Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE Y amaha's U.S. racing boss Keith McCarty has a truly a great story of rising through the ranks. Starting as a motocross mechanic in the early 1970s, McCarty worked his way up the ladder to supervisor, department manager and, most recently, division manager for all of Yamaha's U.S. racing activities. So storied is McCarty's career in racing, that he has been announced as a 2015 inductee to the Motor- cycle Hall of Fame. It all started for McCarty in the empty fields of Bellflower, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. As a kid McCarty experienced riding a motor- cycle for the first time on his cousin's bike out in the desert. As with most kids, the thrill of that first ride left an indelible mark on McCarty and getting a motorcycle of his own became a priority. The only problem was coming up with the money. McCarty's parents divorced and he was raised by a single mom; a motorcycle for her teenaged son wasn't in the budget. But as they say, where there's a will there's a way and McCarty looked for any way possible to get into riding. Eventually he got a used Hodaka that he rode in the few remaining undevel- oped parcels of Bellflower. McCarty's early dirt bike riding morphed into street riding and the cool thing to have at the time was a chopper and a chopped Triumph 650 Bonn- eville was one of McCarty's first street machines. His brother was part of the LA Harley-Davidson scene and Keith said he hung out with that crowd early on. And like many Southern California kids of the '60s, McCarty was generally a part of the hot rod culture that was so prominent during that era. After high school McCarty got a job at a motor- cycle shop and from there he landed at the parts department of Suzuki. "The whole time I was trying to get into racing," McCarty admitted. That dream came true for McCarty in 1973 when he became mechanic for motocross racer Mike Runyard. From there he worked with the legendary Tony DiSte- fano. On the off weekends for motocross McCar- ty also got his first taste of working on Suzuki's road racing machines alongside Erv Kanemoto with riders Gary Nixon, Cliff Carr and Paul Smart riding the Suzuki TR750s. In 1977 Yamaha hired McCarty and he started perhaps his best-known chapter of his career as a mechanic when he worked with one of the all-time motocross/Supercross icons—Bob "Hur- ricane" Hannah. The relationship proved very fruitful and the pairing earned numerous champi- onships and race wins for Yamaha. It was during this period that McCarty earned a promotion and was made a supervisor with Yamaha's racing team. "It was more of a title than anything else," he recalls. "I pretty much did the same job, maybe with a few more responsibilities." For years McCarty dedicated his life to racing. In those days it was perhaps even more of a com- mitment and a grueling grind than it is even today. "The biggest difference of the Supercross/moto- cross season back then was we drove to all the races instead of flying," McCarty recalls. "You'd be away from home three months at a time." MOTOCROSS MECHANIC TO RACING P132

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