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/128320
Viva Pomeroy! en asked about his historic victory at the opening roun d of the 1973 250cc World Motocross Championship GP series at Sabadell, Spain, jim Pomeroy isn't necessarily proudest of the win itself, nor even the trophy for that win - a troph y that he didn't even see for 30 years. Rather, he is proud est abo ut wha t it meant for those who would come after him. "What I'm proud of is that I gave co nfidence to everybody on this side of the ocean that yes, we 're capable, and yes, we could win," Pomeroy, now 5 I, says. "N o other American had eve n been in the top lOin any GP moto up to that time. I just did what I did because I loved the sport and I loved to ride ." And if not for the love, Pomeroy might not have made history, because the mon ey certain ly was n't there in those early days. In fact, he almost didn't make it to that first GP in Spain. ''About a month before that GP I ran out of money," Pome roy recalls. "I was out of my per diem, and the Ame ricans we re on ly getting, like, $50 or $ 100 for start money because none of us had ever finished in the to p 10. Basically I couldn 't , com e home early eith er, be cause a return ticket would cost me $1000 . So I got despe rate and borrowed a 125 and we nt to a race in Belgium abo ut three weeks before the GP. Andre Malherbe was the champ ion , riding for Zundapp, and Gilbe rt de Reuver was number tw o, and I ende d up be ating them. So I go up to the window to get my mon ey after the race, and I'm wa tchi ng DeCoster and watching Malher be pick up their $800-$ 1200 in start money, and I'm thinking, 'It' s okay, because I'll get the purse mon ey. They gave me $350. I thought, 'T his isn't like America at all.' Then a we ek be fore Sabadell, I wo n a race just outside Barce lona, and I got anothe r $400. Roger got $1500. I was n't liking the system at all. And I was hom esick." If Pomeroy was homesi ck, the n the Sabadell circuit was a welcome sight, as it at least re minded him of home. The fast, hard clay track was not unlike Saddle back Park in California . "The narrowest spot was maybe 60 fee t wide, " Pomeroy said. "It was so wide that nobody would take outside lines . Tha t was to my advantage, bec ause I didn't have to deal wit h tra ffic the n." Po me roy remembers getting off to an I Ith- or 12th-place start in the first moto, but he quickly went to the o utside , and he began passing one or two riders per corne r. "In years past , guys would be a whole gear faster o n the outside, but it still wo uldn't be enough to make a pass," Pomeroy says. "I was going two gears faste r on the outs ide." Part of his confidence to charge came fro m the adrenaline rush brought on by W 106 APRIL 21 ,2004 • the 150,OOO-strong partisan Spanish crowd, who cheered the American like a homeboy simply because he was riding a Bultaco Pursang. They didn't care who was on the Bul', and they screamed all th e louder w hen he took the lead about three -quarters of a lap into the race. Pome roy was neve r heade d afte r that, giving Bultaco a GP w in - as a pr ivate e r. "I was a definite privatee r," Pome roy said. "I had a sponsorship through University Honda/Bultaco of Seattl e . T hey bought the bike. It was a stock '73 Pursang Mk. 6 that I had taken out of the crate three days before and put toget her myself. The day of the race, Igot two free tires from Pirelli. I wasn't used to getting free stuff, and it to ok me 45 minut es to change the m tha t morning. I didn't have a me chanic to help me." After winning that first moto, however, Pomeroy sudd enly found himself with eight, as a swarm of facto ry Bultaco mec hanics jumped in and to re apart the Pursang to freshe n it up for the second moto . You'd think that Pomeroy would be pleased to see it, but instead he was pissed . "When I pulled in, I was surroun de d by press and people, and I didn't know w hat happened to my bike," Pome roy remembers. "It was running so perfectly t hat I didn't wa nt anyth ing touched. Then finally, the crowd started going to ot he r peo ple, and I looked and saw my bike had all the se mechanics on it , and they had to rn it apart. I co uldn't believe it, and I ran ove r and said, 'What are you doing?!' But it was to o late . The y had alrea dy torn the clutch apart and put new plates in it . Then in th e secon d mot o , the clutch slipped so badly off the li ne that I got a really bad start ." Pomeroy once again worked the outside to perfection. Using his momentum to baby the clutch, he passe d his way up to third place by the 30-minut e mark . But then came disaste r, as he crash ed in a fourt h gear corner. Fortunately, Pom e roy was ab le to regroup and get going again. "I got back up and caught back up to Hans Maisch to get fourth place, which gave me the overall win.',' Or did it? When the awards we re handed out on the podium, Maisch was given the GP trophy, and Po me roy was relegated to second place. It turned o ut to be a mistake of monumental proportio ns. "What happened was that in years before you had to finish both mo tes to get GP po ints, but they changed the system for 1973 to points by moto, and that's where the officialsgot co nfused and gave my trophy away. I we nt up to the pod ium and they put me in second place. CYCLE N EWS 3U YEARS A6U••• April 23. 