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The Jammer’s Finest Hour
By Kent Taylor
If someone decided to make a list of “Good Guys Who Raced Motocross,” the name “Mike Bell” would be right there near the top. The late Team Yamaha rider was as friendly as he was fast. Nobody should have had a beef with “Too Tall,” as he was known in the MX world, so it is understandable why he was more than just a little confused when Team Kawasaki’s “Jammin” Jim Weinert walked up to Bell, minutes before the moto gate would drop, looked him straight in the eye and in his best Dirty Harry voice, told him, “Just so you know—payback is a real bitch!”
What, Bell wondered, had he done? He had no recollection of jamming the Jammer, on or off the track, so why should he be on the defensive, looking over his shoulder during the moto, wondering how or when Weinert was going to exact his revenge? What he didn’t realize until much later was that the “when” had just happened and the “how” was right there under his nose. Before the race had even started, Mike Bell had been “jammed.”
Weinert was motocross’s version of Muhammad Ali. He was clever, witty and good-humored, and while perhaps not “The Greatest,” Weinert had a long, strong career, which included two 500cc National Championships and a Supercross title. One of the Jammer’s greatest rides was also a milestone moment in the history of motorcycle racing.
Motocross racing is an outdoor sport and Mother Nature opened up her big bag of tricks for the Trans-AMA race at Rio Bravo, Texas, way back on November 4, 1973. “Rainy, sunny, sloppy, humid, hot, slippery” were some of the weather words used by the Cycle News staffer Pete Szilagyi to describe the day. “Yellow gooey” and “sandy mud” would give racers and their motorcycles Texas-sized fits all day.
Weinert and his Kawasaki grabbed the first-moto holeshot. Big deal. American riders were frequently getting good starts. But only good finishes count, and in the history of the Inter-AM/Trans AMA series, no U.S. rider had managed to keep an early lead all the way to the checkered flag. Weinert, however, was giving no quarter to the visiting European riders, like Maico’s Adolf Weil. “Weil seemed to be setting up to pass Weinert on several occasions,” wrote CN, “but Jimmy was able to get smoothly into and out of the still reasonably dry corners to maintain a varying one-to-60-foot lead.” Other Americans, like Gary Jones and Jim Pomeroy, were also near the front and in a dogged battle for third. Roger DeCoster, Gerrit Wolsink, Sylvain Geboers, Arne Kring and other Euro stars were working their way through the pack after suffering poor starts.
As if to rain on Weinert’s parade, the clogged clouds finally burst. Weil’s mud skills were strong, allowing him to pass the Kawasaki rider for the lead. Such a scenario usually means the end of the story, but Weinert inserted his own plot twist here by quickly retaking the lead. With one lap to go, “the pits emptied to watch Weinert get the checkers. Fans waved programs, handkerchiefs, sticks and their muddy shoes at Weinert. The Kawasaki chalkboard said, ‘ONE MORE LAP’ as Jimmy, Adolf and Arne disappeared into the piney woods.”
And then—foiled again! Weil and Kring emerged from the woods and there was no sign of Weinert. With the checkered flag in sight, Weinert had gone down. He quickly remounted to finish third, but the Europeans had won again. Weinert’s ride was a ruse, right? “A loud, collective curse,” wrote CN, “bounced off the thunderhead above.”
The first moto was muddy, but the second race that day made anything else look like a puddle, with Cycle News using the term “gully washer” to describe the conditions. Even the spectators were seen “belly-whomping down the slick hillsides.” The riders slithered into the first turn, with Weil out in front. Weinert was back in the pack but picking off riders one by one until he had taken the lead once again. Riders began dropping out with waterlogged machines, while some crashed “because their handlebars were simply too slick to hold on to.”
Yamaha rider Pierre Karsmakers had taken the lead, but his first-moto DNF made him a non-factor for the overall win. It was now a game of last-man riding: Weinert vs. Weil, Kawasaki vs. Maico. And when Jimmy’s pit board read “Weil Out,” Weinert cruised to the checkers, his finishes of third and second good enough to secure the overall victory.
He was joined by fellow patriots Gary Jones, Rich Thorwaldson and Gary Semics, all finishing in the top five that day. Weinert may have played mind games with his opponents, but as Muhammad Ali said, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” By scoring the first-ever Trans-AMA win for an American rider, the Jammer proved that you can be snide—if you can ride!CN
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