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Cycle News 2022 Issue 34 August 23

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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VOLUME 59 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 23, 2022 P125 Trav was lettering Kizer's van, he was asking Kizer about his flat track racing. "At one point, he asked me if I had ever ridden a turbo bike," Kizer recalled. "I had no idea what he was talking about. Trav invited me to come to the local drag strip to watch Mo on his turbo and told me to bring my flat track bike along." Terry, his girlfriend Cindy (who later became Terry's wife), and Terry's brother Keith (who every- one called Scooter) went to the local drag races on a Wednesday night, and as Trav instructed, Ter- ry brought his 250cc, Champion- frame flat track bike. He entered the event and began clicking off runs in the 12.9s right at 100 mph. This turned some heads. "I didn't have any reference or idea that was a really good time on a little 250," Terry said. "That was my first time on a drag strip, and I was just messing around having some fun." This flat tracker's unexpected drag racing performance on his little flat track machine prompted Trav to invite Kizer to come out and do some runs on one of Mo Parsons' bikes. It was quite a jump from a few runs down the strip on his little flat track machine to throw a leg over an open-class turbo machine, but Kizer was oblivious to the potential hazards. "I was all over it because I was 19 or 20 years old and stupid," he laughs. "They put me on a 1075cc [Kawasaki] KZ with smooth bores and wheelie bars. Since I was only about 120 pounds, I ran a lot faster than those guys. I think I was in the high 10s at over 130 miles per hour. To me, it was like I'd died and gone to heaven. "Mo was a big guy, probably 230 pounds, and I came along at a perfect time when he was prob- ably looking to put a smaller guy like me on his bikes and see what they could really do." Parsons invited Kizer to come along to a National drag meet in LaPlace, Louisiana. Once there, Kizer found himself in a turbo class with some of the sport's heavy hitters. "I was now facing guys with a lot of experience," Kizer recalls. "Mo told me that when I finally got it right on the launch, I'd know it. We didn't have two steps in those days, so getting a turbo bike off the line meant you had to wind the engine up and release the clutch just right or you would blow the tire away or bog the bike. "When I finally got it right, I damn near went off the back of the bike. That thing bit and was hauling ass, and I was like, 'Oh my God!' I had to work myself back up to the handlebars. They were nearly jerked out of my hands. On that pass, I ran a 9.8, and that was below the national record. By the time we were done that day, we reset the national class record at 9.60 at a little over 160 miles per hour. I did not win the race because I hadn't yet got my act together at the start line with the Christmas Tree. Hell, I was used to watching a guy with a flag in his hand and trying to read his eyes. I wasn't looking at a light." So, at his first national in 1977, still wet behind the ears, Kizer Terry Kizer doing a burnout at Capitol Raceway in Maryland in 1979. PHOTO: PAUL SCHWAB

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