Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

by Dave Sc hoon ma ke r M' How would you like to be Bra d Lackey's tu ner? Sound like a good .:i time ? Exciting? Fame, glory and lo ts of u. mo n ey ? Some yes, some n o , but in the words of Steve J ohnso n, th e ma n wh o is ~ w Brad Lackey 's tun er, "All year lo n g I Z have to keep th inking abou t h o w great W it is in ' th e end when you win . Last year ...J U I d idn ' t really want to d o th is, and the >- only reason I'm doing i t th is year is U be cause Brad is so easy to work for: ' T hat could sound like th e words of an olde r man who is losin g hi s pace , but they ·aren ' t. They're th e wo rd s of a tw enty -on e year o ld m an wh o's been far ther in t he last six years th an man y of us might h o pe for in a life t ime. S ure , se ven ty h ours a we ek do es wear o n him , bu t abou t 75% of his reaction is du e t o his desire to advance, learn about new things. " I kind of h oped th ey migh t offer me a job as p art of th e racing dir ecto r st aff o r in d esign o r somethi ng like th a t. Maybe ne x t ye ar. I'm al so ge tting married in Mar ch and traveling a little less mi gh t be n ic e. It (wre nc hi ng ) can get a little bit o ld to o, afte r awhile ." S o , how d o you become Brad La ckey's tuner a t age t we n ty and b etter yet how d o y ou become tir ed of ra cing at age twenty one? S te ve star te d fiddlin g abou t th e same time as he started mowing the lawn . " Ye ah , I put a straig h t pipe on m y dad 's Briggs and Stratton - lawn m ower and ro de o n my ska te b oard behind it." G r o win g up in South Cal ifornia, especially Oran ge Cou nty n ever hindred an y on e fro m becomin g vehi cle oriented and Steve quickly did. In h igh sc hool he had so me ol d Ch e vys and d id some drag racing. When he was a Hi gh Sc hool Junior he got hi s first bike, a Yamaha 8 0. He tri cked it out so me and tried so me hill cli m bs. T hat encou rage d bim to buy a 125 Yamaha. By then bikes were replacing cars as his life blood. Things reall y b egan to break for him wh en in June o f 19 69, just afte r graduation, he go t a j ob at Ame rican Kaw asak i in the p arts wharehouse. He began ra cing sh ort tr ack, flat track and . th en Ascot. He b ecame a . reas onably accomplish ed racer. trans fered to a Junior an d began to look for a spons o r. The only thing he go t was a few rides on a Suzuki twin and th en a Yamaha twin. " It was probably Keith Mashburn's spa re when he was a N ovi ce ." Meanwhile, b ack at Kawasaki he 'had advanced to he ad h o nc h o . of parts re ceiving. After a cras h or two the ultimatum came d own. "You will not ra ce and be head of parts." So, Steve wen t to work in th e Ne w Products Improv ement Divisi on o f Kawasaki. This was a little m ore t o hi s likin g and he began t o get . a few rides from Kaw asak i. He became frie n ds with Dave Smith who was Ka wasaki' s ro ad racer at th e tim e an d Dave bundled him off to a ro ad race . In a jiffy he was o ut for hi s g Fame, Glory and Lots.of Money? .. Si••;e 0 n~o'it; and;~:::: :::::m:O~::" :;::~d:::~~:-~' ha.. O~~~~; ;~:,~~~~:;.~~ b:i:~~ '1 h 100 racer, with assistance from the racing d ep artmen t. He became 100cc GP ch amp in the ACA an d AFM over th e likes of Don Emde an d Pat Eva ns. Wh at next? " Kawasaki ' gave me a prototype F·8 1m an d I started o ff o n a Wed nesd a y nigh t b y clean ing u p . T h ursday ni gh t Was a rep eat, so I head ed off to Elsi nore Sa tu rday ni gh t. Some th ing went wron g and I co u nd't figu re out wh y I wasn 't firs t. So I tri ed to go under th e guy ah ead of m e . He didn' t give wa y a bit, an d I pu t b o th o f us d own. His bike fell on m e , and the n abou t se ven guys ran . over me." S te ve en de d up with tw o bro ken legs, and for all in tents an d purpos es his racing caree r en de d. " I spen t a lo t of time over in R&D (Ka wasa ki R esea rch & Development) th en an d h eard lo ts of talk abo u t Euro pe an d ro ad ra cin g. So, th e next thing to fig u re out was h ow t o go t o Eu rope. Dave (Sm ith). tol d m e t o talk to Kel Carru the rs so I cal led Kel on the p hone. Kel told m e th a t he had talk ed to Phil Read recen tly and that Read was lo o kin g for a tu n er , so I ca lle d Phil. It Was true an d in a week's time I had a passport, an airplane ticket an d a sui tcase, an d I head ed fo r Eng lan d." Steve landed himself in th e m iddle of a sizea ble tas k. He had fo ur b ikes t o prepar e for Read , two 250s and two 350s. The extras were n o t spares, th e y were. test beds for ne w th ings . Each bi ke Stev e leading the pack at Mallory Park on his first ride on a Y amaha road racer. (Con tin ued on page 35)

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