Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1537055
W hen Jimmy Weinert took the wheel of his rental automobile, the shotgun seat was often vacant. There would be a battle between his two slightly terrified Yamaha team - mates, who knew that seeking refuge in the back seat gave them their best chances for survival. It is 1975, and like many moto - cross racers of that era, Jimmy (The Jammer) couldn't flip the switch to the off position. "Racer" was the default ride mode, and it made for some harrowing rental- car adventures on the road—and in the ditch, through open fields and the occasional body of water. "It was Tim Hart and I, fighting to see who would get in the back seat," remembers former Team Yamaha rider Bruce McDougal. "We figured that we were at least a little safer there!" Even if he had to sit in the back seat, a sponsored ride in a rental car was still quite an upgrade for a kid who was more accustomed to having his beat-up race bike strapped to the bumper of his mom's car. McDougal was one of five kids, and "there wasn't much money for motorcycles," he remembers. "I bought an old Hodaka, which was a big step up from my Honda 55 Trailmaster. I grew up just a few minutes away from Saddleback Park and my mom would take me and that bike and just drop me off at the track, and I would ride all day long." In the 1970s, racers were rid - ers long before they were racers, savoring the joys of being on a dirt bike, which was still kind of a new thing back then. It would be McDougal's love of riding that would both lead him into and eventually take him away from racing motocross professionally. "I started racing in the old ACA series, but my bike would break down every time," he says. "There was a Honda shop not too far from my house, so I would go down there all of the time. The service manager was a guy named Art Barda and he would help me out, giving me free ad - vice and everything. He told me, 'If it has spark, fuel and compres- sion, it should run!' " In a world where "who you know" opens a lot of doors, knowing Art Barda gave a young racer a wide opening. A former dirt track racer himself, Barda CNIIARCHIVES P146 BY KENT TAYLOR T U R N I N G O F F R A C E R M O D E Bruce McDougal's love of riding would both lead him into and eventually take him away from racing motocross professionally. B r u c e M c D o u g a l l o v e d r i d i n g m o r e t h a n h e l o v e d r a c i n g f o r a p a y c h e c k .