Where Are They Now: Jimmy Weinert
August 3, 2006 2:06pm
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Soon Jimmy was covering everything from his selection for the 1974 Motocross des Nations team (where he was a wide-eyed 19-year-old in Europe for the first time, in an era where the world was much larger) to becoming the AMA’s 500cc National MX Champion. As he watched his grandson wheel around on a brand-new four-stroke minibike, he talked about the old-school four-strokes he grew up racing. Eventually, we talked about his current job, which is working for his family’s auto-recycling business.
Weinert was known as a fierce competitor on the track—hence the nickname—and the mind games he used to psyche out the competition are legendary. Today, things are much more laid back. “I’m back in the family business, auto recycling, which we’ve had going for a long time,” he says. Weinert was originally involved with that family business back in the early 1970s, but then he moved to California to take his factory Kawasaki ride. He also rode for Yamaha and Can-Am, among other brands.
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Weinert talks about the evolution of travel in the sport because it has had a major effect on the camaraderie of the racers. He may have played his games and tried like mad to win races, but there was still a bond between him and his competitors. “Today, it just can’t be like that. I don’t blame them,” he says. “This is serious, and these guys make a lot of money, so this is the way it has to be.”
But weren’t they serious back then? “Oh, we were serious when we were racing, but that stuff was still fun,” he says. “You know, the psych jobs and things like that were there. But we were still friends with each other. And now we’re not like that with each other anymore.
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