American Idol! - Jim Pomeroy - 1952-2006
Published: 14th September 2006
Author: A tribute by Jack Burnicle
The rain poured down as I arrived on foot with camera case, sleeping bag and toothbrush for the 1979 West German MX GP at Bielstein. There was just one modest camper van nestled in a corner of the paddock. I staggered over and knocked, hopefully, on the door. Within, American Jim Pomeroy and his girlfriend were enjoying a quiet, concentrated game of backgammon. Jim beckoned me inside and got on with the backgammon, introducing me to the rules and rudiments of the game as I dripped dry.
Unknown to both of us, that penultimate round of the world 250cc championship would prove to be Jim's last points scoring GP - just six years and six months after he'd hurtled to cult status as the first American to win an MX grand prix, at Sabadell, Spain, in 1973.
Jim Pomeroy died in a car crash on August 6 this year. He was 53.
Born into a biking family in Sunnyside, Washington, on November 16 1952, dad Don was a racer so Jim and his kid brother Ron almost inevitably followed suit.
Starting out as an 11-year-old on a Yamaguchi 55 and progressing through Yamaha 80, 100 and DM250 machines, the young 'Jimmy Lee' raced in flat-track, hill climbs, hare scrambles and motocross, heading up to Canada aged 16 and winning the Western Canadian MX title!
His rookie season in the AMA nationals kicked off with second place in the famous inaugural LA Coliseum supercross of 1972. Victorious in the opening 250 outdoor round at Saddleback Park, the teenager ended the year fifth behind champion Brad Lackey in the 500 series and was picked alongside Lackey for America's first ever MX des Nations squad at Norg, in northern Holland, where they finished seventh.
Obviously attracted to Europe, the lean, moustachioed six-footer signed a contract with a local Bultaco dealer that included a transatlantic trip to contest the opening GP of 1973 in Spain. Sabadell absolutely suited Jim. "I took the lead 300 yards off the start," he recalled. "It was a hard-packed, wide track and smooth. I used a lot of flat-track technique. I didn't really use the front brake. I could ride two gears higher, flat-tracking the bike round the outside!"
He exploded on to the international scene with that historic victory, led the world championship and, having handed Bultaco their first ever grand prix win, landed a factory contract to contest the whole series!
He mounted the rostrum again with second in Italy, won a moto in Poland and ended the year seventh in a championship topped by Yamaha's Hakan Andersson.
For three further seasons the stylish Pomeroy, now a national hero in Spain, joined forces with legendary factory mechanic Rubio to race the 250 GPs, though 1974 began memorably back home with a win in the first ever indoor supercross at the Houston Astrodome!
Their European season was blighted by mechanical failures, his best results a pair of thirds in Belgium and Czechoslovakia. But he led the States to second place in the MX des in Sweden behind the home team favourites and took overall honours in the 250cc Trophee des Nations. He then returned home for the autumn Trans-Am championship and was top American behind Eurostars Roger de Coster, Gerrit Wolsink and Adolf Weil and ahead of Harry Everts!
The 1975 season brought Jim further grand prix successes at Retinne in Belgium and Wohlen in Switzerland and another seventh overall in the series. Then back home, the first Yank to win a Trans-Am race, he led that prestigious championship until sidelined by a knee injury.
Fully recovered for 1976, Pomeroy enjoyed his best-ever European GP season, finishing fourth overall in the world 250 series behind Heikki Mikkola and Russian duo Gennady Moiseev and Vladimir Kavinov. He also won 'Motorcyclist' magazine's 'Man of the Year' award.
Jim then joined Honda America for two home-based years. 1977 went well. Runner-up to a rampant Bob 'Hurricane' Hannah in the AMA supercross championship, he also ranked third in the 250 nationals, won one moto of the US 500GP at Carlsbad (the first Yank to do this) and placed sixth in the Trans-Am that autumn.
Pomeroy followed up a poor 1978 indoor season with fifth in the 250 nationals before he broke his collarbone at the Unadilla Trans-Am round. Honda wanted him to stay but Bimbo was already planning a return to Europe, initially with reigning 250 world champions KTM. Then Rubio persuaded him to rejoin Bultaco only for the Spanish factory to go bankrupt, leaving him to race a rare works Beta for the remainder of the year. And it was on this Italian rarity that Jim scored his final, fine fourth place in Germany.
Pomeroy turned out belatedly for Beta again in the early 500 GPs of 1980, then called it quits. At the tender age of 27 this brash, upbeat, likeable, larger-than-life character from the American north west set up his own training schools in the States.
I last saw him at a Vintage Iron reunion supporting the 1990 US 500GP at Glen Helen. Back injuries from a car crash three years earlier prevented him riding so brother Ron raced his Bultaco (what else!) while Jim contented himself with tucking into an excellent barbecue and being the heart-and-soul of the party!
Since then he'd healed up and, in recent years, ridden the National Vintage MX 50+ championship on any Bulto he could scrounge! He also came back to England for a twinshock GP at Canada Heights in 2003 and tragically died just days before he was due to thrill fans at this year's Nostalgia Scramble in Cumbria. It was typical of the man that Nostalgia organiser Ken Shuttleworth says "it was like losing a brother, we'd had such good crack on the phone".
The first American to win a grand prix, the first rider to win his debut grand prix race, the first American to lead a world MX championship, the first rider to win an MX GP on a Spanish bike (all in 1973), the first winner of an indoor supercross, the first non-world champion to win a Trophee des Nations (both 1974), the first American to lead the Trans-Am championship (1975) and the first American to win a moto in a US 500GP (1977). That's a pretty impressive CV.
RIP Jimmy Lee and thanks for the backgammon lesson.