Cycle News

1'1 . ~ comical loo seness than th e tuio-tim e National Champion Jimmy Wein ert. For 'Jam min ' Jimmy th e battles started on 0 career has been more marked by serious fo ught battles to th e top or caref ree, th e half-miles and sh ort track circuits of th e East under th e tute lage of th e master, Gary Nixon. Then while motocross was a young fl edgling Weinert threw himself in to it. In 1974 young privateer Tony DiStefano came on the scene and qu ickly grabb ed the p oints leads in the 500 class after some tita nic duels with Weinert. A broken thumb dampened Tony D. 's charge, but his points lead stood almost un beatable, but J immy 'Weinert fought back and scored four National wins in a row to win th e National Championship. A record that stands today. In 1975 five riders travelled to a mosquito and alligator infes ted bayou of Louisiana to settle th e 500 National Championship. Sitting quietly in their isolated campgrounds of precious shade Howerton, Grossi, Karsmakers, Stackable and Weinert shared a unspoken in tensity to go out into this nigh tmarish scene and win the National Championship. While mechanics fiddled and spectators threw rocks at th e alligators from th e levee th e heat and humidity got more oppressive. Hours passed and the races were delayed. Finally at ·four a 'clock in the afternoon , after sitting on the line for over one hour, th e gate dropped and fiue men with a mission went for it. The. battle of the Louisiana swamp was one of motocross' historic moments and the man who emerged victorious from th e most grueling race ever was Jammin' Jimmy Wein ert. In 1976 the nemesis from the past, Tony D., now th e 250 National Champion would return to haunt Weinert. Throughout the 250 series they engaged each other in corner after corner, week after week . "Just like th e old days in '74" Weinert would say after he and Tony D. had traded the lead over ten separat e times at Hangtown. Jammin ' easily won at Phoenix in April, but th e crowd talked about the back of the pack charge by Tony D. DiStefano easily won in Houston where Weinert suffered his "worst day. " Jimmy won his second National of the seven race series in Georgia, but DiS tefano had the points lead. "I have to go for itt" said the Jammer and go for it he did in Maryland by scoring 1·2 and pulling within 15 points of Tony D. In Allentown, Penns ylvania with only two races to go the Suzuki and Kawasaki riders tied. With only one race to go in Southiuick, Massachusetts they mo ved to Mexico, New York to start the 500 series before finishing what they had started. In Mexico it was all over before it even starte d. A rock, ironically thrown up from the rear wheel of Tony D. 's Suzuki; fo und its mark at over 100 mph. Wein ert was struc k directly on th e kn eecap, cracking the pa tella diagonally and ending not only his . shot at th e 250 Championship, but also his chance to repeat as 500 Champion. What are your plans for the rest of the year? According to my do ctor my knee has six or seven weeks of healing time. He plans to have me in a cast for . three weeks. Then I'm going to start exercising and hopefully should be ready August first. That's Unadilla, New York. I'll miss three 500s, th e USGP, the Canadi ari GP and the Superbowl. I plan to get right back in sh ape and ge t ready for the Trans-AMA. I was happy with th is year. My strategy for Ilangtown was that I didn't kn ow wh at kind of shape I was in becau se we had never been tested for 40 minutes. We had two 30's in Florida, three 30's at Daytona and the indoors, but no 40's. I knew lwas in good enough shape to go fast for o ne mota . other. So what I planned to do was to ta ke it easy th~ firs t mota , lay back and then go for it . And in th e second mota go fo r it from 'the beginning. So I tried it , but I waited too long and let Ellis and the D. get too fa r ah ead. I could pro ba bly cruise the Everything I was going for went away th is year. The 250 Nat ional Championship, Championship and th e Super Series. How did your knee get broken? Very simple. I was riding aro und in practice and came up to the D. We started to race. I don't think we were really racing; I follow him, he follows me, trying to learn lines. I was going to pass him and when I cut behind him a rock came up and hit me in the knee. I've broken my collarbone, knee and wrists. The wrist at Saddleback and this one at Unadilla. Knees! Now I can see hor Pomeroy felt. I can sympathize with him now. This is the first time I have broken something in three years and it's not because I did something dumb. I didn 't run off the track or crash. So it's not too bad.. . How much money will it cost you to break your knee? Boy, it 's a lot of money. Now ·I've ruined my day! I don't think of it that way. I was sitting down in my bedroom earlier thinking I'd be pretty dumb