Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

BAST: When you go over th e r e your whole racing attitude changes. Bill Cody. en N [lJ, " e, N e-- en ee a. « en ~ w Z w -' o > o CN. Wh at a bou t t he p ossibility of go in g to E ngland, th e h otbed of world speedway co mpetition? CO DY. Planning o n doin g it n ex t year . BAST . By next year I mi gh t b e ready to find o ut h o w hard it is to go a fte r th e wo rld title. CO DY . In order to even thin k of world champio nship riding we 'v e go t t o get bigger and better tracks t o learn h o w to rid e o n. CODY . They wanted our leath ers . E ven our old lea thers. We all so ld our leathers and I go t 8 0 bucks for m yoid se t . BAST. I even sold my b o o ts . In fact , about all I had left w hen w e came back was underw ear . CODY. T he o ne main th in g th e y couldn't b eli eve was the gearbo xes we h ad in o u r ESO 's. T h ey didn' t even know that ESO' s came fro m th e fac t ory with gearb oxes. They were afra id th at they were some tr ic k thing th at th e Yanks had dreamed up and it wa s goi ng to blow them out in to th e weeds. BAST. They re ally thought that we were going to wip e them when th ey first sp otted th os e two-s peed boxes. Man , it really shook them up . CN . Do yo u t h ink t hat the ES O 's with the two -speed boxes were ac tually some thing that just co uld n't be sold to intern ational co mpetition. CODY . E xactly. In fa ct, th ey are illegal on a t rack u nder 6 00 yards . BAST. And not o n ly th at b u t we get · ch arge d $I 5 0 more for the gears. ~ CN. So d ir ect drive is th e h ot set-up fo r international co m petitio n? Bu t w hat about the two-sp eed trannies th at w er e in yo u r bik es when you went down there? Did the y hassle you ab o u t t he m ? BAST. No h assles b ut we co uld n ' t use them while racing. CODY . A cou p le of us d id us e them at Sydney on th e th ird -mi le but it wasn't any real advan tage. CN . Bu t th ey were re ally im pressed with your leathers and gears. Any thin g else? BAST. They were reall y impressed w ith o ur s teel sh o es b ut for a d iffer en t reason. They h ave little tiny things th at look like a cro ss between a tap on th e front of the foo t a nd a b eer can goi ng back. They thought our bull etpro o f shoes were about th ree times t o o heavy . CODY. Each one of those guys makes his own skid shoe a nd takes great p ride in it. They have to resurface them a bo ut every four meetings. They als o wear superlight road race b o ots inst ea d of t he heavy protective ones we usc. CN . Wh at d id th ey h ave that imp ressed yo u enoug h to co py? CODY. It has to b e th e dual floa t se t-u p fo r the b ig trac ks. T w o o f those monst er Dellortos with o ne o n ' each side. T hat way you d on 't ru n o ut o f fuel an yw h ere on the track. BAST. The sol o seat idea go t to me the most. They ran a little single se at arid somehow got a lot more banan a seat and looking lik e we a re getting more bite but these gu ys j ust sit there in one spot a nd blow you into the weeds. Bill was th e fir st o f us t o put o n a solo-type sea t and I feel th at it reall y improved h is performance s. CN. Mike, y o u r maj or p roblem was th e concentric c arburet o r, wasn 't it? BAST. Yeah, they're ne at on th e little tracks but gave me nothing but troubles on the big tr ack s. I'm going to set o ne ma chine up for big tracks and another for the smaller o nes. Now I've go t t o re-learn how to rid e th e little o nes. CN. How much did tires and stuff like that cost them? CODY. A 19-inch re ar tire cost around $ I 8 and they arc easy to come by in Australia . When we got to New Zealand they were hungry fo r eve ry th in g and I sold every tire I had including th e used o ne that was on m y bike. In fact th e scoote r is com ing home with ou t a rear tire an d even a lo t of other st u ff that wa s o n it. BAS T . T he one th in g th at st an ds o ut in my m ind is th e way th ese guys would take a brand new tir e and start cu tting on it . I re all y learned some tri cks about c u tting speedway tires. They'd sp en d four hours razoring a brand new tire .' CODY . Another