Five Minutes with ... Jim Holley
JANUARY 16, 2007

Jim Holley with his Supercross LIVE partner in crime, Jason Weigandt.

Matt Ware photo

 

By Steve Matthes

Jim Holley has done it all, on and off the track. Now one of the voices behind the Supercross LIVE! Telecasts, Holley is also a stuntman in movies. With his ability to tell a story (some of which include Ross “Rollerball” Pederson), Holley is always making people laugh in the pits. I think if there was one guy who could and should write a book about his travels, it’s Jim.

RXC: Hollywood, you have a lot of accomplishments in the sport, but what stands out for you the most?
Jim Holley: Yeah, I have been all over. Probably the 1985 Rodeil Cup World Supercross title I won. It was a little different concept when I rode it. The last round was in the LA Coliseum; they were trying that split start thing that didn’t work out. It was four or five races, but it was good. The racing back then ended in August, so you had September through the end of January off, and it gave me time to go over there [Europe], make some money and try to make a name for myself.

What was your lowest national number in the U.S.?
I have them all on the top of my head! My lowest was number 10, my first AMA pro number was 831, then 36. That was the year I had a factory Can-Am ride and spent a lot of time up in Val-D’or, Quebec. That was where the factory was, and they hadn’t really developed the bike since Jimmy Ellis had ridden it so I was the guinea pig. They wanted to jump back into supercross and I kept complaining that the ground clearance wasn’t high enough. I kept hitting it on the whoops and jumps, so at the Kansas City SX, they raised it up and told me the problem was handled. When I went out for the race, the kick-starter kept hitting the frame. [Laughs] They didn’t figure this out, so I was bump-starting my bike all night. I think Barnett won that night. But anyway, I earned numbers 12, 24, 36 and 96.

So, did that sour you on Canadians?
No, not at all. It was something they were trying out, wanting to improve. The Bombardier motor was great.

 

A picture-perfect bar drag on his Kolbe Can-Am.

When you rode for Factory Yamaha, how much better was that bike?
Well, back then, Yamaha had made the switch to production-based bikes—they didn’t have true works bikes. I did have a chance to ride one of Broc Glover’s old works bikes and it was really good! Now, we also have a production rule but the bikes are much more advanced than back in my day. They have huge forks that you could run into a wall with. I think they should go back to the true production rule, where, that’s it. You can’t change anything radically and you have to adapt your riding style to the bike. There’s no fear anymore for these guys, whatever they can do—the bikes can handle it. And the testing back then wasn’t what it is today, there is a lot more put into it today. Back then, if you didn’t like a cylinder then you could try another one, if that didn’t work, you put the first one back on!

Why did you make the decision to come up to Canada and do all those races?
Well, Larry Huffman was doing a lot of the announcing then and he got me hooked up on it. They were looking for some American riders to go up there and I was looking for some money, so why not? I got a chance to visit a bunch of different cities up there—Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto; there was a lot of good racing going on up there.

Did you make a lot of money in your time up there?
Yeah, I made a lot! [Laughs] It was great. I remember that I was racing the Seattle supercross one year and I led for a long time, maybe ten to twelve laps. But I got really tired and that was because I was up in Canada the previous Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There were a ton of races up there. I didn’t do as much when I was a factory guy because they kind of frowned on that. They didn’t want us to get hurt, and I kind of thought that racing was dangerous and I could get hurt anywhere. When I was a privateer, I used the money to get me to the races. Ross Pederson did the same; it was a means to an end.

Yes, I have always thought that Ross was a trailblazer. He didn’t take the safe route and stay home and be a hero. He wanted to get better.
Yeah, he knew that and he came down and tried to better himself. I think he paved the way for the Canadians of today—JSR, Darcy Lange, Dusty Klatt, etc. There were a bunch of really good Canadian riders back then, too—Doug Hoover, Allan Dyck and others.

Holley started his pro career with #831. His lowest career number was 10.

Do you think that you might have helped the Canadian guys a bit with riding style? I can remember that when I was going to an arenacross, you were always a bit ahead of our guys.
Yeah, sure, I’m not sure that they watched me, but like any rider trying to get better they could maybe pick some things up. But in the Canadians defense, I lived in California and there were all kinds of tracks for me to ride on and I could always practice. Up there, there was snow half the year. Maybe they picked up on some things like tapping the brake to bring the wheel down. I remember watching Lackey, Pomeroy and Weinart and trying to better myself.

What did you think of Ross as a competitor on and off the track?
Oh, I think Ross is a great guy! We got along really well. We were enemies on the track; we’d run into each other, knock each other down and then go to dinner!  We would leave it out on the track. I helped Ross out a bit, his brother, Lippers, they both used to come down and I would get them an apartment and we would train together; help each other out. I went to his wedding, that was one of our pacts-whoever got married first had to go to the other guy’s wedding. I went out to Medicine Hat for that. I know his parents well. Ross was a great rider. He trained really hard and was a tough guy; I always thought he would be a better hockey player than a rider. They used to have this Diet Coke catapult and it was 1,000 bucks for the farthest jump and I had it. Well, here comes Ross, and he nailed this thing and went so far that he overshot the corner and rammed Scooter Stafford’s bike. He totally wrecked Scooter’s bike, that was the kind of competitor he was. He hated to lose, I will tell you that. If I beat him, I always gave him the time and respect to calm down. It wasn’t that he lost to me; it was that he lost period.

When Ross got third at a U.S. national, it was a big deal back in the pre-internet years. We were so pumped that a local guy did so well!
I remember that, he was tough man. They used to race 125, 250 and 500 on the same day and he would do thirty-minute motos in each. Nowadays they race sixty minutes in the whole day! He was at ninety and just warming up! That was the way the series ran, to make the transitions with the different bikes was incredible. Ross could do it all.
    
Were there any other Canadians that you thought could have down something down here?
Yeah for sure, Mike Harnden, Allan Dyck, Hoover and Dennis James, who runs Fox Canada now. He and Mike used to stay with my parents down in Nashville. I always liked the Canadian guys, and if they needed help I would see what I could do. Kevin Moore had nice style on the bike. You had to make the sacrifice and Ross would do it. It’s hard to leave your family and friends and come down to a strange country to do well. Carl Valliancourt was also very fast.

Holley practicing at Indian Dunes in Southern California.

Was there one Canadian race that stood out for you?
I think the Edmonton Supercross was great. There were a lot of good guys there and I went out and won pretty easily so that was cool. Also Montreal where I got a pound of gold, I won that one twice. Those were special because Yamaha Canada would help me out; John Bayliss was great. We used to race Toronto and then drive up and I have seen it come full circle. I first raced in Toronto when it was at Exhibition Stadium and now it’s at The Rogers Centre.

Did you have a favorite part of Canada?
I pretty much liked all of Canada. The cobblestone streets of Montreal; Ste-Catherine street was always a lot of fun. Toronto had a beautiful downtown area, coming from L.A., we didn’t go down to centre of the city. It was kind of taboo, in Canada it always seemed like that was where everything was happening. I remember running in Winnipeg and the sweat was freezing on me. Man, it was cold. I got a chance to meet Wayne Gretzky there. They were practicing right across the street from where we were staying. Calgary and Edmonton were great; the stampede was fun. I never got a chance to race in Vancouver, and I also did some motocross schools in Calgary. Walt Healy helped me out with that, what a great guy he was.