to worry about how much this had cost me. Do you race in practice often? It depends on what the mood is. I remember Roger D . and I had a race at Carnegie. Do you remember that? It th e 500 National was heavy. I be at him..I really enjoyed that race! He came up later and said that it was fun. I know I can run with th ose guys, but I was never in shape. I figure th at by the third ra ce of the Trans-AMA I should be able to race with them. No problem. It 's gonna be a heavy Trans-AMA. Brad says that more Europeans are coming this year. Do you have any European plans? I think I'm going to st ay right here. Why go over . there? What does it mean ? It 's nice to be World Champion, but the way it's becoming over here it's getting pretty ferocious. The way it's going right now I think we are getting better. We're gass in' it . We're getting in better shape. We're getting the good bikes. The purses are getting bigger and each ye ar more people are coming to watch. There's a lot of money to be made here. They're no slouchs, They've been doing it for a long time and have a lot of skill an d tal en t . I think we do some crazier things, but yo u have to watch the Russian s to see crazy things. That 's what GP's are all about. I can't wait to ra ce Trans·AMA with Roger and them. Last year I didn't ge t the chance to race with them. I started slow and fizzled away. How come? I didn't like the machine ; the forks. We couldn' t ride with them. Does the bike make a difference? I think so. Some guys can't ride this or that. It's nice to have a good machine that you like. Last year we couldn't get the Yamaha forks fixed and it affected my riding. We had two good sets of forks for the Nationals and that was the end of the forks. They said they improved them. Bill (Buchka) and I knew we were in trouble then. Finally they sent over a pair of Ake Jonsson kind. They worked good at Carnegie. Why did you leave Yamaha? That's a good question. I th ink it was organization. I don't think Pete (Schick) and I got along that well. He 's not a bad guy, but he has his ways and I have mine. You have to keep the company happy, but they never advertised my wins and th at pissed me off. This year I was so happy to be on Kawasaki and winning. I think they appreciated it too. If you could change motocross in any way how would you? I like the outdoor ra ces the way they are. Naturally we want bigger purses, but that is going to take a little time. Indoors we just have to simplify the whole thing and get one champ. They talk abou t a plan for the outdoors where everyone will ride all three class es, and then they take your total accumulative points. They'd have about 15 races, but not as many 125's as 250's and 500's. I don't like the way the points are this year. I like the new system, but I feel th at we should have been able to drop a couple bad motos. It 's not like that now so we . have to ride with the present rules, but I'd like to see it chan ged. What do people want? Sure he's the 125 champ, Tony D. is the 250 champ andJim Weinert is the Open champ. Who's the champ th ough? Which one of these guys is the best? Maybe the solution is to combine them all. It's hard to say how I would ch ange motocross. The best thing would be to get every one together and talk about it' . How would you change road race? It wo uld be unfair fo r me to say 'cause I'm no t doing it now. They have their own gig. I thin k th ey should lower the purse s and have more races, but not 20 0 milers all the time. Do like Europe and have 75 an d 50 milers. I wouldn't take a road race ride. There are so many thin gs that can go wrong on a road racer that are critical . The only thing that can break an d you would n 't get hurt is th e zipper on your leathers . How old are you? 24, 111 be 25 in August. Pierre is the oldest and Timmy Hart is 26. I feel I've just started. I was never in shape before. Do any companies have retirement plans, _workmans camp or benefits? Not for their racing! Boy, they don't have nothing for the riders. We are self-employed. I don't go down and collec t any money. Should you? I don't see why not. Everybody else who works at the factory does. What do you think of Tony D? He is a natural comedian. Everything he says comes out funny. He's not dumb. He is very smart. You don't get to be Number One by being dumb. Maybe he does it to make everyone laugh. I saw him at the Holiday Inn in New York. I said; "You won D." and he goes, "No, Jammer you'll be there." I said, "No, you got the championship. My knee is broke." We were all standing around and 1 kept saying "Smile, go ahead and smile. You can smile now." He had his old silly grin on his face. That's why I said if 1showed up in Southwick with my green leathers on and went to the line he would pass out. • - 41

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