Throwback Thursday: Pops and Wes
Larry Lawrence | July 19, 2018
Throwback Thursday: Pops and Wes
Colin Fraser was gracious in sending us this great Throwback photo. It’s from 1979 and a shot Colin took of Hideo “Pops” Yoshimura and his rider Wes Cooley. Cooley and Yoshimura Suzuki were en route to their first AMA Superbike Championship that season and a big part of the reason Cooley won was the machines that Pops built for him.
The relationship between the two was certainly one of the closest between team owner and rider in series history and to this day Cooley happily offers up stories of leaving the track in the evening while Pops worked late into the night hand grinding a cam or some other engine part to get the maximum performance from his engines.
“You wanted to give your all on the track because you knew Pops had given everything he had to give you the best motorcycle on the track,” Cooley said. “I don’t think I ever raced for a harder working man than Pops.”
Both Pops and Wes are enshrined in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame today and Yoshimura Suzuki is celebrating its 40th anniversary in MotoAmerica/AMA Superbike Championship competition this season.
You can read more about the exploits of Pops and Wes on the pages of the Cycle News Archives by clicking here: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/