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/1537960
T here was a road to becoming a moto- cross champion in the 1970s, and it was a path that was way too rough for Daddy's motorhome. There were no stops for wintertime motocross resorts or full-time MX schools. Leave the plastic amateur champion - ship trophies at home, stacked along the walls in the den of child worship, because on this trip, you're traveling lean. A bike, a buddy and a box full of tools. A select few will finish the journey, but most don't, and somewhere along the road, a place between local hotshot and factory-sponsored star, there was a racer named Jim Turner. "I got a late start in the sport," Turner says today from his home in Western Colorado. "We lived in Redwood City, California, where my dad was a doctor, and he wouldn't let my brothers and me even ride bicycles until we were 10. I finally got a minibike when I was CNIIARCHIVES P136 BY KENT TAYLOR 12, and then I got a Yamaha 125 when I was 14. I started riding around at this dirt track with some other guys. They told me, 'You're pretty good at motocross.' And I said, 'What's motocross?' This was the late '60s, and I didn't even know what the sport was at the time." It would be Jim's mom, Joan, who would take him to compete in his first-ever race. "She told me, 'I'll take you one time.' Well, we got to the race, which was held on a little dirt track near Candlestick Park, and I not only won, but I lapped the entire field! And on the way home, she said, 'Okay, we'll do this again.' My mom loved the motocross family atmosphere. It was so very different from the life she lived as a doctor's wife, PTA and all that, which was a life she really didn't like." Bitten by the motocross bug, Turner's life was now focused on riding his dirt bike. He even began skipping school to go riding, writing his own excused absence notes for his teachers. He graduated from high school early and also transitioned from his Yamaha to a Sachs, then to an AJS, and finally to a Montesa, before landing Turner rode for several manufacturers throughout his racing career. Californian Jim Turner was a two- time Canadian Motocross Champion, sponsored by Moto-X Fox in the 1970s. GLASS BUBBLE JIM TURNER NEVER GOT THE BIG BREAK TO CRACK THE GLASS BUBBLE "'What's motocross?' This was the late '60s, and I didn't even know what the sport was at the time."