Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

He Was Really Good ust how good was form er AMA 250cc Na t io nal Moto cross Ch ampio n Gary Jo nes? 50 go o d t hat t he t hree- t ime champ act ually wo n the t itle four tim es - depe nd ing on w hom you ask. 50 d that he won th e thre e t it les not in oubt aboard thre e d iffe rent motorcycl e brands. 50 good that he act ually rode for Maiec w hile riding for Honda. Tha t' s how good. Jones' saga is that of a brief raci ng career that was lived to the fullest and a life centered around a love for motorcycles. Although his road has ske w ed in many directions, the start of the path is typical enough. At th e start of the motocross movement , th e Jon es boys, Gary and Dewayne , unde r t he t ute lage of t he ir fath er, "Pappy" Don Jon es, w ere sim ply riding motorcycles e lsewhe re . " I w as about 17, and I was racing short track and speed way in '6B," Jone s, now 51 , says. "My dad w as a Yamaha deal e r, an d I remember they came out with th is new DT-I. It was really fast. It w as a twost roke, and it was light. 50 my dad decid ed to make it so that I cou ld race motocross just so that I could ride two classes . I w o uld ride my 44 1 B5A in one class and the Yam aha in the othe r." As he instantly ada pted to the rough world of motocross racing, Jo nes began to spend more time racing the DT- I while "Pappy " continued to develop the mach ine . "Yamaha had some dea l w he re they put up a bunc h of money - I th ink it was $15 ,000 - he re in the Stat es for anyon e who could beat the Euro peans, so my dad just told us, 'We 're going to go do that!" Jones says. " But the Yamahas needed a lot of help . Th ey 'd just throw you right off. We needed to find out why, and w e didn't figure it ou t until we started looking at th ings. We cut 'e m and changed head angles and tried differe nt sw ingarms, all kinds of th ings." Pretty soon there was mo re than just shade -tre e me chanical know-how go ing into the Jones bikes. Even the United States govern me nt was helping the ca use - thou gh Uncle Sam d idn't know it at the time . "We had friends at the Jet Prop ulsion Laboratory and Missile We lding w ho were he lping us w ith trick tita nium parts that we'd have them make special for us," Jones says. Th e family's R&D project even got t he att entio n of the Yamaha fact o ry, w ho se nt any parts th e Jones clan need ed , Signed Gary to a factory de al by 197 1 and, afte r carti ng a Jon es -modified DT bac k to Japan, returned w ith the first tru e facto ry yz. for him to ride in t he ne w AMA motoc ross series that year. "We had factory bike s, but they had nothing to se ll ye t," Jo nes says. "The first production yz that was a rep lica of what we w e re riding wasn't unt il 1974 . Ce rta in dealers co uld get a yz befo re th at t ime , but I don't know how that worked." Armed w ith the yz., Jones pre tty mu ch ow ned the 197 1 se ason and re peated for Yamaha in 1972, except th e AMA only credits him w ith the 1972 title . Jones arg ues 106 3D YE4RS AGO••• April3D. 1974 The 1974 speed"i~xil!!~~~1 way season was upon • th at 197 1 should count as National title as well . So w ho 's right? Jones may have the better memory. After all, the AMA doesn't even credit his 1974 title to the right brand. Jones won that t itle aboard a Can-Am in a year t hat the former Bomb ardi er-owned mo torcycle marque swept the top-th ree positions in the 250cc class. "Basically, the AMA are idiots ," Jones says. "I actually w on it twice for Yamaha, but th at first year [197 1] they didn't call it a National series . Then t hey did, and then they didn't, so I don't know wh at to sayan that one. I say four, and eve rybody else says four, but the AMA says th ree, so I don't kno w w hat to tell you . That's the AMA." But th at's getting ahead in the story, because after two great years for Yamaha in 197 1 and 1972, Jones switched to Ho nda . " Ho nda offer ed us mo re money," he says . "T hey gave me about $50,000 - more money th an I eve n dre amed abo ut - plus expenses, w hen t he average wage was ab o ut $15 ,000 per yea r. They flew me to t he race s and had mechan ics ta king ca re of my bikes. We didn't have to do any of t hat any more . It gave me so mu ch co nfide nce that I just felt like nobody co uld beat me ." Nobody did . Jon e s re peated as AMA 250cc Champio n for 1973. Even so . thi ngs quickly went sou r at Ho nda after th e man ufactu re r balked on ge tti ng Jon e s O pen class bikes for the Tra ns-Am Series at th e e nd of th e year. "T hey screw ed up on the contract," Jon es says. "T hey gave me one O pe n bike to run the U.S. GP on, but th ey took th at back. I wa nte d to race the Open class in the Tra ns-Am, but they said, 'No, no . Just ride the Suppo rt class.' I was National Champion . I w asn't go ing to 'just ride the Support class.' My co ntract read like N icky Hayden 's, wh ere