interesting thing is that parts in Australia are a lot cheaper: A quick comparison is a piston c osts about , $4 5 here and over there they were only S 19 . All the rest of the parts were about the same ratio, m ~. CN . An y of the Aussies show any interest in co ming here? BAST . All of them w ould lik e to co me . The o nly problem is that they all h ave go o d j obs and d o n' t wan t to jeopardize th em. Th ey arc all basically lo w-budge t racers. CODY . No sponsors o r tu ners to help those dudes. They do everything o n their o wn. Yo u have to be a to ta lly se lf-sufficen t rider because yo u d o n 't even h ave a p itma n to help yo u. Wh en you wan t to change gear or you have a flat you're a busy guy because yo u d o everything on your own and so metimes you only have three min utes between races . "C C ~ eN. Is th e JAP engine d ead in in te rnatio nal co mpetition? BAST. Yes. CODY . Definitely d ead as far as the big bo y s are co ncerned. BAST . We ran in to one b lo ke in A ustralia who was abo ut 45 or 5 0 and rid ing a J A P th at lo oked like it barely survived th e w ar. We were all c h uckling ab out him b ef o re the races and th en h e proceeded to giv e us some o f the finest riding le sso ns we've ev er seen . What I'm trying to say is that he b eat m ost o f us all night. All the b ig names , even Ronnie Moore, are riding ESO's. CN. Do you think we sh ould change any of our rules to confo rm more t o internatio nal co mp eti tio n? CODY. Our rules are like in ternational co m peti t io n but I would like t o se'e o ne t h in g changed. Wh en a rid er fa lls they all in stan tly dro p th eir b ik es. Vcry qu ick , confident, and sure, not to mentio n safe. Wh en t hey resta rt the event the guy wh o fell d o es no t ge t to participat e in the re st art. It's sure a lo t safer and th e sp ecta to rs act ual ly get a bett er sh ow while nobody ge ts o ne of those rude fo otp egs in th e back. The first instin ct of every rider down ther e is , to drop th eir bikes. It's re ally neat. The referee is the one who st ops the ra ce . The rac e isn 't left going with so m e poor dude ly in g o u t th ere o n t he tr ack. VAST. Ov er there th e referee is Go d a nd what he sa ys goes. T h ey ar e al most the mos t impartial refs I'v e ever seen . If you d o something wr ong he t ells you but he o nly has to say it o nc e. CODY . There was only a cou ple of fa lls while we were there but eve rybody on the race track just in sta n tly d ropped their bikes. BAST. Yeah , it 's a n a utomatic t h ing with th em. CN. Anything else? BAST. When a rider breaks th e tape he isn't excluded from the restart ; he just gets fined $5 . Now, I think that is a good rule but it sh ould b e a bi gger fine over here a nd th e rider shou ld pay the m oney to the b en evolent fu nd . CODY. I t hin k t hey sh ould b e excl ude d. BAST. Don 't liste n to Cody. He never break s a tape. It 's hell t o b e excluded from a bi g m oney main j us t fo r dropping yo ur clu tch a little early. CODY. T he exclusion rule is a b ig con tro ve rsy but I think it's good. CN. Were th e ga t es quicker over there? CODY. Much, much faster. No waiting around and burning clutch es at the starting line. BAST. They cheat over there. Not really cheat, but Eddie Mulder would feel right at home. They like to lag back and take a flyer. CODY. T hey don 't have a ready lin e lik e we d o . Yo u have to be read y at leas t 10 o r 15 feet before the tape 'cause it c o uld go at an y ti me. CN. Would you lik e to see that sys te m adopted here? CO D Y . T he faster gates yes. dropp ing of th e read y line, no. BAST. Same h ere . The CN . Wh at do y ou fo rsee in regards t o team raci ng here? BAST. 1 don't think th at local te ams would work. It might get to be like roller derby. CODY. I think we sh o uld have more internati onal teams visit he re . In fact , we sh ould b ring an A ussi e t eam up h ere so we can win o ne . T he th ing is that yo u will never learn true speed way while rid ing at Orange Count y o r Ba kersfield. Befo re 1 went over th er e I thought the re was no th in g lik e A me rican fo r racing. When you go over