VOLUME 59 ISSUE 21 MAY 24, 2022 P125
tion at that point, so there was no
ground clearance on either side.
Fujio [Yoshimura] was working
with us and would report back
to Pops. And Ron was a Dunlop
tire importer and that was a big
thing because I could get all the
tires I wanted. And we would run
up front (Fisher led briefly in the
'71 Daytona 200 before blowing a
motor) and had good speed but
had a hard time finishing races.
Then before the '72 season Pops
came over and things really pro-
gressed with the bike."
Fisher explained that Pops had
developed the first four-into-one
exhaust pipe and that helped
solved the bike's ground-clear-
ance problem. "We were loaded
and ready to do some damage
going into '72," Fisher said.
And at Day-
tona things
really looked
like they'd finally
come together
for the team
when Fisher
took over the
lead in the
Daytona 200 on
his Pops Yoshimura-tuned Krause
Honda about mid-way through, but
a split oil tank put Fisher out after
leading only a couple of laps.
"Ron was a really good guy, but
like all Pennsylvania Dutch, guys
like my dad, they were brought up
to fix stuff instead of putting the
new thing on that you have sitting
in the box there. They were like,
'Well, we might need that later.'
And that's what happened to the
bike at Daytona in '72. I came into
the garage and Ron had a rag
around the oil tank. I asked him
why he didn't put the new oil tank
we had on the bike, and he said
Loudon Weekend
Fisher takes a victory lap at
Loudon after dominating the AMA
Grand National Road Race in
June of 1972. At one time he built
almost a 30-second lead in the
100-mile race, before backing off
to preserve the victory.
Gary Fisher (10) is all smiles after
winning the Loudon 250 Junior/
Expert Combined race over Kenny
Roberts (60) and Yvon Duhamel (17).
After winning this race, Fisher would
go on to win the national that same
weekend, taking a sweep of both
major races at the Loudon Classic.
