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VOL. 51 ISSUE 14 APRIL 8, 2014 P111 worked with some of the most talented road racers America produced in that period. "The early Team Hammer years with Kurt Hall, Mike Smith, Paul Bray and Britt Turkington," Perry remembers with a gleam in his eye. "The list of great riders goes on and on. I worked with Jamie Hack- ing as a novice. I can't remember how many sets of bodywork we sent to Hacking's house. There were just a lot of good riders I worked with … and Michael Martin came along during that time and I really en- joyed working with Michael for so many years. Man, it's just really been a great collection of riders I en- joyed working with." Perry also cited Martin Cardenas as one of the most talented and easy to work with riders he's been associated with. But he looks back with the most pride on helping to bring up two riders who would go on to make a mark on the world stage in John Hopkins and Ben Spies. "I worked with both John and Ben when they were 16 years old and that was a lot of fun too," Perry says. "Just to see the natural talent that you knew they had and wondering at the time how far that was going to take them. What they became as riders was just incredible. I'm always happy that I got to work with both of them and I think talent-wise, those two were the best I was ever around." And there were some memorable motorcycles Perry built over the years as well. Perhaps the stand- out among those was the famous Suzuki GSXR1100 dubbed the "Methanol Monster", ridden by Kurt Hall in the run-what-you-brung Formula USA Series. At the time F-USA was almost as much of a battle of builders as it was riders. "It was fascinating to look out on the grid and see what was racing against you," Perry said of Formula USA. "Between having 500cc Grand Prix bikes next to you, to the brothers from Texas with the turbo Hondas, the nitrous bikes, to Rich Oliver's 250GP bikes punched out to 350cc. There was such a conglomeration of ideas and just pure American hot- rodding at its best." Perry said the "Methanol Monster" was just a cra- zy idea they dreamed up after someone mentioned that their sponsor at the time, Valvoline, supplied IndyCar with methanol racing fuel. So we ended up with two 55-gallon drums of Methanol here at the shop and began developing and working with that to learn what it could offer us and it was just a torque monster. The thing made as much torque sometimes as it did horsepower and that was pretty darn big. Keeping it under control was a challenge for Kurt Hall and some of the other guys who tried to ride it. It was just one of the neat things there in Formula USA. That whole series was a lot of fun." It creeps up on you, but when Perry looks around today he finds he's one of the senior mem- bers of the all the crews in the AMA Pro Road Rac- ing paddock. He says there's always been a spirit of comradery, more than rivalry among the leading crewman. "The first guy who comes to mind as a contem- porary is (Yoshimura's) Don Sakakura," Perry says. "His first weekend was the Pro-Am at Road Atlanta in 1980, the same weekend I was there racing and working with Lynn Miller. You also think about the guys who aren't around much anymore like Rob Muzzy and Mike Velasco and really good guys who aren't with us anymore like Merlyn (Plumlee). I en- joy seeing (Eraldo) Ferracci from time to time. We always had great talks. There aren't too many old guys still turning wrenches, but we're still around doing what we can." In terms of retirement, Perry says he's thought about it, but can't quite envision it. "I still enjoy it and can't imagine not doing it," Perry says of running a race team. "But I mean there's a time, and I don't know when that will be, when I may want to draw back a little bit. I've enter- tained thoughts on when that might be, but I can't come up with an answer." One thing is certain, with Perry's record of ac- complishment, he'll always have a job in the AMA road racing paddock as long as we wants one. CN THE BUILDER FROM 'BAMA Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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