there your who le racing attitu de changes and yo u have to learn h o w to rid e speed way. . BAST . T he Europeans have got it right wh en they say th at th e m oney is the best over here but th e racin g and th e attitude of the racers is a lot different over th ere. CN. A rc you looking forward to th e p os sibilit y o f a quarter-mile at Aggie 's new Ascot? BAST. T hat 's wher e I'm going t o be racing. CODY . Me t oo. Yo u actu ally won 't learn any true sp edway st y le riding th e little trac ks. S ure it's exci ting for th e spect at o r but it isn't true speed way. CN. Would y o u d o th e wh ol e Australian thing again? BAST . Most definitely. Only this time we co uld b e prep ared b etter. Like knowing just wh at t o bring and what conditions to expect. CODY. I'v e already go t some plans in th e works for a whol e season down there. CN . Wh at would you do differ ently? BAS T . Mo re gear, more carb ure to r parts a nd lots o f T·shi rts a nd stu ff like th at. CODY . I t hink I would t ake m y trick e ngi ne stu ff in a suitcase and buy a new b ik e d ow n there. T hey cost ab o ut $ 600 less fo r speedway sc oo t er s do w n u nd er. T here is just t o o much ja zz t o go through sh ip ping yo ur b ik e everywhere . A t th e end o f th e season d own th ere I would sell the scoote r because it would just b e junk anyway a ft er all the ab use they get there. BAST ' T h e real h assle right now is the possibility of another dock strike and our scooters won't be b ack until the 15th, maybe. . CN. Wh at wo uld yo u recommend to ano th er rid e r goi ng o ff on a tr ip like t h is? CO D Y. G et in to uch wi th a p romo ter from th ere and get yo ur d eal squar ed away b efore yo u ever pack you r bags. You're contracted to o ne p romo ter and he fa rms you o ut to the o ther p ro moters as an attraction. R em ember to find o ut how often he is going to guara ntee you a ride and who is pa yin g for everything. BAST. D o n ' t attempt to go dow n there as a solo b ecaus e the whole scene is team racin g and unl ess y ou're some part of a int ernational team you're nowh ere. CN. Did yo u d o a ny o ther k ind of racing whil e you were d own there? CODY. Didn't have t im e. BAST. You won 't tell anybody will you? CN . C ycle News wri te rs are lik e priests . Yo ur sec ret is safe wi th me. H eh -heh . BAS T. Well, we went o u t to a mo to cro ss j ust to watch . I'm standing there watching practice and I get this itch . You k now the feeling. So I tal k this b loke out of a ride on his brand new CZ. Now th ese guys go t to sp end a b u nd le to o wn a d ir t b ik e. Somewhere in th e neighbo rh o od of $ 170 0 a nd I've got to promise him I'll c ool it . So , th e officials h andicap me about a half of a lap o n a c ou rse ab o ut a mile long. Now, wh o ca n co o l it when they handicap you th at far , in front o f all th ose people. So , I sta rt gassing it pretty hea vy. CODY . Th is a ni ma l fai ls t o mention that he is wea ring st re e t shoes, sla cks, a T -shirt a nd a borrowed helmet. Not o n ly th at, he is under a co n tr act to rid e speedway o nly! BAST . About th e eig h th lap I'm go ing pretty good a nd I take over th e lead. I'm reall y diggin g it. CODY . H e was grandstanding it for the lo cals. You know, carrying t he front wh eel h alf wa y d own the straigh ts . R eall y putting o n. BAS T . Anyway, I 've got about a 100-yard lead on this guy when I unload a nd that dummy runs right over the top of me. CODY. He was right o n yo u r tail and yo u left him nowh ere to go . BAS T. Well, I wo uld have won it, any way. CODY . You o nly win if yo u' re th ere when th e c heckere d flag fall. Besides th at if yo u h adn 't won those broken ribs ma ybe yo u wo ul d have done b ett er..... eN. In order to k eep Mik e Bast 's secret, w e ha ve t o swear all of y ou to secrecy. Most of all, don 't tell his Dad. S ee Mike? We told you; y our se cret would be safe with us. The tape recorder bl ew a trans about this time, but th e rest of th e evening was not a total loss b ecaus e w e still had some cold beer in th e fridge. '4

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