2017 WORCS & AMA HARE & HOUND NATIONAL CHAMPION GARY SUTHERLIN
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INTERVIEW
"Ron called me and said
what's it going to take for you to
ride for me next year? I said, 'No
offense, Ron, but until you're off
of Betas…'" is when he would
seriously consider riding on
the Purvines team. "It's nothing
against Beta, it's just I know how
hard I am on motorcycles; for
East Coast stuff and even West
Coast stuff, for the right guy, I
feel like it's a decent bike, but
it's just not something I feel like I
could win on. He was like, 'well,
what would you like to ride?' I
said, 'Yamaha.'"
Purvines eventually made the
switch to Yamaha and partnered
with Destry Abbott to form the
Purvines/DA8 Yamaha off-road
team. Now, things were looking
bright for Sutherlin who liked
the idea of riding Yamahas,
which have a reputation for be-
ing well built and reliable in the
dirt, which are things Sutherlin,
who is known to be hard on his
equipment, felt he needed to win
a championship.
"I'm not a finesse guy. I've
never been," says Sutherlin, "but
I've been getting better at it. It's
kind of funny because Destry
has been a big influence on my
off-road riding and all that stuff
for many years. He's always
laughing and making fun of me.
'Dude, you got to shift!' Destry
would say. I was a revver, kind
of like a Barcia, just rev, rev,
rev. I've really gotten away from
that, but I still have that aggres-
sive style, aggressive mentality,
but I've worked really hard on
smoothing out. Going to Six
After we spoke with Sutherlin for this interview, he learned that the
Purvines team was downsizing for 2018 and he, along with three other
riders, were cut from the team. He's currently looking for a new one.
"It's kind of crazy that
I won a championship
with Ricky [Dietrich] as a
mechanic and then I also
won one as a racer."
