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/914766
VOL. 54 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 12, 2017 P95 further bitten by the racing bug. The big break for Van Voorhis came when Cycle News East posted an ad looking for pho- tographers' best racing shots. "I sent in a half-dozen or so photos and they published them all on a page," Van Voorhis re- members. "That led to a phone call with them say- ing they'd like to talk to me. We talked at Daytona, they hired me and it went from there." That was in 1972 when Cycle News East was still located in Avon, Ohio. After a year or so Van Voorhis made the move with the paper to Tucker, Georgia. With Cycle News Van Voorhis covered it all. From motocross, to road racing and flat track and everything in between. At the nationals, he was covering the event for Cycle News West as well and that required Van Voorhis to carry two cameras so he could shoot film for both East and West. Covering a race like that, most times solo, was the ultimate test of multitasking. "It was fun, the adrenaline was pumping," Gary remembers. "You were running around looking like somebody with their pants on fire, moving so fast. You'd try to pick out a place where you could shoot your photos and still get back to vic- tory lane. I guess I worked out a technique, but it came naturally. "And you think running around at the track try- ing to get your photos and story was bad, some- times getting to the airport after the race was worse. Somehow we managed to do get it done the vast majority of the time." Van Voorhis earned the respect of the riders, mechanics and team owners of all the various championships he covered. Gary thinks he had such a good rapport with the racing fraternity be- cause, "They knew I wasn't going to burn them." Gary also watched some riders go from rank beginners to world champions. "Gary could do it all," said Racer X Illustrated's Davey Coombs. "He was a role model to me because he shot great photos and wrote excel- lent race reports, and he was always friendly and accessible to aspiring journalists like me. And later, when he went to work at Daytona Interna- tional Speedway, he helped me get a credential for the Daytona Supercross on more than one occasion—and that was no easy feat back when I was just getting my newspaper started. He also sent me a lot of his photo contact sheets from the seventies, and not a week goes by when we aren't digging through his archive, just amazed at what he could capture in four or five rolls of 35mm film." Of all the races he covered, Van Voorhis looks back on the 1975 Indy Mile as perhaps the most memorable—the famous race where Kenny Roberts won with a last-second draft pass on Harley's Corky Keener while riding the infamous Yamaha TZ750-based flat tracker. "That one will always stick in my mind," Van Voorhis says. "More so for the fact of Keener saying, 'I heard that screaming s.o.b. and I knew it was all over.' "That was one race where I wanted to put down my camera and notepad and just watch it. And then Roberts shaking his head afterwards and saying, 'They don't pay me enough to ride the thing.' It was great." For a time after Cycle News, Van Voorhis gained experience on the TV side working for weekly show MotoWorld. He then went to work for Daytona International Speedway in 1989 and was that track's resident motorcycle expert until he retired in the mid-2000s. In retirement Gary spent summers working as a park ranger for the National Park Service. Today Gary is enjoying retirement in Florida. He occasionally goes to Daytona to catch up with his friends from all forms of motorsports. He's also is sharing his vast photo collection to- day and you'll see his excellent work featured in magazines and websites, such as this image. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives