Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES P112 BY LARRY LAWRENCE A HALF-CENTURY IN MOTORCYCLING T here are precious few people who have worked in motorcycling for as long as Roy Janson and there's not likely anyone in the industry with the depth and breadth of experience that Janson has in the sport. Consider his work today. Janson is both the Director of Competition for MX Sports Pro Racing and operations consultant for Jordan Suzuki. With both of those responsibilities Janson is about as busy today in his 60s as he's ever been. Consider a recent weekend – Janson spent the first part of the weekend overseeing the Budds Creek Motocross National on a Saturday, then caught a plane in Baltimore to Birmingham, Alabama, and was there Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park working under the Michael Jordan Motorsports canopy. When most men his age are slowing down and looking for the easy chair, Janson is right in the thick of it, on the sharp end of the business of motorcycle racing. The reason Janson does it is because he loves being part of the action and he wants to see motorcycle racing grow. For the most part racing, motorcycle racing, is a young man's game. In many ways that's a benefit. It keeps the sport vital and lively, but all too often overlooked is the knowledge that the older generation can bring to the table. Fortunately for our sport Janson's nearly 50 years of experience is looked upon as a major asset and his advice and opinion is sought after and heeded by some of the biggest players in the racing business. Janson grew up in Rochester, New York in the 1950s and '60s, at a time when the city was thriving on the strength of companies like Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox. As a result of plentiful, good-paying jobs, motorcycling was a thriving pastime in the city. Janson was enthused about motorcycles from an early age - from the time he was six and rode on the back of his uncle Harold's Harley. "When I was a kid, 10-11 years old, we started putting lawnmower engines in bicycles," Janson said. "We would find old rotary mowers that we could still turn the crank and weld them to bicycle frames. There was no gearing, no clutches. You'd bump start them and they'd go. Then when I was 12 my brother got a Cushman scooter and it got passed through everyone in the neighborhood." As a teen, Janson began hanging around the local Triumph dealership. "There was a company called Rochester Indian, run by a guy named Harold Ward, a wonderful man who really became my mentor in life. I started as most kids do, sweeping the floor and going for coffee. By the time I got my work permit at 14 I was able to start working on the books and started assembling bikes when they'd come in. We'd uncrate them and put them together and from that point worked steadily in the motorcycling business since 1964." As a teen he would go along on trips to Triumph headquarters to pick up bikes. "To me going to Timonium, Maryland, was like going to the Holy Land," Janson smiles. "When we go down there we would stop at Gary Nixon's shop, and at any time you might see Gene Romero or Don Castro or Jim Rice. And to see these guys, who were my heroes, there cleaning their leathers or working on their bikes... it's from that experience that I

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