"Sherman ,To The way Back machine!" O.K. Here's a few pic's that were rescued from a garage. Maybe a few will remember Gary Collins.
Gary is from Barrie and he and Vince McNeil were lucky to be hanging around Barrie one day and convinced Jim Allen to give them a "go" road racing (so the story goes ?). Both did well but Gary was a bit of a natural so with Jim's start up help, he started racing in Canada .Not sure what the first bike was (X6 maybe) but after awhile he ran a TZ250 then they would change the barrells to make it a 350 to race in the 500 class. Gary had Ronnie Lafauve as a mechanic. Ronnie was top notch on the TZ's. I hear one of Ronnie's strategies was ,parts didn't have the same spec's / quality back then...many guys would just get a some parts and start rebuilding. Ronnie would weigh and measure EVERYTHING from Yamaha then maybe sand down one piston to match up a set up perfectly etc. So Gary always had the motor, Vince tells me Gary's TZ would come back in to the Pits and other racers would wander over to see what they had done to it, looking for some fiercesome port job. But it was just tuning .
Gary #241 at Loudon with Yvon in front...some of you might know who else is in picture...Gary mentioned to me that he thought he had a "good weekend" that weekend
One of Garys highlights was sharing a Victory lap ride in a convertible with Lawson (who won the race) But was not the race Pictured.
On the TZ 350 Gary won the Canadian 500GP Championship in 76 or 77 ? Battling with our own Mr. Henderson !