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/128327
The Forerunner to Greatness teve Bake r isn't bot he red t hat Kenny Roberts is the first name t hat passes th rough th e lips of most peopl e quizz ed about the first American road race r to score a World title. "Most people sti ll th ink th at I'm Ca nadian," says Baker, now 51 and living in his native Bellingham , Washington . "Because I was from t he Northwest, up in the left -hand corner of t he co untry, it was a little hard to get hoo ked up with the right ride because a lot peopl e looked at the Californians as the real ho t shoes ." Even so, Bake r started out just like th ose Califo rnians , as a dirt -trac ke r. Those wit h an und erstand ing of dirt-track geogra phy w ill not be surprised to hear that he mainly rode TIs. "We 'd ride Castle Rock, Sidewinders in Oregon , and we had a track nea r Seattle called Graham ," Baker says. "We used to look at the weather eve ry Friday and t hen decide wh ether to go to Sidewinde rs o r Grah am. " Like many skidders, Baker says th at he neve r expected to go road racing, but he took the shot when it came to him. "Basically, I got an op portunity to try it t hroug h Bob Work and Y amaha of Ca nada, and we rode Canad ian Ch ampionship races and some U.S. Nat ional races ," Baker recalls. "I did okay at it. Then we got into t he Transatlant ic Match Races to get me over to Europe . The first time I went to the Match Races was 1975. That got us some ex posure in Euro pe, and so t hen we got invite d to race at places like Imola [Italy], Paul Ricard [France], places like that. Then I got a Y amaha factory ride t hrough Yamaha of Canada, and I was able to compete for t he 500 and 750 World Champ ionships in 1977." The 1977 season marked the debut of t he F-750 World Ch amp ionship, in gene r- S al terms a joint venture among the AMA and the FIMwhereby t he FIM recognized the AMA's 750cc road racing class on the Wo rld stage. The '77 Daytona 200 was t he se ries' first event. Tire wear concerns that year meant that the race would be broken down into two 100-mile heats. Baker was in t he lead by over 30 seco nds at the conclusion of the first heat, and then bad weat her washed away t he se cond, making him a IOO-m ile winne r of t he Dayton a 200. Then came Europe. "We lived in Amsterdam [Holland ] because Y amaha had its workshop t here," Baker says. "We just used that as ou r base and traveled from there. Living in Europe was a lot different, but w e could always find a McDonald's he re and the re . As far as the tracks, t hey w ere re ally nice , though I seeme d to have more of a challenge at t he road circ uits like Spa, Nurb urging and som e of t he place s in Finland. It was really diffi cult for me to get up to spe ed w ith ou t taking a lot of chances . That first yea r th at I was the re , I fell off quite a few times." But wh e n he didn't fall, he often won, taking th e checker ed flag first in France, Aust ria and Belgium. By t he time that t he seri es return ed to America for the Laguna Seca round in early fall, Bake r had t he chance to clinch the title, wh ich he did with 3-1 finishes in t he tw o 100-mile legs at t he event . Before sea son's end, he w o uld also finish second to Ba r ry Sheene in t he marq uis 500c c World Ch ampion ship - not bad for a kid who never planned to go ro ad racing in the first place. "It seem ed like w he n the season started at Dayton a, we won th er e and had rea lly good machines, and t he first part of the season went really well," Baker remembers. "Then as th e se ason went on, we got more into the 500 and raced the 750 on the off week. That put a lot of pressure on me, but I th ink it also gave me the momentum to ta ke the 750 class. It was good to do both." Amazingly, Baker 's factory deal wit h Yamaha ended after that seaso n. Instead of vaulting to t he 500cc title , he slipped backward . As Roberts won the first of his three 500cc World titles for t he Yamaha factory, Baker struggled on a semifactory Suzuki in the 500cc class and a privateer Yamaha TZ750 in th e F-750 class. He would be out of Europe altoget her by the middle of 1979. "Iwas out of t he limelight ," Baker says, no animosity to be found in his tone. "Ke nny, with his tale nt and backing, came in with the vengeanc e of a lio n. Alii could do was my best ." And Baker at his best predated Roberts as the first American to win a wo rld road racing title by one yea r. "The 750 class may have been differe nt tha n w hat the Europeans we re used to , but it was a good class, and I'm proud to have bee n a part of it because the FIM bas ically re cognize d what was an American class," Bake r says. "Yamaha and t he pe ople who were helping me at the time made it all possib le. It still feels pretty good, and I can say that I have a ring th at Kenny do esn't have. " Scott Rousseau 3D YEARS AliD••• June II, 1974 On the cover an anonymous ride r splashed through a :;:.:=,_... water crossing at the annual Viewfinders Grand Prix. The race was held at Indian Dunes. A line in it re ad "Fourt h Expert went to some H awaii an kid nam ed Desoto on a...Yamaha?"... Road racing legend Kenny Roberts won his first National road race of the 1974season at the Road Atlanta Kawasaki Dixie National; Gene Romero got second followed by Gary Nixon... Heikki Mikkola and Roger DeCoster were in their prime. At the Italian GP Mikkola and DeCoster split moto wins on the day. In the first moto Decoster DNFed and allowed Mikkola to take the win... San Marcos High School won the title of fastest high schoo l in Santa Barbara, CA.. This particular year, Mark Gamberetta was the star of the race. i!D YEARS AliD..• June 13, 19B4 Test rider Eddie Michetti explodes a DeAnza berm on the cover, aboard a Suzuki RM2S0. Inside there was a test on the bike... There was an ad for the Carlsbad USGP . Many of the top American riders of t he time signed up to participate; Johnny O'Mara, David Bailey and Broc Glover were among them... Kawasaki's Jeff Ward was able to score his third career Supercros s win in Pasadena, California; Suzuki's Broc Glover got second... We took a look at Kenny Roberts' Daytona-winning OW69 Yamaha. This bike was technologically advanced for the time; it had a handforme d aluminum fuel tank . t itanium hardware and a displacement of 695cc. ra YEARS AliD... June B, 1994 ""1!!111"'. '" Scott Plessinger appeared on the cover of Issue #22. He won the Boyers GNCC that year ahead of Tom Norton and Fred Andrews... There was an intervi ew with Jeff Stanton where he talked briefly about the young kids coming up to challenge him. Stanton also spoke of his plans for the future... Mike Kiedrowski swept both 250cc motos at the High Point National motocross. TodayKiedrowski is still racingas a part of Team Suzuki Off-road, aboard an RM250... At a local motocross in Blountville, Tennessee, Ricky Carmichael got second in the Schoolboy class behind Kawasaki rider Robbie Horton. On that same day Mike Brown took four class wi ns; one of wh ich was aboard a Honda XR400. 116 JUNE 9, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Annivers a ry