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/141037
(") - ~ '" ~ e, N r-. Cl -: N ~ c; ~ -, u:l s: W Z W ...J U >- U ;; (, C ' , Plk. •• ~ Peak, C o lo rado: despite pr oblem s, T erry takes time t o smile . T erry: No , I go t a letter; th at 's when y ou cou ld get transfe rred pretty eas y but not real easy. I think Skip Van Leeuwen, Dusty C oppage and. Gene Romero signed th e lette r and I got tr ansferred. I reall y ap p reciated it. So, I skipped th e Novi ce ra n ks after I ro d e in them on ly abou t three or four times. CNW : What y o u're saying is th at it's OK to skip the 250s and ju mp right into the bike ra n ks? Terry : No . No. No , go ing tha t way is OK , I t hink . If you go fro m a sm aller bik e wi th less h orsep o wer. ..you' re jus t learnin g th e m, any way, most of the gu y s are , m o re o r less ... and th en yo u ju m p to the 40-incher an d you m a ke it j ust a p art of the whole p attern like m o st o f th e guy s h ave d on e b efo re. But , when yo u sta rt wi th a b ig m achine a nd work b ackwards...well , it's just no t the wa y to go . CNW : A ft er a year in the Amat eur ranks , you turned Expert without much fan fare . Through out 1971 yo u re maine d an " als o-r an" leap -froggin g be tw een Coron a an d As cot. Then , it happened. Things clicked, as y ou said, and bam.bam-bam, yo u started winning. It all led up to San Jose . Walking onto the track, did you th ink y ou were go in g to win; bctter yet, did you know yo u were the man to beat? Terry : No.1 didnt.i.but I sh ould have . This hu rts me quite a bi t. But, I go t to get my head st raigh t; boy, that's half the game , getting your head on straigh t. Yeh . To get y o u r head on st raigh t and say y o u' re gonn a win this and not think ab out any one else. Bu t th at's h ard to do. CNW : T he n ca m e the layover p eri od . A ne w season dawns w ith Houston. N 0 lon ger 6 5R but now 22, a Nation al Number. What happened a t Houston ? Terry: T hat number bit do esn't bother m e too much. It 's a number, wheth er it's 6 5 R o r something else. Th e m o torc ycle p roblem was there , th ough. We d idn' t get the Norton runn in g until a half hour before we le ft. It was th e first t im e wi th the No rton and I was th in k in g m ore abou t th e mo torcv cle th an I was abou t th e race. Then, ' aft e r th e hea t rac e, T om R ockwo od came up to me and sa id, 'Hey, wh at happened to yo u? ' cau se, I t h in k, I o n lv m ad e th e Sem i and n ot the ~l ai~. "H ey, wh at happened? You k now, yo u ' re th e man to be at.' Well, the more I th o ught a bou t it th e m ore he w as right, Li ke I w as in th e hunt becau se th e sa me guys I be at a t San j ose were there at lIou ston . But, with m o tor troubles, well .. . Cl':W: There , at Houston, the long-time Experts got shoved to the way side b y the fresh crop of first-year pros : Kenny R obe rts, Cary Scott, Mike Kidd, Do you think Kenny or an y of th em can win the G rand National Championship ? T e rry: Kenny can, but I d on't think he will. He' s real success ful n ow and he' s being smart. Like at San Jose (Mile), h e did n't ove rwo rk hi s m ach ine and h e fin ished , n ot bl owin g the whole th in g aw ay. Each person h as hi s own things to say, but I d on't thin k he'll do it. But, I ca n' t think of an yone u p front right n ow w ho will; I can' t put a finge r o n any bo dy . It 's go n na be rough . Wh oever ge ts it th is year is go in g to earn it - that's for sure. And Jim Rice : it d ep en d s up on wh at h e' s go ing to d o . If he gets a road racer (the BS A pullou t h urt him ) and, well, seco nd hand in form at io n is b ad to rel ate , but what I heard is th at he just w ants to ~ m ake Moving Into the Expert ranks, It took Terry .. .. . 1 was t hi n king more abo ut th e m oto rcyc le than I was ab out the ra ce : ' (GSR) m ost of the year to even t uall y lead. mone y this y ea r... which isn't a bad idea. CNW : Now th at y ou are strictly a privateer again , a re you thinking about dropping o ff the circ u it after this m onth's trip b ack Ea st ? Terry: I've th o ught a bou t it. There's a coup le of promoters b ack there who .will help out w ith gas money, but when it come s to fo od and lodgin g, th at's out of o u r pockets . And that ' s still a lot of mo ney. But , winning a National. I've never done it ; ] 've never reall y come close . There's something about winning a National. I'm not in a hurry to do it: when I win o ne I don't want it to be o ne where every one fall s down. I wan t a real w in , an d I won't be hurt if I don't get it. CNW : So, i f you win back East, you 'll stay on the circu it : if not. you w on't? T erry : The whole thing hinges on money, righ t? It ' s al l basic too, if I can m a ke some bucks. If I don't win - or do w ell - I'll h ave to go b ack to work. I don't w ork now...just race. CNW : But, if y ou did ge t a factory ride, wouldn't you be a bit frightened in terms o f the claiming rule, whereas now, as a privateer, y o u' re not faced with it to o much ? Terry: Bas ically, it's a good rule. A ll around, the price is about right. The idea is right. Like in one of the papers it said that MV would come over and race if th e claiming rule was thrown out. And that seem s to be th e thing we're try ing to keep aw ay from ; keep the highly sp ecialized things out. We don 't , w an t it to be come like what h appened in Eu rope. O f co u rse , I only say wh at I read , and apparen tly the y h ad a s cene ov er there and th at isn't good . I think it's a good rule ... an d Bailey ' s claim wa s a good thing, t oo. It show s that y o u can do it if vo u want t o o. It shows t o the factory th at their bi kes are o ut there to be cla im ed if they h ave to b e. A guy hot on road rac ing can go ri ght o u t mere and buy one if h e wants .to . But, a lot of it 's with th e ri der too. eN" ': Have vou ever road race d? Te rrv : I' ve never ridden o ne . If I get th e right equipmen t , yeh , m aybe. By th at, I m ean th e rig h t equip men t : the backin g. You need fac to ry equipment to d o it rig h t. Yo u know , it's go tt a be right. A gu y go es ou t an d buy s a three cylin d er Kawasaki o r a Triden t and he's not go ing to co m e up with a factory j ob, I do n' t ca re wh at any b ody says. But , if the fact ory is b ehind yo u, well, tha t' s a lot of it righ t there. Boy, you're not going t o set th e world o n fire, but y ou're learning and you're better off than alm o st everybody else . Like Cary Scott. He 's a privateer. I th ink that if Cary had the same equipment as, say, Kenny Roberts , or equipment that would h old up underneath h im, I think he would be just th e one to set the w orld o n fir e . • • • Terrv Dorsch set the world on fire T err y sp en ds m o re t ime in t u ne r R o n Bonne r's garage tnan ne do es In his ow n. last fali. This y ear , h e' s scored points in on ly one Nation al a nd fa ced me chanical problems a t all o f th em. He's switched fro m N orton to T rium p h and back to N o rt on, e tc .. as many as fo u r times at on e race, trying to ge t the best equ ipme n t go ing . What it re sulted in \v as p laci ng Te rry in so me w ha t the same positio n h e w as in at th is time last y ear. But, this year, h e k nows one thin g he didn 't kn ow last year. He can win , an d wi n the b ig ones. No w , it's all a matter of tim e...