if Ho nda didn't make and se ll a bike for me to race, I could ride some th ing e lse . So I went and bought my own Maiec and ro de it for on e race wit h Honda cloth e s to ke ep up my en d of th e deal. Ho nda was so hot about it that t hey bought out the rest of my contract so t hat APRil 28, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS they could get rid of me. I put together a deal wit h Maico for the re st of the year, which was o kay w ith me." Then Can-Am dou bled up the Honda money for 1974 , and t he Canadian firm bo ught itself a champion. Jon es once aga in held up his end of the deal , winning th e title as me ntio ne d above. "It was a two-year deal," Jo ne s says. '~t first I had so many problem s w ith st uff breaking, and w e had problems w ith some of Can-Am's upper management. I won't mention any nam es... Jeff Smith... but they wouldn't le t us do t he things that we ne eded to do . They would say, 'Oh no , the bicycle works fine .' Finally, we just changed the stuff on our own and didn't tell them. That got me thro ugh to the end. We had hired Marty Tripes , who was starving on a Husky, and Jimmy Ellis for that year too. We went on e -twa-thre e . I don't know of any manufactu rer wh o has don e t hat since." As Daytona '7 5 came into view, it would seem t hat there was just no sto pping Jo nes . Armed w ith a m uch-im proved fac to ry Can-Am , he was optimist ic t hat he co uld retain his 250cc title on ce more. But in a split second, it all came to a cras hing e nd. "I ra n into Peter Lam ppu - God re st his so ul," Jo ne s remembe rs. "H e was rid ing a C Z , and he crash ed in fron t of me in practice , and his bike flippe d up and hit me , a nd my foot went right in his wheel. It broke my leg so badly that I w as o ut for a year and a half after that . T hat was it. I was don e. Mod e rn medici ne wasn't what it is today. I was o nly 22." Th e re's so much more to te ll ab out Gary Jon e s, fro m th e devastating loss o f a pe rsonal fortune after his own motorcycle company im ploded due to for ces beyon d his control, to his re bo unding as a key player in the organizatio ns of Nole en Racing and White Bro th e rs, the latter a company w here he w as spe nt t he last 12 yea rs . Those are sto ries for another day. Suffice it to say that from 197 1-1975, Gary Jon es was as good as they come. 40th Anniversary SCOTT ROUSSEAU us, and our cover reflected the anticipa tion with a photo of World Champion Ivan Mauger of New Zealand leading Americans Mike Bast and Danny Becker at Costa Mesa. BillCody won the Handicap main and was declared the victor ina crashshortened main at the Irwindale season opener April I B. Cody alsowon the Scratch main at Costa Mesathe next night, while Bruce Penhal l won the Handicap main...We ran photos of Mi k And rews' wo rks Yama· c ha YZ'T2S0 monoshock trials bike, wondering aloud when it would enter production and replace the more mundane though equally efficient 1Y250... We also ran a test of the 1973Montesa Cappra 250VR, declaring it "the best stock motocrosse r you can buy- bette r thanworks." Meanwhile, a used 197 1 Montesa 250 Cappra MXer "in excelle nt condition" could be had in our Want Ad s section for $400. 2fJ YE4RS AGO••• Mayi!. 1984 "Fast" Freddie Spencer (Hon) streaked acrossour 1984editionof Issue 16, the reigningWorld I"''ti~~! 500cc Roadhaving won Race III Champi n o the ItalianGrand Prix at Misano, Italy . l. _. Spencer beat fellow American Eddie Lawson (Yam) to the stripe by 20 seconds. Raymond Roche (Ha n) was third... Mike Healey (Suz)and Eddie Hicks (Y each captured a pairof championship am) titles at the NMAWorld Mini GP at Saddleback Park in Orange, California.. Mike Melton (Hus) won round two of the AHA National Enduro Series at Loretta L ynn's in Tennessee, and a week later Eric McKenna (Hon) won round three of the series at Shasta Dam. Calif mia .. Eddy Lejeune (Han) o rode his trick works four-stroke trials bike to a win at round five of the World Champies, onship Observed Trials Series in Raz 1 "!!!IJIIIi!!!!!!i France. Minneapolis 125cc Supercrosswinner Damon Huffman (Suz)shared the ecver with the man who has more cover appearances than anyone in Cycle Newshistory, our own Kit Palmer who , was aboard Honda's new VFR750F sportbike. Of course, inside was the story of the Minneapoli Supercross, s inwhich Jeremy McGrath (Hon) won the 250cc main, and also a Riding Impression of the new VFR... Star of the future Ricky Cannichael (Ka was the main man at the w) NMAWorld Mini GP in Las Vegas, Nevada The 14-year-old Floridian bagged three titles at the event... On the World stage, Gert Jan Van Doom (Han) won the opening round of the World Championship SOOcc Motocross Series in Payeme, Switzerland. On the same day,Mickael Pichon won the second round of the World Championship l25cc Motcross Seriesin Sourdeval, France.

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