A little story about the time I almost got fired from the Triumph team over that BSA. It was in 1971 at Louden NH. Jim Rice had just come rolling into the pits after breaking a gearbox. Earlier in the day, David Aldana threw his triple down the road, (as he did at almost every race) and wadded it pretty badly. The BSA mechanics, Lloyd Bulmer and Mack Kambachi (sp?) were working feverishly to get Davids bike back into racing shape and there was nobody available to work on Rices bike.
Rice was in a panic since he was in contention with Gene Romero for the number one plate and saw his chances slipping away. He came over and asked me if I could fix his gearbox. My bikes and riders, Gary Nixon and Tommy Rockwood were doing ok and didn't need any attention so, I walked over to the BSA camp and started to tear Rices gearbox apart.
At that time, Triumph and BSA were both owned by the same company. At the race shop we all worked on everything. Red one's, blue one's, it didn't matter. But, at the racetrack, in front of the public, the Triumph guys wore blue and the BSA guys wore red and we never mixed the two. It was all about image.
When race team manager Danny Macias saw me working on Jims BSA he came over and told me that if I continued to work on it I would be fired. I explained to him that there was nobody else to work on it and Jim needed the points. He didn't care and said we have to keep our image at the racetrack. I stood up, took off my blue Triumph Team shirt and handed it to Danny and went back to work on the BSA. Danny walked away shaking his head with my shirt in his hand mumbling something to himself.
I got Jims bike back together in time for the main event and he did very well. He and I became good friends and still keep in touch 40 years later. Danny never did fire me, in fact, he later told me, as much as I pissed him off, he respected me for doing what I did and was glad I got Jim back into the race.
Fun times. :cool: