VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P111
spring dandelions in a meadow.
Before the days of Loretta
Lynn's and home-schooled rac-
ers growing up in motor homes,
the pathway to the fabled factory
ride was marked quite clearly.
It was a trail in SoCal and rid-
ers followed it from places like
Saddleback Park and Indian
Dunes to the offices of the Big
Four distributors, located just
a few miles away. Motocross'
history in the '70s and '80s was
carved out in this area: Bob
Hannah, Marty Smith, Donnie
Hansen and Ricky Johnson were
just a few of the many champi
-
ons who cut their teeth on the
sunbaked, hard-packed tracks of
this region.
Ron Turner moved quickly
through the motocross ranks.
He graduated from his Baja
Harley to a Yamaha AT-1 and
after pleading with his mom,
he entered—and won—his first
motocross race in the beginner
class. After four straight victo-
ries, the local promoter moved
him to the intermediate class
where, after another four straight
victories, he was placed in the
expert class. In fewer than 10
races, Turner found himself rac-
ing against the fastest riders in
Southern California's District 38.
He earned a sponsorship ride
from Don Vesco Yamaha. And
then he met a young racer who
had just founded his own moto-
cross hop-up shop. The business
was called the "Flying Machine
Factory" and the owner's name
was Donnie Emler.
"Uncle Donnie told me that I
if wanted to really make it big, I
would have to move on to where
the best riders were racing. He
said, 'you have to go to the CMC
(Continental Motosport Club)
and race against the really fast
guys, guys like Mike Bell.'
"So, a week later, I went to a
CMC race. Mike Bell was there,
and I beat him!" Soon after, and
not coincidentally, Turner picked
up a new sponsor, FMF Racing.
Forty-eight years later, Turner
still refers to company owner
Emler as "Uncle Donnie."
Turner had developed a good
working knowledge of what
made a motocross motorcycle
tick, which led to U.S. Suzuki hir
-
ing him for their R&D team. His
office was the racetrack, and his
business attire was full MX gear.
He and fellow testers like Bob
Elliot would put in 100 laps at
Carlsbad—every day! "Nobody,"
he states matter-of-factly, "has
more laps around that track than
me."
"We were riding what were
essentially the next year's
production bikes," he says. "The
Japanese engineers were there
with stopwatches, timing us as
we rode with different expansion
chambers, shocks and so on. It
Turner was a local fixture
in the Southern California
motocross scene. He was a
long-time test rider for Suzuki,
and then Honda and Cagiva.