1974 The mischievous MX Cat adorned the cover of Issue # 15. The 01' Cat was lookingfor ways to increase the horse- I wasn't too happy about that." By the time the officials rea lized the mistake and corrected it , Maisch had made off with the troph y, and , whe n told of the change, the German refuse d to re linquish it. "I asked him for it three or four times , and the n I just gave up on it," Pomeroy says. "So I went witho ut it , but it didn't matte r, because I won half a dozen mo re GPs afte r that , and a lot more motos. And afte r that race, I started picking up $ 1200 in sta rt mo ney, and then I started liking the syste m. It too k tha t GP win to get it going." He would continue riding Bultacos throu gh the 1976 seaso n before coming home to race AMA nation als for Honda in '77 and '78 . He the n return ed to Euro pe for Bultaco in '78 and ro de until the factory closed its doors be fore switching to an ill-fated ride on the Italian Beta bra nd in 1980. Upon retu rning to Ame rica in 1981, Pomeroy was mo re or less forced into retire me nt by a bizarre AMA rule that labeled him as a nonqualified rider for AMA nationals even tho ugh he had held an FIM license . But that wasn't the e nd of Pom e roy 's racing days. Based in Wash ington, has rema ined active in the AHRMA vintage motocrosss sce ne while tak ing care of his rea l estate conc erns. In fact, it was just last year, at an AHRMA National MX event in Chehalis , Washington , th at Pomeroy got th e surprise of his life, as he was awarded his first-place 1973 Spanish GP trophy. "I couldn't be lieve it when that happened ," Po me roy says. "My brot he r [Ron Pomeroy] and a couple other peopl e put it together. I never dreamed I'd get that back. It choked me up pretty good." Trophy or no trophy, jim Pomeroy was the first American ever to win an FIM motocross grand prix. They never gave out a tro phy for that acco mplishme nt , but it's also something that they 'll neve r be able to take away. eN 40th Anniversary power of his scoot by purchasing snake oils and other equally useless trick bits, onlyto find out that everyone else at the track had, too... Gunnady Moisseiev won the Spanish 2S0cc Grand Prix, the opening round of the '74 World 250cc series... Rookie Expert John Gennai (H-D) made headlines for smoking the veterans at the Ascot HalfMile. Gary Scott (H-D) and Tom Rockwood (Tri) ran second and third... Jay Tullis(Hon) won the Red Garter National Enduro in Ballinger Canyon, California... We tested the American dirt bike alternative, the PDV Gringo 250, and ran a tech piece on graftinga Mikuni carburetor to a Bultaco Pursang. 2U YEARS A6U... April 25. 1984 W e ran an interview wi th M ichigan rider Alan King and plastered him on the cover of Issue # 15. The 23-year-old privatee r was riding for TeamTamm in 1984, and he was leading the AMA 2S0cc National MX points... We showed closeup photos 01 the V4 Honda NSRSOO GP road racer and previewed the 1985 Cagiva family of street , MX, off-road and dual-purpose bikes... Honda took out a two-page ad celebrating the Hangtown National MX wins of David Bailey and ) Alan King... Elmer Trett (Kaw won the Top Fuel classat the Dragbike! round at Atlanta International Dragway in Commerce, Georgia...We also intervie w ed drag racer and tes t rider extraord inare , Jay "Pee Wee" Gleason. 1U YEARS A6U••• April 2U. 1994 There was a whole latta road racin' going on in t his issue, with Fast By Feracci Ducati's Troy Corser claimingthe cover by virtue of his AMA Superbike win at the Pomo na Fairgrounds in Pomon a, California. One 01 the poorest racing facilities ever run under AMA sanction, the track was basically laid out in the lairgrounds parking lot... Overseas, Mick Dooh an (Hon) survived the heat to win the Malaysian 500cc Grand Prix. John Kocinski (Cag) was second, and Shlnichl Itoh (Hon) was third. Max BIaggl (Apr) won the 2S0cc Gp, and Nobo ru Ued a (Hon) won the 125cc GP... Jeremy McGra th (Hon) recorded his sevent h win in 10 rou nds at the Pontiac Supercross... Author joe Scalzo served up a great piece on none oth er than the Squirrel himself, Eddie Mulder... We also previewed the 1994 Wor ld Enduro Cha mpionship Se ries .