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Jones' Bultacos were among the fastest bikes on the track. Team Honda, new to American MX, recognized his skills and offered him a spot on their squad in 1974. It was a mas - sive effort; at a time when most factories were operating with two or three racers, Team Honda fielded eight riders, including Marty Smith, Rex Staten, Billy Grossi and Rich Eierstedt, who would be Jones' first teammate. He remembers Eierstedt as "a smooth, really fast rider. And he had a great sense of humor." "I had a great relationship with [Team Honda mechanic] Roy Turner. Roy and I were always trying to outdo each other, but we always shared our ideas, too. It didn't have to be my idea or his idea, because neither one of us had an ego problem. "And sometimes, we would work with the mechanics from the other teams. We would get together with them and tear down the bikes and see what was inside. Yamahas and Suzu - kis, all of them. I'm not sure the factories would have liked it if they had known about this." Jones watched as the sport began to evolve, and perhaps not for the better. Workshop rules and regulations at Honda began to take on a greater im - portance than Jones wanted, so he moved on, first to Maico and Gaylon Mosier and then to Team Kawasaki, where he would turn wrenches for Gary Semics, Steve Stackable and Tommy Croft. In 1982, he worked with Steve Sta - siefski, Brad Lackey's mechanic during the season in which Lackey became America's first World Motocross Champion. "Steve called me and said they needed help. The bike was slow, and Suzuki wouldn't let them do anything outside of the factory. He said, 'I can't pay you, and you can't tell anyone.' But he asked me to port the cylinder on Brad's bike. I did, and Brad wound up being the world champion." Jones would leave motocross in the early '80s and begin an - other career in drag racing, work- ing for Pat Austin, who won four NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car Championships between 1987 and 1991. Today, he works in home remodeling, reuniting once a year with his racing buddies from the '70s at the Hangtown AMA National. He just shakes his head at what he sees in the pits today. "With today's teams, I see a bunch of guys who aren't even allowed to work on the bikes. The engines are rebuilt back at a shop…forks, too. I just see these guys power-washing the bikes." "In my day, I sometimes wouldn't have the right jet in my toolbox, so I would change to a spark plug with a different heat range. We played with the tapering of the needles and were always tinkering with the jetting and the suspension. Roy Turner and I even had to make our own gaskets for the works Hondas, the fire-engine red bikes. We used gasket paper and a ball- peen hammer." "I know guys around where I live, they can't even change a tire," Jones laments. "They take it to the shop. What? What's wrong with you?!" Just a bunch of dummies! CN CNIIARCHIVES P142 Subscribe to more than 60 years of Cycle News Archives issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Jones (left) was also Bryar Holcomb's tuner.