still remembers him . He was a great tea mmate to have, and he was always a consist ent front-runner. He'd always help me in that he 'd put Wardy (Jeff Ward) and Barnett behind a place and take points away from them. Jim and I were a perfect combination: ' "Jim wa s a nice guy but he was not a w inn in g type - he w as just s ho r t of so meth ing tha t made him a winner," sa id five -time 500cc World Motocross Champi on Roger DeCoster, who ran Team Honda during the era . "H e knew he was alw ays going to do good· but not win. And he wasn't always in the s ha d ow s o f h is teammates . Bailey bloomed later than he did, and O'Mara actually came to Team Honda in 1981, a year after Jim first rode for us . In my opinion , he was definitely on e of the best racers to not win a race:' That fall, Gibson and his good friend and mechanic, Cliff White, put itall tog ether to win the CMC Trans-Cal Series, wh ich, through political infighting between the factories and the AMA, had managed to supersede the old and tired AMA Trans-USA Series. And while it w a sn't an AMA National Championship, it was nonetheless a major champion ship win for the pair. "My mech anic wa s Cliff White and he was just great - I think he was the best , mechanic ever, " Gibson said . "He's very good an d me ticu lous at w ha t he d oes. Cli ff was real easygoi ng and never nagged at me - we were a good combination. In 1981, [ was leading the TransCal 125cc series going into the last race at Sadd leback - the race th at had th e huge do uble jump - and Cliff, who never rea lly said anyt hing like this, said to me, 'You ' ve go tta wi n this race: All of the ma jor fact ory g uys were th ere and [ we nt out and got a flat tire but managed to finish third and collect enoug h points to win the series. I did a lot of flat -tire riding then because [ lived in Canyon Lake and my practice track was made up of sha le and s ha rp ro cks , a n d I was a lw ays getting fla ts. It got to a point where I was like, 'He ll with it, I'll ride on the flat: " In 1982 , O 'Mara and Gibson were again sent out on the road in order to help Honda snatch the AMA 125cc number -one plate for which it so badly lusted. Aboard pot ent and extremely exotic factory-fabricated 125s, th e two pilots were on a mission to win the title. When th e sea son fin ished up in September, Gibson found himself third in points behind Barnett and teammate O'Mara, Interestingly, and unbeknownst to a number of en thus iasts, Gibson was also a phenomenal supercros s rider . In 1980, he placed sixth in the AMA 250cc Supercross Championship Series, and he placed fourth overall in both 1981 and 1982. And while he never won an event he finished second countless times - he does have one striking Ben Hur-like stadium moment of which he is quite fond. " I really liked the stadiums and always got good starts and a number of hole shots," Gib son sa id . "I was also good a t jumping, actually - as good as anybody. In 1980, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, I jumped my way into second one d ay, and third the next. At that race, they had a special event on the last day called the Champion's Challenge, in .which I won. The idea was to tak e the w inn ers of the first and second nights and have them race each other. However, Broc Glov er won both races, so the y decided to ha ve myself and Kent Howerton race each other - man on man. The track was just brutal tha t year, as it had all these big, stee p jumps on it. I had to race the same bike tha t I competed on in th e two races and th ere wa s a hairline crack developing in the fram e, and we were really pushin g th in g s to ra ce it again in the Cha m pio n's Ch allen ge - it was equivalen t to racing three mains in two days. The race was some th ing else. I

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